Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: MSeries on 31 March, 2008, 07:59:40 pm

Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 31 March, 2008, 07:59:40 pm
While I am not able to ride to work I have been taking the bus and for the last week been reading

Auschwitz, The Nazis and The Final Solution by Laurence Rees


ready and waiting is


Hitlers Holocaust &
IBM and The Holocaust



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 31 March, 2008, 08:05:48 pm
I'm reading Darkmans by Nicola Barker.
I really wish I wasn't but I object to paying for books and not reading them so I'm persevering.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dave on 31 March, 2008, 08:14:38 pm
Spook Country by William Gibson, which is looking good so far.
About halfway through Stories Of Your Life And Others by Ted Chiang (sci-fi-ish short stories). Pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 31 March, 2008, 08:15:39 pm
"Two On A Tower" by Thomas Hardy  ;)

One of his lesser-known novels, but quite absorbing and with one hell of a twist at the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Si on 31 March, 2008, 08:19:07 pm
The Social Life of Trees.  by S. Rival(ed)

Dull but improving slowly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 March, 2008, 08:27:44 pm
Spook Country was pretty good.  I finished "The Mission Song" by John Le Carre last night.  Good, if a little predictable.  Got a selection of guide / travel books to start but can't seem to get into the mood for them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 31 March, 2008, 08:35:33 pm
Baudolino by Umberto Eco - more of an adventure than The Name of The Rose, but it has a similar setting (i.e. medieval Europe) - I'm always awed by the breadth and depth of his knowledge. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ian H on 31 March, 2008, 08:47:37 pm
The Merchant of Prato. Another micro-history, dredged this time from the late 14th and early 15th century account records and letters of a Tuscan merchant. An insight into the lives of the not so great of that period.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nic on 31 March, 2008, 08:51:22 pm
I am currently reading Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (ISBN: 0571171044). Short paperback bought on a business trip. A rather enjoyable and easy read so far.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 31 March, 2008, 08:56:09 pm
I am re-reading Holidays In Hell by PJ O Rourke, as in the following quotes.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'Rourke

Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.
P. J. O'Rourke



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 31 March, 2008, 08:59:11 pm
I am re-reading Holidays In Hell by PJ O Rourke, as in the following quotes.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'Rourke

Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.
P. J. O'Rourke





Good choice, I read that in Melbourne in 1990, must dig it out. It's gotta be showing it's age though, Belfast is very different now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 31 March, 2008, 09:44:15 pm
I am re-reading Holidays In Hell by PJ O Rourke, as in the following quotes.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'Rourke

Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.
P. J. O'Rourke





Good choice, I read that in Melbourne in 1990, must dig it out. It's gotta be showing it's age though, Belfast is very different now.

I can't say that I ever read much for the content, Naples '44 by Norman Lewis gets a periodic re-read just to re-calibrate my style aspirations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Cyclops on 31 March, 2008, 09:54:42 pm
A Soldier's War in Chechnya - Arkady Babchenko

An account of the brutality and suffering on both sides of the conflict.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 31 March, 2008, 09:59:54 pm
My brother-in-law always buys me a couple of books for xmas - currently reading one of those: Legend by David Gemmell -  thought, "Ho-Hum fantasy nonsense", but I'm actually finding it very enjoyable in a "switch your brain-off and enjoy the axe-battle" kind of way.

His other book was "Peace and War" by Joe Haldeman: a compilation of "The Forever War", "Forever Free" and "Forever Peace".  "The Forever War", written in the 70's (sort of a sci-fi version of the author's experiences in Vietnam) is an absolute classic, and I can't believe that I hadn't heard of it before.  What annoys me though, is why to they get cover-art illustrators who haven't read the book.  The cover is very nice, but it shows a gun and a space-helmet.  The soldiers in the book use neither guns nor space-helmets  ???

These books aren't particularly high-brow compared to what most of you seem to be reading at the moment, but I do read more heavy-weight stuff too, honest!

RJMcB
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 March, 2008, 10:04:12 pm
"The Forever War" is a classic. I've not read the sequels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 31 March, 2008, 10:44:16 pm
"The Forever War" is a classic. I've not read the sequels.

I wouldn't worry about "Forever Free" which is indeed a sequel (same characters set 20 years in their future).

Forever Peace is a lot better, but not a sequel. It's set in our near future and is supposed to use ideas which Haldeman would have included in the "Forever War" if they had been around in the 70's.  A bit too "Hollywood" though.  One of the things I liked about "The Forever War" is that it is a worthy story and I can't imagine it ever getting "Hollywood" treatment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 April, 2008, 12:31:52 am
I am reading 'Who Are You? Identification, Deception and Surveillance in Early Modern Europe' by the Swiss historian, Valentin Groebner - it might be work related, but it is actually a damn fine read - the best kind of historical writing.

Oh, and also rereading 'The Einstein Intersection' by Samuel Delaney. (I am another Forever War fan too BTW...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 01 April, 2008, 02:04:45 am
GENIUS -- Richard Feynman and Modern Physics by James Gleick.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 01 April, 2008, 09:51:50 am
Am I the only one reading a cycling book?  I just finished 'Riding to Jerusalem' by Bettina Selby, and started 'Long Cloud Ride' by Josie Dew.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 April, 2008, 09:56:32 am
My current reading list:

God is not great: The case against relegion - Christopher Hitchens

Pretty self explanatory.

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

In the recent translation by Anthony Briggs

Paris after the Liberation 1944-1949 - Antony Beevor & Artemis Cooper

A study of immediate post war Paris by the famous husband and wife team. Not too flattering to de Gaulle this one.

Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds

A nice bit of space opera for relaxing reading.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 01 April, 2008, 09:59:31 am
blimey - was about to post and Pat's reading the same as me!

war and peace.  It's taken me 3 years to start it, but I'm about half way through and quite enjoying it.  I do have to keep referring to the cheat-sheet at the back to remember who's who though.

also "the steep approach to garbadale" - Iain Banks for when I'm on the train.  Great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 April, 2008, 10:05:11 am
I read an older translation when i was about 18 but this one is much better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 April, 2008, 10:07:35 am
I am currently reading my way through Bernard Cornwell's Arthur books, having finished the Uthred books.

Also re-reading "The art of deception" by Kevin Mitnick, a great book which will change the way you view seemingly innocent cold calls and "informatin gathering".  Paranoid, moi? shurely not!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 April, 2008, 10:33:20 am
The General's Last Love - Andrey Kurkov.  Both Death And The Penguin and Penguin Lost were brillsticks, but this keeps jumping from 1985 to 2015 to 2003 to 2013 and is generally confusing.  I took it away with me at Easter but instead read three crap thrillers with explosions on the cover, and re-read two of Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks novels instead.  But I shall have to persevere with it, as it was a brithday present from my grate frend Ling Ling, who will be cross if I don't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 01 April, 2008, 02:08:34 pm
Latest book club book is Frankenstein.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 01 April, 2008, 02:38:33 pm
Quote
I wouldn't worry about "Forever Free" which is indeed a sequel (same characters set 20 years in their future).

+1, unless you've a taste for the contrived and the surreal

To answer the Q:
The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth (2/3 of way thru and already looking forward to re-reading  :) )
Six Degrees by Mark Lynas
Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: agagisgroovy on 02 April, 2008, 08:42:32 pm
The Pure Dead Magic / Deep Trouble series by Debi Gliori. They're a bit childish but really funny.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 02 April, 2008, 09:06:15 pm

"Angels of death" by William Marsden & julian sher ~ About Hells Angels.

"Tatooed torso" by Helene Tursten
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 02 April, 2008, 09:24:03 pm
Putins Russia by Anna Politkovskaya.

She was shot dead in october 2006. After her death, Alexander Litvinenko suggested that Putin was responsible.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 02 April, 2008, 09:28:53 pm
Joanna Trollope "The Choir".  Just finished Susan Hill's "The Woman In Black".  What a fantastically eerie read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Charlotte on 02 April, 2008, 09:42:57 pm
Infidel: Ayaan Hirsi Ali (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali/dp/1416526242):

Quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today's most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened she would be next. An international bestseller, her life story INFIDEL shows the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright, curious, dutiful little girl evolves into a pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no other book could be more timely, or more significant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 02 April, 2008, 09:45:50 pm
Infidel: Ayaan Hirsi Ali (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali/dp/1416526242):

Quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today's most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened she would be next. An international bestseller, her life story INFIDEL shows the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright, curious, dutiful little girl evolves into a pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no other book could be more timely, or more significant.

You see, I'd have expected something from the Black Lace canon  ;)

http://www.blacklace-books.co.uk/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 02 April, 2008, 09:52:28 pm
I;ll bring down the tone with World War Z, Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and The Revenge of Gaia.  ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikenerd on 03 April, 2008, 02:34:55 pm
I'm rereading bits of "Delta of Venus" by Anais Nin.
It's a very strange book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FatBloke on 03 April, 2008, 07:24:11 pm
Oliver Twist
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dave on 03 April, 2008, 07:34:17 pm
I;ll bring down the tone with World War Z

That's in my (depressingly large) pile of unread books. Should I move it up the pile?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 03 April, 2008, 09:52:43 pm
I;ll bring down the tone with World War Z

That's in my (depressingly large) pile of unread books. Should I move it up the pile?

Probably the most enertaining book I read last year.  I love good sci-fi and this is good sci-fi - it has also made me a big fan of zombies.  I urge you to read it.

Mr Gates, Ms Barnes:  please recommend me more zombie-based literature (if there is such a thing).  I'm already working my way through every zombie movie I can find.

RJMcB
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 03 April, 2008, 09:57:09 pm
The General's Last Love - Andrey Kurkov.  Both Death And The Penguin and Penguin Lost were brillsticks, but this keeps jumping from 1985 to 2015 to 2003 to 2013 and is generally confusing
We like the Kurkov books too.
I thought the President got less confusing the further through the book I got, if it's any help.

I was disappointed with The Steep Approach to Garbadale though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Noodley on 03 April, 2008, 09:57:54 pm
...please recommend me more zombie-based literature (if there is such a thing).  I'm already working my way through every zombie movie I can find.

Oh dear God!!!  ;D

Shall I just nod and go "mmmm, yes very interesting" next time we ride together then  :evil: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pingu on 03 April, 2008, 11:47:09 pm
...and The Revenge of Gaia.  ;)

A colleague of mine is reading that at the moment. She reckons Lovelock has gone bonkers because a windfarm is being built near his house & he's turned into a NIMBY. Hence his sudden pro-nuclear pronouncements recently.

(I just googled 'Revege of Gaia' - top of the list is amazon.com under Spirituality books  :o ::-) )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 03 April, 2008, 11:48:43 pm
Redmond O'Hanlon: Congo Journey.

I like the way that man travels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pingu on 03 April, 2008, 11:53:46 pm
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds

A nice bit of space opera for relaxing reading.

Alastair Reynolds - the best SF I've read for years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pingu on 03 April, 2008, 11:55:48 pm
I've just started The President's Last Love by Kurkov.

I've just finished re-reading Louis de Bernieres' South American trilogy which I think I enjoyed even more second time around.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 April, 2008, 02:27:12 pm
I'm rereading bits of "Delta of Venus" by Anais Nin.
It's a very strange book.

I have a well-thumbed copy along with Little Birds, her other collection in this area. They are wierd largely because she wrote them to order, so they are a mixture of the expectations of the collector and her own sexual subversiveness. For the real deal, read her diaries - they are fascinating.

I just reread A Moveable Feast by Hemingway - great little vignettes of expat artistic life in Paris in the Twenties. I am contemplating the huge slab of 'How the Mind Works' by Steven Pinker, but my mind is not enoying the prospect...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 04 April, 2008, 02:50:28 pm
I;ll bring down the tone with World War Z

That's in my (depressingly large) pile of unread books. Should I move it up the pile?

I'd say so: it's in the form of interviews, so very vignetty and suited to reading on the throne.

I'll follow it up with Cormac McCarthy's The Road for maximum post-apocalyptic woe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 April, 2008, 08:59:53 pm
I'll follow it up with Cormac McCarthy's The Road for maximum post-apocalyptic woe.

The Road is unremittingly bleak. Strangely old fashioned too. Reminded me of Dhalgren in parts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 04 April, 2008, 10:15:00 pm
I;ll bring down the tone with World War Z

That's in my (depressingly large) pile of unread books. Should I move it up the pile?

I'd say so: it's in the form of interviews, so very vignetty and suited to reading on the throne.

I'll follow it up with Cormac McCarthy's The Road for maximum post-apocalyptic woe.

Coincidentally, I read "The Road" immediately after "World War Z".  It truly is bleak, but a fantastic, emotional read.  I really enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction.  "The Day of the Triffids" is one of my favourite books of any genre.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 April, 2008, 03:20:28 pm
I'm rereading bits of "Delta of Venus" by Anais Nin.
It's a very strange book.

I have a well-thumbed copy along with Little Birds, her other collection in this area. They are wierd largely because she wrote them to order, so they are a mixture of the expectations of the collector and her own sexual subversiveness. For the real deal, read her diaries - they are fascinating.

Just to follow this up - in a nice piece of synchronicity, I found a biography of Anais Nin on a stall at our local market today. Model, author, sexual adventuress, compulsive liar... I find myself liking her more and more all the time!  :evil: :P

(added) but having read 250 pages last night, I am finding her really rather egotistical and the parade of shabby and desperate sexual encounters, just rather pathetic and dull. Even the affair with her own father didn't really shock.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alchemy on 07 April, 2008, 07:01:57 am
I'm most of the way through Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry. Very entertaining and enlightening, and the bit where he discusses his homosexuality should be required reading for all homophobes (but I expect their position is set in stone so it's unlikely to make any difference  :()

I like the way he writes, although there a few times where he uses 20 words when 2 would do, but overall it's been a good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeterM on 09 April, 2008, 09:32:54 pm
Rereading 'The Last Englishman' by Byron Rogers.  JL Carr was a very odd man indeed....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 April, 2008, 09:35:44 pm
I'm most of the way through Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry. Very entertaining and enlightening, and the bit where he discusses his homosexuality should be required reading for all homophobes (but I expect their position is set in stone so it's unlikely to make any difference  :()

I like the way he writes, although there a few times where he uses 20 words when 2 would do, but overall it's been a good read.

That seems to be one of the harder Frys to find in the old charity shops...

I'm still reading Josie Dew's Long Cloud Ride - well, a lot of magazines come out round about now...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 09 April, 2008, 09:47:37 pm
Blowing the Blues by Dick Heckstall-Smith and Pete Grant.

Well worth a read if you're into the 60s and 70s blues rock scene in Britain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 10 April, 2008, 03:47:01 pm
...I really enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction.  "The Day of the Triffids" is one of my favourite books of any genre.

Me too. Among British authors, can I recommend The Death of Grass and the Prince in Waiting trilogy by John Christopher, and The Road to Corlay by Richard Cowper? All probably out of print, but Abebooks is your friend! Then there's Fugue for a Darkening Island by Christopher Priest, and... well, I could go on, but that's enough for now.

Except that if alternative history floats your boat, Keith Robert's Pavane and Kiteworld are both magnificent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rudolph on 19 April, 2008, 12:59:27 am
I've just finished Bertrand Russell's "Why I am not a Christian". You may agree or not with him (I couldn't agree more) but in any case his intelligent writing is delightful. The most profound ideas exposed with utmost simplicity.

Now, I am re-reading that little gem "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 19 April, 2008, 06:54:37 pm
The Hobbit.  Bloody dwarfs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: miloat on 19 April, 2008, 08:14:37 pm
I just finished reading Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.
Good book miles better than the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Thing2 on 19 April, 2008, 10:20:28 pm
Very unusually, I there are only 2 books I'm currently reading.

I've nearly finished Moby Dick (Herman Melville). To be honest, it's probably a couple of months since I last read any of it, but it is at the point where I will probably finish it one weekend morning, when/if I feel like it. I am bored with it, but too close to the end not to finish it.  :-\

I've just started re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco). Inspired by catching the first part of the film on TV the other night, and having just finished Shalimar the clown (Salman Rushdie).

I'll pick up a fairly light book to re-read next week for when I'm having my breakfast. I seem to be going through a Diskworld phase with those at the moment, although I'm getting to the point where I could be tempted to re-read the Harry Potter series. I'm also tempted to re-read The Code Book (Simon Singh), but that is likely to be a third book to be read in parallel with others. Confessions of an English Opium Eater (Thomas De Quincey) is also on the near future reading list.

Emma
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 20 April, 2008, 11:54:32 am
...I really enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction.  "The Day of the Triffids" is one of my favourite books of any genre.

Me too. Among British authors, can I recommend The Death of Grass and the Prince in Waiting trilogy by John Christopher, and The Road to Corlay by Richard Cowper? All probably out of print, but Abebooks is your friend! Then there's Fugue for a Darkening Island by Christopher Priest, and... well, I could go on, but that's enough for now.

Except that if alternative history floats your boat, Keith Robert's Pavane and Kiteworld are both magnificent.

All most excellent. Christopher Priest continues to excel too - The Changes is a great slipstream / alt-history mash-up.

I've just been to the local book fair, so my new reading list for the coming week(s) is:

James Baldwin - The Fire Next Time
JG Ballard - The Atrocity Exhibtion
Jack Kerouac - Big Sur
Henning Mankell - Faceless Killers
Flann O'Brien - The Third Policemen

I was very tempted by a lovely first edition of William Carlos Wiliams's later poems, but it was a bit too expensive. I know I will regret not getting it later... just like I did when I missed out on a first edition of Paterson...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 20 April, 2008, 12:23:26 pm
Oh that's a grand reading list!  Love Baldwin...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: domesticated ape on 20 April, 2008, 01:36:48 pm
I'm reading Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of the outdoor clothes company Patagonia. The book's all about the history of the company, and how he runs the business in a way that tries to be as environmentally sustainable as possible, as well as treating all their employees well. It's a bit 'businessy' but it's definitely an interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 20 April, 2008, 09:54:45 pm
Since I am cycling to work more than I am using the bus, I don't have a book at work to read at lunchtimes or whilst on the can. So I have started reading Nick & Dick Cranes Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. I first read this in the 80s when I was preparing for my transcontinental ride. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 20 April, 2008, 10:09:18 pm
I'm currently reading a page or four of Rogers Profanisaurous (The Magna Farta) before bed to ensure I go to sleep smiling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 April, 2008, 11:12:15 am
Attempts to dig "The General's Last Love" out of the bag in which it has lain since Easter have proved fruitless, as I got side-tracked by Griffith Borgeson's The Golden Age Of The American Racing Car, which led inexorably to Mark Dees' The Miller Dynasty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 21 April, 2008, 02:41:19 pm
"The Forever War" is a classic. I've not read the sequels.

It's brilliant, particularly in it's treatment of time-dilation effects and the resulting effects on people and society.

I think it would be a better novel if Haldeman wasn't obsessed with group sex (he seems to put this in all his books  ::-)).

Mindbridge is possibly even better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: velocitizen on 25 April, 2008, 08:40:41 pm
I have just finished reading 'Margrave of the marshes' the John Peel biography this evening.
To be honest I was finding it all a bit boring, and then towards the finish I didn't want it to end, and now it's over I wish there was a bit more...I think I was always a bit like that when I listened to his radio shows, and it has reminded me what I loved about him. RIP.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 25 April, 2008, 09:00:53 pm
"think it would be a better novel if Haldeman wasn't obsessed with group sex (he seems to put this in all his books  Roll Eyes)."

What's wrong with group sex?  Good fun......... O:-)  You want pervy, try late Heinlein..

I've recently finished "Judge" by Karen Traviss, this is the last of her 6 book Wess'har series.  The Eqbas fleet has reached Earth, to judge & punish those responsible for a nuclear incident on the planet Bezer'ej, which nearly resulted in the extinction of the intelligent, aquatic natives.  Once this minor matter is attended to, they will restore Earth's ecology to a balanced state, and repopulate it with many of the extinct species sent into space in a gene bank over a century ago. This will involve a forced reduction in the human population  from 7 billion to 1 billion.....  Intelligent, enjoyable SF, with a greenish tinge.

Also just re-read Alistair Reynolds "Century Rain",  half  Chandleresque detective story set in Paris, half wormholes, nanotech & a devastated Earth.  Not as bleak as his "Revelation Space" series, and a decent ending (something I don't think he's good at)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 25 April, 2008, 10:22:44 pm
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera. One of the best books I've read about what it means to love.

The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho. A simple story yet one which contains much essential truth about life, and the importance of following your dreams.

The Ravens, by Christopher Robbins. The story of America's pilots during the secret war in Laos.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 26 April, 2008, 07:30:13 pm
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 26 April, 2008, 08:16:48 pm
Light stuff after The Road: Iain Banks's The Algebraist.  Second reading so I'm muttering "you clever bastard" a lot...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: domesticated ape on 27 April, 2008, 09:52:43 pm
I've just started The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 28 April, 2008, 10:21:58 am
Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453 - Roger Crowley

The title says it all really, a gripping account of the fall of Constantinople to Sultan Mehmed II. The final act in the long slow fall of the Roman Empire.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 28 April, 2008, 10:24:00 am
I'm onto "IBM and the Holocaust" now
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 April, 2008, 01:22:56 pm
Light stuff after The Road: Iain Banks's The Algebraist.  Second reading so I'm muttering "you clever bastard" a lot...

A real return to his best sf form IMHO... I read The Steep Approach to Garbadale last week and in contrast that felt like he was treading water, or just retelling the same quirky family stories again. He's much better when he lets himself go...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 April, 2008, 01:46:59 pm
Just finished Simon Scarrow's Centurion and have Bernard Cornwall's Heretic to read tonight.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dave on 28 April, 2008, 01:53:14 pm
Light stuff after The Road: Iain Banks's The Algebraist.  Second reading so I'm muttering "you clever bastard" a lot...

A real return to his best sf form IMHO...

Only temporary, sadly. Matter (the latest Culture book) is terrible :(. Easily 250-300 pages too long (seriously). The Algebraist was a bit too long too, but was at least enjoyable.

I've just finished Spook Country (William Gibson), which is really good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RainOrShine on 28 April, 2008, 02:00:27 pm
Matter (the latest Culture book) is terrible :(. Easily 250-300 pages too long (seriously).
Noooo!That's next on my list...  :'(

Currently making slow progress through Vodka by Boris Starling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 April, 2008, 05:40:51 pm
I'm onto "IBM and the Holocaust" now

A classic of the field I work in...

Spook Country is great... Gibson is actually underrated as a stylist, I think...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 April, 2008, 05:51:42 pm
Spook Country was good.  Both Matter & Steep Approach to Garbadale were disappointing.  The same stuff from previous books recycled I'm afraid.

Look at Charles Stross if you want good SF.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 April, 2008, 08:16:05 pm
Look at Charles Stross if you want good SF.

Hmm... he's okay, but too many in-jokes and his plots tend to have large holes and run out of steam. I'd still recommend him. But it you really want the best of the best recently, I'd go for Ian McDonald's Brasyl, Geoff Ryman's Air or M John Harrison's Light and Nova Swing. IMHO of course... it is often a matter of taste, and mine tends to the slightly surreal and arty, with some crunchy politics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 April, 2008, 09:06:15 pm
I've read Light & Air, both excellent, as was Harrison's Centauri Device.  I didn't get to the end of the Viriconium collection though.

One I've got to go back, to is Hal Duncan's Vellum.  I got about half way through then decided it was too clever for it's own good. Worth another go though.

Stross's shorter works are very  good, The Atrocity Archive & A Colder Place, but I had to go and read some Lovecraft to get the references.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 29 April, 2008, 10:34:21 am
Stross's shorter works are very  good, The Atrocity Archive & A Colder Place, but I had to go and read some Lovecraft to get the references.

I think so too - I used to read his stuff in Interzone and elsewhere before he had published any novels... I had already read Lovecraft (and CAS and Derleth...) as a midguided teenager so I had a handle on those aspects!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 29 April, 2008, 11:53:25 am
"Set phasers to very smug indeed"

I'm reading an advance proof copy of the next Christopher Brookmyre book "A Snowball in Hell".  When it comes out in hardback/paperback later in the year do not read the inside jacket cover/back of the book as it gives far too much away in my view.

You may wish to avoid the blurb on Amazon for similar reasons, it's defintiely worth reading the book itself though!

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 29 April, 2008, 12:14:34 pm
Rereading Iain Banks' 'Look to Windward' and Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' plus trying to read Black Swans by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - not a good choice for a 'plane' book :(

...and yes having 3 books on the go is not great
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spen666 on 29 April, 2008, 12:16:16 pm
I'm reading the 2008 Beano annual
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: blackpuddinonnabike on 29 April, 2008, 12:19:53 pm
Just finished 'You Only Live Twice'. Love most of the Bond novels (working through them in order), but this really was oriental stereotypes taken to extremes. Quite hard to read at times!

Probably read 'Palestinian Walks' next.

Had an eclectic mix recently (read Walter Moers' 'Rumo' before the last Bond novel - ostensibly a kids book, but desperately good fun, and rather dark and bloody).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 29 April, 2008, 01:09:38 pm
I'm back onto comfort-reading - Stephen King's Needful Things is entertaining me at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 29 April, 2008, 05:59:42 pm
A Taschen Frank Lloyd Wright photo art book
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 29 April, 2008, 09:23:08 pm

I'm reading an advance proof copy of the next Christopher Brookmyre book "A Snowball in Hell". 


You lucky so-and-so.  I'm a big fan.  I'm going to see/hear him talk about his books in Falkirk in May.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 April, 2008, 09:48:34 pm
I am nearly finished my umpteenth reading of The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.  8)

After that I have a copy of Salmon Fishing In The Yemen - no idea if it will be any good, it was a purchase of desperation in a dry spell, and I also have the 2 new Alistair Reynolds books to read which I'm really looking forward to, even if one of them is a collection of short stories (which normally I can't stand).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hummers on 31 July, 2008, 06:55:58 pm
I have had a quick look but cannot find a thread on this forum.

So.... I am reading 'The Reivers' by Alistair Moffat.

It is a 'factual' book relating to the raiding activities of the mafioso style families that lived in the Borders (England/Scotland) between about the 13th and 17th centuries. It also paints a vivid picture of the Borders as a sorry pawn in the macinations of various regents and these raping, pludering, murderous outlaws (outlaws and monarchs) over 500 years. As we will have spent about 4 days split between Northumberlnd and Edinburgh, this has been a useful companion. Moffat intersperses (sometimes) dry historical information with 'did you know' facts, lightning what can become depressing reading.

Mrs H has just finished reading 'Wife in the North' by Judith O' Reiley. A diary of one woman's experience of moving to glorious Northumberland from London. The book has prompted many "laugh out loud moments" from Mrs H. You know, when you have to put down your book and ask 'what's so funny' or choose to ignore your sniggering spouse. I am picking this up after I have finished reading The Reivers as no doubt I will need cheering up.

H
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 31 July, 2008, 07:12:20 pm
What books are we reading at the moment ? (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.0)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 31 July, 2008, 07:45:59 pm
For whom the bell tolls by Ernest Hemingway at the moment.

Next is the The classic world by Colin Lane Fox.

... prompted by Mrs Pingu and Mr H.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 31 July, 2008, 07:53:11 pm
The Music of the Primes, by Marcus du Sautoy.

Hard sums explained.  I fear my brain may explode before I finish it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 31 July, 2008, 08:00:47 pm
I tried to read Tristram Shandy last week.  To my shame I gave up.  :'( The story and format are great, but the language was too archane for me to enjoy it personally.  So reading Josie Dew instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 31 July, 2008, 08:05:34 pm
Recently finished _The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany_, by David Blackbourn. I enjoyed it, but then I would.  :)  Made me wish I had figured out this interest--combining history and landscape ecology--early enough in life to go for a PhD.

Not long before that was _The Discovery of France_ by Graham Robb, which I may have mentioned on here--very enjoyable, and the author is a cyclist (and did much of his research by bike....).

Was simultaneously reading (!) _Once Upon A Time in the North_ by Philip Pullman--a shorter book about the character Lee Scoresby. OK for entertainment value, but a little clunky on the message, and really just an "action" story. Of course, I got it just when I had gotten irritated with my re-read of _The Subtle Knife_--something about the sheer amount of violence and torment in the books, which doesn't always seem necessary.

Right now, I'm reading _The Hidden West: Journeys in the American Outback_ by Rob Schulteis. I'm trying to fairly separate my jealously at his footloose wanderings from my irritation at the little eruptions of excessive statements that sound very poetic but really don't mean very much.

Not sure what's next. The stash of books on the pile at home--mostly finds from this spring's used-book sale--aren't really calling to me. Still waiting for my pre-order copy of Tim Robinson's _Connemara_ to come in at the bookstore.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 31 July, 2008, 08:08:48 pm
A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon. I can't decide about it. It is entertaining but it reminds of Tom Sharpe's Wilt books but set in a more modern era. I enjoyed Tom Sharpe twenty five years ago but maybe I have changed. The constant theme of everything that can go wrong does go wrong is a bit predicatble.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 31 July, 2008, 08:17:21 pm
The Music of the Primes, by Marcus du Sautoy.

Hard sums explained.  I fear my brain may explode before I finish it.

Any good? I'm a maths geek and a sucker for Pop. Sci. books like this (i.e. The Code Book by Simon Singh, Dr Reimanns Zeroes, etc).

(Plus I've played football against Marcus du Sautoy, he plays for Recreativo Hackney. We won 4-2.)

Next is Cocksure by Mordecai Richler.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 31 July, 2008, 08:22:07 pm
Marcus is great on the radio.  I imagine his written style is easy to read.  Didn't he write 'The Nothing That Is'?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 31 July, 2008, 08:22:52 pm
The Music of the Primes, by Marcus du Sautoy.

I saw that Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician's Journey Through Symmetry had a great review and was very tempted. Is The Music of the Primes any good?

GB, we have a similar intestest it seems; at least some books in common. I loved Fermat's Last Theorem too.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 31 July, 2008, 08:25:41 pm
The Music of the Primes, by Marcus du Sautoy.

Hard sums explained.  I fear my brain may explode before I finish it.

If your brain doesn't explode, follow it up with The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose.  That will make it leak out of your ears in a very satisfactory manner...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 31 July, 2008, 08:44:24 pm
As Terry Gilliam said "Marcus du Sautoy isn't big, but he certainly is very clever"

Recreativo Hackney have prime numbers on their shirts.

Anyway, yes Music of the Primes is good. When I get stuck, or have to re-read a passage, I imagine it in his voice.

I got Finding Moonshine from the library. Excellent stuff. Although dealing with all those dimensions was another brain stretching exercise.  I nearly went on holiday to Granada to see The Alhambra just because he goes on about the 17 different symmetries the Moors used in its decoration.

Music of the Primes has just got to Reimann is doing stuff with zeta functions in 4 dimensions.  It's hard, but satisfying, work.

Du Sautoy did the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in 2007. Or was it 2006?  Anyway, I have them as avi files somewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andrij on 31 July, 2008, 08:45:20 pm
"Watching the English — The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour" by Kate Fox.

A definite 'must read' for anyone who has moved to the UK.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 31 July, 2008, 08:46:20 pm
Marcus is great on the radio.  I imagine his written style is easy to read.  Didn't he write 'The Nothing That Is'?

Google suggests that was Kaplan. But thanks as I hadn't seen that book...

du Sautoy did the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures in, umm, 2006. Somewhere round here I have part of it on DVD thanks to my dad (another maths geek). Ah, yes, it was obviously a maths night on TV:

9.05 Go Forth And Multiply (Ethiopian Multiplication)
9.10. The Music Of The Primes (du Sautoy)
10.10 The Life Of Phi (da Vinci/Fibonacci)
10.15 Breaking The Code (about Enigma)
11.45 Dreaming The Impossible (about Escher)
11.50 Horizon (Fermat's Last Theorem)

[EDIT] Random fact: In the same evening in Cambridge (Carols at King's no less) I saw both Andrew Wiles and I was almost run over by Hawking.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Hofstadter is lying around somewhere although it takes a while to digest it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 31 July, 2008, 08:48:02 pm
Du Sautoy did the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in 2007. Or was it 2006?  Anyway, I have them as avi files somewhere.

I'd be interested in getting those from you (as I only have one of them). I could post you a suitably sized USB stick if that'd work?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 31 July, 2008, 08:56:48 pm
A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon. I can't decide about it.
It did get on my wick a bit as well, but then I find thatsort of Frank Spencer-ish type reading hard work.

I'm reading Alastair Reynolds 'The Prefect' having just finished 'Galactic North' by the same author. Good stuff. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 31 July, 2008, 08:59:23 pm

I'd be interested in getting those from you (as I only have one of them). I could post you a suitably sized USB stick if that'd work?
I'll burn them to DVD, but as avi (converting to DVD format on this machione takes approximately forever).

PM me your address.  On second thoughts, I've got an online storage thing. I can upload them to there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 31 July, 2008, 09:27:52 pm
On second thoughts, I've got an online storage thing. I can upload them to there.

I'd be interested as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 31 July, 2008, 11:42:00 pm
The Marmaduke Pickthall bilingual translation of The Qur'an - a fantastic illustrated version.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hummers on 01 August, 2008, 08:14:34 am
I am reading 'The Reivers' by Alistair Moffat.

It is a 'factual' book relating to the raiding activities of the mafioso style families that lived in the Borders (England/Scotland) between about the 13th and 17th centuries. It also paints a vivid picture of the Borders as a sorry pawn in the macinations of various regents and these raping, pludering, murderous outlaws (outlaws and monarchs) over 500 years. As we will have spent about 4 days split between Northumberlnd and Edinburgh, this has been a useful companion. Moffat intersperses (sometimes) dry historical information with 'did you know' facts, lightning what can become depressing reading.

Mrs H has just finished reading 'Wife in the North' by Judith O' Reiley. A diary of one woman's experience of moving to glorious Northumberland from London. The book has prompted many "laugh out loud moments" from Mrs H. You know, when you have to put down your book and ask 'what's so funny' or choose to ignore your sniggering spouse. I am picking this up after I have finished reading The Reivers as no doubt I will need cheering up.

H
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 August, 2008, 08:54:17 am
I am just about to read After Dark by my namesake, Murakami Haruki...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 01 August, 2008, 09:10:24 am
Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie.

It's very funny and quite informative too - my knowledge of so-called Northern places in Lancashire and Yorkshire is sketchy as, to me, they're in the midlands.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 01 August, 2008, 09:12:01 am
Trashy beach read is "No Time To Say Goodbye"- a mystery thriller that you could finish in a day. Very gripping.

I bought a load of review copies from work- "Hellraisers, about O'Toole, Burton, Reed and Harris, Cityboy, 17 by the KLF's BIll Drummond and Sex Lives Of The Rich And Famous.

My summer reading's invariably lowbrow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 August, 2008, 09:33:09 am
Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie.

It's very funny and quite informative too - my knowledge of so-called Northern places in Lancashire and Yorkshire is sketchy as, to me, they're in the midlands.


If you like that then try finding "The Diary of a Rock and Roll Nobody" By Marc Radcliffe, an excellent read.

Currently reading "The Kite Runner", having just finished "The Blood Of The Rose" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (spot a pattern here?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 01 August, 2008, 09:34:39 am
A book by Mark Radcliffe?  Is the opening line:

'Err ummm wurrwurrwurr ummm err' ? ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 01 August, 2008, 11:38:25 am


I'll burn them to DVD, but as avi (converting to DVD format on this machione takes approximately forever).

PM me your address.  On second thoughts, I've got an online storage thing. I can upload them to there.

Well uploading seems to be slower than a slow thing, wrapped up in slow string. Been going all night and only 14% complete.

Anyone who wants these PM me your postal address in I'll burn them to DVD as .avi and bung them in the post.

Meantime, the upload trickles on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 01 August, 2008, 11:47:38 am
Fredy Perlman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredy_Perlman): "Against His-story, Against Leviathan!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andrij on 01 August, 2008, 11:48:40 am
I doubt anyone here is remotely interested to know that I am reading  A Concise Grammar of Slovak (http://www.baylanguagebooks.co.uk/product_details.php?id=1971) by George Carcas, ISBN 1897999100.

What is unusual and perhaps interesting is that this 36 page book has been printed on demand, ie. when he has an order for one of his books he prints it on his home printer. £5.95 sounded steep for a 36 page book but I now appreciate that labour is a major part. It is a clever way of keeping books available that have too low a demand for a publisher to commit to a large print run.

Oh yes, and by the way, I am finding it fascinating and very helpful. It is well written.

This is where a site like Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free (http://www.lulu.com) is usueful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 01 August, 2008, 12:22:37 pm
Working my way through Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalin-Court-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore/dp/0753817667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217588820&sr=8-1) by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which is truly excellent, but I keep having to refer to the Dramatis Presonae at the front to check who people are. There's a horrible confusion of nicknames, patronymics, endearments and so on. I think a worthwhile Annex would be a short description of how Russian names are put together!

And when that all gets a bit heavy and I need to take a break, I've just bought Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape: The Remarkable Life of Jacques Anquetil (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Lies-Handlebar-Tape-Remarkable/dp/1845963016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217589660&sr=1-1) which is altogether lighter, though not so well written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 01 August, 2008, 09:48:05 pm
Working my way through Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalin-Court-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore/dp/0753817667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217588820&sr=8-1) by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which is truly excellent, but I keep having to refer to the Dramatis Presonae at the front to check who people are. There's a horrible confusion of nicknames, patronymics, endearments and so on. I think a worthwhile Annex would be a short description of how Russian names are put together!

Ah-ha! I have this ready to read in the teetering pile at my bedside.  My brother-in-law gave me this for my birthday last year, but I'd just finished Stalin by Robert Service, so was Stalin-ed out for a while.  I have quite a few books about Soviet history  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 02 August, 2008, 04:04:10 pm
I'm STILL chewing through Against the Day.  We've left the trackless Taklamakan to witness the Tunguska event, but was Tesla involved?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 02 August, 2008, 09:23:13 pm
Christopher Brookmyre's "Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks", because I know him and I proof-read one of his previous novels (I even got a credit on the title page  :D).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 03 August, 2008, 04:16:47 pm
Just finished Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (again).  It doesn't get any better, does it?   :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 03 August, 2008, 04:43:17 pm
Moral: treat your wife like sh!t, and if it all goes pear-shaped, you can always have her younger sister  :D

On repeated re-readings, Alec d'Urberville actually comes out as the goody.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 03 August, 2008, 05:39:10 pm
Christopher Brookmyre's "Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks", because I know him and I proof-read one of his previous novels (I even got a credit on the title page  :D).
Just finished that one, and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Palinurus on 03 August, 2008, 09:58:08 pm
Recently finished Vasily Grossman's "Life and Fate". Just started "What is the What" by Dave Eggers, a lucky find at the local library.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Valiant on 04 August, 2008, 12:18:11 am
Confessions of a bad girl :o

In my defense it was my friend Savannah's and she left it in the office. It's quite addictive actually.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 04 August, 2008, 12:44:05 pm
On repeated re-readings, Alec d'Urberville actually comes out as the goody.
You think?  Sometimes Hardy leaves too much to my imagination, and I rather thought that Alec, having ditched his remorse-based fanaticism, had decided that neither he nor she could be degraded any further and therefore had convinced her to engage in sinful activity against her (still) lawful husband, abandonment not being a reason for divorce in those days (I think).

This is only my second re-reading so I may have got it wrong...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 August, 2008, 12:49:31 pm
Walt Unsworth's "Everest: A Mountaineering History"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 04 August, 2008, 02:58:06 pm
Irvine Welsh - Glue. The dialect precludes reading it after more than two glasses of wine. I can't tell if I'm drunk or not.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Elleigh on 04 August, 2008, 03:00:35 pm
'Weapons of Mass Destruction'  Sue Townsend

It's another Adrian Mole Diary
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 04 August, 2008, 06:29:20 pm
Just finished "High Noon in the Cold War" by Max Frankel, and "One Minute to Midnight" by Michael Dobbs. Both are about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. It's truly frightening to learn just how close we came to getting obliterated back then.

I've been re-reading "Lord of the Rings", by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've got the 50th anniversary single volume edition which is excellent. I've read "The Hobbit" and LOTR quite a few times since early adolescence, I seem to keep coming back to both of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 04 August, 2008, 09:28:06 pm
On repeated re-readings, Alec d'Urberville actually comes out as the goody.
You think?  Sometimes Hardy leaves too much to my imagination, and I rather thought that Alec, having ditched his remorse-based fanaticism, had decided that neither he nor she could be degraded any further and therefore had convinced her to engage in sinful activity against her (still) lawful husband, abandonment not being a reason for divorce in those days (I think).

This is only my second re-reading so I may have got it wrong...
Well, Alec is reasonably constant in his lust for her and goes to some lengths to get her back.  Angel really isn't a very sympathetic character.  Hardy is quite good at subverting the hero/villain dichotomy - Farfrae comes across as being a bit of a tosser in The Mayor Of Casterbridge, and although Henchard behaves the worst by far, he's the one you're rooting for.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 05 August, 2008, 10:48:29 am
Fredy Perlman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredy_Perlman): "Against His-story, Against Leviathan!"

I've now put this aside for the time being in favour of Redemption Songs by Judith Binney (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=73eFPqD75O4C&dq=Judith+Binney&pg=PP1&ots=zqppl4V26e&sig=p9asU8ydq1HzkCXJ6m0T26G-ewo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA640,M1), a biography of the 19th century Maori leader Te Kooti which arrived yesterday. 600-odd pages - poor postman! - and at my speed it will probably last until Xmas. According to previous reading Te Kooti has appeared to be rather a bad man, and not a terribly competent guerilla leader either; perhaps the context provided by this book will change my mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 05 August, 2008, 11:30:46 am
Well I've ground to a halt about 75% of the way through Moby Dick.  Again.  It's not that I don't like it, just that I find it loses its way a bit.  I'll come back to it in about a week or so and finish it.  In the meantime, I bought a translation of Yagyu Munenori's 'Life-giving sword,' which I've never read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 05 August, 2008, 01:04:34 pm
Well, Alec is reasonably constant in his lust for her and goes to some lengths to get her back. 
Good point.  I also must remember that divorce Angel and marry Alec just was not an option.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 August, 2008, 11:48:01 pm
Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie.

It's very funny and quite informative too - my knowledge of so-called Northern places in Lancashire and Yorkshire is sketchy as, to me, they're in the midlands.

I've just started this, and I'm loving it so far. To paraphrase Olivia Newton-John, it's filled with affection. I've just got as far as Manchester.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hummers on 06 August, 2008, 08:09:56 pm
Just finished Hanibal by Thomas Harris.

Quite different from the film and with a very different ending.

The book goes a lot more into the characters which I found very interesting as is Harris's style of writing.

It also highlights that although undoubtedly a monster, Hanibal is the lesser of those depicted in the book and you almost end up liking him.

Almost.

H
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rapples on 06 August, 2008, 08:18:03 pm
Herge's adventures of Tintin ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 08 August, 2008, 02:46:11 pm
Julian Rathbone, Sand Blind......very Grahame Greene
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 08 August, 2008, 02:54:25 pm
If I can find it this weekend 'Last and First Men' by Olaf Stapleton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 11 August, 2008, 06:33:11 pm
Tully by Paullina Simons.  Recommended by my Mum.  She has a strange taste in stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 11 August, 2008, 08:20:30 pm
I'm just starting The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk about the recent history of the Middle East, and also enjoying Tanikawa Shuntaro's rather beautiful 1952 collection of poems Two Billion Light Years of Solitude, which my wife bought back for me from Japan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 11 August, 2008, 08:23:22 pm
I'm forcing my way through "Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr. I am somewhat underwhelmed. I keep leaving it and going over to my second book, "Shah of Shahs", by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Wonderful writer that just draws me in. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 11 August, 2008, 08:27:51 pm
Just finished "The Steel Remains" by Richard Morgan,  first part in a fantasy trilogy .  I don't normally do fantasy but spent most of Saturday reading this.  It's well written, amusing and very violent.  

Currently half way through Ken Mcleod's "Night Sessions". So far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 August, 2008, 08:35:59 pm
Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson - how two million women survived without men after the first world war.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 11 August, 2008, 08:49:36 pm
An Imperial Possesssion:Britain in the Roman Empire 54 BC-AD 409 by David Mattingly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 12 August, 2008, 08:48:29 am
Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 12 August, 2008, 08:54:08 am
Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heroes-Villains-Velodromes-Britains-Revolution/dp/000726531X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218527523&sr=8-1) by Richard Moore

Very easy read; quite interesting. I was expecting better through: the story is great and inspiring, but the style and book construction let them down a bit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 August, 2008, 10:20:58 am
I've just read Brave New World for the first time since I was at skool.

It's crap :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 12 August, 2008, 10:42:50 am
I've just read Brave New World for the first time since I was at skool.

It's crap :(

Are you kidding?  ??? It is just about the most brilliantly written and perceptive dystopia ever. Far better than Nineteen Eighty-Four
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 12 August, 2008, 10:46:04 am
Currently half way through Ken Mcleod's "Night Sessions". So far, so good.

I've just read The Execution Channel, which I found slightly disappointing... I was hoping he'd done a Spook Country, but the politics never really seemed more than a tokenistic and exploitative backdrop. He's just never quite managed to write a book that is brilliant throughout IMHO - it has the air of too many good ideas which don't really work together forced into a book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Elleigh on 12 August, 2008, 02:26:38 pm
I'm now reading 'From University to Uni' A very interesting read about the political agenda and policy shifts in higher education.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 12 August, 2008, 02:29:42 pm
IBM & The Holocaust

Enigma
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alchemy on 12 August, 2008, 02:33:12 pm
Far better than Nineteen Eighty-Four


Well if Nineteen Eighty Four is anything like Animal Farm and The Road to Wigan Pier than I'd rather read the back of a cereal packet.

After reading them I couldn't (and still can't) understand why Orwells' books are held in such high regard
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 12 August, 2008, 02:51:37 pm
Small Wars Permitting by Christina Lamb (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Wars-Permitting-Dispatches-Foreign/dp/0007256892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218548726&sr=8-1) recounts the foreign correspondents trips across the world during the last 20 years.  It starts out in Pakistan talking about the coming to power of Benazir Bhutto in 1988, before the authors heads off to Latin America, South Africa, the Middle East and currently she's living in Portugal.  The book is partly made up of Lamb's articles publishes in a variety of newspapers and then her own thoughts and feelings about her experiences.  It's interesting reading about events with the knowledge of hindsight and seeing how events have unfolded in, for example, Pakistan. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 August, 2008, 05:49:33 pm
Currently half way through Ken Mcleod's "Night Sessions". So far, so good.

I've just read The Execution Channel, which I found slightly disappointing... I was hoping he'd done a Spook Country, but the politics never really seemed more than a tokenistic and exploitative backdrop. He's just never quite managed to write a book that is brilliant throughout IMHO - it has the air of too many good ideas which don't really work together forced into a book.

He paints a depressingly plausible vision of near future Britain though.  I really disliked the ending as well. 

Night Sessions has quite a bit in common with Charles Stross's "Halting State", a police procedural in near future Scotland, I suspect they've been bouncing ideas of each other in the pub!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 12 August, 2008, 08:38:30 pm
My Name is Legion by A.N. Wilson....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 12 August, 2008, 09:22:59 pm
Far better than Nineteen Eighty-Four


Well if Nineteen Eighty Four is anything like Animal Farm and The Road to Wigan Pier than I'd rather read the back of a cereal packet.

After reading them I couldn't (and still can't) understand why Orwells' books are held in such high regard

You and me both.  I read the deconstruction of Hardy a few pages back with a disbelieving stare too.  Most 'classics' leave me cold.  Then again, I read Woolf's Orlando a few years ago and found the prose poetry fantastic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arabella on 19 August, 2008, 11:23:20 pm
I always wonder if a certain amount of literary merit isn't in fact context dependent ie depends on what else's about (a bit like a ballad winning at Eurovision when it was mostly pop and vice versa, not that I've watched eurovision since 1982)

___________________________(you did say bookS)
I have finished in the last month:
Nella Last's war (one of the mass observation diaries)
Sepulchre (Kate Mosse, not as good as Labyrinth as plot too similar so novelty wasn't there)
the Hinge factor (what if Marshall Ney had spiked the guns at Waterloo etc)
Chernobyl Strawberries
the Fixer (I think quite well known when it first came out)
and countless light reads that I almost as soon forget, some of which my offspring were supposed to have read and didn't

Have had on the go for ages:
L'Aventure des Langues en L'Occident
Narziss und Goldmund (err, in translation, I am too lazy)
Sisam, 14th centure verse'n'prose
After Babel (on language and translation)

Am now also reading:
Solitaire Mystery
Life and Death of Smallpox
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 August, 2008, 11:51:42 pm
I've just read Brave New World for the first time since I was at skool.

It's crap :(

I made the same mistake last summer. I used to think it was great. This time round I thought it was pretty turgid. It might have been a brilliant dystopian fantasy once upon a time but now it seems incredibly dated, and doesn't even offer the consolation of being well written (unlike, say, HG Wells and Jules Verne).

I read the deconstruction of Hardy a few pages back with a disbelieving stare too.  Most 'classics' leave me cold.  Then again, I read Woolf's Orlando a few years ago and found the prose poetry fantastic.

I can't read Hardy. I find him unbearable. And not because I don't like books with a high misery quotient - I love George Eliot, for example, and Middlemarch is one of my favourite books ever. In a similar vein, I've also got Les Miserables on my to-read pile (in French, of course, pseud that I am).

I'm currently reading A History Of The World In Six Glasses by Tom Standage (http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-World-6-Glasses/dp/1843545950/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219185495&sr=8-1), which is a clever idea well executed. The history aspect of it is a bit superficial (perhaps not surprising given the scope of the book in relation to its size), but it works as a good, broad overview and is written in a flowing, easy-to-read style.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 20 August, 2008, 09:16:28 pm
I'm now reading Jonathan Glover's Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, and some of Tobias Wolfe's short stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 20 August, 2008, 09:18:15 pm
I have just finished reading 'Margrave of the marshes' the John Peel biography this evening.

Just got this through interlibrary loan...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 20 August, 2008, 10:04:29 pm
The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey's seminal ecotage novel.  In which I became convinced that Hayduke was the inspiration for Marvel's Wolverine...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 20 August, 2008, 10:05:18 pm
I took Desert Solitaire to (re)read on vacation, but didn't get to it. Still, it's on the "soon" stack.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 21 August, 2008, 09:26:56 am
The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey's seminal ecotage novel.  In which I became convinced that Hayduke was the inspiration for Marvel's Wolverine...

Great read. It was an inspiration for quite a few things I did when I was younger. Allegedly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 21 August, 2008, 09:38:50 am
Under The Paw: Confessions of a Cat Man by Tom Cox.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 26 August, 2008, 02:13:24 pm
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. 

I read bits of it when I was a kid, but completely forgot about it until I watched Comics Britannia the other week. 

It's also the first graphic novel I've read.  Well, unless you count Beano and Dandy annuals.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 26 August, 2008, 03:18:22 pm
I just finished _The Rings of Saturn_ by W.G. Sebald (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._G._Sebald), who I only heard of recently. It's a novel, but reads like notes from a long walk interrupted by long asides on history and odd people. I think I need to find his other two novels now. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 26 August, 2008, 03:24:50 pm
I just finished _The Rings of Saturn_ by W.G. Sebald (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._G._Sebald), who I only heard of recently. It's a novel, but reads like notes from a long walk interrupted by long asides on history and odd people. I think I need to find his other two novels now. 

I love this book. It's like a stream of consciousness for me, to range far and wide around the world but keep returning to the same place - the Suffolk coast, where I live.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 26 August, 2008, 03:25:42 pm
'The Inheritance of Loss' by Kiran Desai

really very readable  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 26 August, 2008, 04:43:20 pm
I love this book. It's like a stream of consciousness for me

Same here--even though it's a strange form for a novel, it seemed completely natural for me. I guess some would find the lack of characters and plot boring, and the long asides irritating, but I liked it more than a lot of conventional novels I've read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 26 August, 2008, 07:12:09 pm
Just started Will Self's  'The Book of Dave'  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/may/27/fiction.hayfestival2006)

I abandoned his 'How the Dead Live' so hopefully I'll get a bit more into this one (& be inspired to restart HTDL)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: agagisgroovy on 26 August, 2008, 08:46:57 pm
MacLennan's Gaelic Dictionary, old pre-GOC edition.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 26 August, 2008, 08:49:35 pm
The Bible.

Just to remind me what a Totally Barking lot us humans are.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 August, 2008, 10:09:52 am
Just started Will Self's  'The Book of Dave'  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/may/27/fiction.hayfestival2006)

That's been sitting in my unread pile for about two years now.  Let me know how you get on.

Currently re-reading Mark Billingham's "Inspector Thorne" series, and being perverse, I'm doing it in reverse chronological order :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 27 August, 2008, 10:12:23 am
Still reading

IBM & The Holocaust

and

Enigma

Since I am not travelling by bus anymore I don't read on my commute and I'm usually too tired to read at bedtime
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 27 August, 2008, 10:26:42 am
The Ultimate French Review and Practice: Mastering French Grammar for Confident Communication 

Somehow after getting through GCSE French, and AO Level, I've now reached the point where I've forgotten so much, it's back to pidgin level. Need to get back up to speed again.

After I've gone through this book, I was thinking about reading a chemistry revision book. I used to understand things like covalent bonds and atomic weights. Now it's all Greek to me.

It is slightly worrying that amount of stuff I've forgotten since the age of 16.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fiendish on 27 August, 2008, 07:09:51 pm
In Defence of Food by Michael Pollans.  Looking at relationships with food over time, and the confusion introduced with science and nutrition,  mass production and over processing. 

I love his opening line: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 August, 2008, 11:31:43 am
The End Of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas

Note to the author: even if your parents were hippies, don't give the leading character a name like "Ariel Manto" unless you want to get jiggy wif Mr Shovel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 August, 2008, 11:35:04 am
Just finished "PS I Love You" and about to start "The Welsh Girl", at some point I'll finish reading this year's Galaxy book awards books and start reading something different, probably after reading "Making Money"

And yes I did cry whilst reading "PS I Love You"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 August, 2008, 11:13:16 am
Half Asleep In Frog Pyjamas ~ Tom Robbins

Surprisingly un-odd given the title and previous experience of Mr Robbins, but then I've only got as far as chapter two, in which the leading character and her psychic friend are looking for an escaped monkey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 29 August, 2008, 02:32:13 pm
Just finished _Land of Tempest_ by Eric Shipton, about expeditions in Patagonia in the 50s. Pretty straightforward "men on adventures" stuff, but fairly entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 August, 2008, 09:48:58 pm
I am currently having another attempt to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. See if I can get to half way this time!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 August, 2008, 09:51:30 pm
Just started Will Self's  'The Book of Dave'  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/may/27/fiction.hayfestival2006)
I quite enjoyed that, tho I've never read any other Will Self books, and I was really desperate at the time. I've read worse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 31 August, 2008, 04:11:54 pm
Finally finished "The Music of the Primes" whilst on holiday. Now got to re read the bit about zeta functions.

After that I read "The Fourth Bear" by Jasper fforde.  Ded gud itwas too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 31 August, 2008, 05:42:55 pm
I am currently having another attempt to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. See if I can get to half way this time!

I thought it was disappointing and overrated - and one of those books that isn't half as impressive if you've ever read any decent science fiction (which of course most mainstream critics and people who give out awards haven't). He's generally got away with quite a bit has David Mitchell - his earlier books, written whilst he was still in Japan, are so 'influenced' by Haruki Murakami that Murakami should sue him. He got away with it, I think because Murakami wasn't so well known then outside Japan as he is now. Since he's stopped trying to be Murakami he's been very windy and pretentious but lacking in genuine spark IMHO.

I've just finished reading a collection of wonderful short stories by Tobias Wolfe (the best US short writer since Raymond Carver) and some rather nastier and less subtle tales by TC Boyle (who isn't) and Divine Invasions - a life of Philip K. Dick. I am now reading Q by 'Luther Blissett'*, which I found in the market today for a quid.

*Not the ex-footballer, but his name is used, for historical reasons, as a nomme de plume by various Italian anarchists and situationalists...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 31 August, 2008, 06:58:25 pm
Still reading

IBM & The Holocaust

and

Enigma

Since I am not travelling by bus anymore I don't read on my commute and I'm usually too tired to read at bedtime

Is "IBM and the Holocaust" still in print?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 31 August, 2008, 07:46:56 pm
I am currently having another attempt to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. See if I can get to half way this time!

I thought it was disappointing and overrated

God yes. My wife quite liked him and made me read Ghostwritten, which I hated. Unfortunately I'd forgotten who he was when she suggested Cloud Atlas as a response to me being about to fly off somewhere and needing a book to read.

My personal hell will be a library stocked only with books by David Mitchell, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Yann Martell and certain David Carey. But I won't be allowed to read them - they will be performed to me as modern dance or performance art on alternate days for all eternity.

Anyway...

I have recently "discovered" G.K. Chesterton . He's one of those people I've always been aware of but never got around to reading. I really enjoyed "The Man Who Was Thursday". Very clever premise and very funny, even if the ending is a little weak.

On the strength of that I started reading the Father Brown Stories. They're good in parts but his Roman Catholicism is very heavy at times. Fortunately it's leavened considerably by his wit. This made me sniggger:

"It was one of those journeys on which a man perpetually feels that now at last he must have come to the end of the universe, and then finds he has only come to the beginning of Tufnell Park."

The introduction to the book made me laugh as well. Apparently he was notably absent-minded and once sent his wife a telegram saying "Am at Market Harborough. Where ought I to be ?"



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 31 August, 2008, 08:25:37 pm
Yann Martell

Oh, totally! The Life of Pi is so crap. I can't believe how many people apparently think it is sooo clever or how it won any awards. Then I read some other stuff by him and it was far worse...

Then again, I seem to be in a minority on things literary - most people seem to think that The Bone People is the worst book ever to win the Booker Prize, whereas to me it's one of the most beautiful, painful books ever written and one of the few books I have read that I thought that unequivocally deserved to win everything it could.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 31 August, 2008, 08:39:51 pm
Ah - yes, I agree, Flying Monkey, I adored the Bone People. I did, sort of, like the Life of Pi, though - but only in the sense of it's being an entertaining, lightweight wee tale.

I'm currently entirely hooked on Victorian literature and so I'm on the last of Trollope's Barsetshire series. I ought to have been born a lady, you know, with an income. Something went wrong.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 31 August, 2008, 08:53:07 pm
Collected the latest Christopher Brookmyre from the library yesterday, "A Snowball in Hell".  I'm 150 pages in - he has brought together Simon Darcourt (Black Spirit assassin from "A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away") and Zal Innez (illusionist / bank robber from "The Sacred Art of Stealing).

Wonderful, laugh-out-loud stuff.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 01 September, 2008, 03:55:42 am
Just started Tim Robinson's _Connemara_, which has been a long time coming since the 2nd _Stones of Aran_ book, which I finally read recently and was completely caught up in, despite its length.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 September, 2008, 10:58:32 am
Half Asleep In Frog Pyjamas ~ Tom Robbins

Surprisingly un-odd given the title and previous experience of Mr Robbins, but then I've only got as far as chapter two, in which the leading character and her psychic friend are looking for an escaped monkey.

Right, Robbins, pay attention.  Narrating your novel in the third person is fine.  Narrating it in the first person is fine too, as long as you get it right.  Narrating it in the second person is the act of a pretentious ponce who's been on one too many1 "creative writing" courses.

Swapping the narrative between second and third person, however, means that should our paths ever cross I expect to be eating ice cream very shortly afterwards.

Is now a good time to mention that I rather liked both "Ghostwritten" and "Cloud Atlas", as indeed did most of the SW2 massive?

1 - i.e. one
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 September, 2008, 11:20:20 am
Ah - yes, I agree, Flying Monkey, I adored the Bone People. I did, sort of, like the Life of Pi, though - but only in the sense of it's being an entertaining, lightweight wee tale.

Booker winners are such a mixed bag, though, aren't they - you can't judge them as a class. I did consider undertaking a project to read through every Booker winner ever, but then some of them really are such dross that I don't think I could stomach it - The English Patient, The Famished Road, Hotel du Lac... Blech! I've not read The Bone People - it doesn't look like my kind of thing - but I enjoyed Life Of Pi as a bit of whimsy, and I was well and truly sucked into Vernon God Little, which seems to divide critics even more than The Bone People. I really liked The Ghost Road a lot, and Last Orders, but Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha was just one Roddy Doyle book too many for me. Arthur & George should have won but it doesn't really matter that it didn't - it's still a great book by a great writer - but then The Sea, which I've not read, also sounds pretty good so maybe it deserved to win.

The only Booker winner I've read that I would recommend unequivocally is The Remains Of The Day - I don't dig sentimentality but that book damn near broke my heart.

Quote
I'm currently entirely hooked on Victorian literature and so I'm on the last of Trollope's Barsetshire series.

Enjoying it? Trollope is on my must-read list but I've never quite got around to him. I've been recently, belatedly getting into Dickens, though - Our Mutual Friend is a new favourite of mine. Viciously caustic and bitter but also very, very funny.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 01 September, 2008, 11:31:31 am
Re-reading “The Bus Conductor Hines” by James Kelman
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 September, 2008, 06:17:48 pm
Re-reading “The Bus Conductor Hines” by James Kelman

Now that is an awesome book. Indeed Kelman should get the Nobel some day IMHO. He's a Scottish national treasure.

Back to the Bookers - yeah, I agree most of them are overrated - that's what you get when committees chose prizes by consensus. The Remains of the Day is wonderfully atmospheric however. The Ghost Road - yep. And I enjoyed Vernon God Little for much the same reason - it has a remarkable voice and tone - I am not sure it is anything more than a good book though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 01 September, 2008, 06:37:23 pm
Re-reading “The Bus Conductor Hines” by James Kelman

Now that is an awesome book. Indeed Kelman should get the Nobel some day IMHO. He's a Scottish national treasure.

Back to the Bookers - yeah, I agree most of them are overrated - that's what you get when committees chose prizes by consensus. The Remains of the Day is wonderfully atmospheric however. The Ghost Road - yep. And I enjoyed Vernon God Little for much the same reason - it has a remarkable voice and tone - I am not sure it is anything more than a good book though.

How Late It was, How Late by James Kelman won the Booker.  And it is fabulous.

Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things was another - great book, won the Booker.  They sometimes get it right :)

Oh, and I've just read Those Feet - A sensual history of English Football by David Winner.  Best sport book I've ever read, since it's only lightly concerned with the typical highlights of English football.  It covers the culture of football, rather than the tedious statistics of the game itself.  It's almost enough to make me go and watch football again.  Well, Darlo winning 6-0 away from home on Saturday probably helped ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikenerd on 02 September, 2008, 02:38:28 pm
Having another go at Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  Finding it easier this time around, probably as I'm not reading so much for work at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ghostrider on 02 September, 2008, 07:36:31 pm
Michael Crightons  "The Andromeda Strain"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 02 September, 2008, 08:17:42 pm
Hols coming soon, so although current reading is 'Exercise Physiology: Human Bioenergetics and its applications,' I nipped into Waterstone's today and picked up some holiday reading:  Stephen Ambrose's 'D-Day,' Knut Haukelid's 'Skis against the Atom,' and George Macdonald Fraser's 'Quartered safe out here.' 

For some reason, I appear to be entering WWII territory again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 02 September, 2008, 09:14:10 pm
I just acquired a copy of "In Sickness and in Power- Illnesses in heads of government during the last 100 years".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 02 September, 2008, 10:01:15 pm
Just finished One Train Later - Andy Summers' "memoir".

I'm a fan of The Police in any case but this was a real surprise as it's really well written. Hugely enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 04 September, 2008, 11:35:06 am
Small Wars Permitting by Christina Lamb (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Wars-Permitting-Dispatches-Foreign/dp/0007256892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218548726&sr=8-1) recounts the foreign correspondents trips across the world during the last 20 years.  It starts out in Pakistan talking about the coming to power of Benazir Bhutto in 1988, before the authors heads off to Latin America, South Africa, the Middle East and currently she's living in Portugal.  The book is partly made up of Lamb's articles publishes in a variety of newspapers and then her own thoughts and feelings about her experiences.  It's interesting reading about events with the knowledge of hindsight and seeing how events have unfolded in, for example, Pakistan. 

I have finally finished Small Wars Permitting.  Like I said above, the first half of the book is extremely interesting insights to the countries that Lamb visits on her trips.  However, the second half turns into a series of articles that she's published with no attempt to link them in any way and the personally thoughts that appear in the first half vanish.  I felt cheated because I was now reading a string of newspaper articles rather than a book and I struggled to finish the book.

I've now started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/0747582971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220524336&sr=8-1) by Khaled Hossein.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 04 September, 2008, 01:21:20 pm
A 725 page biography of Norman Lewis, Semi Invisible Man, by Julian Evans. Ironically I most admire Lewis for his economical style, so I wonder if I'll make it to the end.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 04 September, 2008, 06:52:02 pm
Just finished The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I found it very entertaining, intriguing and amusing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 10 September, 2008, 12:08:38 pm
Having finished re-reading Consider Phlebas (better than I remembered but still no patch on my favourite of his the Player of Games).

Later today will start the Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd (been sitting on a to-read shelf for about three years now)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 10 September, 2008, 01:42:24 pm
Just finished The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

For 2 points, what is the connection between that book and Recreativo Hackney FC, Marcus du Sautoy's football  team?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 September, 2008, 01:57:39 pm
Prime Numbers?  Chapter numbers & shirt numbers?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 10 September, 2008, 01:59:56 pm
Ding!

2 points to that nice Clarion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulR on 10 September, 2008, 02:06:47 pm
Killing Mister Watson, by Peter Matthieson

I'd read Lost Man's River many years ago and have wanted to find the others in this trilogy for some time.  My wife eventually did the sensible thing and bought them on the interweb for me.

This one is a most extraordinarily fragmented collection of other people's recollections of Edgar Watson and the stories they had heard about him.  Full of intriguing glimpses of life (and death) in South West Florida about a hundred years ago, but quite hard going because you need to keep reminding yourselve whose account you are reading and how it relates to other people's versions of events.

Muchly recommended if you have the time for it and can find a copy.

Edit: spelling his name correctly may make the search easier!  oops :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 11 September, 2008, 10:06:27 pm
Muchly recommended if you have the time for it and can find a copy.

Very much recommended--these are among my favorite books ever, especially Lost Mans River. I grew up in South Florida and so have a bit more of a connection to these books, but they would be great even without that.

I'm very lucky to have signed copies of all three--for some reason, there was a time when I could count on seeing Mr Matthiessen at readings every few years. Haven't in the last 7 or 8 years, though. He's getting older, and I travel less.

FWIW, Anders's middle name is Matthiessen.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 12 September, 2008, 09:54:06 am
Yay!  Just finished the brilliant 'What's Going On?' by Mark Steel.  Funny, impassioned, informed and touching.

Just in time I received a parcel from Amazon.  In it I have a copy of Dancing Uphill, the biography of Charles Holland, the first English rider in the TdF.  Loads of photos - brilliant!

As an aside, Butterfly reminded me last night, a propos of something else, that I had a box of books in the wardrobe, including my essential cycling books.  I spent a happy hour leafing through 'Fellowship Is Life' by Dennis Pye, the history of the Clarion CC, and The Road Book of Great Britain, a map of routes for bicyclists and the emerging motorists, with profiles.  Brilliant :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 13 September, 2008, 11:52:37 pm
"Desert Queen", a biography of Gertrude Bell. Ms Bell was a 19th/early 20th century adventurer (adventuress?) who did first ascents in the Alps, explored the Arabian desert including modern-day Iraq, and worked with T.E. Lawrence when he organized and incited the Arab tribes to rebel against the Turks during World War I.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 18 September, 2008, 11:49:31 pm
I just finished _The Rings of Saturn_ by W.G. Sebald (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._G._Sebald), who I only heard of recently. It's a novel, but reads like notes from a long walk interrupted by long asides on history and odd people. I think I need to find his other two novels now. 

I love this book. It's like a stream of consciousness for me, to range far and wide around the world but keep returning to the same place - the Suffolk coast, where I live.   

Ich auch/moi aussi.  (The Rings of Saturn, that is, not the Suffolk coast). 

A lot of Sebald's writing defies categorisation - I'm not sure that I'd use the word "novel"; like Austerlitz and Vertigo there is a lot of autobiography and travelogue - but they are all mesmeric narratives and all have been beautifully translated into very precise and poetic English from Sebald's native German.  Philosophical prose-poems, maybe? The Emigrants is maybe his most novel-like book.  The Rings of Saturn has the most "English" subject matter - the others treat rather more European themes, but are none the worse for that.

The only caveat is that because the prose is so rich/dense they're best read in a few long sittings - but I think they repay the effort and I will re-read them all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 18 September, 2008, 11:55:39 pm
Killing Mister Watson, by Peter Matthieson

I'd read Lost Man's River many years ago and have wanted to find the others in this trilogy for some time.  My wife eventually did the sensible thing and bought them on the interweb for me.

And now, it turns out, he's rewritten the entire trilogy and condensed it down into one volume called _Shadow Country_ (http://lccn.loc.gov/2007025117).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 19 September, 2008, 12:03:08 am
I think they repay the effort and I will re-read them all.

After all these positive reviews, I'm looking forward to reading the rest. I just picked up copies of _Austerlitz_ and _Vertigo_.

But I've just had a bit (ahem) of a book-buying spree, and now have so many good books waiting that I don't know what to do. Well, first I have to finish _Connemara: Listening to the Wind_ before _Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness_ arrives by transatlantic dirigible.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 19 September, 2008, 11:36:03 am
"Desert Queen", a biography of Gertrude Bell.

I'd like to learn more about Gertrude Bell, so could you provide us with a review of the book when you are finished, please?  I'll then know whether it is worth reading or not!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulR on 19 September, 2008, 12:25:08 pm
I think they repay the effort and I will re-read them all.

After all these positive reviews, I'm looking forward to reading the rest. I just picked up copies of _Austerlitz_ and _Vertigo_.
My (rather learned) brother gave me a copy of Austerlitz when it came out and I was immediately entranced by it.  As soon as I'd finished it, I tracked down some of his other books, all of which I have enjoyed but none of them as much as Austerlitz.  It has an extraordinarily powerful resonance - a sort of feel and atmosphere that transports you and gets your emotions, memories and thoughts whirring away.

Sebald's early death was certainly a great loss.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 19 September, 2008, 12:34:24 pm


Quote
I'm currently entirely hooked on Victorian literature and so I'm on the last of Trollope's Barsetshire series.

Enjoying it? Trollope is on my must-read list but I've never quite got around to him. I've been recently, belatedly getting into Dickens, though - Our Mutual Friend is a new favourite of mine. Viciously caustic and bitter but also very, very funny.

d.


Sorry, just seen this - yes, I am, very much. Though I'm still reading it - it's long!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 20 September, 2008, 04:14:05 am
I'd like to learn more about Gertrude Bell, so could you provide us with a review of the book when you are finished, please?  I'll then know whether it is worth reading or not!

Not great literature, but a good look at a unique personality. Lots about her early years and the realities of being an intelligent, strong-willed woman in the late 19th/early 20th centuries (it wasn't easy, but being filthy rich helped a lot). Worth reading as a source of information about Gertrude Bell, but less so as entertainment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 20 September, 2008, 07:42:18 am
I've got Antony Beever's updated Battle For Spain at the moment - excellent and even handed. Actually it's my second attempt at it. The first time I tried it a few years ago I found myself getting lost and had to go and read a few more basic books about the Spanish Civil War first to get the big picture before I came back to this one.

As an aside, this would have been my specialist subject in the final round of Mastermind if I'd got that far, picked before I worked out what a horribly complicated subject it was. Luckily I fell down on Hunter S Thompson in the first round.

Also Exit Music by Ian Rankin for when the going gets a bit too tough!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 20 September, 2008, 02:29:05 pm
Just read Andy McNab's 'Seven Troop' which took me a little by surprise.

It kicks off in his usual style which seems to be the same whether he's Nick Stone or himself. It rapidly becomes apparent about halfway through that this book is not telling his story. He is entirely incidental to the plot. It is about the friends he lost along the way and after his career in the SAS.

Some died on active service. Some went mad. Some found God. Some had never lost him.

It is a book that gives the ignorant layman an insight into Post Traumatic Stress, its effects, its symptoms, how people deal with it - or not as the case may be. It proves that even the SAS are human and subject to the same stresses and emotions that we all are. It boils down to whether you can deal with them effectively or not.

Thought provoking.

luv'n'stuff

J
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 21 September, 2008, 01:11:55 am
I'm about to start Günter Grass's Peeling the Onion (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/jun/24/biography.guntergrass) - (presumably unintentionally) ironically shelved by Borders under "fiction" ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 21 September, 2008, 02:27:22 am
Günter Grass's what?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 21 September, 2008, 11:35:05 am
Killing Mister Watson, by Peter Matthieson

I'd read Lost Man's River many years ago and have wanted to find the others in this trilogy for some time.  My wife eventually did the sensible thing and bought them on the interweb for me.

And now, it turns out, he's rewritten the entire trilogy and condensed it down into one volume called _Shadow Country_ (http://lccn.loc.gov/2007025117).

I haven't read the new version yet, but the trilogy remains one of my favourite things, so I am not sure I would want to!

I have just finished George Mackay Brown's Beside the Ocean of Time, which is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read. It is so good I am now reading it again.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 21 September, 2008, 12:49:16 pm
Still reading An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper-class Idiots in Charge by John O'Farrell. Very hilarious and a good grounding in all the history we really ought to know by now.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 21 September, 2008, 05:11:01 pm
This Sceptered Isle:The Dynasties
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 21 September, 2008, 06:24:13 pm
Günter Grass's what?

Fixed.  Missing " ] "  :-[

I'm about to start Günter Grass's Peeling the Onion (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/jun/24/biography.guntergrass) - (presumably unintentionally) ironically shelved by Borders under "fiction" ...

It's an autobiography (well, memoir) ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Palinurus on 21 September, 2008, 06:47:58 pm
Not sure if it was this thread but someone on here mentioned John Healy's The Grass Arena. Just read that.

Working (People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do)- interviews by Studs Terkel.

David Peace -1980.

Cyclocoss- training and technique by Simon Burney.

Just been scanning the recent posts: The Rings of Saturn is one of the best things I've come across in the last few years- I've lost my copy, I'd like to track that down for a re-read.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 September, 2008, 10:10:40 pm
I am currently having another attempt to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. See if I can get to half way this time!

I thought it was disappointing and overrated - and one of those books that isn't half as impressive if you've ever read any decent science fiction (which of course most mainstream critics and people who give out awards haven't). He's generally got away with quite a bit has David Mitchell - his earlier books, written whilst he was still in Japan, are so 'influenced' by Haruki Murakami that Murakami should sue him. He got away with it, I think because Murakami wasn't so well known then outside Japan as he is now. Since he's stopped trying to be Murakami he's been very windy and pretentious but lacking in genuine spark IMHO.

Oh dear! Well, I'm still reading it, but I didn't get much reading done on holiday <geek> primarily because the only reading I did was about the LHC in New Scientist</geek>
I don't see where the science fiction comes in though... ??? maybe I haven't got to that bit yet.

I do love Murakami, but I'm waiting for his latest novel to appear in prole-back. And the same goes for Iain M Banks. I'm hoping it's better than his last non SF effort which I thought was a a bit pants really.
As for Yann Martel - Pi was ok for a bit of light hollyday reading.
I agree about GG Marquez though - I enjoyed 100 yrs of solitude up until about halfway through and then I just got really pissed off with all the characters and wanted to give them all a big slap round the chops. Oh well, that's what you get based on buying books based on Wikipedia calling them 'magic realism'..... :-[

About the only authors I'm enjoying on a consistent basis at the moment are Murakami and Alistair Reynolds....so that'll be the kiss of death now then.  :-\

As for Christopher Brookmyre, I did read a few of his earlier novels and they're ok for a bit of light hearted nonsense but I object paying money for a book I can finish in a couple of hours these days.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ibrahim on 21 September, 2008, 10:18:42 pm
Rahel Levin Varnhagen's letters with Pauline Wiesel, 750 pages of German letters between two nineteenth century women.

A cracking read! ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 22 September, 2008, 12:33:08 pm
I've now finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/0747582971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222083080&sr=1-1).  The book is set in Afghanistan, initally during the Soviet invasion and then follows the lives of the characters after the Soviets leave, civil wall takes place and then The Talibian take control.  The book certainly made an impact on me as Hosseini creates a world of pain as the story unfolds.  He reminds me of Thomas Hardy in the doom and depression that he can create in his writing.  While it is certainly a very powerful story, his writing style leaves something to be desired.  The two main characters are Mariam and Laila.  The first 1/4 of the book is about Mariam, and then suddenly he moves onto talk about Lila for the second 1/4 and you've left wondering why we've just forgotten about Marian.  It all becomes clear, but I feel that would have been a better way to introduce the main characters rather than having two almost separate stories.  I also wonder how accurately the novel is of the situation in Afghanistan.  It sounds plausible, although it's difficult to know for sure especially as Hosseini left Afghanistan in 1976.   

Next up is  A Very Short Introduction to Hinduism (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hinduism-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192853872/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222082999&sr=8-1).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 22 September, 2008, 08:26:08 pm
My copy of "IBM and the Holocaust" arrived today, looks like it should be an interesting read. Having spent most of my youth being told that WWII was a "just" war and that the the Allies represented the forces of good against the evil Axis Powers, I'm starting to realize just how much was done to aid and encourage the Axis Powers by powerful persons and companies in the various Allied nations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 22 September, 2008, 08:34:05 pm
Vulcan 607.

An amazing logistical effort and an emormous amount of jet fuel to get...er...one bomb on Port Stanley's runway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 24 September, 2008, 12:02:53 am
I haven't read the new version yet, but the trilogy remains one of my favourite things, so I am not sure I would want to!

Yeah; I'm trying to ignore all my real problems and make this  a major life dilemma.  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 24 September, 2008, 12:31:10 pm
Harry Potter. Read 4 and 5 in last 2 days. I really ought to be doing something more useful.

Off to start no. 6 now.  ;D

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 29 September, 2008, 08:35:14 pm
Q by 'Luther Blissett' was superb. Really. For anyone who likes Umberto Eco's historical novels but thinks they could have been more entertaining. Or anyone who likes Neil Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy but wishes he knew a bit more about the actual history of the period and didn't make his characters sound as if they were Americans... or for anyone who loves a densely-plotted, literate, politically savvy, wonderfully-characterised historical novel that is just as much about now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 29 September, 2008, 08:43:32 pm
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner and I'm enjoying it very much. I especially liked a bit where she baked scones in the shape of the villagers and then someone turned up for tea unexpectedly and she had to give him villager-shaped scones.

"But Mr Saunter ate the strange shapes without comment, quietly splitting open the villagers and buttering them. He told her that he would soon lose the services of young Billy Thomas, who was going to Lazzard Court as a footman.

'I shouldn't think young Billy Thomas would make much of a footman,' said Laura.

'I don't know,' he answered consideringly. 'He's very good at standing still.'"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 01 October, 2008, 08:15:16 am
Q by 'Luther Blissett' was superb. Really. For anyone who likes Umberto Eco's historical novels but thinks they could have been more entertaining. Or anyone who likes Neil Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy but wishes he knew a bit more about the actual history of the period and didn't make his characters sound as if they were Americans... or for anyone who loves a densely-plotted, literate, politically savvy, wonderfully-characterised historical novel that is just as much about now.
OK, I'm intrigued - bit of an interesting concept (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Q-Luther-Blissett/dp/0099439832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222845070&sr=8-1)! I think it's worth a punt ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 01 October, 2008, 04:14:01 pm
"IBM & the Holocaust" was excellent, very disturbing. Right about the time I finished it my copy of "Internal Combustion" showed up in the mail, which promises to be just as disturbing. It's how the automakers and energy companies maneuvered the industrial world into being dependent on oil and the automobile. Once again I've heard parts of the story over the years, but it will be interesting to have the whole story laid out in front of me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 October, 2008, 05:42:29 pm
"IBM & the Holocaust" was excellent, very disturbing.

Quite agree.

I am finally reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is mainly hey are selling it for 2.99 in Blackwells in Newcastle. We have this thing at the University called 'The Common Book', which is like a mega-reading group where lots of people read the same book and then the author turns up and gives a talk and answers questions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Charlotte on 02 October, 2008, 03:41:19 pm
I've just finished this:

Thompson, Hunter S. Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels:_The_Strange_and_Terrible_Saga_of_the_Outlaw_Motorcycle_Gangs)

A strange choice perhaps, but I wanted to read Thompson's first published book whilst I was actually out in San Francisco where most of the action took place.

It's an amazing record of a phenomenon which few people at the time understood and goes to show that Thompson himself took Gonzo journalism very seriously.  Silly bugger ended up getting beaten up quite badly by several of his subjects, but still managed to remain very even handed in his description of the rest of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 October, 2008, 03:43:42 pm
Thompson, Hunter S. Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels:_The_Strange_and_Terrible_Saga_of_the_Outlaw_Motorcycle_Gangs)

Read that a few years ago - curiously it was borrowed from a chap who lived about three doors down from the Angels' gaff in Southampton.  An interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 03 October, 2008, 12:37:11 am
Just re-read both volumes of Maus by Art Speigelman and was reminded to question why it is that the people that deny the holocaust often seem to be those that would have most liked for it to have been even more complete than in reality?

After that I'm back onto light reading and the fabulously entertaining alternate history world of 'Agent of Byzantium' by Harry Turtledove*


*I wish he was still this good rather than churning out multi-volume crap like he has been mostly doing for the last ten years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 03 October, 2008, 08:25:57 am
Still hooked on Trollope - though this one, The way we live now, isn't grabbing me in quite the same way. We'll see.

It does give Corvine the opportunity to mutter 'trollop' every time he walks into the room and finds me reading... 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 03 October, 2008, 02:29:43 pm
Last weekend: 'All Families are Psychotic' by Douglas Coupland. Light, enjoyable and sympathetic. I can see why some reviewers thought it was crap, tho.

Just finished: 'Waiting for the Barbarians' by J.M. Coetzee. Beautifully written, originally an allegory of apartheid South Africa but the mindsets it depicts have resurfaced (if they ever went away) in the post-9/11 world.

Now reading: 'The Alteration' by Kingsley Amis. Even more engaging than most alternate histories
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 13 October, 2008, 01:37:22 pm
I am now reading Desert by J.M.G. Le Clezio, which I picked up in Paris last week, as I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of him when it was announced that he had won the Nobel prize.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 13 October, 2008, 03:18:20 pm
I am now reading Desert by J.M.G. Le Clezio, which I picked up in Paris last week, as I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of him when it was announced that he had won the Nobel prize.

What's the Nobel prize?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: groucho on 13 October, 2008, 03:33:30 pm
I am now reading Desert by J.M.G. Le Clezio, which I picked up in Paris last week, as I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of him when it was announced that he had won the Nobel prize.

What's the Nobel prize?

"American academic Paul Krugman has won this year's Nobel economics prize, it has been announced." I would have thought there would be no award this year!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 October, 2008, 03:41:25 pm
"Making Money" by T. Pratchett, makes sense in this climate :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 13 October, 2008, 05:39:34 pm
"K2: The Savage Mountain", by Charles Houston. An account of the 1953 American expedition to K2, in which the party is pinned at 26,000 ft for quite a few days by a severe storm. One team member, Art Gilkey, develops thrombophlebitis in both legs and later an embolism in his lung as a result of many days spent immobile in a tent during the storm, combined with the usual thickening of the blood due to increased hemoglobin produced by the body to compensate for lack of oxygen at altitude. While his teammates are starting the process of lowering him over thousands of feet of technical terrain, Gilkey disappears over a cliff. The official explanation is that an avalanche swept him away while his teammates were preparing to lower him further and tending to other injured party members. It's now widely accepted that Gilkey figured out his odds of survival, factored in the odds for anyone who stuck around and tried to help him, and launched himself over the cliff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 13 October, 2008, 05:42:13 pm
The reluctant fundamentalist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 October, 2008, 10:59:38 am
Open Up And Bleed ~ Paul Trynka.  'tis a biography of Iggy Pop.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 14 October, 2008, 12:11:48 pm
Neal Stephenson's latest, Anathem.  Buckets of indulgent and whimsical word- and history-play. 

Previously: Edison's Conquest of Mars, an unofficial sequel to War of the Worlds.  The great man is a dab hand with a disintegrator.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Analog Kid on 15 October, 2008, 07:06:49 am
Almost finished Chistopher Brookmyres "Attack of the unsinkable rubber ducks".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 15 October, 2008, 10:29:17 am
'Disgrace' by J.M Coetzee: disturbing but not a difficult read. Recommended - I'm already looking forward to re-reading

Started 'Eugene Onegin' by Alexander Pushkin. It inspired Vikram Seth's 'The Golden Gate', which I loved. They're both written in tetrameter, which gives a light, tripping (but not trippy), full-of-fun feel
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 October, 2008, 08:22:00 pm
Runemarks by Joanne Harris. It's quite different to her other stuff. It's a bit like Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes in that it's about magic, but she's created a whole new world and (so far) the whole book is about magic, gods, belief etc. I'm enjoying it very much.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 18 October, 2008, 08:41:53 pm
"Dreaming of Jupiter" by Ted Simon.   Repeating his earlier round the world motorcycle trip (Jupiters Travels) at the age of 70.

So far, excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 19 October, 2008, 08:46:50 pm
Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land (again)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 19 October, 2008, 08:50:42 pm
I just started 'midnights children' by Salman Rushdie and it seems much better than another of his which was far too clever for its own good.

And Mrs Mike bought me the Man Booker winner White Tiger, which I started last night and is fantastic.

So that's two books about India, one which (so far) is about the build-up to Independence and the other about the current state of the nation.  Great stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 19 October, 2008, 08:54:39 pm
The blessings of a good thick skirt, by Mary Russell - about women travellers through the ages - and L'invitée by Simone de Beauvoir, because I'm doing evening classes and need to practise reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 22 October, 2008, 03:42:35 pm
"Around the world by bicycle" by Heinz Stucke (http://www.bikechina.com/heinzstucke1z.html).

According to the Guinness Book of Records, he is the most travelled man in history - he left home in Germany in 1960 on his three-speed bike and has been travellijng nearly non-stop since.  A friend picked up the pamphlet from him when he was in the UK a couple of years ago.  You might remember that he had his bike nicked when he was in Portsmouth (it was later found).  The text is in the above link, but the photos appear to have been scanned, so they are quite poor by comparison.

Some hilarious quotes, showing a real mastery of understatement:

Quote
When you are visiting a country where there is political turmoil, or if you are unlucky enough to be caught in the middle of a local revolution, you can have plenty of difficulty and it can even be extremely dangerous.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 22 October, 2008, 03:56:41 pm
In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire by Adrian Goldsworthy

The story of twelve of Rome's most successful generals including Scipio Africanus and Trajan. I am studying this carefully with a view to launching a puscht  to bring down the republic that is YACF and install myself as sole emperor. I guess I might find myself stabbed in the back by WoW and Clarion next spring of I do though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 22 October, 2008, 05:17:20 pm
Quote
he is the most travelled man in history - he left home in Germany in 1960 on his three-speed bike and has been travellijng nearly non-stop since.  A friend picked up the pamphlet from him when he was in the UK a couple of years ago.

Shared a room with him when I was travelling in Chinese Turkestan in '91. A very decent man indeed. Sadly, this was before I took up cycle touring, otherwise I'd have kept him up even longer asking him questions  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Charlotte on 22 October, 2008, 06:22:05 pm
Quote
he is the most travelled man in history - he left home in Germany in 1960 on his three-speed bike and has been travellijng nearly non-stop since.  A friend picked up the pamphlet from him when he was in the UK a couple of years ago.

Shared a room with him when I was travelling in Chinese Turkestan in '91. A very decent man indeed. Sadly, this was before I took up cycle touring, otherwise I'd have kept him up even longer asking him questions  :D

He gave a slide show to my school when I was nine or ten.  I remember the nutty German bloke and his bike with the board in the frame.

Fruityloop!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 22 October, 2008, 06:28:19 pm
I've just finished "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow.   It's marketed as a "Young Adult" book.  At 44 I enjoyed it anyway.

Set in a very near future San Francisco which has been locked down by the Department of Homeland Security  after a terrorist attack.

It reads very like a Heinlein juvenile for the Facebook era, so similar I think it must be deliberate homage.

Lots of information about the use & misuse of security technology and some brief history of the US civil rights movement.   

Bad points, the hero's are too good, the baddies too bad.

Recommended for anyone geekie, into IT, with libertarian or subversive tendencies.

If you don't want the dead tree version it's available for free download at the authors website

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ (http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 22 October, 2008, 08:26:41 pm
Quote
Fruityloop!

So maybe our encounters with him sowed seeds that bore fruit in both of us, Charlotte?  ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 22 October, 2008, 08:36:46 pm
Skullduggery pleasant.

My daughters latest reading book.

nuff said.

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 22 October, 2008, 09:45:39 pm
He gave a slide show to my school when I was nine or ten.  I remember the nutty German bloke and his bike with the board in the frame.

Fruityloop!

That must've been quite a school you went to, Charlotte - about the most interesting speaker we had was the local fire chief telling us about the dangers of fireworks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 23 October, 2008, 09:26:51 am
He gave a slide show to my school when I was nine or ten.  I remember the nutty German bloke and his bike with the board in the frame.

Fruityloop!

That must've been quite a school you went to, Charlotte - about the most interesting speaker we had was the local fire chief telling us about the dangers of fireworks.

If Charlotte went where ISTR she went then it would have been quite an unusual event. (Same school as my wife, just a few years later).

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 November, 2008, 01:12:45 am
He gave a slide show to my school when I was nine or ten.  I remember the nutty German bloke and his bike with the board in the frame.

Fruityloop!

That must've been quite a school you went to, Charlotte - about the most interesting speaker we had was the local fire chief telling us about the dangers of fireworks.

We got Benny from Crossroads.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: zzpza on 02 November, 2008, 02:42:49 am
Neal Stephenson's latest, AnathemBuckets of indulgent and whimsical word- and history-play. 

have you not read Cryptonomicon then? ;)

I've just finished "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow.   It's marketed as a "Young Adult" book.  At 44 I enjoyed it anyway.

...snip...

If you don't want the dead tree version it's available for free download at the authors website

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ (http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/)

awesome! thanks :)

i tend to have a few books on the go at the same time. usually one or two 'core' books and several other that i pick up and but down every now and then. currently the list is...

A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Consider Phlebas - Iain M Banks (reread, last time i read it on a plane to tokyo)
Rainbows End - Vernor Vinge
Games People Play - Eric Berne, M.D. (psychology book on transactional analysis)
The Art of the Renaissance - Peter and Linda Murray

also if i'm taking a train anywhere, i have the complete works on my ipod in text format. currently rereading hamlet. also, an audio book on there too... Matter - Iain M Banks. all 17 hours of it(!)

i see that quite a few people are reading Spook Country by William Gibson. any good? the sprawl trilogy was his best work, followed by the bridge trilogy. it's all been downhill since then imho. :( but i still hope...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 03 November, 2008, 12:58:38 pm
i see that quite a few people are reading Spook Country by William Gibson. any good? the sprawl trilogy was his best work, followed by the bridge trilogy. it's all been downhill since then imho. :( but i still hope...

In my view, it's miles better than a lot of other post-9/11 novels, but still not Gibson at his visionary best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 03 November, 2008, 03:55:17 pm
Dawkins - The God Delusion



Thanks go to Charlotte for her, rather blunt but impassioned, recommendation of the book.

Extremely interesting, if a little slow going due to Dawkins very academic style combined with a typeface that kicks my dyslexia into hyperdrive.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 03 November, 2008, 04:15:52 pm
George Orwell's '1984'

I read it quite a few years ago, and didn't really enjoy it, but in light of recent history, particularly the last 5-7 years, I thought I'd give it another go.

Reading it now, it's an interesting exercise to see what Orwell got right, even if his timing is some 24-30 years* out

* Allowing for trends in mass-survellance technology.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 03 November, 2008, 05:26:29 pm
Stasiland

Snake

my bikes .... http://beta.yudu.com/library/item_details/17432/Snakehips--Bikes (http://beta.yudu.com/library/item_details/17432/Snakehips--Bikes)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 03 November, 2008, 08:37:00 pm
Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: zzpza on 04 November, 2008, 01:02:07 am
i see that quite a few people are reading Spook Country by William Gibson. any good? ...
In my view, it's miles better than a lot of other post-9/11 novels, but still not Gibson at his visionary best.

thanks, i'll add it to my wish list. :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 November, 2008, 09:04:22 am
Reading it now, it's an interesting exercise to see what Orwell got right, even if his timing is some 24-30 years* out

Great book, but it wasn't a prediction. He was writing a satire of Stalinism (and (CPGB support for Stalin) of the time. He just reversed the last two numbers of the year 1948.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 04 November, 2008, 09:15:54 am
it wasn't a prediction

And it's timeless.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Analog Kid on 04 November, 2008, 09:33:25 am
The Damned United - David Peace

Fictional account of the late Brian Clough's short tenure as manager at Leeds Utd. It brings to life a vanished time when football managers were a lot less PC than they are now and alcohol and tobaco counted as "sports nutrition". Clough is portrayed as an outwardly confident man driven by self doubt and some personal demons.

An interesting read which in all honesty I found slightly depressing!

I'll try it again in a few months time..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 04 November, 2008, 10:00:12 pm
Reading it now, it's an interesting exercise to see what Orwell got right, even if his timing is some 24-30 years* out

Great book, but it wasn't a prediction. He was writing a satire of Stalinism (and (CPGB support for Stalin) of the time. He just reversed the last two numbers of the year 1948.

It certainly seems to have predicted events that occurred long after Stalin's demise. I'd say Animal Farm was more akin to a satire of Stalinism. 

What I'm reading: Tender is the Night, by F Scott Fitzgerald.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 04 November, 2008, 10:23:10 pm
We've explored 1984 a few times and the conclusion I've come to is that this is one of the pivotal documents in understanding it.
We, Orwell Review (http://www.orwelltoday.com/weorwellreview.shtml)

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 November, 2008, 11:52:55 am
We've explored 1984 a few times and the conclusion I've come to is that this is one of the pivotal documents in understanding it.
We, Orwell Review (http://www.orwelltoday.com/weorwellreview.shtml)

Yes, Zamyatin in many ways was a far superior writer and a major influence on Orwell. He also worked in the Tyne shipyards for a while, you know...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 05 November, 2008, 11:59:01 am
I have a couple of books by Zamyatin.  Can't remember the title of the other, which is awkward, because a lot of bios say he only wrote one :-\

A very good writer.  Perhaps a bit pedestrian at times in his efforts to make all the details of the dystopia hang together at the expense of a dynamic plot, but We is definitely worth a read.

And I didn't know he worked in the shipyards of the Tyne.

Didn't Wittgenstein work there, too?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 November, 2008, 01:11:07 pm
And I didn't know he worked in the shipyards of the Tyne.

Didn't Wittgenstein work there, too?

I am imagining a very odd novel I could write now...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 05 November, 2008, 01:31:31 pm
To prove just how cutting edge my literary consumption is:
just finished the 2nd* Flashman book
Royal Flash - George McDonald Fraser
very entertaining.
(I think he's been discussed before on YACF)

Also nearly finished the latest Garrison Keillor - Pontoon. Enjoyable comfort read, and often very funny.

(*I think)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 05 November, 2008, 05:23:31 pm
Wall-Layer Models for LES, Piomelli and Balaras, Annual Review Fluid Mech, 2002.
Overview of Drag Reduction Tech for Civil Transport Aircraft, Reneaux, ECCOMAS 2004.

Does that count?  :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 05 November, 2008, 06:10:58 pm
Just started Will Self's  'The Book of Dave'  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/may/27/fiction.hayfestival2006)

That's been sitting in my unread pile for about two years now.  Let me know how you get on.


Well, finally got around to finishing this. I really enjoyed it so far as one can enjoy a book about someone slowly imploding. Particularly liked the way elements of the 'future religion' chapters are slowly explained in the 'Dave's decline' story.

Still doesn't make me want to restart 'How the Dead Live' yet: I want frivolity...so it's Pratchett's Going Postal next!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Analog Kid on 05 November, 2008, 08:21:56 pm
Wall-Layer Models for LES, Piomelli and Balaras, Annual Review Fluid Mech, 2002.
Overview of Drag Reduction Tech for Civil Transport Aircraft, Reneaux, ECCOMAS 2004.

Does that count?  :-[

If it mentions Reynolds or Mach numbers?

No, that should be in the "Homework" thread.....

 ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 09 December, 2008, 07:35:38 am
I've been on a bit of a Graham Greene kick lately. I'm very impressed at how varied the novels are.

Our Man In Havana is as funny as any Evelyn Waugh.
The Confidential Agent is more of its time, but reminded me of Orwell. Interesting for being so clearly under the influence of drugs.
The Quiet American could be an Ian McEwan or Le Carre as could Brighton Rock.

I've just finished Brighton Rock - my favourite so far - a really chilling depiction of amorality. I must get the film.

I can see why he's often referred to as a Catholic novelist, but it seems to be more that he was a novelist who was Catholic. It is often present but none the heroes are Catholic, in fact many of them act very badly in contrast to the non-religious characters. It's not like G K Chesterton's Father Brown where religion/Catholicism triumphs over all things.


My next book is not Graham Greene (I think there may be some others in my Christmas stocking).  I'm going to try The Third Policeman at last.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 December, 2008, 10:47:09 am
Having a second stab at Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.  I did get to the end the last time, but it was a struggle in comparison with Cryptonomicon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 December, 2008, 10:55:56 am
Curiously, one of the books I am in the midst of reading is Oliver Postgate's autobiography.  It's Butterfly's copy, so I haven't been making much progress, as books seem to have a very hard time if I'm carrying them about (the train seems to be the only place I get to read books), and I don't want to put someone else's books through that.

It's an interesting memoir, and offers a few insights into his development as a writer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 09 December, 2008, 11:54:18 am
Having a second stab at Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.  I did get to the end the last time, but it was a struggle in comparison with Cryptonomicon.

I gave up part way through the first one, I wanted to like it but eventually decided it wasn't worth it (It might be but I'll probably never know).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 09 December, 2008, 11:58:18 am
'Highways and Byways of Britain' by David Milner (http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=6087858).  A fascinating look back in time... a bit like a Wainwright of roads.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: annie on 09 December, 2008, 12:12:58 pm
Alice Walker - The Colour Purple

Great Expectations


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 09 December, 2008, 12:57:49 pm
Stephen King, On Writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 December, 2008, 12:59:10 pm
Being a regular male I'm a consecutive reader, not a concurrent one.

Right now it's James Lee Burkes "Swan Peak". And lined up I've got a Michael Connolly (The Brass Verdict) and a Peter Robinson (All the colours of darkness).

My reading is generally limited to crime fiction of various sorts.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 December, 2008, 01:39:38 pm
a Peter Robinson (All the colours of darkness).

Oooh, a new (ish) one!

(Cranks up Amazon-fu)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 09 December, 2008, 01:43:04 pm
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, so good I insisted a waiter in Amsterdam read it and gave it to him, you know when you want someone to share the pleasure of a good book?

The Outsider is brilliant too, a troubled young man brilliantly portayed.


And Then We Came To The End is very funny for anyone who works in an office.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 December, 2008, 01:44:15 pm
And Then We Came To The End is very funny for anyone who works in an office.

They said the same thing about The Office too ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 09 December, 2008, 01:48:06 pm
One chap in the office carefully removes all the celing tiles above his desk. If anyone asks why , he says:

"Tell you what, why don't you stick it up your axx?"

It's acutely funny on office politics and procrastination.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 09 December, 2008, 04:58:43 pm
Stephen King, On Writing.

<stifles a long series of snide comments>   ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 December, 2008, 05:01:00 pm
Stephen King, On Making Vast Amounts of Money by Producing Formulaic Cr@p with Limited Literacy.

<stifles a long series of snide comments>   ;)

Is that better?  I think it's the alternate title.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 09 December, 2008, 05:43:22 pm
The Kingdom Beyond The Waves

Which is rather nicely steampunky
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CathH on 09 December, 2008, 07:26:42 pm
Stephen King, On Making Vast Amounts of Money by Producing Formulaic Cr@p with Limited Literacy.

<stifles a long series of snide comments>   ;)

Is that better?  I think it's the alternate title.

OoooOOOOOOoooooo!  Well, I like it and I don't agree with what you say there.  I like his focus on honesty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 09 December, 2008, 07:30:41 pm
Stephen King, On Making Vast Amounts of Money by Producing Formulaic Cr@p with Limited Literacy.

<stifles a long series of snide comments>   ;)

Is that better?  I think it's the alternate title.

Meeow...

If it's that easy why don't you do it ?

Even producing formulaic crap (and I say this as one who has had to read the Magic Unicorn series to his daughter) takes a particular skill.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 09 December, 2008, 11:09:24 pm
Reading three books at the moment, picking up whichever suits my mood at any given time:

Jon Swain - River of Time
Graham Greene - Ways of Escape
Ryszard Kapuscinski - Travels with Herodotus
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 10 December, 2008, 12:34:57 am
Ben Elton, Past Mortem.

Very reminiscent of Christopher Brookmyre's "A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil", and "One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night" but nothing like as well written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 10 December, 2008, 01:43:31 am
Solving Stonehenge, by Anthony Johnson.

Having seen the Avebury and Callanais stone rings, I'm hoping to get to Stonehenge this spring. Hopefully this book will give me enough background knowledge to appreciate the place when I get there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bobajobrob on 10 December, 2008, 01:49:53 am
Advanced programming in the unix environment. It's not very advanced but it is quite unixy.

Also, angels and demons by dan brown, but I'm bored of that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 December, 2008, 10:25:02 am
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare - James Shapiro

Just started this. Currently I seem to be getting very interested in the politics and culture of the 17th Century and this sort of represents the lower bounds of that timeframe. The move from a medieval to a modern mindset through this period is very interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 10 December, 2008, 04:18:23 pm
Cheryl Cole, the unauthorised biography.

Quite fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bobajobrob on 10 December, 2008, 05:45:51 pm
Book just landed on my desk this morning - "French revolutions, cycling the tour de france" by Tim Moore. "One of the funniest books about sport ever written", apparently.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 10 December, 2008, 05:52:59 pm
French Revolutions is very funny. Tears of laughter at some parts. Worth reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 10 December, 2008, 06:35:23 pm
French Revolutions is very funny. Tears of laughter at some parts. Worth reading.

Absolutely!

Just finished Pratchett's 'Going Postal' & re-read Daren King's 'Jim Giraffe' whilst on the beach in Taba, Egypt.

Also just about finished Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods' too - really like it even if it's a bit reminiscent of Stephen King's 'The Stand'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 10 December, 2008, 07:33:35 pm
>> Geeky<<

Art of Wheelbuilding by Gerd Schraner
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 10 December, 2008, 07:54:40 pm
Grand-daughter's Reading & Spelling Diary.She is very,very absolutely brilliant :thumbsup:

Marj says I am biased ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 11 December, 2008, 03:36:24 pm
'Winter Holiday' (again) by Arthur Ransome.  It's a great read at cold times of the year. 

I'll be re-reading 'The Dark is Rising' by Susan Cooper yet again this Christmas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 11 December, 2008, 04:04:43 pm
'Winter Holiday' (again) by Arthur Ransome.  It's a great read at cold times of the year. 

I'll be re-reading 'The Dark is Rising' by Susan Cooper yet again this Christmas.

Over Sea, Under Stone series?

I'm reading 'The Dundee and Newtyle Railway' and 'In pursuit of glory', the autobiography of Bradley Wiggins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 11 December, 2008, 04:15:40 pm
'Winter Holiday' (again) by Arthur Ransome.  It's a great read at cold times of the year. 

I'll be re-reading 'The Dark is Rising' by Susan Cooper yet again this Christmas.

Over Sea, Under Stone series?


That's the first one, the whole series takes it's name from 'The Dark is Rising' the second book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 12 December, 2008, 10:11:30 am
Currently I seem to be getting very interested in the politics and culture of the 17th Century and this sort of represents the lower bounds of that timeframe. The move from a medieval to a modern mindset through this period is very interesting.

Absolutely. Only 60 years to go to the Ranters, Diggers and Levellers!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 December, 2008, 10:14:02 am
The dichotomy of our view of Cromwell as hero / bloody tyrant is also interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 12 December, 2008, 10:15:23 am
50 years, surely!  The Diggers are amazing, and the Levellers were such a radical force that they changed everything, despite the repression of Cromwell as a landowner, and the restoration.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Phil on 12 December, 2008, 10:58:23 am
I'm reading A Song Of Stone by Iain Banks, which is good if rather overwritten. 

I've also recently read Dowsing: A Journey Beyond Our Five Senses by Hamish Miller, of which the first few chapters are interesting and informative, and the last few chapters are the ramblings of a lunatic (ley lines, auras, OOBEs, faith healing, cosmic energy and the Knights Templar all figure). 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 12 December, 2008, 11:42:35 am
The BBC article about how people exaggerate what they're reading to impress others :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 12 December, 2008, 11:47:43 am
This week I read a quite amusing children's book, The Boy in the Dress, by David Walliams, of whom I had never previously heard. My daughter recommended the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 December, 2008, 11:56:32 am
This week I read a quite amusing children's book, The Boy in the Dress, by David Walliams, of whom I had never previously heard. My daughter recommended the book.
You are a High Court Judge and ICMFP.

You really had never heard of David Walliams ?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 12 December, 2008, 12:01:14 pm
Not until my daughter handed me the book, no.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 December, 2008, 12:02:54 pm
Never seen Little Britain or seen them interviewed or read a newspaper article about it ?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 12 December, 2008, 12:06:04 pm
No. I watch hardly any television and the only newspapers I read are the online ones, so I only open the pages I want to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 12 December, 2008, 12:40:00 pm
No. I watch hardly any television and the only newspapers I read are the online ones, so I only open the pages I want to read.

Strewth, you're even more disconnected from popular "culture" than me  :o

Congratulations!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 13 December, 2008, 11:24:32 am
A few questions (space and time, size and shape of the universe, how do we know, etc?) in conversation with a young chap at work* the other day has prompted me to go back and dig out my copy of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.  I know it's been superseded in areas, but I'd forgotten just how readable it is.



*This was prompted by the news about the Milky Way's black hole (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7774287.stm), although we never actually got as far as discussing stellar evolution.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 13 December, 2008, 06:07:21 pm
No. I watch hardly any television and the only newspapers I read are the online ones, so I only open the pages I want to read.

Strewth, you're even more disconnected from popular "culture" than me  :o

Congratulations!  :thumbsup:

I've just watched a recording of last night's HIGNFY and David Walliams got a mention. That's the first time I've heard him mentioned on telly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ghostrider on 13 December, 2008, 11:24:51 pm
A Snowball in Hell - Christopher Brookmyre

And so far yet another witty amusing read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 13 December, 2008, 11:27:23 pm
Nonzero - The Logic of Human Destiny
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 14 December, 2008, 09:47:51 pm
Two books which have made me laugh out loud:

Great Expectations (the first time I've read it, to my shame)

Roger's Profanisarus ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 18 December, 2008, 12:56:55 pm
Just finished 'Slow Man' by J.M. Coetzee. Prose is spare, pithy, elegiac with a quite unexpected swerve into metafiction just as I was getting settled into the story. 

Also, there's a cycling aspect: story begins with him getting knocked off his bike and losing a leg...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 December, 2008, 01:16:17 pm
Under The Eagle by Simon Scarrow

The first of his series about the Roman army, and in particular a Centurion and an Optio called Macro and Cato.

Very good, and very well researched.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 18 December, 2008, 03:11:00 pm
'Winter Holiday' (again) by Arthur Ransome.  It's a great read at cold times of the year. 

That's good to hear--I'll be reading that one to Anders at bedtime starting in a day or two, as soon as we finish 'Swalllowdale.'  :)  I had no idea when I was a kid that there were more books after Swallows and Amazons  ::-), which I picked up at a school book sale when I was about nine. But now I have an excuse to read all of them, except for the one or two that apparently have a bit much shooting and mayhem for a six-year-old.

I just finished Robert Macfarlane's 'The Wild Places,'  (http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780143113935,00.html)which is now heavily dog-eared, and have to decide between 'Bicycling Beyond the Divide: Two Journeys into the West' by Daryl Farmer (which I just got for my birthday) or 'Connemara: Last Pool of Darkness' by Tim Robinson, (http://foldinglandscapes.com/book.htm) which I've been eagerly awaiting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 18 December, 2008, 03:22:01 pm
Eric Clapton's autobiography.

For the second time this year I have been surprised to have my preconceptions blasted out of the water by an honest account of someone's life who, when he looks back on it, doesn't like what he sees for most of it. . .

Quite a tortured soul for most of his adult life and 99% of it self inflicted. This could have been a warm, fuzzy kind of book, a 'Look at me now!' kind of book,  a saccharine 'I've been a bad boy and I'm sorry' kind of book. Instead it's a 'warts and all' account of someone who, despite his fame (Clapton is God - remember?) had a very low self esteem from a very early age. Big respect.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 18 December, 2008, 03:28:26 pm
getting knocked off his bike and losing a leg...

That's a fine pancake, and no mistake
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 04 January, 2009, 09:17:29 pm
Just finished 'The People's Act of Love' by James Meek
An unusually powerful (and readable) novel
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 04 January, 2009, 09:20:28 pm
Just finished Life Class and Another World, both by Pat Barker. Great, evocative reads. She has such a moreish style.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 04 January, 2009, 09:20:55 pm
Well, Over christmas I have read:

Bradleys auto - in pursuit of glory
Chris' auto heroes, villains and velodromes
The Inkheart Trilogy
And am currently working my way through 'emergence' by stephen Johnson and can then approach the Ann Mustoe book..

But back to work tomorrow..

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 04 January, 2009, 09:22:58 pm
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

I'm about halfway through and enjoying it.

It was a Christmas present from my sister, who apparently went into Waterstone's and picked three books which looked interesting.  A system which meets my approval :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 January, 2009, 09:31:24 pm
The Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660
Trevor Royle

A history of the Civil War. Very good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 04 January, 2009, 09:32:35 pm
Just finished H. G. Wells - Wheels of Change, top read I enjoyed it. I tried to trace the route he cycled in around 5 days. Gmaps Pedometer (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2469671) around 250 miles. Yes some of the roads are not there any more and have changed a lot since then. I have a bit of problem with the route between Winchester and Ringwood, and I'm guessing the roads between towns.

Now off to find the next book to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 January, 2009, 09:35:49 pm
Nelson Mandela's autobiography - Long Walk to Freedom.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ibrahim on 04 January, 2009, 09:40:36 pm
'Les Jardins de lumiere' (the Gardens of Light) by Amin Maalouf, an unusual book about Mani, a third century prophet who was demonised to the extreme by Christian Orthodoxy...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 04 January, 2009, 10:07:57 pm
Neil Gaiman - American Gods

I'm liking it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 January, 2009, 10:33:18 pm
'Neil Gaiman - American Gods'

I enjoyed this - he is a great writer.

Currently reading 'The families who made Rome', its very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 January, 2009, 11:27:38 am
I've just finished both Obama's books (Dreams from My Father is particularly recommended - he is both a good writer and a complex and intelligent man), and Walter Mosley's Fortunate Son. I'm now reading a biography of Francis Galton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Charlotte on 05 January, 2009, 11:41:52 am
Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary/dp/1560259795)

I don't know what scares me more; Blackwater themselves or the way that the American government uses them.  It's bad juju, whatever.

Only a couple of chapters left and I can't put it down.  Highly recommended.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 January, 2009, 01:29:55 pm
Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary/dp/1560259795)

I don't know what scares me more; Blackwater themselves or the way that the American government uses them.  It's bad juju, whatever.

Only a couple of chapters left and I can't put it down.  Highly recommended.

+1 - excellent book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 05 January, 2009, 02:10:33 pm
I'm still reading Oliver Postgate's autobiography, Seeing Things (did I mention this upthread?).  I picked it off Butterfly's shelves about a year ago, found it difficult to get into, and put down for months.  I gave it another go a while back, but didn't get an awful lot further.  I'm ashamed to say that it was Oliver's sad death recently that spurred me to get into it.

He has an interesting writing style that reflects the diversity of his interests over the years.  There are major turning points, but he doesn't seem to recognise them as such (possibly wilfully).

He goes from describing the hilarious events of his conscientious objection, to how he 'discovered' the worlds of the Pogles, Noggin, the Clangers and Bagpuss, to covering the shocking death of his parents, and the severe illnesses of both himself and his wife.  It's like wandering through a pleasant summer meadow and stepping suddenly into quicksand.  Really affecting, but some of it is very difficult reading.  Difficult in a good way, but difficult nonetheless.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 January, 2009, 02:14:12 pm
Still grinding through Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and am finding it a good deal more amusing second time around.  Have also recently polished off:

o The Coast Road - Paul Gogarty
o The Water Road - Paul Gogarty
o Narrowboat Dreams - Steve Hayward
o Narrow Dog To Indian Springs - Terry Darlington
o When Giants Walked The Earth - Mick Wall
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harvey on 05 January, 2009, 02:22:31 pm
Just finished The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby - a very insightful look at the 'dumbing-down' of American politics over the past 40 odd years.  How intellectualism is disdained as elitism and folksy ignorance is just being one of the 'good ol' boys' and how newspapers, TV and the web have been manipulated as infotainment by neo cons and religious fundamentalist types.  A must read for all your American friends (and especially non-friends)!

Also read a few of Christopher Reich's thrillers over the holidays - First Billion, The Runner, and Rules of Deception.  Fast paced with clever scenarios and interesting characters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 January, 2009, 04:47:00 pm
Don Manley's Chamber's Crossword Manual - a Christmas present. An exercise in priggish pedantry if ever there was one. Rather irritating.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 05 January, 2009, 05:24:20 pm
Just finished my first Terry Pratchett books, the first two Discworld novels, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic.

Can't really see the attraction to be honest. It has some amusing parts but I found it rather too knowing and trying to be clever - it's barely above the level of parody as far as I can see.

However I know millions disagree so it must just be me.

Oh, I also read Casino Royale and the Asimov book Foundations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 January, 2009, 05:39:35 pm
However I know millions disagree so it must just be me.

No, it's not just you. I find Pratchett highly irritating - not least because he is his own biggest fan and not half the writer he thinks he is.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 05 January, 2009, 06:22:41 pm
Just finished  'Brasyl'  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brasyl-Gollancz-S-F-Ian-Mcdonald/dp/0575080507) by Ian McDonald.

It's a SF novel that interweaves three stories, based in 18th C, present day & future Brazil using quantum theory as a theme. Some of the Brazilian-heavy prose was a struggle at times but overall I'd recommend it & will search out River of Gods by him.

Just started Pratchett's 'Wintersmith'.

Nice to see that at least 3 of us have all been attracted to Neil Gaiman's American Gods in the last month!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 05 January, 2009, 07:46:32 pm
Just finished my first Terry Pratchett books, the first two Discworld novels, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic.

Can't really see the attraction to be honest. It has some amusing parts but I found it rather too knowing and trying to be clever - it's barely above the level of parody as far as I can see.

However I know millions disagree so it must just be me.

Oh, I also read Casino Royale and the Asimov book Foundations.

The first two aren't really much more than parody I would agree - I didn't mind that when they first came out as I was a lot younger - they do get better (this still depends a bit on personal opinion) and if you did want to try any more I would recommend either 'Guards, Guards' or 'Wyrd Sisters'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 05 January, 2009, 08:00:07 pm
"The Rider" by Tim Krabbe.  It's rather good, even if Rapha like it  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 06 January, 2009, 12:10:27 am
"The Rider" by Tim Krabbe.  It's rather good, even if Rapha like it  ::-)

Gay!  Burn him!!!

(Must get round to reading the copy I was given)

I'm still working through the Chris Hoy book.  Tis a good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 06 January, 2009, 07:43:12 am
"The Rider" by Tim Krabbe.  It's rather good, even if Rapha like it  ::-)
Read that in two days in the summer, just couldn't put it down, top read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 06 January, 2009, 08:36:23 pm
"The Rider" by Tim Krabbe.  It's rather good, even if Rapha like it  ::-)

Currently reading that too, at 118-120km

excellent read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pneumant on 07 January, 2009, 09:05:25 am
Am reading 'The Discovery of France' by Graham Robb. Very readable and interesting so far , I am already looking forward to reading another chapter and a half tonight :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 January, 2009, 09:16:51 am
"The Rider" by Tim Krabbe.  It's rather good, even if Rapha like it  ::-)

Currently reading that too, at 118-120km

excellent read

It's certainly top in a field of one - being the only good novel about bike racing!  ;)

On Brasyl - I didn't find the prose hard going at all, indeed I thought it was one of the best written sf novels of recent years, and one of the best British novels of 2007 in any genre. There again Ian McDonald is one of my favourite writers... River of Gods is also great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 07 January, 2009, 11:01:06 am
Finished 'The Rider' last night, have started 'From the Mull to the Cape (a gentle bike ride on the edge of wilderness)' by Richard Guise
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: blackpuddinonnabike on 07 January, 2009, 11:09:40 am
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 07 January, 2009, 11:11:48 am
"The Scar" by China Mieville. Baroque. Very very very baroque sci-fi. Full of dirty, very real characters.

Just finished reading the Twilight series, which I had to as my girls and wife were constantly discussing it. Laughed all my way through, particularly when reading the copy with passages heavily underlined by 13-yr-old girl.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 07 January, 2009, 11:21:36 am
Bad Blood by Jeremy Whittle a book which confirms a lot of what I had assumed ,quite depressing but interesting.

Palestinian Walks :Notes on a vanishing landscape ,I have only read the introduction to this but can see where its going.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 07 January, 2009, 11:24:24 am
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

ooh, that's great! I didn't expect to like it - I like Roth but didn't fancy that one, and then loved it.

I'm still reading Trollope - I'm trapped in a world of lords and duchesses and can't tear myself away. Currently on Phineas Redux. Maybe once I finish the Palliser series I'll try something less Victorian.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 January, 2009, 11:36:15 am
It's certainly top in a field of one - being the only good novel about bike racing!  ;)

Have you read James Waddington's Bad To The Bone?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 07 January, 2009, 06:57:35 pm
The Outcast by Sadie Jones mentioned upthread has been nominated for some prize or other. It is a lovely, beautiful book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tourist Tony on 08 January, 2009, 12:59:08 am
Just finished Pratchett's "Nation" and now back to a set of Dawkins gene books. Preparing for next OU course.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: blackburnrod on 08 January, 2009, 01:23:17 am
Austerity Britain (1945-51) by David Kynaston.Brings back memories and makes one realise that present times are not really very bad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 09 January, 2009, 06:49:41 am
"Solving Stonehenge-The New Key to an Ancient Enigma", by Anthony Johnson. Studying in preparation for a visit this April/May.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 09 January, 2009, 10:26:39 am
I had 'Moods of Future Joys' and 'Thunder and Sunshine' by Alastair Humphreys for Christmas. I'm half way through the first one and it is really good. A nice mixture of self appraisal, observation and general philosophising about the world and the experience of cycling around it. Highly recommended.

(I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned these books in this thread, at least the search facility says they haven't)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 09 January, 2009, 05:16:35 pm
Quote
I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned these books in this thread, at least the search facility says they haven't

I tried to move a spare copy of MoFJ in the other place but there were no takers  ???
I don't think he's quite made it into the (cycling-) public consciousness in the way Anne Mustoe and Josie Dew have (MoFJ was self-published). Shame, cos he is a good writer
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 09 January, 2009, 05:40:11 pm
Is that right? The copy I have was published by Eye Books Ltd. or is that his own publishing company. I agree that he is a good writer, I would easily put him on a par with Josie Dew if not higher.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 09 January, 2009, 05:44:39 pm
I've never heard of him - will add those two to my wish list, thanks!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dinamo on 09 January, 2009, 05:49:14 pm
Engelby ~ Stephan Faulks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 09 January, 2009, 05:56:46 pm
I've never heard of him - will add those two to my wish list, thanks!

He came to my attention in a radio four interview when he told the story of setting out on his epic round the world trip and his mum/dad had to call him back because he was going the wrong way out of the village.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 09 January, 2009, 06:52:33 pm
haha - excellent! Look forward to reading them - I thought I'd run out of cycle tour books to read, so this is very cheering. Mind you, I can't afford another six months off so I shouldn't be reading tour-porn  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: D0m1n1c Burford on 10 January, 2009, 03:56:56 pm
My wife bought me Stephen Fry's autobiography for Christmas.  It's called 'Moab is my washpot'.  Started reading it this week, and am pleased to report that it is so far a very honest, revealing portrait of the man.  He is open about his homosexuality, his stealing and other demons. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Melrose on 10 January, 2009, 06:46:21 pm
Just finished Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre and just started Sea Dog Bamse World War II Canine Hero
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 10 January, 2009, 09:56:13 pm
Re Alastair Humphries, my copy is a print-on-demand by an establishment then known as pabd.com. In an appendix he explains that he paid £300, found someone to design the cover and had to do his own marketing and editing. Assume that it sold well enough to attract a mainstream publisher  :)

Having followed much of the trip on his blog (he posts on Lonely Planet Thorn Tree), I was looking out for it as soon as I knew he'd got back safely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: valkyrie on 11 January, 2009, 12:38:11 pm
I'm reading Darkmans by Nicola Barker.
I really wish I wasn't but I object to paying for books and not reading them so I'm persevering.

I'm reading Darkmans at the moment and really liking it. One of the strangest books I've read in a while.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 January, 2009, 10:26:20 am
Finally finished The Baroque Cycle and have turned for a little light relief to Malcolm Pryce's Don't Cry For Me Aberystwyth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 12 January, 2009, 01:52:06 pm
I've just reread Patrick Dennis' 'Auntie Mame'.  It had me in fits of laughter and I read it through in one go (I was up until 4 a.m. this morning, unable to put it down).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 13 January, 2009, 11:30:49 pm
'Alias Grace' by Margaret Atwood. The story of a 19th century murderess. I've never read anything by her before, and it's beautifully crafted, although it drags a bit.

'The Gate' by Francois Bizot. The true story of a French ethnologist captured by the Khmer Rouge. Very powerful.     
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 January, 2009, 10:18:02 am
Darkly Dreaming Dexter ~ Jeff Lindsay.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: vorsprung on 14 January, 2009, 11:45:15 am
Bradley Wiggins Bio
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 14 January, 2009, 11:53:59 am
Bradley Wiggins Bio
It's a nice day here, I think I'll go for a ride later, I'll be passing the pub where he had his epic binges, I'll see if his bike's outside.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 14 January, 2009, 11:57:11 am
Round the world in 80 days.  I'd forgotten how funny it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 14 January, 2009, 12:00:01 pm
Frederick Forsythe - The Fist Of God


AWESOME!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 14 January, 2009, 12:17:24 pm
Hope . . . from the Heart of Horses: How Horses Teach Us about Presence, Strength, and Awareness

Not really, but I'm sure it will be a terrific read when it comes out.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 15 January, 2009, 10:41:47 pm
Lao She -- Four Generations under One Roof (the French translation)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 16 January, 2009, 08:47:37 am
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell. 

Years ago I heard a bit read out on the radio and thought one day I'd read it.  Then it went right out of fashion during the 80's and 90's, but last week I just happened to notice a copy in Waterstones.

Only on page 12 but so far so good..

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 January, 2009, 09:08:00 am
RTP out of fashion in the 80s?! :o

Metro theatre company had a production that just kept touring for years.  In the first half, the actors painted one side of the doors that made up the set, then in the second half, they turned them around and painted the other side.  One of the worst jobs for the technical staff was stripping all the paint off regularly so the doors didn't get too heavy to shift.

RTP was one of those books that all of us on the left read in the 80s - vitally important uplifting work.

My favourite parts are the section where a Clarion van arrives, complete with cycling 'Scouts', and leaflets are distributed and a fiery speech made, and the section where he is explaining surplus value to his colleagues.

It's a bit stodgy in places, and it took me a few goes to get through, but it is worth it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 January, 2009, 09:30:17 am
The Rabbit Factory ~ Marshall Karp
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 16 January, 2009, 09:45:33 am
The last book I read was "Life Class" by Pat Barker (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Class-Pat-Barker/dp/0141019476/ref=sr_1_1/275-2952550-5664366?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232098515&sr=8-1), which I got for Crimbo.  Having found The Regeneration Trilogy brilliant, I was looking forward to this book by Barker, but I was very disappointed.  The first half of the book gives an insight into life at The Slade prior to World War I  and introduces the characters, which is actually very interesting.  Unfortuantly for Barker, Sus Gee has already written about The Slade in "Earth and Heaven" and she did a much better job.  Barker then dispenses with one of the main characters she's just introduced and then wizzes through the section about the war in Ypres before the book ends unsatisfactorily.  It felt like Barker just stopped writing rather than finished the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 17 January, 2009, 05:19:13 pm
About to begin "The Bookseller of Kabul", courtesy of Oxfam.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: valkyrie on 17 January, 2009, 07:00:55 pm
I'm reading Darkmans by Nicola Barker.
I really wish I wasn't but I object to paying for books and not reading them so I'm persevering.

I'm reading Darkmans at the moment and really liking it. One of the strangest books I've read in a while.

Mrs Pingu was right. Interesting book but now that I've finished it I've got to say it was a very unsatisfying read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 January, 2009, 10:15:56 pm
Stephen King's newish short story collection, Just After Sunset. So far I haven't thought much to it, apart from one story N which is really creepy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 January, 2009, 10:46:11 am
I'm reading Darkmans by Nicola Barker.
I really wish I wasn't but I object to paying for books and not reading them so I'm persevering.

I'm reading Darkmans at the moment and really liking it. One of the strangest books I've read in a while.

Mrs Pingu was right. Interesting book but now that I've finished it I've got to say it was a very unsatisfying read.
It just annoyed me in the end. I wouldn't recommend it anyway.

I am still reading Cloud Atlas  ::-) (no, I'm not a very slow reader, I just don't have time to read New Scientist every week and a book). I got through a goodly amount of it on holiday this week so I hope to bash through the rest of it in the next couple of days.
Or I will have an avalanche of NS piling up instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 January, 2009, 11:24:38 am
Just finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which was jolly excellent.  However, since he died in 2004, I am a bit miffed that the second volume of the Millennium Trilogy isn't being published in the BRITONS' English until later this year chiz.

Now on Ghost by Robert Harris
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 19 January, 2009, 02:30:15 pm
Not books but various UK maps & a road atlas
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 19 January, 2009, 11:48:48 pm
Just finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which was jolly excellent.  However, since he died in 2004, I am a bit miffed that the second volume of the Millennium Trilogy isn't being published in the BRITONS' English until later this year chiz.

Now on Ghost by Robert Harris

Looking forward to reading TGWTDT. Not read any Stig Larsen before.

With Ghost I found certain characters developed the voices of their real-life counterparts. Adam kept squirming and shrugging self-deprecatingly, saying things that began with, "Look, y'know.." in faux-estuarine.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 20 January, 2009, 10:26:27 am
Not books but various UK maps & a road atlas

same again.
But work is getting in the way :demon:
I may have to relegate route planning to an evening exercise.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 January, 2009, 10:32:57 am
The Chameleon's Shadow ~ Minette Walters
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 20 January, 2009, 10:37:00 am
Not books but various UK maps & a road atlas

Butterfly's favourite read. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 20 January, 2009, 06:22:32 pm
 'Permutation City' - Greg Egan  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation_City) -the wiki link describes it better than I could
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: gordon taylor on 20 January, 2009, 09:04:53 pm
Pullman's Subtle Kinife. I think I've read this trilogy ten times (honestly.)

His imagination still takes my breath away.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 20 January, 2009, 09:25:32 pm
Stig of the Dump.  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 20 January, 2009, 09:43:27 pm
Trying to get back into the habit of a bedtime read, rather than a bedtime browse...

Just finished Tim Butcher's Blood River (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-River-Journey-Africas-Broken/dp/0099494280/ref=sr_1_1/278-6832929-2153454?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232487551&sr=1-1). Good read.

Just starting a book I rescued from the recycling bin, Johnathan Self's Self Abuse (http://www.amazon.com/Self-Abuse-Love-Loss-Fatherhood/dp/0743476190). Promising so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Charlotte on 21 January, 2009, 09:20:29 am
The Somnambulist (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Somnambulist-Gollancz-S-F-Jonathan-Barnes/dp/0575079428) by Jonathan Barnes.

A rather good penny dreadful  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 21 January, 2009, 09:24:39 am
Norman Mailer, An American Dream. It's a bit of a shock after months of Trollope.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 January, 2009, 10:07:39 am
With No-One As Witness ~ Elizabeth George.

75% of the books I've read recently feature a taser ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 27 January, 2009, 07:53:32 pm
The Captain and the Enemy - Graham Greene. Revisiting after 20 years. I may re-read some more after this one. I was caught almost immediately.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 27 January, 2009, 10:03:18 pm
I am currently reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 27 January, 2009, 10:10:11 pm
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers

I enjoyed that a lot  :)

Back to my current read, Johnathan Self's Self Abuse (http://www.amazon.com/Self-Abuse-Love-Loss-Fatherhood/dp/0743476190), hmmm. It's certainly fascinating in a morbid sort of way, and an insight into just how truly horrible some humans can be within families. But I'm not sure if it is a likeable book, It's definitely not going to be one of those books I re-read... I am not sure why, there is a cruelty or something in it that makes me unsympathetic to the writer.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 27 January, 2009, 10:22:38 pm
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers

I enjoyed that a lot 

I didn't I'm afraid.  I just didn't get it.  It's just a bunch of stuff that happened, much of which wasn't very interesting.

Just started "Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.  It was recommended and loaned to me by someone who's taste in books is usually very good.  I'll have to trust him and not my instincts - it has blurb reviews by Trinny & Susannah inside the cover.  :o :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 27 January, 2009, 10:31:24 pm
I am currently reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers.

I loved that book.  It was pretentious and overblown and shallow in parts, but he made a virtue of those weaknesses and conjured something marvellous from the mundanities of his family situation.  I was surprised that it wasn't included on the Guardian's list of 1 000 books you MUST read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 January, 2009, 09:47:23 am
Jitterbug Perfume ~ Tom Robbins
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 28 January, 2009, 10:31:35 am
Summit Fever, by Andrew Greig. It's great!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 28 January, 2009, 05:34:42 pm
Summit Fever, by Andrew Greig. It's great!

He's a great writer ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 28 January, 2009, 06:47:48 pm
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Though I'd forgotten how short it is and it didn't last my trip away to Hungary over the weekend. Must get the rest of the series now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 28 January, 2009, 11:06:44 pm
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene.

A few more on the shelves I haven't read for many years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 28 January, 2009, 11:07:20 pm
Colin Thubron - In Siberia

Alexander Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 29 January, 2009, 03:03:18 pm
"The Saint" - Dan Abnett

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 29 January, 2009, 03:28:12 pm
The White Book published by British Gypsum.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 January, 2009, 03:45:48 pm
The White Book published by British Gypsum.

Frequently Bought Together: Customers buy this book with

The Everyday Uses Of Portland Cement ~ Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (1913)

My grate frend Uncle Marvo assures me that the latter is absolutely riveting and says he is currently negotiating for the film rights.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 29 January, 2009, 04:03:38 pm
 ;D

Getting hold of a copy of these things is now more difficult than ever.Gypsum take the view that it is available on the internet & therefore don't need to print again.
When I asked their rep.
"how do those folk with no PC or internet access get the info?"
he was lost for an answer. :)
Most unusual for a sales rep. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 30 January, 2009, 12:51:26 pm
What I talk about when I talk about running.......Haruki Murakami (he does not like cycling at all).....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 30 January, 2009, 07:29:41 pm
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 30 January, 2009, 07:38:29 pm
Just finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which was jolly excellent.  However, since he died in 2004, I am a bit miffed that the second volume of the Millennium Trilogy isn't being published in the BRITONS' English until later this year chiz.

Now on Ghost by Robert Harris

Bought this as I passed thro' Edinburgh airport this evening. Thought I noticed the second book was on display too, I assume from your comments it's not a 'proper' English translation
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 30 January, 2009, 11:03:16 pm
"Legends" by Robert Littell. Read lots of his things a few years ago and thought them excellent...up there with Le Carre and Deighton in the spy genre. Not sure about this one though - maybe I'm getting picky or maybe I've lost my taste for his prose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 01 February, 2009, 10:23:09 am
From the Mull to the Cape, a gentle bike ride on the edge of wilderness by Richard Guise
A refreshingly un-epic touring tale, some of it set in places I've been to. I've not finished yet, but there's no sign of drug taking (bar a few pints of heavy) or parallel voyages of self-discovery so far. I'm enjoying this much more than Josie Dew round New Zealand.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 01 February, 2009, 10:46:23 am
From the Mull to the Cape, a gentle bike ride on the edge of wilderness by Richard Guise
A refreshingly un-epic touring tale, some of it set in places I've been to. I've not finished yet, but there's no sign of drug taking (bar a few pints of heavy) or parallel voyages of self-discovery so far. I'm enjoying this much more than Josie Dew round New Zealand.

recently finished this, an enjoyable book
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 01 February, 2009, 01:52:25 pm
Galileo Galilei - Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences.

R. Harré - The Philosophies of Science

Re-reading after many years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 01 February, 2009, 03:28:08 pm
The Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 01 February, 2009, 06:01:39 pm
'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 February, 2009, 12:23:28 pm
Just finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which was jolly excellent.  However, since he died in 2004, I am a bit miffed that the second volume of the Millennium Trilogy isn't being published in the BRITONS' English until later this year chiz.

Now on Ghost by Robert Harris

Bought this up as I passed thro' Edinburgh airport this evening. Thought I noticed the second book was on display too, I assume from your comments it's not a 'proper' English translation

"The Girl Who Played With Fire" is now out in pukka English translation form - translation is by the same bloke who did volume 1 - and is currently available at a fiver off RRP in Sainsbury's.  Guess what I'm reading ATM?

I thought I'd read that it wasn't due out until ~May, but may have confused it with the equally-anticipated "From Aberystwyth With Love"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 02 February, 2009, 01:56:11 pm
<Dons Russian hat and sets off into the blizzard towards the bookshop.>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 02 February, 2009, 02:04:23 pm
Oracle OCP exam prep guide.

Thrilling!!!! :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 02 February, 2009, 04:54:10 pm
I am re-reading some parts of Simon Doughty's "The Long Distance Cyclist's Handbook"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LEL on 02 February, 2009, 05:08:56 pm
The Highway Code (got driving theory test on wednesday....)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LEL on 02 February, 2009, 05:10:03 pm
The Highway Code (got driving theory test on wednesday....)

Hang on, does that count as a book though? - and if so is it fiction or non fiction?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 02 February, 2009, 05:25:56 pm
Netherland by Joseph O'Neil.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 03 February, 2009, 11:38:02 am
The Highway Code (got driving theory test on wednesday....)

Good luck with that :)

I reckon cyclists have a flying start on the theory over their sedentary colleagues, ahveing experienced road conditions, other drivers and a multitude of road signage.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 03 February, 2009, 04:31:26 pm
Netherland by Joseph O'Neil.....

How's it going?  I was thinking of giving it a go once I've finished Martin Chuzzlewit (which at this rate may not be for some time).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 03 February, 2009, 06:21:47 pm
Hard to put down. Very well written, should finish it soon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 03 February, 2009, 07:23:24 pm
John Macnab by John Buchan.  I'm enjoying it very much.   Was put onto it by Andrew Grieg's equally enjoyable The Return of John Macnab.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LE on 04 February, 2009, 08:14:13 am
Just finished 'the Reader'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 04 February, 2009, 11:56:36 am
John Macnab by John Buchan.  I'm enjoying it very much.   Was put onto it by Andrew Grieg's equally enjoyable The Return of John Macnab.

John Macnab and the Return of John Macnab make a great double-bill.

You might be interested in Romanno Bridge, also  by Andrew Grieg.  It's another story involving all of the characters from Return of John Macnab.

Ms Weasel and I have both just read it.  I would warn you that we have very different opinions on it.  She loved it and would recommend it,  I only liked it and thought it devalued the book it followed on from a little (it's a good story, an enjoyable read but it doesn't need to be set around the characters from Return of John Macnab to work).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 04 February, 2009, 08:23:23 pm
[quote author=Wascally Weasel link=topic=342.msg266558#msg266558 date=1233748596
You might be interested in Romanno Bridge, also  by Andrew Grieg.  It's another story involving all of the characters from Return of John Macnab.
[/quote]
 :) Yes, I have it already - not read it yet though.  I also enjoyed his When They Lay Bare.  In fact, come to think of it, is this the one that ends up with a scene in Romanno Bridge ?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pneumant on 07 February, 2009, 03:41:20 pm
Wilt by Tom Sharpe

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 09 February, 2009, 08:44:50 pm
"The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: annie on 09 February, 2009, 09:31:16 pm
The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 February, 2009, 11:28:52 am
Vulcan 607 ~ Rowland White

Plucky BRITONS travel a long way to drop bombs on Swarthy FOREIGN types.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 10 February, 2009, 01:53:19 pm
P & L account,balance sheets,Directors reports.
Oh joy.
A necessary evil all this.
I just want to know how much profit there is & how many (banker's bail out) £ the Exchequer wish to rob me of >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 10 February, 2009, 06:18:33 pm
Wingless Flight by R. Dale Reed.

Great book on the story of the lifting body programme at NASA.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 February, 2009, 10:44:47 am
The Battle For The Falklands ~ Simon Jenkins & Max "Hitler" Hastings
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 11 February, 2009, 11:51:51 am
Vulcan 607 ~ Rowland White

Plucky BRITONS travel a long way to drop bombs on Swarthy FOREIGN types.

Any good?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 February, 2009, 02:17:28 pm
Vulcan 607 ~ Rowland White

Plucky BRITONS travel a long way to drop bombs on Swarthy FOREIGN types.

Any good?

Well, I liked it.  The operation merited about half a page in the Jenkins/Hitler book; I had no idea how complicated it was...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 19 February, 2009, 01:43:56 pm
[quote author=Wascally Weasel link=topic=342.msg266558#msg266558 date=1233748596
You might be interested in Romanno Bridge, also  by Andrew Grieg.  It's another story involving all of the characters from Return of John Macnab.
:) Yes, I have it already - not read it yet though.  I also enjoyed his When They Lay Bare.  In fact, come to think of it, is this the one that ends up with a scene in Romanno Bridge ?

[/quote]

Oops, missed this.  The answer is, I don't know as I haven't read When They Lay Bare.  Is it any good?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 20 February, 2009, 09:53:36 am
I'm currently reading Speak for England by James Hawes, author of White Merc With Fins.

It's an odd little book I noticed on the shelves in the kitchen at work - brand new, unread. 

The story is of a middle aged male teacher feeling a failure and entering an extreme game show.  Stranded in the jungle, he tries to escape, and finds himself among some Brits who set up their own Colony after their Comet IV crashed in the late 50s, preserving (certain aspects of) Englishness.

It's lightweight, but it's funny, poignant and tragic, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 20 February, 2009, 10:14:10 am
I've finally got around to reading The Third Policeman.

Didn't like it at first but really enjoyed it by the end. Mrs ChrisO on the other hand is not enjoying it much, but we don't generally like the same books, at least anything written after 1900.

Now reading The Honorary Consul.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 20 February, 2009, 05:24:00 pm
A bunch of books my daughter got out of the school library for half term:

Holes by Louis Sachar (very good indeed)
The boy in the striped pyjamas by John Boyne (didn't have a happy ending)
The London Eye mystery by Siobhan Dowd (okay so far)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 February, 2009, 01:53:48 pm
Careless In Red ~ Elizabeth George.

It is this: about twice as long as it needs to be :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 February, 2009, 02:51:01 pm
'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House' by Kate Summerscale. Very good so far...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2009, 10:52:49 am
'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House' by Kate Summerscale. Very good so far...

Came highly recommended by Dr Larrington, which is why both B-i-L & TWFKAML now haz a copy...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 24 February, 2009, 11:54:19 am
I thought your dad was a bishop?

I am currently on page 38 of The Life of Pi. It has yet to catch fire. Metaphorically speaking.

Waiting in the wings: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Stieg-Larsson/dp/1847245455/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235476345&sr=1-1) and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-Clay/dp/1841154938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235476381&sr=1-1). Both are well fick, innit? At my reading speed, they should keep me going until the autumn...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2009, 01:26:04 pm
I thought your dad was a bishop?

Wot, mine?  He's a retired Army officer-turned civil servant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 25 February, 2009, 08:30:51 am
I am currently on page 38 of The Life of Pi. It has yet to catch fire.

I found the first 60?-ish pages dull. Kept going because I wanted to discuss it with someone. Glad I did, but not ecstatic!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 25 February, 2009, 09:00:28 am
The Penguin History of the USA, Hugh Brogan. 

Having reached page 177 the powerful message so far seems to be how extraordinarily badly the colonists were governed (by Britain, of course) before the revolution.  If only the foresight of those such as Tom Paine had been recognised..  ..but too many people were more concerned with India and had stakes in the East India Company.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 25 February, 2009, 10:49:35 am
Waterland - Graham Swift.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 25 February, 2009, 11:08:15 am
The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde.  Wow.

"When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy."


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: D0m1n1c Burford on 25 February, 2009, 11:23:26 am
I am currently on page 38 of The Life of Pi. It has yet to catch fire.

I found the first 60?-ish pages dull. Kept going because I wanted to discuss it with someone. Glad I did, but not ecstatic!

I loved that book. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 25 February, 2009, 04:54:36 pm
I am currently on page 38 of The Life of Pi. It has yet to catch fire.

I found the first 60?-ish pages dull. Kept going because I wanted to discuss it with someone. Glad I did, but not ecstatic!

I loved that book. 

It is not a book that gives itself to you. It is a book you give yourself to, and then sit back, relax and enjoy. I liked it.

Gabriella Garcia Marquez though, boy is that tedious and dull.

Currently reading Economics for Dummies.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 26 February, 2009, 02:06:24 pm
The Asbestos register for Bognor Fire Station....... ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 01 March, 2009, 09:12:31 pm
"Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen. (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/carl-hiaasen/skinny-dip.htm)

Yet another scabrously funny crime caper/ecological fable from the Floridian wierdmeister. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 March, 2009, 09:42:25 pm
I have given up reading the New Scientist in bed 'cos I think it wasn't really conducive to restful sleep.

I have just finished After Dark by Haruki Murakami, which was good, but not very long.

I am now reading The Big Necessity : Adventures In The World Of Human Waste (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Necessity-Adventures-World-Human/dp/1846270693), an Xmas pressie from Pingu.
He thinks I have a poo obsession.

It's really good!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 02 March, 2009, 08:35:47 am

"Consequences" , Penelope Lively. How chance-y our lives are. Lots of nice observation, though that and the story are not the main points.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 02 March, 2009, 09:21:26 am
"Ecophon" installation guide ::-)
Preferred reading would be
Watching Wood Warp by Edwood Wouldwood
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 02 March, 2009, 09:52:36 am
I am currently on page 38 of The Life of Pi. It has yet to catch fire.

I found the first 60?-ish pages dull. Kept going because I wanted to discuss it with someone. Glad I did, but not ecstatic!

I loved that book. 

It got quite exciting around page 150  :thumbsup:

It's gone back to being dull now  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 March, 2009, 01:59:52 pm
Chocolate And Cuckoo Clocks ~ Alan Coren
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 02 March, 2009, 02:01:41 pm
Just finished "We Might As Well Win" by Johan Brueneel (SP?) and Bill Strickland, now on to "In Search Of Robert Millar"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 02 March, 2009, 03:19:23 pm
Bruyneel
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 04 March, 2009, 01:49:09 pm
Just finished Q&A by Vikas Swarup, which was converted into the film Slumdog Millionaire. The idea in the book is good, the writing awful and the amount of coincidences truly amazing. I was very tempted to skip to the end to find out what happened and then give up, but I pushed on through and finished it.

Next up is Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 04 March, 2009, 02:12:07 pm
I'm reading South, Ernest Shackleton's account of the Endurance expedition where he and his team tried (and failed) to become the first people to cross the Antarctic.  The steadfastness and stoicism with which they meet the challenges and hardships is awe-inspiring.  Saddest of all, when they finally return to their homes, they nearly all go off to fight in the First World War, and as many are killed in war as died during the expedition.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 March, 2009, 02:35:09 pm
I'm reading South, Ernest Shackleton's account of the Endurance expedition

A excellent thing.  Required reading for Chaps, I reckon, making a trip across 800 miles of the Southern Ocean seem little more hazardous than an hour or two on the Serpentine.

Just finished Simon Schama's The American Future.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 04 March, 2009, 03:47:45 pm
I am currently on page 38 of The Life of Pi. It has yet to catch fire.

I found the first 60?-ish pages dull. Kept going because I wanted to discuss it with someone. Glad I did, but not ecstatic!

I loved that book. 

It got quite exciting around page 150  :thumbsup:

It's gone back to being dull now  ::-)

Forty pages left now. I still don't get it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 07 March, 2009, 06:19:03 pm
'Suite Francaise' by Irene Nemirovsky
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 07 March, 2009, 08:53:31 pm
Forty pages left now. I still don't get it.
Well, the ending was really good... oddly, because I've read far more books that started well and fizzled out than the other way round. I'm just about glad I stuck with it, but religious metaphor still doesn't float my [life]boat...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 08 March, 2009, 11:05:06 am
A course in number theory and cryptography by Neal Koblitz.
Prime Numbers - A computational perspective by Crandall and Pomerance.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 10 March, 2009, 09:37:52 am
Shadow Family by Miyuki Miyabe...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 March, 2009, 11:42:57 am
The Damned Utd ~ David Peace.  Contains more instances of the "f" word than any book I have ever read.  Was Brian Clough really that sweary?

A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 March, 2009, 11:49:06 am
Was Brian Clough really that sweary?

Yes.

Quote
A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".

Seems fair.  Though you may find it hard to discover an editor who's been north of Hertfordshire except to shoot something, so the ignorance is not unexpected.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sir Tifiable on 10 March, 2009, 11:57:21 am
Heroes, Villains & Velodromes - Richard Moore.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 March, 2009, 11:59:49 am
Read that recently.  Interesting, but I felt a bit dissatisfied with it afterwards.  It's workmanlike, but it doesn't quite do the job.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sir Tifiable on 10 March, 2009, 12:22:46 pm
Read that recently.  Interesting, but I felt a bit dissatisfied with it afterwards.  It's workmanlike, but it doesn't quite do the job.

As far as I've read to date (about 75%), it hardly does the job at all. But then I'm aware of plenty of people who don't quite do the job!  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 March, 2009, 12:39:59 pm
A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".

Seems fair.  Though you may find it hard to discover an editor who's been north of Hertfordshire except to shoot something, so the ignorance is not unexpected.

They managed to spell other difficult words properly.  Stuff like "Leeds1", and "Nottingham2".

1 - don't Leeds United play just outside Maidstone?
2 - surprised he didn't confuse it with Notting Hill
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 10 March, 2009, 07:05:49 pm
The Damned Utd ~ David Peace.  Contains more instances of the "f" word than any book I have ever read.  Was Brian Clough really that sweary?

A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".



Not such a daft mistake - the club was known as "Hartlepools United" for a while, since it was an amalgam of West Hartlepool and the other Hartlepool.  Pools is still their nickname.  When it isn't Monkeyhangers, anyway ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikenerd on 11 March, 2009, 10:28:00 am
Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic.
Link on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Global-Catastrophic-Risks-Martin-Rees/dp/0198570503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236767112&sr=8-1)

A book about what could cause the end of the human race.  Covers the usual nuclear and biological threats along with the Skynet threat (artificial intelligence).

No mention of the Zombie-apocalypse yet, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 March, 2009, 11:00:59 am
Just finished reading Watchmen. Brilliant, apart from the last 30 odd page where it appears that Mr Moore is having a wank fest (sorry).

Just started 'A Curious Street' by Desmond Hogan. Book no. 11 out of my 100 books to read in a year challenge.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 12 March, 2009, 04:03:26 pm
‘Future Noir’, the making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon.

This is a classic book on the film, this particular edition is an expanded version to take into account the recent ‘Final Cut’ and 5DVD box set.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 12 March, 2009, 04:07:46 pm
Mauritius Command. PO'B
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Keillor
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 March, 2009, 04:29:26 pm
I generally read detective fiction - there's a lot of it about!  But I do like books with a sense of place, and recently I've been reading a lot of Scandinavian fiction. I've read the Henning Mankell Wallender novels for years, and also Arnulaer Idridasons Icelandic detective Erlendur, but more recently I've been reading Stieg Larssen, Jo Nesbo, Karin Fossum, Mari Jungstedt and Camilla Lackberg, novels set in Norway and Sweden.  Not found any Danish or Finnish ones yet though, but then haven't looked hard.

As a real break from that, try Nick Harkaways "The Gone-Away World".

And I'm looking forward to the new Tom Rob Smith, having thoroughly enjoyed "Child 44" a story set in Soviet Russia, where there is no crime (by order) so murders can't be committed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 12 March, 2009, 04:34:38 pm
Mauritius Command. PO'B
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Keillor

I’ve tried and tried and I can’t get in to Patrick O’ Brian – I wanted to like his books, I’m very interested in the period and his subject but I just find his style so grating.  Is it heresy to say that I loved the film of Master and Commander though?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 12 March, 2009, 10:32:51 pm
Mauritius Command. PO'B
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Keillor

I’ve tried and tried and I can’t get in to Patrick O’ Brian – I wanted to like his books, I’m very interested in the period and his subject but I just find his style so grating.  Is it heresy to say that I loved the film of Master and Commander though?

Yes but if you're lucky we'll hang you from the yardarm rather than flog you around the fleet.

Appalling film - I can't see how it was possible to have any interest in the subject or period and enjoy that film.

It would be like professing an interest in the Tour de France and enjoying a film about Fausto Coppi in which he rode a carbon fibre bike.

I was once at a conference where someone who worked on that film was bigging up how they paid so much attention to the height of the hammocks and so forth. I had to be restrained from rushing the stage and strangling him.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 13 March, 2009, 10:25:13 am
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. A tale of New York in the 1980's and much better than the film version, I am told.   (never watched it)

I like Patrick O'Brian's books.  It's possible to enjoy 'Master and Commander' if you enjoy sailing although I fear it paints a far rosier picture of naval life than would have been the case.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 13 March, 2009, 10:36:00 am
Deano is right. It was known as Hartlepools at one point in time. I have seen old roadsigns point to it bearing that name. Not sure if it was Hartlepools when Clough was there though.

History of Hartlepool - This is Hartlepool (http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 March, 2009, 12:36:22 pm
Deano is right. It was known as Hartlepools at one point in time. I have seen old roadsigns point to it bearing that name. Not sure if it was Hartlepools when Clough was there though.

History of Hartlepool - This is Hartlepool (http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/)

Gosh.  Y'learn sumfink new every day.  My memory-branes only stretch back as far as 1972, when my mate Tim supported Hartlepool.  Seems they changed the name at the  start of the 1968-69 season; Clough took over as manager in October 1965.

Note to self: write grovelling letter of apology to Faber & Faber.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 16 March, 2009, 12:39:51 pm
Lord Edgware Dies, by Agatha Christie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 17 March, 2009, 04:12:45 pm
Woohoo!

I have just received Hallion's "Test Pilots -- The Frontiersmen of Flight" 1988 extended edition for the good ol' US of A.  :thumbsup:

I'm happy. Just in time for my forthcoming holiday.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 17 March, 2009, 04:32:19 pm
Frenchie - just out of interest, have you ever read Wind, Sand & Stars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind,_Sand_and_Stars) by St Exupery? Known in French as Terre des Hommes.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 17 March, 2009, 04:59:35 pm
Not this one, no, though I have read others such as Vol de Nuit and Courrier Sud.

(I happen to have Volume 2 of St Exupery's integral though; but Terre des Hommes is in the first volume)

Hallion is well known in the telling of modern aviation history. As I am interested in the post-WWII era, in particular the development of supersonic flight and jet aircrafts, I was keen to get some of Hallion's work. For someone like me the NASA websites are a trove of treasures, although getting some of the work may require permission or, when it has been published, tracking obscure editors and editions!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 17 March, 2009, 05:08:15 pm
I'm reading another book I happened upon in the dusty shelves in the kitchen at work.

This one's Cley by Carey Harrison (son of Rex, if that matters).  I was lured in by the mention of a bike ride.  Indeed there is one - a ride from west London to Cley in Norfolk.  But, once he gets there, that seems to be it.  I'm hoping thare'll be another ride to Liskeard later in the book (it's part of a sequence of novels which are parallel stories about how & why the characters reach Liskeard.  Yeah - I dunno either).

It's a slim volume, and seems a bit chaotic in the middle, but I'm hoping it all becomes more connected by the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 20 March, 2009, 08:36:52 am
Woohoo!

I have just received Hallion's "Test Pilots -- The Frontiersmen of Flight" 1988 extended edition for the good ol' US of A.  :thumbsup:

Well it is well written and rather interesting so far...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 20 March, 2009, 09:12:25 am
Read Tim Moore's "french revolutions" at the weekend.
Last night I started Alex Ross' "the rest is noise" ... which is intimidatingly thick, so I may be some time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 20 March, 2009, 09:54:09 am
Am well into 'V for Vendetta' by Alan Moore. I think he is amazing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 23 March, 2009, 07:38:41 pm
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. It must be 20 years since I last read it and I have no idea how it ends.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 23 March, 2009, 07:49:47 pm
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. It must be 20 years since I last read it and I have no idea how it ends.
*Tries to resist spoiling ending*
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 23 March, 2009, 08:57:28 pm
Keep up the recommendations folks.  :thumbsup:  I really enjoyed "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" and am currently reading "The Return of John Macnab", both mentioned on this thread.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 March, 2009, 08:54:32 am
Ash: A Secret History - Mary Gentle

Picked this up in a second hand bookshop when I needed something for the train. It's a mad feminist historical / fantasy novel set in 15th Century Europe about a women (the ash of the title) who is captain of a mercenary troop. It's surprised me as its a lot better than I though it would be and the author manages to weave in real facts about the period along whilst going off on a tangent with a very alternate view of history. The main character Ash makes Buffy look like a woose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 24 March, 2009, 09:00:13 am
robinson crusoe.  It's great!

'I spent twelvty eleven days making a canoe, then it was too heavy to get to the water.  D'oh'


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 March, 2009, 09:03:03 am
"Heroes, Villains and Velodromes, the story of Chris Hoy and British Track Cycling", on a bit of a cycling reading tip at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 March, 2009, 12:35:56 pm
My Idea Of Fun ~ Will Self.  Harder going than "The Book Of Dave" or "The Butt".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harrumph on 25 March, 2009, 01:56:00 pm
"Who cut the Cheese - a cultural history of the fart" by Jim Dawson. Amusing, but not as substantially anthropological as I had hoped, so far.

Published, oddly enough, by 10-Speed Press. Maybe it's true: cycling does make you fart...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 March, 2009, 02:14:45 pm
d'Oh!  I've lost me book. :(

This always happens when I'm getting somewhere with it.

Never mind - in sorting through some papers, i've found the Irving novel I was reading.  It's been sat on my desk for two weeks :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Butterfly on 25 March, 2009, 02:17:14 pm
d'Oh!  I've lost me book. :(

This always happens when I'm getting somewhere with it.

Never mind - in sorting through some papers, i've found the Irving novel I was reading.  It's been sat on my desk for two weeks :-[
Is it on the dining table?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 March, 2009, 02:24:44 pm
Almost certainly somewhere as obvious as that.  I took it away at the weekend, and so it perhaps got into the camping equipment.  hey ho. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: delthebike on 25 March, 2009, 02:26:47 pm
Is it on the dining table?
It'll be at the last place he'll look.

If audiobooks count I'm currently on an unabridged Lord of the Rings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 07 April, 2009, 12:14:42 am
I am reading "To Kill a Mockingbird".

I bought it - and I remember distinctly - for 50p at Nottingham Oxfam as something to read on the train to Newcastle, but I got speaking to a girl on the train, and never got around to reading it.  The book is wonderful, Atticus Finch is the father we all dream of having as children, and I have about 20 books bought in similar circumstances.  One at a time.

Oh, I am also reading Moods of Future Joys by Alastair Humphreys, the first half of which I read in a chippy in Inverness.  I enjoyed it so much, I'm saving the rest for an equally outré location.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 07 April, 2009, 10:48:04 am
Robin Shelton's 'Allotted Time'... subtitled 'Two Blokes, One Shed, No Idea'.

An absolutely hilarious and engaging true story of the novice allotment holder.  I can thoroughly recommend it as a good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 07 April, 2009, 06:05:11 pm
Finally started 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self for a second time. Seem to have got into it a bit easier this time - I'm pretty sure I'm past the stage at which I abandoned the last attempt.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 07 April, 2009, 08:18:00 pm
Finally started 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self for a second time. Seem to have got into it a bit easier this time - I'm pretty sure I'm past the stage at which I abandoned the last attempt.

I read that for "Book Club" on Radio 4 a couple of years ago.  I quite enjoyed it, but Self enjoys using little used or obscure words too much - I still haven't found a dictionary with "lithopedion" in it (I worked it out as "calcified being who walks" yes?).  I got annoyed by his overuse of the word "valedictory" in "Great Apes". 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nightrider on 07 April, 2009, 08:35:56 pm
The book thief.By Marcus Zusak.Wartime Germany seen through eyes of a young girl.Easy to read and touching.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 08 April, 2009, 04:36:59 pm
I'm reading another book I happened upon in the dusty shelves in the kitchen at work.

This one's Cley by Carey Harrison (son of Rex, if that matters).  I was lured in by the mention of a bike ride.  Indeed there is one - a ride from west London to Cley in Norfolk.  But, once he gets there, that seems to be it.  I'm hoping thare'll be another ride to Liskeard later in the book (it's part of a sequence of novels which are parallel stories about how & why the characters reach Liskeard.  Yeah - I dunno either).

It's a slim volume, and seems a bit chaotic in the middle, but I'm hoping it all becomes more connected by the end.

Finally finished it today.

Really really poor.  The bike wasn't even a useful plot device, though the fact that he damaged it in a crash on the way back from Cromer did mean there was a ploddingly 'significant' conversation in a car at the end.  Maybe it's damaged state at the end was a metaphor.  Nothing really of the riding.

Of the book beyond the cycling, it was really poor.  Characterisation thin and unbelievable; chronology awful; dialogue wooden and stilted; motivations unlikely.  Plot was unnecessarily convoluted without having any complexity - it was just as if the author forgot to mention something and had doubled back, so you didn't know where you were.

Oh - and it's supposed to be set in the late 60s, but the incongruous anachronisms were clunking and all too frequent.

Er... Don't Bother. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 08 April, 2009, 06:26:25 pm
Finally started 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self for a second time. Seem to have got into it a bit easier this time - I'm pretty sure I'm past the stage at which I abandoned the last attempt.

I read that for "Book Club" on Radio 4 a couple of years ago.  I quite enjoyed it, but Self enjoys using little used or obscure words too much - I still haven't found a dictionary with "lithopedion" in it (I worked it out as "calcified being who walks" yes?).  I got annoyed by his overuse of the word "valedictory" in "Great Apes". 

Yeah, it's the obscure language that can annoy me too - it's as if he's trying to impress upon the reader just how wide his vocabulary is (and therefore how clever he is).

I'd decided on 'stone footed' or similar for lithopedion and then I googled it:  'Stone baby'  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithopedion) which fits the storyline perfectly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 08 April, 2009, 06:51:10 pm
Rough Ride - Paul Kimmage.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 09 April, 2009, 05:48:38 am
"Love, Janis" by (her sister) Laura Joplin. Worthwhile reading for fans of Janis Joplin, but truthfully not a very good work of literature.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 12 April, 2009, 01:27:50 pm
For those who like cycling books I've just read A Dog In A Hat, by Joe Parkin.

He was an American who came to Belgium in the late 80s early 90s and rode for some of the middle-ranking Belgian teams.

He starts off with dreams of doing the grand tours but falls into the journeyman route of kermis and minor stage races with occasional chances to do some classics but never as more than a domestique. His team winning the Tour of Switzerland is the high point.

He's quite open about the whole scene including the drug taking and doesn't have the same chip on his shoulder about it as Kimmage. There are some amusing stories from the peloton and insights into the way teams, riders and racing work, especially the "auctioning" of results in the kermis races.

What I found most interesting about it was how quickly he falls into the monotony and treats it as you might treat an office job. He says he's looking forward to races but then for a variety of reasons it just becomes another grind. Maybe that's the difference between the journeyman and the elite.

But it is written very much from an insider point of view which is good. Not the outsider looking in. He speaks Flemish and becomes assimilated into their cycling. Having said that the title comes from a Flemish expression which basically means something is out of place.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 12 April, 2009, 02:05:49 pm
Now that I have finished with Paul Kimmage, I am unsure how I feel about his book.  He certainly portrays an axe to grind and I found his thoroughbreed and donkey talk a new way of viewing those of us that ride a bike for please and those that use it as their job.  I think I like his honesty, especially to himself but I do think he is a tortured soul in a Catholic body - hence the crusade that is all consuming.

I'm now into Breaking the Chain by Willy Voet.  I find his writing style more easy to read than Kimmage's - and he certainly doesn't beat around the bush.  He is certainly opening my eyes to the peleton of the 1990's.

This all brings me back to a throw away comment to Gonzo about Lance being clean - Mr Naive here is now facing facts.   ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 12 April, 2009, 07:09:26 pm
The Making of the English Landscape by W G Hoskins, it's the main reason why I cycle and camp.
I've read it several times but this time I'm reading the 1988 edition with the updates by Christopher Taylor. Found the hardback in a shop for four quid  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 28 April, 2009, 12:53:51 pm
More Trees to Climb by the excellent and very nice man Ben Moor (http://www.spesh.com/ben/Books.html) and I can't recommend it highly enough, or his plays.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikenerd on 28 April, 2009, 01:08:22 pm
Fiction : The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick.
Non fiction : Bicycle Design by Mike Burrows (revised 2008 edition).

I recommend the latter to anyone interested in how a bicycle works and what works for a bicycle design.  There's no maths in it and Mike's somewhat rambling style is easy to read.  Mike is highly opinionated and a lot of his opinions have been reached by experience and not scientific rigour.  So, you may disagree with some things! :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 28 April, 2009, 01:23:41 pm
The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez Reverte. Brilliant stuff. I also like his The Fencing Master (El maestro de esgrima) and The Nautical Chart (La carta esferica).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 28 April, 2009, 03:27:46 pm
Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. The best book that I've read in ages. Also probably the bleakest ???

(click to show/hide)


but beautifully written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 29 April, 2009, 09:12:18 am
I am currently reading From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Holy_Mountain) by William Dalrymple in which he traces the demise of Christianity in the Near East since its peak during the 6th century until the problems in the 20th with things such as the Armenian, erm, genocide and the issues brought about due to the creation of Israel. It's very well written and extremely interesting, but it's also pretty dense and takes some effort to read it. It's not the best book to read in small goes, which is what I'm attempting to do at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 29 April, 2009, 10:00:32 am
Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. The best book that I've read in ages. Also probably the bleakest ???

(click to show/hide)


but beautifully written.

 Hey I just finished this a couple of weeks ago. Actually I finished it in three sittings - the reviews are right, it's pretty gripping. The Thinking Man's DaVinci Code. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic scenarios anyway.

 Now I'm on to a 2nd hand copy of Charles Shaar Murray's Crosstown Traffic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 29 April, 2009, 02:55:30 pm
Thanks to the several recommendations for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which I've just finished - enjoyed it very much.

Currently reading   John Macnab  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macnab[/url) by John Buchan.

I didn't realise Buchan became Governor General of Canada.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 April, 2009, 11:52:58 am
The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich ~ William Shirer

Should keep me occupied for a day or two.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 April, 2009, 11:57:25 am
He dies in the end. </spoiler> ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 30 April, 2009, 12:05:42 pm
Rereading 'Forge of God' by Greg Bear
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 30 April, 2009, 09:22:04 pm
Just wanted to say:

I read another recommended book on this thread, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  Absolutely fantastic stuff.  Thanks.  I can't wait to read the second in the trilogy, "The Girl who Played with Fire" which the reviews say is even better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 May, 2009, 01:20:27 pm
Just wanted to say:

I read another recommended book on this thread, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  Absolutely fantastic stuff.  Thanks.  I can't wait to read the second in the trilogy, "The Girl who Played with Fire" which the reviews say is even better.

Is good and available from a Several of supermarkets for about a tenner in hardback.

Last time I spoke to Dr Larrington she was reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (in German) and she reckoned it was a bit slow at the start.  I hope it dun't stay that way :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 May, 2009, 03:56:20 pm
I am reading Postsingularity by Rudy Rucker, a Californian mathematician, sf author and breeder of jellfish. If you know anything about Rudy Rucker you will know what to expect. If you don't you might wonder what the hell this odd combination of quantum physics and happy hippy stuff is and whether he is serious...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gruff on 05 May, 2009, 10:51:14 am
I am reading Postsingularity by Rudy Rucker, a Californian mathematician, sf author and breeder of jellfish. If you know anything about Rudy Rucker you will know what to expect. If you don't you might wonder what the hell this odd combination of quantum physics and happy hippy stuff is and whether he is serious...

Incidently, that's available for free (under creative commons license) here:

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker - Free eBook (http://manybooks.net/titles/ruckerrother07postsingular.html)

Free books rock.

I'm mainly reading three titles at the moment:

Engineering Mathmatics - KA Stroud. This is wonderful and exciting, and then confusing and depressing, in equal measure. I'm pretty sure that's my fault though, not the author's.

Hogfather (Discworld) - Terry Pratchett. Silly fun, but not as amusing as some of the others in the series.

Blink - Malclom Gladwell. Just started this after it was referenced in a podcast I recently listened to, on the subject of choice, free will and unconscious decision making. It's all about the almost instantaneous decisions our brains seem to constantly make for us, and the mechanisms and influences that might be at work there.

The original "radio" show/podcast is here, if anyone is interested (I enjoyed it):

WNYC - Radiolab: Choice (November 14, 2008) (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/11/14)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 May, 2009, 10:41:06 am
I am reading Postsingularity by Rudy Rucker, a Californian mathematician, sf author and breeder of jellfish. If you know anything about Rudy Rucker you will know what to expect. If you don't you might wonder what the hell this odd combination of quantum physics and happy hippy stuff is and whether he is serious...

Incidently, that's available for free (under creative commons license) here:

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker - Free eBook (http://manybooks.net/titles/ruckerrother07postsingular.html)

Free books rock.

They do, but I like paper - perhaps it being available free is why it was 1.99 in the bargain bin at Forbidden Planet!

I just finished Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts. It didn't really do much for me, but it was nicely written.

Anyway, in complete contrast, I am now dipping into the absolutely wonderful George Mackay Brown's collected poems, which I picked up last week in Scotland.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 07 May, 2009, 12:11:20 pm
Shadow of the Silk Road (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Silk-Road-Colin-Thubron/dp/0099437228/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241694610&sr=8-1) by Colin Thubron.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gruff on 17 May, 2009, 05:17:51 am

Incidently, that's available for free (under creative commons license) here:

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker - Free eBook (http://manybooks.net/titles/ruckerrother07postsingular.html)

Free books rock.

They do, but I like paper


Ah, have you tried one of the e-ink hardware readers (Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader etc)? I love mine to bits. As many books as you can imagine, all in one dinky convenient bundle, ready to take aywhere, or even just read in bed.

One of the things I most love is the almost instant availability of books that I see recomended or reviewed. If something sounds interesting then a couple of minutes later I can usually have it downloaded and on the reader ready to go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 17 May, 2009, 09:27:28 am

Incidently, that's available for free (under creative commons license) here:

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker - Free eBook (http://manybooks.net/titles/ruckerrother07postsingular.html)

Free books rock.

They do, but I like paper


Ah, have you tried one of the e-ink hardware readers (Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader etc)? I love mine to bits. As many books as you can imagine, all in one dinky convenient bundle, ready to take aywhere, or even just read in bed.

One of the things I most love is the almost instant availability of books that I see recomended or reviewed. If something sounds interesting then a couple of minutes later I can usually have it downloaded and on the reader ready to go.
This sounds interesting Gruff
Can you do me a link and tell me more about yours, please?

Cheers
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 17 May, 2009, 09:33:51 am
Eventually made my way through a couple of topical books.

Who runs britain - Robert Peston
The Storm - Vince Cable

Now picking interesting bits from 'The Railways of Dundee' by Peter Marshall for a ride I am leading in a few weeks.

..d   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gruff on 17 May, 2009, 06:19:02 pm
Can you do me a link and tell me more about yours, please?


Gladly...

I have Sony Reader (2nd gen 505 model), which you can see here:

Sony Reader Digital Book PRS-505 (silver) E-Book reader reviews - CNET Reviews (http://reviews.cnet.com/e-book-readers/sony-reader-digital-book/4505-3508_7-32672723.html)

Sony have a web page for it, of course, but it's infested with irritating flash so up to you if you want to take a look:

Reader eBook : Sony (http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/reader-ebook)

There are others, like the Amazon Kindle, Bookeen Cybook and Irex Iliad but I've never seen those in the flesh so can't comment on them.

I wanted a dedicated ebook reader since I first read about the e-ink screens in development a few years ago, but it seemed to take an age for devices to appear that were practical and sensibly priced (some of them are still very expensive in my view).

The main component of these devices is the e-ink screen, which is unlike the displays you have on your laptop, mobile phone, ipod etc. The e-ink technology is designed to mimic paper, so it is matt, "flat", and very easy on the eyes.

I normally avoid Sony products like the plague, having found them over priced and over hyped in the past, and almost always disappointing. However, at the time I made my choice the 505 seemed the pick of the bunch for my needs - I'm impressed with it and very happy to recommend it. A caveat would be that the price seems to have increased since I bought mine, and now looks a little expensive again. No doubt the weakness of Sterling has contributed to that.

It's similar in size to a paperback, but thinner, and so is very transportable. With a decent cover on you can confidently throw it in a bag, pocket or pannier in the same way you could a conventional book. The difference is that with the Reader you are effectively carrying ALL your books. The built in memory is good for perhaps 150 titles, and with a cheap 1 or 2gb SD card you could store, well... thousands.

I've heard that the menu system does slow down and become clumsy if you load that many titles, but I've not tried it so can't comment, it may or may not be true. I have a few hundred books in mine and it works great.

If you travel a lot, or work away from home, or just don't want to lug an armful of books on a holiday (bike tour!), then it's just the ticket. Of course, you don't have to be leaving the house to use one, mine is now my default choice for reading in bed, on the sofa etc. It's genuinely a pleasure to read from and use. It's quite a surprise really, a modern tech device that does, simply, what it's supposed to do, with no drama or complication.

Battery life is very practical, and I comfortably get a couple of weeks or more between charges. Sony claim 7500 page turns, or until the battery discharges itself over time.

I mentioned this in my previous post, but, in addition to being a really convenient package for an entire library of books, one of the things I most love about the Reader it is just how easy and fast sourcing books becomes. For example, when I browsed my way into this thread, the latest few posters were raving about The Road and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. About three minutes later I had both titles downloaded and on my Reader (The Road btw, wow, great book!).

Books need to be converted to a particular .lrf format for use on the Sony Reader, but excellent, free, open source software exists for this purpose (Calibre), which automates the task and uploads to the device. Calibre will competently handle just about any text or ebook format you'll encounter. I strongly suggest avoiding the Sony provided software. I've never tried it myself but the crap they forced me to use with one of their minidisc players several years ago was so hideous it chafes my nuts to this day even to think about it.

There is a vast and growing collection of legitimately free titles online, such as out of copyright classics and also ones that the author has simply released to free distribution. Of course you can also purchase ebook format copies of loads of contemporary titles from stores such as Amazon, and take immediate delivery by download or email.

One thing that does irritate me is the current pricing of ebooks, which frequently are no cheaper, and even sometimes more expensive, that their traditional printed counterparts. This seems crackers to me. There must be a significant saving in not having to physically print, distribute, store and then manually post a book to consumers, but that often doesn't seem to be reflected in the price. Still, that's their choice, isn't it.

Some may disapprove of my mentioning this but I think it's relevant to discussion of ebook innovation, so I will... ebooks are available online in essentially the same way that mp3 music is. If you can find a music CD for sale at Amazon or similar, you can generally find it quickly and simply for free download too, via google, bit torrent or usenet. The same is true for ebooks, whether an individual wishes to use that method is a choice for them, and I'll leave that there.

Understand that these devices aren't like handheld computers or smart phones. They don't do flashy menus with instant response, colourful graphics, mini applications and the like. They display a printed paper book-like image, and have a simple menu to navigate through your collection, make bookmarks etc.

I'll also point out that these devices aren't really suitable for reference titles, such as technical documents or manuals. Anything that has lots of diagrams or charts, or content that you need to search back and forth through for data or information will not work well on a hardware ebook reader (with the possible exception of the very new Kindle DX).

However, for plain old reading of novels or non fiction works this thing is the bee's knees. You can instantly grab almost anything that interests you, take your whole library anywhere you wish, and read very enjoyably on a device that's effortless to use.

There are lots of options now other than the brand and model I have, and this new one looks interesting:

Interead's COOL-ER claims to be the 'iPod moment' for e-readers  (http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/14/intereads-cool-er-claims-to-be-the-ipod-moment-for-e-readers/)

HTH (sorry for the length).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 17 May, 2009, 06:36:20 pm
No Country For Old Men.

Which I suddenly realised I had read before about ten years ago.

Still good though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 17 May, 2009, 06:42:40 pm
First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde.
The Appeal, John Grisham.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 17 May, 2009, 06:46:44 pm

HTH (sorry for the length).


Thank you, an excellent post.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mike J on 17 May, 2009, 07:21:58 pm
Currently reading The Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 17 May, 2009, 07:59:09 pm
I am currently reading From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Holy_Mountain) by William Dalrymple in which he traces the demise of Christianity in the Near East since its peak during the 6th century until the problems in the 20th with things such as the Armenian, erm, genocide and the issues brought about due to the creation of Israel. It's very well written and extremely interesting, but it's also pretty dense and takes some effort to read it. It's not the best book to read in small goes, which is what I'm attempting to do at the moment.

That is a brilliant book - there are some books which stay with you for the rest of your life and this is one  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 17 May, 2009, 08:33:08 pm
The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History - Philip Bobbit

A book that looks at why wars are fought and more importantly why peace is made and why it sometimes fails. It has the best description of the way the USA and Russia used nuclear weapons as a deterrent in the Cold War and why the policy worked that I have ever read (and it's probably not the reason you think). Worth reading just for that bit alone. His central thesis is that epoch making wars occur when an new type of economic / social organisation occurs and cannot be resolved until society comes up with a new legal framework that encompasses the new reality. For example he counts the 20th century as one long war blowing hot and cold from 1914 until around 1990 where the rise of nation states that began to replace the old empires at the end of the 19th century lead to a fight over what would be the form of government that triumphed, parliamentary democracy, communism or fascism.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 17 May, 2009, 09:31:50 pm
Just wanted to say:

I read another recommended book on this thread, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  Absolutely fantastic stuff.  Thanks.  I can't wait to read the second in the trilogy, "The Girl who Played with Fire" which the reviews say is even better.

Just wanted to say +1 in every way (finished reading Dragon Tattoo yesterday, and just after the library shut, so I'll have to wait a whole week to go and get the next in the series. :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 May, 2009, 01:01:20 pm
Bought both …Dragon Tattoo and …Played With Fire for my sister-in-law for her birthday, based on "they looked good". I've been meaning to ask her how she got on with them, so thanks RJMcB for the positive endorsement - will have to get myself a copy.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 May, 2009, 01:02:32 pm
I've just re-read The Time Traveller's Wife and it made me cry again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 May, 2009, 01:54:15 pm
First volume of Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler.  And yes, Clarion, I know what happens at the end of part II ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 18 May, 2009, 02:02:03 pm
Just wanted to say:

I read another recommended book on this thread, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  Absolutely fantastic stuff.  Thanks.  I can't wait to read the second in the trilogy, "The Girl who Played with Fire" which the reviews say is even better.

Just wanted to say +1 in every way (finished reading Dragon Tattoo yesterday, and just after the library shut, so I'll have to wait a whole week to go and get the next in the series. :'(

Dammit! All the copies have about seventeen reservations on them with Surrey Libraries! >:(

(Coincidentally, there was an interesting story on this in the Times yesterday: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/47647,news,stieg-larsson-and-the-girl-who-inherited-nothing (http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/47647,news,stieg-larsson-and-the-girl-who-inherited-nothing))
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 18 May, 2009, 06:17:50 pm
I'm reading Christopher Brookmyre for the first time, having had him recommended by several people.

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil.

I'm only a few chapters in and if anyone has read it can you tell me if Robbie turns out to be behind the murders - if he does then please let me know so I can stop reading now. Even if he isn't I'm not sure I want to go on because if he isn't then the set up will be nearly as obvious.

Can you tell I'm not convinced.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 18 May, 2009, 08:29:16 pm
I'm reading Christopher Brookmyre for the first time, having had him recommended by several people.

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil.

I'm only a few chapters in and if anyone has read it can you tell me if Robbie turns out to be behind the murders - if he does then please let me know so I can stop reading now. Even if he isn't I'm not sure I want to go on because if he isn't then the set up will be nearly as obvious.

Can you tell I'm not convinced.



Stick with it.  Not Brookmyre's best IMHO, but still very funny.  The description of the headteacher Momo was great, we had a maths teacher just like him.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 18 May, 2009, 08:32:46 pm
Dammit! All the copies have about seventeen reservations on them with Surrey Libraries! >:(

Same with Falkirk libraries,  I had to hand it back within two weeks (library policy when there's a big waiting list - and I'm a very slow reader), so I bought by own copy from Amazon - it was only £3.89 with free postage - very cheap high quality entertainment I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 18 May, 2009, 09:13:14 pm
Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, by Dan Gardner

Interesting reading so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 18 May, 2009, 09:30:12 pm
I'm reading Christopher Brookmyre for the first time, having had him recommended by several people.

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil.

I'm only a few chapters in and if anyone has read it can you tell me if Robbie turns out to be behind the murders - if he does then please let me know so I can stop reading now. Even if he isn't I'm not sure I want to go on because if he isn't then the set up will be nearly as obvious.

Can you tell I'm not convinced.



Brookmyre's books tend to be quite hard to get into, then they pick up suddenly around halfway in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 18 May, 2009, 10:27:25 pm
The seeds of time - a collection of short stories by John Wyndham (of the Triffids fame).

Some of them are basic troubles with the Martians fayre, but most are jolly good - taking about as long to read as a good soak in the bath  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 18 May, 2009, 10:34:21 pm
death of grass, by John Christopher (real name Samuel Youd, apparently). 

A brutal story of global apocolypse, murder, rape, civil breakdown, nukes and potatoes, written in 1956 and probably more striking because of it.

It'd been on the shelf for ages then the swine flu scare reminded me it was there and I couldnt put it down.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 18 May, 2009, 10:37:31 pm
Ooh I really want to read that since hearing it serialised on radio 4. Let us know what you think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 18 May, 2009, 10:44:57 pm
Yes, the Radio 4 version was good (but very violent & brutal, for Radio 4), but I thought that it felt very abridged.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 May, 2009, 11:23:01 pm
Thanks guys last time I tried to buy a copy it was out of print buy now it is a Penguin Classic. Yay !
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 May, 2009, 04:41:52 pm
The Death of Grass was one of my favourites as a kid... I need to read it again too.

I'm reading What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn at the moment - in terms of both theme (basically, the UK's surveillance society) and atmosphere, it has a lot in common with Andrea Arnold's film, Red Road.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 19 May, 2009, 06:50:05 pm
I'm currently reading The Cellist of Sarajevo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cellist-Sarajevo-Steven-Galloway/dp/1843547414/ref=sr_1_1/278-9849952-6649124?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242754827&sr=8-1), by Steven Galloway. I got the book for my birthday and didn't have any idea what it was about until I started reading, but it's brilliant. It follows the story of three people during the siege of the city in the '90s, giving their thoughts about surviving and the affects it has had on their lives. Due to the very minimal amount of dialog used throughout the text, the style remains me of Ian McEwan.

On a different matter, I hadn't heard of Samuel Youd until reading this thread and I'll now have to hunt down a copy of The Death of Grass, so thanks for that recommendation :thumbsup:.


I am currently reading From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Holy_Mountain) by William Dalrymple ...
That is a brilliant book - there are some books which stay with you for the rest of your life and this is one  :thumbsup:
Yip, I imagine I'll remember that book for a long time. The only other book by Dalrymple that I've read is In Xanadu, which I also thought was fantastic but more in the travel literature sense, whereas From the Holy Mountain was far more thought provoking. I'm now looking forward to reading some of his other works.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 May, 2009, 11:48:48 am
Put Hitler on hold last night while I ripped through Bloodthirsty by Marshall Karp - 'tis the sequel to The Rabbit Factory and jolly good it is too.  As I didn't start reading it until shortly after midnight, I am currently having to use matchsticks to keep my eyes open.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 May, 2009, 09:31:57 am
Electricity by Victoria Glendinning.

It's been on my must-read pile for something like ten years, and I've finally got round to picking it up... and I'm completely and utterly hooked. Only about a third of the way through so far, but if the rest of it is only half as good as what I've read so far, that's still pretty damn brilliant. I was expecting something more along the Peter Ackroyd lines, but this is much "warmer" than his stuff, and unlike Ackroyd where the historical setting is the driving force behind the novel, here it seems to be used mainly to provide a metaphor for the emotional development of its heorine. It's also a lot funnier than I was expecting. Not to mention erotic, albeit in a very cerebral way.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 21 May, 2009, 04:15:43 pm
White Tiger .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 21 May, 2009, 06:16:48 pm
I'm currently reading The Cellist of Sarajevo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cellist-Sarajevo-Steven-Galloway/dp/1843547414/ref=sr_1_1/278-9849952-6649124?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242754827&sr=8-1), by Steven Galloway. I got the book for my birthday and didn't have any idea what it was about until I started reading, but it's brilliant. It follows the story of three people during the siege of the city in the '90s, giving their thoughts about surviving and the affects it has had on their lives. Due to the very minimal amount of dialog used throughout the text, the style remains me of Ian McEwan.



I've just started that too!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 22 May, 2009, 03:09:29 am
Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell. This thread inspired me to read more Orwell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 May, 2009, 10:38:19 am
Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell. This thread inspired me to read more Orwell.

One of my favourites... I was just up in Jura last week, at a little seminar to remember and think about Nineteen Eighty-Four. He write it up there whilst dying of TB.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 May, 2009, 11:01:50 am
Coincidentally, D&OIP&L is next-but-one on my must-read pile. Should I be looking forward to it?

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 May, 2009, 11:30:56 am
Coincidentally, D&OIP&L is next-but-one on my must-read pile. Should I be looking forward to it?

I think so, yes. I recommend that you read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast immediately afterwards too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 23 May, 2009, 01:56:39 am
Coincidentally, D&OIP&L is next-but-one on my must-read pile. Should I be looking forward to it?

d.


Having just finished it, I would say yes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 May, 2009, 11:45:42 am
Amazon have just delivered my copy of Death of Grass. It will be my reading material for my trip to Luxembourg next week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 24 May, 2009, 05:50:47 pm
"No Picnic on Mt. Kenya", the story of a group of Italian POW's who escape from a British POW camp during WWII, make a serious attempt on Mt. Kenya using home made equipment from materials scavenged from around the POW camp, and then return to the prison camp. Apparently they made it to the lower of the two summits at 16,300 ft.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 24 May, 2009, 06:24:01 pm
"No Picnic on Mt. Kenya", the story of a group of Italian POW's who escape from a British POW camp during WWII, make a serious attempt on Mt. Kenya using home made equipment from materials scavenged from around the POW camp, and then return to the prison camp. Apparently they made it to the lower of the two summits at 16,300 ft.
Were they Alpini?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 24 May, 2009, 07:27:15 pm
Were they Alpini?

No, just a handful of ordinary prisoners who got fed up with prison camp life and put the whole thing together as a way to stay busy until the war ended. A former Alpini acted as an advisor during the planning stages, but he was disabled by leg injuries and unable to take part in the escape and climb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mr endon on 24 May, 2009, 07:30:41 pm
The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience
by Francisco J Varela (Author), Evan Thompson (Author)
Yes, I'm deep.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mr endon on 24 May, 2009, 07:32:59 pm
Oh, and
 Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep by Celia and McCreery Green (Author)
Deeper still.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mr endon on 24 May, 2009, 07:34:45 pm
I forgot to mention
Lights Out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London
by Iain Sinclair.
Bit of light relief.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 25 May, 2009, 10:54:52 am
That is far from Ian Sinclair's best though IMHO. I reckon he's been going steadily downhill since Downriver and perhaps even since he stopped writing poetry...

I liked Varela's earlier work with Maturana... incidentally, I've just finished an interesting first contact sf novel by Peter Watts called Blindsight which is heavily based in contemporary evolutionary neurobiology. I found Roger Penrose hard enough, but he recommends a German philosopher called Thomas Metzinger's Being No-One as the toughest (but most important) thing he's ever read... that sounds like a challenge, but luckily Metzinger has just written a version for the lay reader (i.e. me!) called The EGO Tunnel, which I now have on order.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 May, 2009, 02:22:49 am
Boy Racer by Mark Cavendish

I'm not normally one for autobiographies, especially not of 23-year-olds who are so clearly still in the early stages of both their life and their career, but a review copy was sent to the office so I picked it up to start reading on the train home tonight.

It has a slightly quirky structure - each chapter seems to be based loosely around a stage in last year's Tour de France, but the description of each stage is really just a starting point for a digression into anecdotes about his childhood. The hand of the ghost writer is all too visible.

Most of the personal reminiscences are pretty boring (he's not a likeable fellow and really hasn't done anything of interest outside cycling) but the racing itself is mostly well described and even pretty gripping in places - especially since it's all so recent and some of the action is still very fresh in my mind.

I'm not going to recommend you all rush out and buy it, but it's quite passable as a light read if you're interested in the tedious detail of the life of a professional cyclist.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 29 May, 2009, 04:13:01 pm
Mark Beaumont : The Man Who Cycled The World

Mark Beaumont Book (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=19486.0)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 30 May, 2009, 08:34:06 pm
Finished A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil. Not impressed. Some funny scenes but...

Now reading Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr.

Only two short chapters in but liking it so far. Surprising because it was recommended by Mrs ChrisO and our literary tastes rarely converge from about the 1920s onwards.

Very Raymond Chandleresque but not so obvious as to be simply a copy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hummers on 30 May, 2009, 09:24:09 pm
Just finished Darker Domain by Val McDermid. Had me gripped up to the last page even though I suspected how it might end.

Also just read Revelation by C. J. Samson and although I thought it got a bit tatty at the end, his portrayal of England in the 1500s was interesting and thought provoking.

H
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 07 June, 2009, 06:47:22 pm
"The Rape of Nanking", by Iris Chang. Very grim reading, and the depiction of Japanese society in the early 20th century is really unsettling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moloko on 07 June, 2009, 06:52:14 pm
Oh, and
 Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep by Celia and McCreery Green (Author)
Deeper still.

Lucid dreaming is great, the actual dreaming that is. I can't do it really much anymore because of the medication I'm taking.
But it's great having a certain control over your dreams, especially when it comes to flying and elevating.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 07 June, 2009, 06:52:51 pm
"Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 June, 2009, 07:30:45 pm
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling. Great stuff. It is remarkable how well the future society he depicts has held up (despite the fact that they all use tape! he wasn't always such a good 'futurist' as he claims to be now). What is interesting is how un-cyberpunk it all is and how traditional. Despite him being the chronicler of the sub-genre, it seems clear now that he didn't really start writing cyberpunk stuff until some time after people like Gibson and Shirley had set the course ahead... and to me Gibson's world of people living in the margins of an info-saturated characterised by species extinction, urban terrorism, failing tech and overcrowded arcologies still seems far more imminent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 07 June, 2009, 07:46:23 pm
Ballard.

He was the pioneer of near future distopia, before "cyberpunk" was even used as a name for it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 June, 2009, 08:11:42 pm
Ballard.

He was the pioneer of near future distopia, before "cyberpunk" was even used as a name for it.

Ballard didn't really think of himself of a dystopian, nor was he 'cyberpunk' - inner space was his famous term for what he was interested in - the alienated psychology of modern society. He wasn't really that bothered about technological sociopolitics - the key characteristic of cyberpunk... He was, however, one of my favourite writers by some distance.

If you want some cyberpunk precursors, John Brunner is far more in a direct line. Vernor Vinge also famously came up with something like the Internet before Gibson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 08 June, 2009, 10:14:03 am
The Discovery of France - Graham Robb

A really interesting if dense book. Did you know for instance that in the middle of the 19th century only 50% of the French population had French as a first language ? Graham Robb has spent years cycling round France and is also a scholar of French subjects. The book doesn't really talk about his cycling but is a fascination account of how the modern state of France became what it is today. It's filled with details about the way of life in France in the past and reveals how many of our and the French's pre conceptions about their past and traditions are quite wrong. Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 13 June, 2009, 04:39:44 pm
The Damned United.  No, I haven't seen the film, nor am I into football, but Cloughie was an interesting character. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 13 June, 2009, 04:41:04 pm
The Damned United.  No, I haven't seen the film, nor am I into football, but Cloughie was an interesting character. 

and David Peace is a very good writer indeed. He's living in Japan now, and Tokyo Year Zero, the first book he's written there, is excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 13 June, 2009, 05:07:41 pm
"How To Be Good" by Nick Hornby

Which may end up being in the bin if it does not improve in the next ten pages.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 14 June, 2009, 03:30:22 pm
"Being Good" by Nick Hornby

Which may end up being in the bin if it does not improve in the next ten pages.

If you've got past the words "Nick Hornby" on the cover, you've got further than I'd ever have got before it ended up in the bin.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 14 June, 2009, 05:28:18 pm
"Being Good" by Nick Hornby

Which may end up being in the bin if it does not improve in the next ten pages.

I was left wondering if I'd missed out on buying Volume II containing the plot and story.

Finished it though, eventually. Can't remember anything about it, which isn't a good sign at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 14 June, 2009, 05:28:43 pm
Re-reading 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula Le Guin  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 14 June, 2009, 05:35:12 pm
"Being Good" by Nick Hornby

Which may end up being in the bin if it does not improve in the next ten pages.

I was left wondering if I'd missed out on buying Volume II containing the plot and story.

Finished it though, eventually. Can't remember anything about it, which isn't a good sign at all.
Bin it is.

It was that "meh" that I couldnt even remember the tittle properly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 June, 2009, 12:17:17 pm
"Being Good" by Nick Hornby

Which may end up being in the bin if it does not improve in the next ten pages.

I was left wondering if I'd missed out on buying Volume II containing the plot and story.

Finished it though, eventually. Can't remember anything about it, which isn't a good sign at all.

I finished it but I cannot believe that it was particularly brilliant. In fact I can't say that I could sign up to the Nick Hornby fan club.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 June, 2009, 12:19:04 pm
Current reading 'Great Tales from English History' by Robert Lacey. Not bad so far, but it is a dipping into kind of book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 15 June, 2009, 12:23:06 pm
Since last posting, my reading includes -
Matter - Iain Banks
The Polish Officer - Alan Furst
The Blue-eyed Salaryman - Niall Murtagh
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennet

And currently -
The Silk Road - Sven Hedin
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 June, 2009, 12:31:41 pm
Does anyone here use Librarything (http://www.librarything.com)? I signed up to it last week (my profile (http://www.librarything.com/profile/widdersbel)) - the main thing that appealed to me about it is that it can point you to people with similar reading tastes as you, so you can get inspiration for what to read next. That's the idea, anyway - its recommendation algorithms seem a little rudimentary. Maybe I just need to add more books to my list to get the best out of it.

d.
 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 15 June, 2009, 12:35:01 pm
I'm part-way through some large tome about Eddie Merckx. It's not making me cycle any faster.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 15 June, 2009, 03:10:29 pm
The integral of the Borg Mystery, part of the Guy Lefranc adventures (Comics).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 16 June, 2009, 05:24:08 pm
I'm part-way through some large tome about Eddie Merckx. It's not making me cycle any faster.
Take it out of the pannier bag, less weight :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 16 June, 2009, 09:40:42 pm
Stephen Fry "In America" - thoroughly entertaining  :) I consider my vocabulary to be reasonably good but he has had me stumped on several occasions now, and I'm only in Delaware...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 19 June, 2009, 03:36:47 pm
The Watchmen

It didnt grab me at first as I have never been a fan of the illustrator, I found his work a bit "meh" back when I was younger and read 2000AD

Stick with it though and you soon forget that its not as good as some other graphic novels in the art department and you get carried away by the narrative.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 June, 2009, 05:08:54 pm
The Watchmen

It didnt grab me at first as I have never been a fan of the illustrator, I found his work a bit "meh" back when I was younger and read 2000AD

Stick with it though and you soon forget that its not as good as some other graphic novels in the art department and you get carried away by the narrative.

It's not only me then... I almost can't stand Gibbons' work, but Moore's writing carries it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 June, 2009, 05:10:49 pm
Re-reading 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula Le Guin  :)

What a great book, in fact what a great writer. I love almost everything she has ever written whether it be fantasy, SF or more mainstream writing...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 19 June, 2009, 06:22:09 pm
"Being Good" by Nick Hornby

Which may end up being in the bin if it does not improve in the next ten pages.

I was left wondering if I'd missed out on buying Volume II containing the plot and story.

Finished it though, eventually. Can't remember anything about it, which isn't a good sign at all.

I THINK I've read Being Good, but like you, I can barely remember it! (The one about the failed suicidists is similar)

Whearas I adored Fever Pitch and High Fidelity (the latter made a good film - can't go wrong with that Cusack fella).

Can't help liking Hornby despite his patchy writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 20 June, 2009, 12:33:13 am
Re-reading 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula Le Guin  :)

What a great book, in fact what a great writer. I love almost everything she has ever written whether it be fantasy, SF or more mainstream writing...
+1. One of my favourites. The Left Hand of Darkness is another one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 20 June, 2009, 09:26:27 pm
Re-reading 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula Le Guin  :)

What a great book, in fact what a great writer. I love almost everything she has ever written whether it be fantasy, SF or more mainstream writing...
+1. One of my favourites. The Left Hand of Darkness is another one.

+2. A wonderful writer, although I don't recall enjoying the Earthsea books when I read them at school. They were much better the second time round.

I  failed to finish Samuel Delany's "Triton" at age 14/15, although some of the characters and imagery have stuck with me.  I'm now plunging into "Dhalgren", I've a feeling I may be some time....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 21 June, 2009, 11:39:10 pm
Just finished Wrong About Japan, by Peter Carey.
Just started Passages from Arabia Deserta by Charles Doughty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 June, 2009, 07:04:49 am
I'm now plunging into "Dhalgren", I've a feeling I may be some time....

Good luck! During that period, Delaney was trying to be the James Joyce of SF... it's baffling and hard work, but worthwhile, I reckon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 22 June, 2009, 08:39:53 am
Tintin au Pays des Soviets, a re-edition bought in Belgium last week. Interesting on several grounds: (1) for the very simple and biased view of the revolution in Russia and (2) for the naivity of the storyline, characters and B&W drawings (What an evolution in the rest of the work, in particular past Tintin au Congo!).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 June, 2009, 04:29:05 pm
I'm reading David Crystal's The Stories of English right now. It is actually a good read as well as being interesting and well-researched.

I just finsihed China Mieville's new one, The City and The City, which is much more like a combination of noir detective story and Jan Morris's Hav tales than his previous urban fantasies. It is very well written and plays with some similar ideas about consensus and reality, but I was left a little bit disappointed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 22 June, 2009, 05:05:47 pm
Quote
I just finsihed China Mieville's new one, The City and The City

Does this mean you rate his other work? I've often thought to try but not got round to it yet  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 22 June, 2009, 05:38:26 pm
I'm reading David Crystal's The Stories of English right now. It is actually a good read as well as being interesting and well-researched.

I just finsihed China Mieville's new one, The City and The City, which is much more like a combination of noir detective story and Jan Morris's Hav tales than his previous urban fantasies. It is very well written and plays with some similar ideas about consensus and reality, but I was left a little bit disappointed.

I didn't know that had been released. Just ordered it from Amazon. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 June, 2009, 09:55:39 pm
Quote
I just finsihed China Mieville's new one, The City and The City

Does this mean you rate his other work? I've often thought to try but not got round to it yet  :-\

Perdido Street Station and The Scar are dark, brilliant urban fantasy and absolutely all over the place to the point and packed with invention where he just seems to give up and run out of steam rather than end them in any recognisable way. But very much worth reading, yes. Iron Council is well, a political analogy looking for a novel and it gets a bit wearying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 June, 2009, 08:21:15 pm
"Endurance", by Alfred Lansing, about Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic adventure. I read it quite some time ago and decided to go through it again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 June, 2009, 12:15:44 am
Whearas I adored Fever Pitch and High Fidelity (the latter made a good film - can't go wrong with that Cusack fella).

OTOH, TWFKAML says that "High Fidelity" is the only fillum in the history of all things evah, that she's left before the end (though The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover apparently came close).  Nowt to do with John Cusack, coz Grosse Point Blank is bexelant.

Still grinding through Hitler: 1936 - 1945 - Nemesis (and yes, Clarion, you don't need to give the ending away), while also toying with Dylan On Dylan and re-reading Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One for the first time in longer than I'd care to admit.  Yes, of course I robbed it from skool - that's why it's got 35 year old illegible notes pencilled in the margins.  Simon Hobday and/or Alan Coates: you are vandal, as Brandon Flowers - titanic prick though he be - might have said.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 30 June, 2009, 08:58:07 am
I've just finished CJ Sansom's 'Dissolution'.  Unfortunately, I picked up 'Sovereign' first, then 'Dark Fire' and finally found a copy o 'Dissolution' meaning that I have read the books in reverse order... :-[ - but they were still good.

I've got the fourth in the series waiting downstairs for me - but I have to do some work before settling down with it.

I can recommend this series if you like historically based murder mysteries.  These books are Tudor versions of  Cadfael's...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 July, 2009, 07:42:36 am
Just finished Peter Ackroyd's The House of Doctor Dee. He did seem to churn these past/present London occult figure collision novels out for a while (see also Hawksmoor, Chatterton etc.), and this one sometimes just seems like he's writing and rewriting a London historical A to Z. There are some patches are rather wonderful ecstatic writing, but it isn't a successful novel IMHO. I like mine a bit more daring than this, and my favourites in this genre, if you can call it a genre, are Tim Power's The Anubis Gates and Simon Ing's unjustifiably ignored Weight of Numbers (which is a bit like Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon but more disturbing and much better written).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 July, 2009, 04:43:42 pm
I am almost ashamed to admit that I have just finished Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind by Virginia Andrews and am just starting If There Be Thorns. I never read them when I was younger so I'm doing it now. Gosh, they're melodramatic faux-Gothic nonsense!  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Manotea on 04 July, 2009, 04:47:04 pm
Whearas I adored Fever Pitch and High Fidelity (the latter made a good film - can't go wrong with that Cusack fella).

I loved the first page of Fever Pitch. I have moments like that about cycling...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 04 July, 2009, 05:20:32 pm
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 04 July, 2009, 09:04:49 pm
Just started getting into Philip K. Dick's works - I recently read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and I've just started on The Man In The High Castle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 04 July, 2009, 09:08:26 pm
The first is outstanding

The second is the best book about the real nature of evil that you will ever read.

It should be required reading for all politicians.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 06 July, 2009, 01:15:16 am
Abso-damn-lutely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 06 July, 2009, 12:20:58 pm
'The Last King of Scotland' by Giles Foden
Have barely put it down  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 07 July, 2009, 11:01:41 pm
I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and found it to be a magnificent book.  It was like sitting in a grand cathedral or place of beauty and allowing one's senses to be filled with the feast upon display.  I didn't find the ending especially uplifting, but I adored the details of life after.

Currently reading Moby Dick.  I should have read it 20 years ago, but my uncle borrowed it and has yet to return it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 11 July, 2009, 09:25:06 pm
Just finished "the Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek.  A comedy about a simpleton soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during the Great War.  I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't heard of this classic until the Radio 4 dramatisation last year.  A precursor in many ways to Catch 22,  Hasek died (long) before he could finish the story - Svejk doesn't even get as far as the front after 800 pages!  Some truly memorable episodes and characters.  Highly recommended to lovers of "silly" stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 11 July, 2009, 10:52:03 pm
Finished (a week ago) St Exupery's Flight to Arras, which was a pretty interesting read (reflections on a pointless 1940 reconnaissance flight that he and his crew were not expected to survive) and have now picked up Jonathan Weiner's The Beak of the Finch to reread after a gap of several years. It's a popular-science account of the work of Peter & Rosemary Grant on Darwin's finches - and halfway through is as interesting and well-written as I remember it.

EDIT:  It should be  - it won a Pulitzer. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 12 July, 2009, 12:30:09 pm
I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and found it to be a magnificent book.  It was like sitting in a grand cathedral or place of beauty and allowing one's senses to be filled with the feast upon display.  I didn't find the ending especially uplifting, but I adored the details of life after.

Currently reading Moby Dick.  I should have read it 20 years ago, but my uncle borrowed it and has yet to return it.

Spooky!Just fininshing McCarthy's Blood Meridian and, inspired by watching the whales at Cape Cod,  about to move onto Melville as well.

Blood Meridian is gory and almost as bleak as The Road.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 12 July, 2009, 07:11:02 pm
I'll have to read more by McCarthy.  I think there's a copy of All the Pretty Horses somewhere in the house.

Moby Dick is engrossing, so far.  A very dense read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 13 July, 2009, 01:51:03 pm
Just started getting into Philip K. Dick's works - I recently read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and I've just started on The Man In The High Castle.

Don't miss 'Now wait for last year'. Much underrated.

I'm reading Moorock's "Dancers at the End of Time".

Can't believe I've overlooked this for so many years. If you've read Moorock's 'emo elf swordsman' books, forget them. This is totally different, absolutely barking and fantastic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 15 July, 2009, 12:01:05 am
Just finished Christopher Brookmyre's "A Snowball in Hell".

Tick, v.g.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mike r on 15 July, 2009, 12:59:22 am
I'm in the middle of 'A Passage to India' by E. M. Forster.
It is quite good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 15 July, 2009, 02:17:42 am
I'm reading Moorock's "Dancers at the End of Time".

Can't believe I've overlooked this for so many years. If you've read Moorock's 'emo elf swordsman' books, forget them. This is totally different, absolutely barking and fantastic.

Moorcock can and has churned out vast numbers of books without much regard for whether they are any good or not. Luckily some of them are, and the Dancers books are some of them.

Read 'Mother London' if you want to see what he can do when he makes a real effort. It is a better London book than either Sinclair or Ackroyd have ever done.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 15 July, 2009, 09:29:57 am
My copy of  Bloody Victory by William Philpott   http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/Title/9781408701089 (http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/Title/9781408701089) hit the doormat with a thud yesterday. It has good reviews , has anybody read it yet ?

(http://www.yudu.com/item_files/28169/52eadfed3/regards.jpg)(http://www.yudu.com/item_files/28170/346c719a5/from.jpg)(http://www.yudu.com/item_files/28171/5eb32df38/snakehips.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 15 July, 2009, 01:42:43 pm
Preview copy of ‘Pandaemonium’ the new book by Christopher Brookmyre.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 July, 2009, 06:20:34 pm
I'm reading David Crystal's The Stories of English right now. It is actually a good read as well as being interesting and well-researched.

Following your recommendation, I have ordered a copy to take on holiday with me. Looking forward to it.

I'm also going to take Lempriere's Dictionary (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lemprieres-Dictionary-Lawrence-Norfolk/dp/0749398191) - I had a stab at it a few years ago but didn't really have a chance to get stuck into it, but I'm determined to do some proper reading on this holiday now that the offspring is old enough to mostly look after himself. Will probably take something a bit lighter too as back-up - I've not read any of his stuff before, but based on the comments here, Christopher Brookmyre sounds like an interesting possibility.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Manotea on 15 July, 2009, 06:53:31 pm
Just started getting into Philip K. Dick's works - I recently read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and I've just started on The Man In The High Castle.
See also 'The  Galactic Pothealer'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 15 July, 2009, 10:02:34 pm
Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which I find hard to read because I have been told that it was a serious book about war an death and somewhat a bit like 1984.

But it is so funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 15 July, 2009, 11:02:30 pm
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 15 July, 2009, 11:23:26 pm
Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which I find hard to read because I have been told that it was a serious book about war an death and somewhat a bit like 1984.

But it is so funny.

I've got Closing Time by Joseph Heller that is kind of a sequel that I've never managed to finish if you want to borrow it.

The Samurai by Shusaku Endo is the next in my pile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Spinners on 16 July, 2009, 07:35:05 pm
The damned united - first few chapters have been very absorbing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 16 July, 2009, 09:13:04 pm
HMS Rodney at War.
My stepfather's father was Chief Buffer on board for 8 years including WWII
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 17 July, 2009, 12:47:16 am
I just finished reading Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. It's an investigation into America's fastest growing mercenary company. It's all very worthy and there are a lot of eye-opening things, but it is rather badly written and very repetitive, as if he was trying to stretch out four or five long magazine articles (which i think he was...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 17 July, 2009, 01:02:25 am
I just finished reading Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. It's an investigation into America's fastest growing mercenary company. It's all very worthy and there are a lot of eye-opening things, but it is rather badly written and very repetitive, as if he was trying to stretch out four or five long magazine articles (which i think he was...)

Maybe he'e got a baby on the way, and his publisher's cutting him some slack.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 18 July, 2009, 10:57:10 pm
I just finished reading Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. It's an investigation into America's fastest growing mercenary company. It's all very worthy and there are a lot of eye-opening things, but it is rather badly written and very repetitive, as if he was trying to stretch out four or five long magazine articles (which i think he was...)
The US government used those numpties to restore order in New Orleans

That's right, they set trigger happy mercs on their own citizens.

 >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 July, 2009, 12:33:58 am
I just finished reading Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. It's an investigation into America's fastest growing mercenary company. It's all very worthy and there are a lot of eye-opening things, but it is rather badly written and very repetitive, as if he was trying to stretch out four or five long magazine articles (which i think he was...)

Maybe he'e got a baby on the way, and his publisher's cutting him some slack.

Seeing as this is currently my situation, I can see how that would affect the time you might need to write it, but not the product - and it is more likely to be the postnatal situation that would affect you more.

It's probably the publisher's fault as much as the author's - no-one seems to employ proper editors these days. Editors used to be crucial. There was a great article in the NYT Magazine a few years back about Raymond Carver and his editor - it turns out that without the latter, Carver would not have the reputation for sparse, economic writing that he does. A lot of this was down to the way the editor cut his stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 July, 2009, 12:23:26 pm
Skin Tight ~ Carl Hiaasen, having polished off Tourist Season yesterday.  If you like Hiaasen, try Marshall Karp.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 20 July, 2009, 02:06:07 pm
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)

The one niggling thing is that the blurb on the back of the book contains some significant spoilers about stuff that doesn't happen until half-way through, which means that you read the first half of the book thinking

(click to show/hide)

...which is a shame, as it ruined a couple of bits that the writer had intended to shock the reader.  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 July, 2009, 03:17:35 pm
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)

The other niggling thing is that the film version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" has been released just about everywhere except the UK and Captain Cook's Mistake.  TWFKAML is righteously cross about this...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 20 July, 2009, 03:20:23 pm
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)

The other niggling thing is that the film version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" has been released just about everywhere except the UK and Captain Cook's Mistake.  TWFKAML is righteously cross about this...

Isn't that because it's a swedish film, and the lucky old ENGLISH-speaking world is going to get a Hollywood remake so we don't have to stress our poor little branes reading all those tricky subtitles?

 ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 July, 2009, 03:31:56 pm
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)

The other niggling thing is that the film version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" has been released just about everywhere except the UK and Captain Cook's Mistake.  TWFKAML is righteously cross about this...

Isn't that because it's a swedish film, and the lucky old ENGLISH-speaking world is going to get a Hollywood remake so we don't have to stress our poor little branes reading all those tricky subtitles?

 ::-)

Indeedy.  TWFKAML is equally cross about the non-availability of DVDs of the Swedish TV production of "Wallander".  If anyone knows from whence it can be obtained in the original Swedish and with English sub-titles...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 21 July, 2009, 12:21:17 am
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)

The other niggling thing is that the film version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" has been released just about everywhere except the UK and Captain Cook's Mistake.  TWFKAML is righteously cross about this...

Isn't that because it's a swedish film, and the lucky old ENGLISH-speaking world is going to get a Hollywood remake so we don't have to stress our poor little branes reading all those tricky subtitles?

 ::-)

Indeedy.  TWFKAML is equally cross about the non-availability of DVDs of the Swedish TV production of "Wallander".  If anyone knows from whence it can be obtained in the original Swedish and with English sub-titles...

Don't know about DVDs but they're showing the Swedish Wallander series at the moment on BBC4. Mondays at 9.00pm. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 21 July, 2009, 09:13:25 am
I've picked up Terry Southern's 'The Magic Christian' off a bookshelf at work.  It's a bit annoying, but a slim volume, so I'll probably stick with it.

I believe the film was quite a cult, but I'd not heard of it before I saw the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 21 July, 2009, 09:51:19 am
I have finally got a copy of one of my absolute favourite books in the entire world, Kyoichi Tsuzuki's Universe for Rent, which is just a huge collection of annotated photographs of a whole variety of assorted people's tiny appartments in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Just fab.

I am also starting Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I had somehow missed out on when it first came out...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 21 July, 2009, 10:16:18 am
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)


Finished reading it. It was good, but

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 21 July, 2009, 10:35:01 am
HA, thought you'd catch me out again, eh? Well this time I'm not going to click your silly old spoiler. I shall be strong. :D

One thing that's annoying me just a little. In the classic cheesy old spy thrillers there was tons of product placement, but it didn't take itself too seriously: "Bond flicked the Saab 900 Turbo into third and felt the full 18psi of the Garret Airesearch type IV turbocharger kick his Gieves & Hawkes-upholstered behind." But it gets a bit much when Salander goes and buys a 'Tromsoe' duvet cover, four 'Kiruna' lampshades and a 'Namsos' tablecloth, and some 'Goteborg' cutlery to put on it. I feel like I should have been issued with a complementary Ikea catalogue for reference purposes.  

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 21 July, 2009, 10:37:51 am
Was that product placement or just overuse of signifiers?  I don't know if Fleming got supplies of Aston Martins or Louis Vuitton luggage (nor Toot-sweets, for that matter ;D)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 21 July, 2009, 10:46:28 am
I suspect you're right - I doubt Larsson was getting any Ikea kickbacks either. But rather than Saussure's conventional Signifier I think they function more as Peirce's immediate Interpretants: the Representamen as an act of signification.

Either way, they're overdone.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 21 July, 2009, 10:56:27 am
... But rather than Saussure's conventional Signifier I think they function more as Peirce's immediate Interpretants: the Representamen as an act of signification. ...

Game, Set & Match to Jezza!* ;D







* noted Bond, wiping the sweat from the handle of his Slazenger racquet, and checking the time on his Oris watch, before changing into a Saville Row suit with a Jermyn Street shirt and tie, the outfit complemented perfectly by a pair of flipflops from Primark...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 21 July, 2009, 12:27:46 pm
Just finished 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse  - I have more time for her writing than Dan 'I am going to lecture at you throughout the entire book' Brown.

The problem I had with Mosse's writing is that there can be too much information and the french/occitan translation to words and phrases that it feels awfully burdened. Good tale though.

Next : Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 22 July, 2009, 10:41:44 am
I've picked up Terry Southern's 'The Magic Christian' off a bookshelf at work.  It's a bit annoying, but a slim volume, so I'll probably stick with it.

I believe the film was quite a cult, but I'd not heard of it before I saw the book.

OK.  I've finished it, and looked into it a bit.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW

Terry Southern was the writer of Dr Strangelove, Barbarella and various other films.  He seems to have majored on outrage.

The novel is a series of short chapters, each of which starts with a narrative of a (single) afternoon tea with the main character's maiden aunts, jumping to a tale of a situationist-style prank set up by the extraordinarily rich protagonist. 

The film seems (from the list of characters) to insert additional events, and invents a character for Ringo Starr to play.  Peter Sellers is the star, and various Pythons and British comic actors appear in minor roles.

Not sure what to make of it, really.  Is it a satire on wealth, on greed, on religion?  Or just a game of the imagination? 

Anyone who has read/seen it I'd be interested in your views.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 22 July, 2009, 05:46:44 pm
Just finished 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse  - I have more time for her writing than Dan 'I am going to lecture at you throughout the entire book' Brown.

The problem I had with Mosse's writing is that there can be too much information and the french/occitan translation to words and phrases that it feels awfully burdened. Good tale though.

Next : Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.  :thumbsup:
Dan Brown is pot boiling keyboard monkey impersonating a best selling author.

By Christ he writes airport novel trash, mostly about Christ.

Someone lent me the Da Vinci Code - 3 hours of my life I will never get back - I returned it and said "that was just a bit of trash with some art history and religion thrown in to make it seem worthy". She who lent it said "I know".

Then why tell me to read it!

Women...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 July, 2009, 02:06:05 pm
Just finished 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse  - I have more time for her writing than Dan 'I am going to lecture at you throughout the entire book' Brown.

The problem I had with Mosse's writing is that there can be too much information and the french/occitan translation to words and phrases that it feels awfully burdened. Good tale though.

Next : Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.  :thumbsup:
Dan Brown is pot boiling keyboard monkey impersonating a best selling author.

By Christ he writes airport novel trash, mostly about Christ.

Someone lent me the Da Vinci Code - 3 hours of my life I will never get back - I returned it and said "that was just a bit of trash with some art history and religion thrown in to make it seem worthy". She who lent it said "I know".

Then why tell me to read it!

Women...

Well when I read it on my honeymoon, I came back to the office to discover that one of the secretaries was reading it, I said 'its good nonsense isn't it' and she gave me this horrified look and said 'but it makes such a lot of sense, why would you say its nonsense?'. Turns out that quite a lot of people that I have spoken to thinks that his theories are extremely persuadable... ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 24 July, 2009, 09:38:35 am
This morning, I read 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' (yes, I'm still trudging through it, and it's still good) on the tube, and 'Vet In A Spin' while I was brewing coffee ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 25 July, 2009, 09:48:45 pm

(click to show/hide)

I completely agree. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 27 July, 2009, 07:57:03 pm
Just finished 'Mrs Dalloway' (by Virginia Woolf) in time for discussion at the Book Group tomorrow. I absolutely loved it. The way she describes people and places just jangles along on a natural pace, a lot of authors write description as filler at times and you find yourself jumping to the next paragraph. Highly recommended  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: domesticated ape on 27 July, 2009, 09:19:46 pm
I just finished Michael Cunningham's 'The Hours', and now I feel I have to read Mrs Dalloway too as The Hours is based on/around it. Glad to hear you liked it, I would recommend reading The Hours to you too, if you haven't already.

Just finished 'Mrs Dalloway' (by Virginia Woolf) in time for discussion at the Book Group tomorrow. I absolutely loved it. The way she describes people and places just jangles along on a natural pace, a lot of authors write description as filler at times and you find yourself jumping to the next paragraph. Highly recommended  :thumbsup:

As for Dan Brown, I didn't mind The Da Vinci Code, but it did feel like a bog-standard Hollywood thriller, just on paper rather than on film. I can also not look at a church door in the same way again after reading what Brown has to say about them ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 27 July, 2009, 10:55:07 pm
I just finished Michael Cunningham's 'The Hours', and now I feel I have to read Mrs Dalloway too as The Hours is based on/around it. Glad to hear you liked it, I would recommend reading The Hours to you too, if you haven't already.

Just finished 'Mrs Dalloway' (by Virginia Woolf) in time for discussion at the Book Group tomorrow. I absolutely loved it. The way she describes people and places just jangles along on a natural pace, a lot of authors write description as filler at times and you find yourself jumping to the next paragraph. Highly recommended  :thumbsup:

As for Dan Brown, I didn't mind The Da Vinci Code, but it did feel like a bog-standard Hollywood thriller, just on paper rather than on film. I can also not look at a church door in the same way again after reading what Brown has to say about them ;D

Yes I was thrilled when I read those words 'the hours' in Mrs Dalloway and realised that they were related to the title of Michael Cunninghams book. I've seen 'The hours' fillum which was good and it was a bloody brilliant cast too. Thanks for the recommendation  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 July, 2009, 09:56:13 am
I've just finished 'Matter' by Iain M Banks.
I think he's still going soft in his old age.
Iain, if you're reading this, I think you shouldn't have bothered with the epilogue. Just resist the urge next time ok?

Just started 'House of Suns' by Alastair Reynolds, it all seems a bit touchy feely too.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 July, 2009, 10:27:19 am
I've just finished 'Matter' by Iain M Banks.
I think he's still going soft in his old age.

I enjoyed Matter. It was certainly a lot better than his last non-SF work (The Steep Approach to Garbadale)

I just read Murakami Haruki's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Frankly it was disappointing, dull and full of the most banal observations. Without the  surreal imagination of his fiction or the compelling reality of the Aum Shinrikyo attacks that made up his last non-fictional work, he is apparently not a very interesting man. He even says so himself and that's about the most perceptive sentence in the book. And just because you are the Japanese translator of Raymond Carver, it doesn't mean you can borrow and adapt a title of his for any tedious purpose. Carver's taut prose hinted at whole worlds, this book just seems to indicate that most of what is worth knowing about Murakami is in his novels and short stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 July, 2009, 10:34:48 am
Heavier Than Heaven ~ Charles R Cross.  Biography of Kurt Cobain which confirms what I'd suspected all along, viz. the guy was as mad as a whole sett of badgers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 28 July, 2009, 10:36:26 am
Asterix and the Banquet

 :thumbsup:

(I needed a break from At the Mountains of Madness which I'm halfway through)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 July, 2009, 12:09:30 pm
I've just finished 'Matter' by Iain M Banks.
I think he's still going soft in his old age.

I enjoyed Matter. It was certainly a lot better than his last non-SF work (The Steep Approach to Garbadale)
I enjoyed it too, he just seems to have an urge to wrap everything up in a happy ending these days though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 28 July, 2009, 12:30:16 pm

Just started 'House of Suns' by Alastair Reynolds, it all seems a bit touchy feely too.....

It gets (a bit) better, but not as good as the Revelation Space series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 July, 2009, 09:14:49 pm
Was that product placement or just overuse of signifiers?  I don't know if Fleming got supplies of Aston Martins or Louis Vuitton luggage (nor Toot-sweets, for that matter ;D)

OK, this isn't as witty as Jezza's answer but I believe it's fairly well documented that it's just Ian Fleming being a typical nouveau riche snob showing off his acute sense of taste and refinement for the reader's benefit.

It's not just the brand names, it's also things like the particular vintages of wines he mentions and of course the whole "shaken not stirred" thing (which as any counter-snob will tell you is very much the wrong way to make a Martini).

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 July, 2009, 09:33:46 pm
OK, my holiday reading was as follows:

The Sea by John Banville
Well, I had to find out what book could possibly be good enough to beat Arthur & George to the Booker. And maybe I was prejudiced against it because of my love of Julian Barnes, but I didn't really like it. I have to admit that his writing is exquisite - he has a beautiful turn of phrase and his description of people is wonderfully vivid, albeit fairly cartoony. And some of the ideas in the book about memory are interesting in a sub-Proustian kind of way. But I didn't much like the "story" (such as it was) and I saw the two big twists in the end coming a mile off (well, there's a revelation, which wasn't really a revelation to me because I worked it out, and there's an event which I broadly predicted though I didn't guess the detail of it). Still, I'm glad I read it.

Stories Of English by David Crystal
Based on Flying Monkey's recommendation, and its part in discussion in another thread, I thought I'd give this a go. I started off not liking the author's tone - he comes across as an academic trying to rework his thesis for a popular audience, so his attempts to inject humour sometimes have the "dad dancing at a wedding" effect. But I warmed to the book pretty quickly because the subject matter is so damned fascinating. Unfortunately, circumstances meant I couldn't get really stuck into it, and it's pretty dense reading at times so you do need to be able to concentrate on it, so I put it on the back burner and will pick it up again as soon as I have finished...

Homicide by David Simon
Yes, I am a Wire-aholic, so it was inevitable that I'd get around to reading this sooner or later. It's like methadone to The Wire's crack cocaine - a good way to wean yourself off the hard stuff but just as addictive if you're not careful. Utterly compelling, a real page-turner. David Simon has a real gift for picking out the narrative threads and weaving them into a gripping real-life drama. His characterisation is brilliant too, which may sound like a strange thing to say about a documentary work, but it's testament to his descriptive abilities. I have been finding this book very hard to put down, which has lead to complaints from my family that I have been neglecting them over the past few days. This is journalism of the very highest quality.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Séamas M. on 28 July, 2009, 11:57:25 pm
T de F just finished and I have been reading "The Crooked Path To Victory", then "Breaking The Chain" and I haven't quite finished "The Death Of Marco Pantani".

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 29 July, 2009, 01:12:48 am
Just finished "Homage to Catalonia", by George Orwell, his account of his experience in the Spanish Civil War. Very depressing to learn how the various anti-Franco factions threw away their chance at victory with all that infighting. Equally depressing was the number of people who came from all over the world to help the Republican cause, and got thrown in jail and shot by the very people they were trying to help when the various factions turned on each other.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 29 July, 2009, 02:16:34 am
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is really very, very good. Chabon does a fine line in being a Jewish Raymond Chandler, and the the combination of pathos and wisecracking is always well-judged, but the whole subtext and largely implicit alternative history makes for a much more satisfyingly chewy read than your average police procedural. I'll definitely have to look out for his earlier books now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 29 July, 2009, 06:21:06 pm
I've just finished 'Matter' by Iain M Banks.
I think he's still going soft in his old age.

I enjoyed Matter. It was certainly a lot better than his last non-SF work (The Steep Approach to Garbadale)
I enjoyed it too, he just seems to have an urge to wrap everything up in a happy ending these days though.

Just about to start Matter.

Haven't got around to buying The Steep Approach to Garbadale as I didn't think much too of Dead Air (although it's better than I thought it was going to be having read the blurb) - is it worth a read?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 29 July, 2009, 06:38:52 pm
Boy Racer - a good read due in no small part to the breaking up of the story into the framework of the 2008 Tour de France. Gives you a great insight into Cav and what he can and can't do.

The Hungry Cyclist. Tours 10,000 miles through the americas and puts on weight with a series of epic adventures in search of the perfect meal.

Caveman Chemistry. Essential reading if you are suddenly transported onto the set of Rough Science or lost on an island for 10 years and need to make basic stuff like glass, dyes, smelt metal etc..

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 July, 2009, 10:12:30 pm
Just finished reading 'The Thirteenth Tale' by Diane Setterfield. One of those books where you keep on pondering the characters for the days to come. Recommended  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 July, 2009, 11:27:55 pm
Boy Racer - a good read due in no small part to the breaking up of the story into the framework of the 2008 Tour de France. Gives you a great insight into Cav and what he can and can't do.

It's certainly a cleverly structured book (the publisher found him a very good ghost writer), but most of the content is padding - as it necessarily has to be to fill a book of 352 pages when the subject is only 24 years old and not very far into his professional career (and it doesn't even cover this year's Milan-San Remo or Tour de France).

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 July, 2009, 06:45:43 am
Haven't got around to buying The Steep Approach to Garbadale as I didn't think much too of Dead Air (although it's better than I thought it was going to be having read the blurb) - is it worth a read?

It's just The Crow Road over again, but not as good... I think his best non-SF work is the rather underrated Espedair Street. It feels like it meant a bit more to him.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 30 July, 2009, 07:32:25 am
Haven't got around to buying The Steep Approach to Garbadale as I didn't think much too of Dead Air (although it's better than I thought it was going to be having read the blurb) - is it worth a read?

It's just The Crow Road over again, but not as good... I think his best non-SF work is the rather underrated Espedair Street. It feels like it meant a bit more to him.

Steep Approach is probably better than Dead Air, but not as good as his earlier work. My favourite of his non-SF is The Bridge although Espedair Street is a close second. Walking on Glass is also worth a read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 30 July, 2009, 08:51:28 am
Haven't got around to buying The Steep Approach to Garbadale as I didn't think much too of Dead Air (although it's better than I thought it was going to be having read the blurb) - is it worth a read?

It's just The Crow Road over again, but not as good... I think his best non-SF work is the rather underrated Espedair Street. It feels like it meant a bit more to him.

Steep Approach is probably better than Dead Air, but not as good as his earlier work. My favourite of his non-SF is The Bridge although Espedair Street is a close second. Walking on Glass is also worth a read.

The only book I have failed to ever finish was Bank's 'Song of Stone', I really thought it was a pile of poo. Good plot, but crap writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 30 July, 2009, 10:34:26 am
Thanks chaps - I think Steep is going to be a library job if I bother at all. His non-SF stuff has been declining in quality for me book-by-book. My faves are The Wasp Factory, The Bridge & Canal Dreams, all of which I should get around to reading again, assuming I ever get through the pile of books I've got but haven't yet read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 July, 2009, 10:47:33 am
Complicity is my favourite, although I quite like Walking on Glass as well. I think I will have to dig some of the old stuff out and give it a read again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 30 July, 2009, 11:05:12 am
Boy Racer - a good read due in no small part to the breaking up of the story into the framework of the 2008 Tour de France. Gives you a great insight into Cav and what he can and can't do.

It's certainly a cleverly structured book (the publisher found him a very good ghost writer), but most of the content is padding - as it necessarily has to be to fill a book of 352 pages when the subject is only 24 years old and not very far into his professional career (and it doesn't even cover this year's Milan-San Remo or Tour de France).

d.


The structure made it not appear to be overtly padded. I thought it was well paced and a good read - in no small part due to the excellent structure. Unlike some which are far more turgid. If there is an update for next year (after a world champs win? - can a strong enough british team be put together to get MC in contention?) I'd certainly go for it.

I suppose it was a book that just really clicked with me and I enjoyed reading, especially as I have had some interaction with kids now on the Olympic Development Programme.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 July, 2009, 11:06:43 am
I considered buying Boy racer, but I reckoned that there were a few chapters yet unwritten...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 30 July, 2009, 11:07:54 am
Half way through Alastair Reynold's Zima Blue (Moby Dick proving too heavy for airplane/jetlag reading ???) an anthology of short stories/novellas. As with many such compilations it's a bit of a curate's egg but I'm enjoying it overall.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 30 July, 2009, 11:08:18 am
I considered buying Boy racer, but I reckoned that there were a few chapters yet unwritten...

Hopefully most of it...  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 July, 2009, 12:03:52 pm
The structure made it not appear to be overtly padded.

Well, I thought there was lots of fairly trivial and not especially interesting detail that might have been left out if there had been more to write about, but I agree that it was a lot better than many other biogs and certainly a lot better than I was expecting.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 30 July, 2009, 12:46:18 pm
The structure made it not appear to be overtly padded.

Well, I thought there was lots of fairly trivial and not especially interesting detail that might have been left out if there had been more to write about, but I agree that it was a lot better than many other biogs and certainly a lot better than I was expecting.

d.

Wheras I quite liked the detail and minutiae.. To each their own.

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikenerd on 30 July, 2009, 12:55:34 pm
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.  Arthur works in the Raleigh factory making Sturmey Archer hub shells, doesn't he? :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 August, 2009, 02:31:03 pm
The Hungry Cyclist. Tours 10,000 miles through the americas and puts on weight with a series of epic adventures in search of the perfect meal.

All that effort?  He should have settled for one of El Supremo's audaxes ;D

Smoke And Mirrors ~ Neil Gaiman.  Short stories and peoms.  Ded gud.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 01 August, 2009, 02:53:09 pm
Currently I'm reading the light hearted The Ascent of Rum Doodle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ascent-Rum-Doodle-W-E-Bowman/dp/071266808X/ref=sr_1_1/275-5872414-6625517?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249134697&sr=8-1) by W. E. Bowman.


Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.  Arthur works in the Raleigh factory making Sturmey Archer hub shells, doesn't he? :)
I cannot remember where he worked, but the book's brilliant. I should re-read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 03 August, 2009, 08:33:09 am
I've just finished 'Matter' by Iain M Banks.
I think he's still going soft in his old age.

I enjoyed Matter. It was certainly a lot better than his last non-SF work (The Steep Approach to Garbadale)
I enjoyed it too, he just seems to have an urge to wrap everything up in a happy ending these days though.

Just about to start Matter.

Haven't got around to buying The Steep Approach to Garbadale as I didn't think much too of Dead Air (although it's better than I thought it was going to be having read the blurb) - is it worth a read?

I was very excited when Matter came out but found it disappointing. Taken in isolation it's a perfectly OK book, but taken as part of the series I thought the Culture elements felt bolted on.

His non-SF writing I gave up on ages ago, though I loved the Wasp Factory and Complicity and the Crow Road.

Anyway, what have I been reading... I've just finished all Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels - Berlin Noir, The One From the Other and A Quiet Flame. Apparently there's a new one coming out in September - If The Dead Rise not - and I am drooling for it.

I don't know how I'd never been alerted to this series. It's as good as finding that Raymond Chandler is alive and well and writing novels about a hard-boiled German detective.

On holiday next week I will be taking The Rider, which I've also somehow never read. And In Search of Robert Millar.

And I will try to read David Simon's Homicide but I suspect my wife - currently undergoing withdrawal symptoms having finished The Wire box sets - will probably give me a choice between handing it over or losing a testicle. Luckily she's a fast reader.



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 03 August, 2009, 11:16:35 am
The man who cycled the world has just landed on my desk.

Page 245 - excerpt from diary:
Quote
Met funny, rather large and bearded welsh man on his bike, at garage, who had just finished tour of the west


Anyone we know?  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 August, 2009, 01:36:30 pm
And I will try to read David Simon's Homicide but I suspect my wife - currently undergoing withdrawal symptoms having finished The Wire box sets - will probably give me a choice between handing it over or losing a testicle. Luckily she's a fast reader.

Despite its mighty proportions (600+ pages) it's a very easy read, so she'll be done with it very soon. Not enough of a delay to be worth risking a testicle over.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 03 August, 2009, 09:44:42 pm
I've just finished 'Matter' by Iain M Banks.
I think he's still going soft in his old age.

I enjoyed Matter. It was certainly a lot better than his last non-SF work (The Steep Approach to Garbadale)
I enjoyed it too, he just seems to have an urge to wrap everything up in a happy ending these days though.

Just about to start Matter.

Haven't got around to buying The Steep Approach to Garbadale as I didn't think much too of Dead Air (although it's better than I thought it was going to be having read the blurb) - is it worth a read?

I was very excited when Matter came out but found it disappointing. Taken in isolation it's a perfectly OK book, but taken as part of the series I thought the Culture elements felt bolted on.

His non-SF writing I gave up on ages ago, though I loved the Wasp Factory and Complicity and the Crow Road


We appear to have a few Iain Banks fans on here....

His new book "Transition" is now listed on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transition-Iain-Banks/dp/0316731072/ref=pd_sim_b_4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transition-Iain-Banks/dp/0316731072/ref=pd_sim_b_4)  with some discussion of it here http://www.iainbanksforum.net/showthread.php?t=59 (http://www.iainbanksforum.net/showthread.php?t=59) . I was pretty disappointed in both "Garbadale" and "Matter" so hope this will be a return to form.

They also list Alistair Reynolds new book as well http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terminal-World-Alastair-Reynolds/dp/0575077182/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terminal-World-Alastair-Reynolds/dp/0575077182/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 04 August, 2009, 09:12:55 am
The girl who played with fire somehow managed to fall into my shopping trolley last night.. So once I finish rereading Ivanhoe and have made my way around the world with Mark Beaumont, I will have that to look forward to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 August, 2009, 10:18:50 am
Quote
Anyway, what have I been reading... I've just finished all Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels - Berlin Noir, The One From the Other and A Quiet Flame. Apparently there's a new one coming out in September - If The Dead Rise not - and I am drooling for it.


Oh I loved those books, thanks for the heads up about his new book ChrisO, not long to wait now  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 August, 2009, 10:51:05 am
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest isn't out until October 1st >:(

Bah!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ChrisO on 05 August, 2009, 05:11:45 am

And I will try to read David Simon's Homicide but I suspect my wife - currently undergoing withdrawal symptoms having finished The Wire box sets - will probably give me a choice between handing it over or losing a testicle. Luckily she's a fast reader.


HA ! I had an email from my wife saying that she had opened my box from Amazon and that if I truly loved her I would let her read Homicide.

Happily I do. Though I'm not sure if it extends to overlooking the charge of interfering with the mail.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 06 August, 2009, 04:44:47 pm

We appear to have a few Iain Banks fans on here....

His new book "Transition" is now listed on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transition-Iain-Banks/dp/0316731072/ref=pd_sim_b_4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transition-Iain-Banks/dp/0316731072/ref=pd_sim_b_4)  with some discussion of it here http://www.iainbanksforum.net/showthread.php?t=59 (http://www.iainbanksforum.net/showthread.php?t=59) . I was pretty disappointed in both "Garbadale" and "Matter" so hope this will be a return to form.


And Transition is also being released as a podcast (abridged version) if that's your thing:  link  (http://www.iain-banks.net/2009/07/29/transition-itunes-podcast-serialisation-from-september-3rd/)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 06 August, 2009, 05:11:06 pm
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest isn't out until October 1st >:(

Bah!

I share your grump.

Bah.

Surely something could be hastened with judicous application of ice-cream and shovel?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 06 August, 2009, 05:17:19 pm
Surely something could be hastened with judicous application of ice-cream and shovel?

Why? He is already dead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 06 August, 2009, 06:19:24 pm
Just finished 'The Glass Palace' by Amitav Ghosh. Elegantly written, moving and a pacy story. Feel sad that it's over  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 August, 2009, 11:26:41 am
Pies And Prejudice ~ Stuart Maconie.  Nowhere near as good as Cider With Roadies :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 08 August, 2009, 08:16:53 pm
Ubik - Phillip K Dick.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: oncemore on 08 August, 2009, 09:14:51 pm
Miles From Nowhere (again). By an American lady (her name escapes me at the mo and the book's upstairs - I only read in bed!) who survived a round the world redal only to be killed on her bike training for a triathlon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 08 August, 2009, 11:39:06 pm
The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes  - Mark Unwin

True story about an officer in Wellington's peninsular army who amongst other things did quite a bit code breaking. Amusingly I have learnt that Wellington had to reprimand his officers and troops for getting blind drunk in Lisbon and upsetting the locals by their inebriated displays. They also it seems tended to talk LOUDLY and s l o w l e y in English at the Portuguese. It seems nothing changes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 08 August, 2009, 11:40:24 pm
Shoeshop Bears

One from my childhood that it's taken decades to track down again.  Still makes me cry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 09 August, 2009, 02:13:46 am
The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes  - Mark Unwin

True story about an officer in Wellington's peninsular army who amongst other things did quite a bit code breaking. Amusingly I have learnt that Wellington had to reprimand his officers and troops for getting blind drunk in Lisbon and upsetting the locals by their inebriated displays. They also it seems tended to talk LOUDLY and s l o w l e y in English at the Portuguese. It seems nothing changes.
The French lodged an official complaint via diplomatic channels about  British troops getting shit faced before a battle because they would then hack French soldiers to pieces with the issue infantry sword - instead of killing them in a clean and soldier like manner with a bayonet.

Rum -  It wins wars. ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 09 August, 2009, 09:40:33 pm
Yep double rum rations all round before going into battle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 10 August, 2009, 01:52:28 pm
I just picked up David Guterson's The Other, because I enjoyed Snow Falling on Cedars a few years ago. Also Michael Chaborn's Gentlemen of the Road - because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was so excellent...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 August, 2009, 03:45:40 pm
"Slash" by, er, well, Slash.  Plus a ghost-writer bloke, obv.  Sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, Axl Rose being a knob - all the usual stuff.  Still, at least he's a BRITON.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 10 August, 2009, 05:10:33 pm
I just picked up David Guterson's The Other, because I enjoyed Snow Falling on Cedars a few years ago. Also Michael Chaborn's Gentlemen of the Road - because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was so excellent...

Snow falling on cedars is a fabulous book  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 10 August, 2009, 05:19:37 pm
I just picked up David Guterson's The Other, because I enjoyed Snow Falling on Cedars a few years ago. Also Michael Chaborn's Gentlemen of the Road - because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was so excellent...

Snow falling on cedars is a fabulous book  :thumbsup:

I'm actually reading it at the moment. Really enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LEE on 10 August, 2009, 06:38:59 pm
I read a few Jeremy Clarkson book son holiday ("The World According to.." and such like).

I thought they were bloody funny.

So sue me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 11 August, 2009, 10:24:40 am
I just picked up David Guterson's The Other, because I enjoyed Snow Falling on Cedars a few years ago. Also Michael Chaborn's Gentlemen of the Road - because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was so excellent...

Snow falling on cedars is a fabulous book  :thumbsup:

I'm actually reading it at the moment. Really enjoying it so far.

Got given it by a friend. Really enjoyed it, especially as the various threads of the story unravelled.

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 11 August, 2009, 02:37:01 pm
*Spoilers below*


Well, unfortunately I was not so impressed with The Other. Guterson is a good writer, that's for sure, and his everyman narrator rings very true. But the story, and even some particular scenes are so close to Into the Wild, the true story of Chris McCandless, as written by Jon Krakauer and later made into a film by Sean Penn - particularly a scene where character tries and largely fails to butcher and preserve a whole moose - that it would be charitable to call it a partial tribute or a reworking especially as he Guterson doesn't mention either book or film and frankly I don't believe he had not either read the book or seen the film...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 13 August, 2009, 08:22:39 am
Gentlemen of the Road (AKA 'Jews With Swords' as the working title had it!) on the other hand, is superb. Great old-fashioned swashbucking stuff with exotic locales, swordfights, daring escapes and suchlike, but also beautifully written and with some loving attention to detail that puts it way beyond parody or knowing postmodern tribute. I am not surprised Chabon dedicated it to Michael Moorcock because there's more than a touch of The Eternal Champion about it, although he does keep it strictly Tenth Century.

Now re-reading David Peace's brilliant Tokyo Year Zero. It's wonderfully sensory fiction, replete with the itchiness of lice, the stink of human sweat and shit, and above all the bitter taste of defeat and degredation. The sequel, Occupied City, is just out and I will get it as soon as I can...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 13 August, 2009, 08:32:05 am
A confereracy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

very, very funny.  Quite a sad story behind the book too - his mother found a carbon copy of the book in her sons belongings 10 years after he committed suicide and had it published then.  Now there's a statue of the main character (Ignatious Reilly - "slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one.") in his home town.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 13 August, 2009, 08:42:16 am
A confereracy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

Complicated (I thought so anyway  :-[ ) but very very funny  :) I love the names... like Myrna Minkoff.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 August, 2009, 10:50:32 am
Blood Line ~ Mark Billingham.  Back to proper Inspector Thorne et al, and a good thing too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 13 August, 2009, 12:52:58 pm
'The Sunday Philosophy Club' by Alexander McCall Smith  - the first of his I've read. It's lightweight but goes off on diverting tangents. The protagonist is an attractive 30-something in Edinburgh and it's fun to imagine  what she might look like  (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=20740.0)  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 August, 2009, 03:55:39 pm
Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

Yup, me too. :)

The other niggling thing is that the film version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" has been released just about everywhere except the UK and Captain Cook's Mistake.  TWFKAML is righteously cross about this...

Isn't that because it's a swedish film, and the lucky old ENGLISH-speaking world is going to get a Hollywood remake so we don't have to stress our poor little branes reading all those tricky subtitles?

 ::-)

Good news:  TWFKAML e-mailed a Strop-O-Gram to Yellow Bird Films and has been assured by the Big Boss his own good self that "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" will get at least a limited release in BRITAIN later this year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 14 August, 2009, 02:59:54 am
"South" by Sir Ernest Shackleton. I read "Endurance" a while back, and now I want to see how Shackleton tells his own story. So far, Alfred Lansing is by far the better story teller, but that's partly because Shackleton gave him such good material to work with.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 14 August, 2009, 11:39:57 am
'The Sunday Philosophy Club' by Alexander McCall Smith  - the first of his I've read. It's lightweight but goes off on diverting tangents. The protagonist is an attractive 30-something in Edinburgh and it's fun to imagine  what she might look like  (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=20740.0)  :D

Have you tried his Scotland Street books? Similar style, different characters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 14 August, 2009, 12:22:36 pm
Quote
Have you tried his Scotland Street books?

Ready near the top of the pile, thanks  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 14 August, 2009, 01:31:22 pm
Now on to Don DeLillo's Falling Man which I found in a bargain bin here... I am having a burst at the moment!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 August, 2009, 11:38:24 am
The Family ~ Ed Sanders.

Edit: I know members of the Manson Family used a lot of false names, Ed, but did you really need to list anything up to half a dozen aka's whenever someone is named?  It's annoying, is what it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 17 August, 2009, 12:04:13 pm
I have just finished, "The Cyclist's Finger Post" by W.F. Ball. Price 1/- (1899)

A serendipitous discovery in a second-hand bookshop on Saturday.  Describes a number of routes from Birmingham to various places (Holyhead, three routes to London &tc.).  Some of the routes he describes might be difficult to follow these days although one of my older maps shows that they would still have been perfectly possible up to the late 1930s and in all probability up until the late 1950s as well;  before we started building all the motorways.

It's by turns amusing and saddening reading.   You read of, "thousands of cyclists" heading out of Brum to (for example) Meriden and you wonder what that must have been like and compare it to today when a couple of dozen would be a mass turn out.

If time allows I'll try and scan some of the adverts and post them on flickr or similar. They're wonderful; including the one that proves that people have been arguing about crank lengths for at least 110 years. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 17 August, 2009, 12:32:01 pm
Re-reading Simon Doughty's book on long distance cycling.One or two long forgotten lessons relearned.

Anyone know how he is doing of late?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 17 August, 2009, 03:35:01 pm
Am currently reading 'The Pilot's Wife' by Anita Shreve, not getting into it at all.  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 17 August, 2009, 08:56:59 pm
Re-reading Simon Doughty's book on long distance cycling.One or two long forgotten lessons relearned.

Anyone know how he is doing of late?

You're far more likely to get a response (and others interested will also be able to see it) if you post this in the Audax forum.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tourist Tony on 18 August, 2009, 12:35:19 am
Alternating between Mark Beaumont's book and Richard Matheson's collected shorts, translated into French. Need the practice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 18 August, 2009, 09:44:34 pm
I read the running book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0099526158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250628209&sr=1-1) by Haruki Murakami on the plane. A great, easy read; one I recommend to a lot of us here who enjoy riding/running regularly and for hours on ends, as Murakami attempts to describe why he enjoys it so much. Great authors write simply and clearly.

Now finishing The Cyclist's Manifesto (http://www.amazon.com/Cyclists-Manifesto-Riding-Wheels-Instead/dp/0762751282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250628040&sr=1-1) which I picked up in Northern America before my return. Interesting but I can't say I agree with all of it; but an interesting read nonetheless.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 18 August, 2009, 10:00:21 pm
Alternating between Mark Beaumont's book and Richard Matheson's collected shorts, translated into French. Need the practice.

I found the Beaumont book quite heavy going and hard to really engage with.

Quote
Tuesday. Tired. Have to do 100 miles today. Headwind. Found a hotel that ripped me off.
x195.

OK, not a strictly accurate reflection of the book... And by the time I got to the end I felt like I'd been through the mill as well.

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 19 August, 2009, 11:22:12 pm
Amazon just delivered my holiday books (two weeks starting Friday hooray !).

All Quite On the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

I realised last week that I hadn't ever read this. Not sure how it slipped me by.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes / The Amateur Emigrant - Robert Louis Stevenson

I like to read something relevant to where we are going and this fits the bill for the South West of France.

House of the Sun - Alastair Reynolds

A big fat space opera for some light reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 20 August, 2009, 12:16:30 am
Just started Days of Grace, which has been recommended to me by family. I've only read a couple of chapters so far, but it's going well so far and the Independent seemed to like it, too:
(http://www.portobellobooks.com/dyn/1234370021581.jpeg) (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/days-of-grace-by-catherine-hall-1638160.html)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 20 August, 2009, 10:45:50 am
As (half) promised up thread... scanned images of adverts from, "The Cyclist's Finger-Post"

The Cyclist's Finger Post - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41392773@N02/sets/72157622091676468/)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 21 August, 2009, 07:48:08 pm
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. I was early into Bryson, guided by a friend in 1990. I originally read him for his style, which was very influential. I just happened to pick this one up again recently and I'm really enjoying it. If you have never read ,do, and if you picked up when you were in your 20s, but didn't like it, go back and try it again.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 27 August, 2009, 12:00:14 pm
I managed to get through 3 whilst on holiday:
The Rider by Tim Krabbe
The Death of Marco Pantani by Matt Rendell
Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life - Mil Millington

All enjoyable.

And Finished "In search of Robert Millar" last night

Time for some new books I think :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 27 August, 2009, 03:24:50 pm
Finally getting round to reading White Tiger, the 2008 Booker winner. It's actually quite good. I don't normally expect that of books that win awards...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 27 August, 2009, 03:38:32 pm
Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers (http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html). Most interesting so far.

On the other hand, I made a start on James Palumbo's Tomas (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tomas-James-Palumbo/dp/0704371588) and I don't get it at all  ??? The book comes with glowing recommendations from all and sundry, including some authors I really enjoy, but I must be missing something. The first review in the Amazon link above says it all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 27 August, 2009, 04:35:17 pm
Not a book,but a list.
I am reading thru' the AUK calendar to do a list of audax rides near enough to get to without too much travelling.
Any marked as "no entry on the line" will be ignored 'cause I often don't know for sure if I can attend untill a Friday night.   :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Spinners on 28 August, 2009, 06:40:37 pm
Wing Leader - Johnnie Johnson. I love WW2 biographies and, since reading this in the school library, this one has been a particular favourite of mine for about 35 years!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 August, 2009, 09:21:32 pm
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds

A big fat space opera for some light reading.
Yeah, I've nearly finished it and it is quite light. Not up to his usual std.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 29 August, 2009, 11:33:04 pm
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton. I've never read anything by him before, & perhaps that was a mistake. I'm enjoying this one.

Mrs B wants me to hurry up & finish it. She dipped in while I left it unattended, & now wants to read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 04 September, 2009, 02:37:44 am
The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 04 September, 2009, 08:05:14 am
The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell

I read that last week.  Angry, isnt he?

now reading Moby Dick. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jezza on 04 September, 2009, 09:04:00 am
Passage to Juneau - Jonathan Raban
Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore
Blood River - Tim Butcher
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 September, 2009, 09:12:59 am

I read that last week.  Angry, isnt he?

now reading Moby Dick. 

Woody Allen's Zelig's one regret was that he hadn't read Moby Dick - he died after starting it.  Whereas, I think I read in an interview that Woody Allen's biggest regret was the time he wasted reading Moby Dick.  Which is also odd, because he claimed he speed-read it in 20 minutes and summarized it as: 'It's about a whale'.  Sorry, that should have had a spoiler alert.

I'm reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, in translation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 04 September, 2009, 09:20:41 am
I bought some books at teh weekend, which I'm optimistically carrying about, though I get very little book reading time:

Poet in New York - F Garcia Lorca.  I sat in the sun at the weekend reading this.  Marvellous.  I know his play, 'Blood Wedding' - an upbeat, cheery feel-good musical for all the family ;) - but not his poetry.  Reminds me rather of Neruda.

I also bought Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin, which I have read years ago, but it's probably worth another look.  And Oscar Wilde's Short Stories.  I have a volume of his collected prose, but it's a big book, and a small paperback of short stories is probably ideal for a few snatched moments in a field.

At work, I'm reading a James Herriot book a page or so at a time on the loo ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 September, 2009, 10:35:44 am
A Dark Adapted Eye ~ Barbara Vine.  I started it a Several of weeks ago and then put it to one side, so will probably have to start again.

The Burgess Book Of Lies ~ Adrian & Alan Burgess.  Identical twin oiks from Holmfirth climb mountains, drink BEER and get into fights.  Government Health Warning: may contain traces of Don Whillans.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 04 September, 2009, 02:02:02 pm
I have hols coming up, so I have stocked up in anticipation:
The Pyjama Game: A Journey into Judo by Mark Law (I think he's attempting to do for Judo what Twigger did for Aikido).
Sea Kayaker's Deep Trouble: True stories and their lessons by Matt Broze
Fastnet Force 10 by John Rousmaniere
Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz.

It's not a disaster fetish, honest...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 04 September, 2009, 02:04:29 pm
the pajama game is quite good, I read it last year.  Very funny descriptions of training sessions.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 September, 2009, 04:24:14 pm
I am reading Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. It's a wonderful piece of writing and a great story of two young Cree men enlisted into the Canadian army in WW1, and the aunt of one of the boys who takes him home when he is injured. I don't think I have read a better novel about WW1 recently, and what's more, it is also a beautiful story of the fate of the aboriginal people of Canada.

He's had another novel come out recently called Through Black Spruce, which has a little bit set on the island I now live on, and is also supposed to be excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 07 September, 2009, 04:34:08 pm
Which is also odd, because he claimed he speed-read it in 20 minutes and summarized it as: 'It's about a whale'.  Sorry, that should have had a spoiler alert.
hangonaminute ... last time he told that joke, it was War and Peace.


Which is about Russia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 09 September, 2009, 03:16:56 am
"Inside the Third Reich", by Albert Speer. Speer was Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production, and ended up conspiring to kill Hitler towards the end of WWII and confessing his guilt during the Nuremberg trials.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 09 September, 2009, 05:49:28 am
Mark Beaumonts book, finished the first leg  and enjoying it thoroughly so far
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 September, 2009, 09:03:25 am
A quick review of my holiday reading

All Quite On the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Bloody hell. If you haven't read this then do so. Best read after a few glasses of wine as it's a quite calm book and incredibly traumatic. Made me want to cry. Definitely lives up to it's reputation.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes / The Amateur Emigrant - Robert Louis Stevenson

OK and interesting. Mr Stevenson was well up himself and somewhat self pitying.

House of the Sun - Alastair Reynolds

Not bad. Filled a couple of days reading. My 13 year old finished it in a few days too.

I also read a book about cycling in France by Harry Enfield's dad which was very funny and a book about living in Normandy again quite funny bth curtsey of the gite book shelf.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 September, 2009, 09:12:11 am
For those who have read All Quiet.., I strongly recommend The Road Back, the lesser-known sequel, about the difficulties faced by the returning soldiers fitting into a defeated society where no one understands what they have been through.  Also his Three Comrades, which covers similar ground.

Another Remarque book that is worth a read (if you can find it) is Spark Of Life, about life in a concentration camp - something Remarque, as a known leftist, suffered before escaping and getting to Spain (there's another book about that, but I can't remember the title, and it's not one of his better novels, strangely).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 10 September, 2009, 09:28:52 am
I have just finished Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I enjoyed the book, but it's nowhere near as good as Saturday, On Chesil Beach or Atonement. I also couldn't believe the ending of the book and that was a major dissapointment for me. It surprises me somewhat that McEwan got the Booker Prize for this work.

I am now reading Cryptonomicon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon) by Neal Stephenson after being suggested it by a friend.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 10 September, 2009, 08:10:47 pm
For those who have read All Quiet.., I strongly recommend The Road Back, the lesser-known sequel, about the difficulties faced by the returning soldiers fitting into a defeated society where no one understands what they have been through.  Also his Three Comrades, which covers similar ground.

Another Remarque book that is worth a read (if you can find it) is Spark Of Life, about life in a concentration camp - something Remarque, as a known leftist, suffered before escaping and getting to Spain (there's another book about that, but I can't remember the title, and it's not one of his better novels, strangely).

You should definitely read the Boyden book I mentioned above if you like Remarque...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 10 September, 2009, 08:21:37 pm
King Leopold's Ghost (http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Leopolds-Ghost-Terror-Heroism/dp/0330441981) by Adam Hochschild. Absolutely horrifying and gripping. It tells of one of the largest mass killings of recent history - 8 to 10 million people - and how Edmund Morel fought, very successfully, to bring it to the attention of the world.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 10 September, 2009, 09:09:11 pm
For those who have read All Quiet.., I strongly recommend The Road Back, the lesser-known sequel, about the difficulties faced by the returning soldiers fitting into a defeated society where no one understands what they have been through.  Also his Three Comrades, which covers similar ground.

Another Remarque book that is worth a read (if you can find it) is Spark Of Life, about life in a concentration camp - something Remarque, as a known leftist, suffered before escaping and getting to Spain (there's another book about that, but I can't remember the title, and it's not one of his better novels, strangely).

Is the novel about getting to Spain Flotsam ? (http://www.amazon.com/Flotsam-Erich-Maria-Remarque/dp/1931541736/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252612875&sr=1-15/url)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 September, 2009, 09:19:10 pm
No, I think it was The Night In Lisbon, though that is highly fictionalised.

Reading Wikipedia, it seems to suggest he was not, in fact, interned.  That's quite possibly correct.  My recollection came from a review in the ?fifties, which was a press cutting in one of the books I had.  I would not be at all surprised if either the critic had got the wrong end of the stick (Spark of Life is very realistic), or Remarque (born Remark) had romanticised his own story.

Another good book for anyone who enjoyed All Quiet..., this time from a French perspective, is Under Fire, by Henri Barbusse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 10 September, 2009, 09:31:46 pm
"The Night in Lisbon" is in stock at Amazon.com (and amazon.co.uk). "Flotsam" seems to be out of print but available used, at least here in the US. The synopsis of "Flotsam" seems to fit your description of fleeing to Spain better than "The Night in Lisbon". At any rate, you've just motivated me to expand my Amazon.com shopping list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 September, 2009, 09:34:03 pm
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is another great account of infantry war. In this case WWII. Guy Sajer was a half French half German teenager who joined the German army in 1942 and the book follows him to the Eastern Front and the horrors of the long retreat and to the end of the war. Again it's a harrowing book. There has been some argument over whether it is a true autobiography or a roman a clef; either way it's worth reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 September, 2009, 09:35:12 pm
OK, maybe I misremembered anyway.  It's years since I read them.  I gotta say, though, that he wrote some terrible trash too  - A Time To Love is one example.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 11 September, 2009, 02:30:24 am
I guess I'll leave A Time to Love off my shopping list, then. At any rate, I do appreciate the recommendations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 11 September, 2009, 12:11:58 pm
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is another great account of infantry war....

A brilliant book that I happened upon and hadn't heard about it until I'd read the tale. The book made me really think about the situation Sajer was in - half French / half German and living in Alsace, which had spent time being either French or German. He goes off to fight for Germany and comes back to find he's now living in France. Crazy. The insight into the Eastern Front is pretty incredible, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 11 September, 2009, 12:52:49 pm
Following Kirst's suggestion, have just finished the third of Alexander McCall Smith's '44 Scotland Street' series.
Also picked up a book of poetry by Moniza Alvi called 'Souls'. Surreal but accessible nonetheless, it is quite entrancing
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 11 September, 2009, 10:42:53 pm
I am now starting a couple of things: firstly, The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall, feminist SF set in a sort-of near future authoritarian Britain; and secondly, Wonders and the Order of Nature by Lorraine Dalston and Katharine Park, which is a fabulous book about what people believed about the world in pre-modern Europe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 11 September, 2009, 10:45:22 pm
Alan Garner's Owl Service & The Mabinogion in parallel.  Which is illuminating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 11 September, 2009, 10:53:12 pm
I'm re-reading 'The Bridge' by Iain Banks, and remembering that I found it a bit slow. I actually wanted to read 'Walking On Glass' but couldn't find it in the loft.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 11 September, 2009, 10:59:13 pm
yes, agreed on The Bridge.  Walking on Glass is a much more engaging book...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 12 September, 2009, 12:11:03 am
Quote
The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall, feminist SF set in a sort-of near future authoritarian Britain

Be interested to hear how you find this, FM. I found it quite moving
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 12 September, 2009, 08:21:19 pm
Alan Garner's Owl Service
Read that when I was about 12 and I remember it being fab. I should re-read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 12 September, 2009, 08:45:37 pm
it's quite dated in terms of characterisation - lots of 50s-stylee upper-middle-class  English stiff upper lip stuff, and stereotypes of Welsh yokels that just seem from a different age, but the interleaving of the Mabinogion stuff works very well, as does the rendering of the speech patterns of native Welsh-speakers (I think).  I still need to get my head fully around the events at the end.  Not at all simple to unravel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 September, 2009, 09:57:46 pm
Just about to start "Transition", Iain Bank's latest. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 12 September, 2009, 10:16:49 pm
it's quite dated in terms of characterisation - lots of 50s-stylee upper-middle-class  English stiff upper lip stuff, and stereotypes of Welsh yokels that just seem from a different age, but the interleaving of the Mabinogion stuff works very well, as does the rendering of the speech patterns of native Welsh-speakers (I think).  I still need to get my head fully around the events at the end.  Not at all simple to unravel.

When you've done that, try Red Shift (what else?).  Allegedly this can be read in parallel with the ballad of Tam Lin, but it's through a very dark glass.

After that, you'll be ready for Thursbitch, assuming you're not working backwards...   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 12 September, 2009, 10:20:40 pm
I read Redshift about 34 years ago, and I must admit it made my brain hurt...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 12 September, 2009, 10:33:40 pm
I read it about 30 years ago, and it made complete sense.  Mind you, I always did see things a bit skewed.  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 13 September, 2009, 12:55:40 am
After that, you'll be ready for Thursbitch, assuming you're not working backwards...   ;D

Or indeed Strandloper, which I think is his best book, and one of the best novels in English of the last 20 years.

On The Carrhulan Army... hmm. I am not sure what I think. At times, the naivety of the narration was moving, at times it made the novel read like an English undergraduate creative writing assignment. Although it was nice to read something set in Cumbria, it was also rather derivative and unoriginal - Brian Aldiss's Greybeard came to mind, as did V for Vendetta (the original, not  the film) and even the original version of Survivors. Personally, I consider Gwyneth Jones to have done some much better apocalyptic Britain novels too, but she is considered to be a proper SF novelist and therefore will never get the praise that Hall has done.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gaseous Clay on 13 September, 2009, 01:02:33 pm
I'm about to finish Dombey & Son and then i'm going to re-read my favourite: Brave New World well, its an equal favorite with 1984.

Or Mr Nice by Howard Marks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 23 September, 2009, 11:48:55 am
I am now reading Cryptonomicon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon) by Neal Stephenson after being suggested it by a friend.

I'm still working my way through Cryptonomicon, which is a bit of a beast of a book at >900 pages. That's not a criticism, tho, because it's very readable and extremely interesting. There's a few stories taking place and I'm assuming it'll all come together at the end. One storyline is looking at the maths geeks who were involved with breaking the German and Japanese codes used during WWII and a special joint US-UK diversion to help confuse German intelligence. Another part of the book is concerned with a Japanese solider during WWII, who was originally a miner, and his time in the Pacific. Finally, part of the book is set in the 1990s as a group of Americans set up a data heaven in SE Asia.

There's quite a lot of mathematical descriptions in the book that explains various things, including how various codes work, Van Eck phreaking, Pearl scripts etc. I personally enjoy (even if I cannot understand it all) those sections and it makes the book a bit more than a normal story. Saying that, I know some people would get easily annoyed by all the extra information that Stephenson offers the reader, esp. as the book is long enough as it is! The section dealing with WWII has a number of non-fiction characters, most notably Alan Turning and I'm a little bit unsure how much of this book is fiction and how much is based on some sort of facts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikepacker on 23 September, 2009, 06:18:09 pm
Sustainable energy - Without the hot air / David J.C. MacK

A subject I wanted to find more about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 23 September, 2009, 06:42:38 pm
Have recently finished Matter by Iain M Banks, which I enjoyed a lot.

Currently a hundred or so pages into the  Illuminatus Trilogy  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy).

My brain hurts already trying to maintain hold of who's who and what the feck is happening.

Judging by this quote:

"The plot meanders between the thoughts, hallucinations and inner voices (both real and imagined) of its many characters, as well as through time (past, present and future)— sometimes in mid-sentence. Much of the back story is explained via dialogue between characters, who recount unreliable, often mutually contradictory, versions of their supposed histories. There are even parts in the book in which the narrative reviews and jokingly deconstructs the work itself"

I don't think the situation is going to improve much either... ???

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 23 September, 2009, 08:48:54 pm
I'm still working my way through Cryptonomicon, which is a bit of a beast of a book at >900 pages. That's not a criticism, tho, because it's very readable and extremely interesting.

Yes, takes some reading but very interesting. I recommend it as reading-round-the-subject reading to one or two students a year.
I tried Quicksilver after that but gave up.

Last night I started Alex Ross' "the rest is noise" ... which is intimidatingly thick, so I may be some time.

Also a bit of a long one and still on the go, though I've been distracted by other things along the way and seem to be getting to bed late a lot.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 23 September, 2009, 08:54:29 pm
"Azincourt" by Bernard Cornwell, which is actually pretty good; a bit like Wilbur Smith in historical mode, without as much gratuitous sex and violence.  Definitely superior to the usual airport novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 24 September, 2009, 07:20:51 pm
Neal Stephenson is good, but:

1. He needs to allow his books to be edited (but I know hardly any publishers do proper editing these days); and,
2. He can't (or at least, doesn't) write believable female characters;
3. He's not as clever or as funny as he thinks he is, or at least it would be better if he let us know how clever and funny he is with a bit more subtlety. He info-dumps like a crazy person, which, as any fule kno, is one of the big no-no's of quality SF.

I read all of his books up to Quicksilver, but couldn't be bothered with the rest of the Baroque Trilogy. There is a great book called Q by 'Luther Blisset' (a pseudonym for a group of Italian anarchists) which does the same kind of thing so much better...

Meanwhile, I am still reading Wonders and the Order of Nature... not getting much time for non-work reading right now because we have lots of work to do on the new house.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 24 September, 2009, 09:13:10 pm
Meanwhile, I am still reading Wonders and the Order of Nature... not getting much time for non-work reading right now because we have lots of work to do on the new house.

Looks like a fascinating, but demanding read ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 26 September, 2009, 12:16:03 am
Neal Stephenson is good, but:

1. He needs to allow his books to be edited (but I know hardly any publishers do proper editing these days);
That's very true. Cryptonomicon is the first thing I've read by Stephenson, and as I've said, the book's a monster and cutting it down wouldn't do it any harm at all.

2. He can't (or at least, doesn't) write believable female characters;
True true. There's only two female characters of any significance, so far, have even appeared in Cryptonomicon and I'm 600 pages down. Never seem very realistic.

3. He's not as clever or as funny as he thinks he is, or at least it would be better if he let us know how clever and funny he is with a bit more subtlety. He info-dumps like a crazy person, which, as any fule kno, is one of the big no-no's of quality SF.
I've read very little SF and so I'm didn't know that it's passé to info-dump in the way he does. I actually enjoyed some of the details that are presented in the book, but it certainly does come across as making Stephenson appear really clever.

I read all of his books up to Quicksilver, but couldn't be bothered with the rest of the Baroque Trilogy. There is a great book called Q by 'Luther Blisset' (a pseudonym for a group of Italian anarchists) which does the same kind of thing so much better...
I've heard that The Baroque Trilogy rambles on even more than Cryptonomicon does and it's unlikely I'll be attempting to read it any time soon. I've not heard of Blisset before, but I'll look up Q.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tourist Tony on 27 September, 2009, 03:22:39 am
Dawkins' new one, "Greatest Show..."
He starts with a great analogy about teaching Latin and Roman history in a culture where parents and schools reserve the right to deny the Romans ever existed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 27 September, 2009, 11:30:43 am
Gets a good review in the Guardian.  Because he's off the easy taking potshots at gullible morons track of The God Delusion, and, rather than disproving Creationism (shooting fish in a barrel), he's talking about evolution and it's wonder.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 September, 2009, 12:32:56 pm
I read Twilight on holiday and thought it was the biggest load of emo shite ever, so god knows why I'm now reading New Moon, which is the sequel. Probably the same reason I stuck all the way through Stephen King's Dark Tower series - once I've started, I like to know how it finishes, no matter how bad it gets.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 27 September, 2009, 05:41:12 pm
I got The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry in a book sale yesterday and it is utterly brilliant. Much better than the one that won the Booker in 2008.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 27 September, 2009, 07:04:51 pm
Have recently finished Matter by Iain M Banks, which I enjoyed a lot.

Currently a hundred or so pages into the  Illuminatus Trilogy  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy).

My brain hurts already trying to maintain hold of who's who and what the feck is happening.

Judging by this quote:

"The plot meanders between the thoughts, hallucinations and inner voices (both real and imagined) of its many characters, as well as through time (past, present and future)— sometimes in mid-sentence. Much of the back story is explained via dialogue between characters, who recount unreliable, often mutually contradictory, versions of their supposed histories. There are even parts in the book in which the narrative reviews and jokingly deconstructs the work itself"

I don't think the situation is going to improve much either... ???



There are two things of which you should be aware:

1. It's fiction,

and

2. It's all completely true.

fnord

Hail Eris!   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 27 September, 2009, 07:35:04 pm
Just about to start "Transition", Iain Bank's latest. 

Did you like it?

I did. But then I'm not that fussy when it comes to Mr Banks - anything he does is ok by me.

Thursbitch next - thanks to whoever recommended it upthread.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 27 September, 2009, 08:13:20 pm
Hail Eris!   ;D
All hail Discordia!

I have just re-read Clerkenwell Tales, by Peter Ackroyd.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 28 September, 2009, 01:57:35 pm
"The Trial of Henry Kissinger", by Christopher Hitchens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: groucho on 29 September, 2009, 03:48:19 pm
Just finished 'Juliet Naked' by Nick Hornby. Thank god I do not spend a lot of time on 'special interest' forums and am not obsessive about music. (Mrs g is not about!)

In a similar genre just started Stuart Maconie's 'Cider with Roadies'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 September, 2009, 03:53:10 pm
Just about to start "Transition", Iain Bank's latest.  

Did you like it?

I did. But then I'm not that fussy when it comes to Mr Banks - anything he does is ok by me.


Read that on me holibobs.  Not as odd as some of his stuff but I reckon there should have been an "M" on the cover.

Edit: According to one of my Sinister Agents, it does have an "M" on the cover in USAnia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 29 September, 2009, 08:58:40 pm
Half way through Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell.  I've managed to avoid it until I'm 40 but it's time to catch up on my revolutionary satire.

Doubleplusgood so far.

C
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 29 September, 2009, 09:08:43 pm
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, by Richard Holmes

just finished the first section on Joseph Banks exploring the southern oceans and absolutely loved it.  William Herschel next :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 September, 2009, 02:39:37 am
Half way through Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell.  I've managed to avoid it until I'm 40 but it's time to catch up on my revolutionary satire.

Doubleplusgood so far.

C

It is one of those rare books that is as good as people say. Try Huxley's Brave New World afterwards (if you haven't already), and then go back and read Zamyatin's We (the Russian science fictional satire that inspired Orwell).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 September, 2009, 09:24:33 am
That's an interesting route, and it can lead onto other utopia/dystopia (it's a very blurred line) novels.  After the excellent choices above, try:

Erewhon - Samuel Butler
The Well At The World's End, The Sundering Flood or The Wood Beyond Teh World by William Morris (best to give The Earthly Paradise a miss.  It's a great work of literature, but hard going)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood
An unexpurgated version of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is an eye-opener
The Time Machine by HG Wells
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
And, last, and most uplifting, News from Nowhere by William Morris again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 30 September, 2009, 09:29:37 am
& then a chocolate orange. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 30 September, 2009, 10:02:45 am
Quote
And, last, and most uplifting, News from Nowhere by William Morris again

Also, 'The Dispossessed' by Ursula LeGuin
         '1985' by Anthony Burgess
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 30 September, 2009, 12:43:07 pm
That's an interesting route, and it can lead onto other utopia/dystopia (it's a very blurred line) novels.  After the excellent choices above, try:

Erewhon - Samuel Butler
The Well At The World's End, The Sundering Flood or The Wood Beyond Teh World by William Morris (best to give The Earthly Paradise a miss.  It's a great work of literature, but hard going)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood
An unexpurgated version of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is an eye-opener
The Time Machine by HG Wells
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
And, last, and most uplifting, News from Nowhere by William Morris again.
Add "Rite of Passage", by Alexei Panshin
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 September, 2009, 12:46:30 pm
Ooh - don't know that one.  Must seek it out.  I was a bit of a utopias geek in my teens & twenties.

There's another, slightly odd one, to seek out.

Kazohinia by Sandor Szathmary.

Wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazohinia)

It's a bit heavy handed, but it takes Lemuel Gulliver onwards to two more societies.  He contrasts the sterility of a completely ordered society with the chaos and misery of a completely 'mad' one, which the author clearly intends as a depiction of capitalism.

Interestingly, it may have been the first novel to be written in Esperanto, though it may have been in Hungarian first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gaseous Clay on 30 September, 2009, 12:55:26 pm
Quote
It is one of those rare books that is as good as people say. Try Huxley's Brave New World afterwards (if you haven't already), and then go back and read Zamyatin's We (the Russian science fictional satire that inspired Orwell).

I'd forgotten about We, also try Samuel Butlers Erewhon - both splendid!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 September, 2009, 03:33:33 pm
Some good choices there (although personally I wouldn't bother reading Day of the Triffids again).

Le Guin has done several interesting novels on this theme, including one overt utopia - Always Coming Home - which is a beautiful book. Aldous Huxley's Island is also a brave utopian vision. On an ecological utopian theme, I would also recommend B.F. Skinner's Walden Two, and Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, which would still be my favourite place to live.

In a feminist vein, if you want to go beyond Atwood, you could go back to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland or the slightly more recent Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy, which has dystopia, utopia and reality all in one package.

(this is one of my favourite areas of fiction, as you might be able to tell! I used to teach a course on 'the future of cities' which started with the Tao te Ching and Plato, went through Moore, Milton, Mercier, Owen, and all those plans for future cities and visions of hell - and finished with Callenbach and Greg Egan's Diaspora, which features a kind of utopia of virtual beings. I have a soft sport for Jefferies' anti-urban utopia, After London, from 1885.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 September, 2009, 03:43:34 pm
Great choices!  I forgot Piercy, though I have to say that I found Perkins Gilman's Herland boring, which was a surprise after The Yellow Wallpaper.

Island is a personal favourite book, and I am amazed I left it off the list.  It's a utopia, yes, but it shows how fragile and subjective a utopia is, and how easily it falls apart under the tensions of human desire and need.  I cried first time I read it.

I am fond of Day of the Triffids, after I read it at the same time as Plato's Republic, and realised that the different forms of society he passes through match quite closely the models Socrates proposes (and knocks down).  I wrote a quite brilliant essay at school about that, which is one of the things I am very proud of.

I haven't read Disapora, but, F_M, I shall look for it on your recommendation.

After London has a seductive premise, but loses steam part way through.  I wanted it to be more dynamic, as I had encountered Jeffries' brilliantly evocative writing about pastoral themes not as a bucolic idyll, but as an intertwining of real human events.  But sadly it fizzles out.

*reverie of London flooded* :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 01 October, 2009, 08:17:01 pm
The Gate House by Nelson DeMille.  I like DeMille's other stuff - "Plum Island" is probably the best, just for having more bizarre plot twists than normal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 01 October, 2009, 08:44:03 pm
That's an interesting route, and it can lead onto other utopia/dystopia (it's a very blurred line) novels.  After the excellent choices above, try:

Erewhon - Samuel Butler
The Well At The World's End, The Sundering Flood or The Wood Beyond Teh World by William Morris (best to give The Earthly Paradise a miss.  It's a great work of literature, but hard going)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood
An unexpurgated version of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is an eye-opener
The Time Machine by HG Wells
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
And, last, and most uplifting, News from Nowhere by William Morris again.

Cheers all for the suggestions.  I'm liking the idea of these.  I'm also trying to track down a copy of Fahrenheit 451.
With respect to the Triffids that's a brilliant book (I'm a big Wyndham fan).  The dude was well ahead of his time with that one - it foresees GM crops, star wars defence systems etc.  The Chrysallids is even better.  Am also reading The Seeds of Time at the moment which has some variably good short stories.

Slightly different tack but I highly recommend Whit by Iain Banks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 October, 2009, 01:03:50 pm
17:00.  Score copy of "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" from local Sainsbury's  :)
01:30.  Finish "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" :P
09:00.  Arrive late at work, use matchsticks to prop eyelids open :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 02 October, 2009, 01:35:53 pm
17:00.  Score copy of "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" from local Sainsbury's  :)
01:30.  Finish "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" :P
09:00.  Arrive late at work, use matchsticks to prop eyelids open :(

Still waiting for my copy. :(

Am reading Unseen Academicals instead. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 October, 2009, 02:37:03 pm
17:00.  Score copy of "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" from local Sainsbury's  :)
01:30.  Finish "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" :P
09:00.  Arrive late at work, use matchsticks to prop eyelids open :(

Still waiting for my copy. :(

TWFKAML now lives within spitting distance of an independent bookshop, thus she got her copy on Wednesday chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 02 October, 2009, 02:54:21 pm
Finished HARM, by Brian Aldiss.

Now reading Resurrection, by some bloke called Tolstoy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 02 October, 2009, 02:55:34 pm
...Now reading Resurrection, by some bloke called Tolstoy.

A wonderful book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gaseous Clay on 02 October, 2009, 03:23:07 pm
Lovely, i've got Resurrection sitting on the bookshelf awaiting some attention...

I'm very close to finishing An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan about his time in captivity.

His description of being moved from one site to another almost caused me to have a panic attack - very very claustrophobic. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 02 October, 2009, 03:47:31 pm
Until it's over - Nicci French

It's about a bike courier in London who gets kinda linked with a couple of murders. Not brilliant but OK
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dinamo on 03 October, 2009, 11:25:19 am
The Advocate - A Sardinian Mystery

by Marcello Fois
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 03 October, 2009, 12:23:19 pm
Just finished "A Clergyman's Daughter", by George Orwell. That man has about as dark a view of humanity as anyone I can think of.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 03 October, 2009, 10:04:05 pm
Finished HARM, by Brian Aldiss.

What did you think of it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mr endon on 04 October, 2009, 06:10:48 pm
Doris Lessing needs to be in any list of writers on utopian/dystopian themes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 06 October, 2009, 12:56:35 pm
17:00.  Score copy of "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" from local Sainsbury's  :)
01:30.  Finish "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" :P
09:00.  Arrive late at work, use matchsticks to prop eyelids open :(

Still waiting for my copy. :(

TWFKAML now lives within spitting distance of an independent bookshop, thus she got her copy on Wednesday chiz.

WAAAAAH!

Mr Postman tried to deliver my copy yesterday, and left it with a neighbour.  :(

Who then wasn't home all evening. >:( :'( >:( :'( >:(

<throws little sobbing tantrum of bookless despair>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 06 October, 2009, 04:36:37 pm
I have just finished Remembering Babylon by David Malouf, who is one of my favourite writers of short stories, but this is the first novel of his I have read. Well worth it, too, particularly if you're interested in Australia or colonialism. It makes an interesting companion piece to Alan Garner's Strandloper and I wonder if Garner read Remembering Babylon before writing his rather superb novel. There are similarities of theme, but completely different approaches, forms and styles.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kathy on 07 October, 2009, 03:38:12 pm
17:00.  Score copy of "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" from local Sainsbury's  :)
01:30.  Finish "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" :P
09:00.  Arrive late at work, use matchsticks to prop eyelids open :(

Still waiting for my copy. :(

TWFKAML now lives within spitting distance of an independent bookshop, thus she got her copy on Wednesday chiz.

WAAAAAH!

Mr Postman tried to deliver my copy yesterday, and left it with a neighbour.  :(

Who then wasn't home all evening. >:( :'( >:( :'( >:(

<throws little sobbing tantrum of bookless despair>

I got my copy last night!  :D

And then I was forcibly taken unto a house of boozahol where I was forced to drink BEER and partake in a quiz chiz. >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 07 October, 2009, 04:56:10 pm
Having been away from reading for some time, I've had a few false starts recently (The Battle for Spain being the last). However, I saw a book in Waterstones last week by Chris Cleve: The Other Hand. I like his weekly column in the Guardian's family section, so I grabbed it.

Some columnists write books like their columns. I'm thinking of Mil Millington, whose column I liked and who was guaranteed at least one sale by sticking a picture of a kind of bike on the cover; and Lucy Mangan - with whom I am deeply in love - whose book was admittedly just a collection of her columns, but none the worse for that.

This is not one of those books. It is not like the contents of his usual column at all. No Sir. But it does seem to have carried me over the tricky (for me) first 100 pages. I might be about to finish a book, which hasn't happened to me in about 6 years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 October, 2009, 05:00:47 pm
I'm now reading You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem. It is really a bit disposable by his standards, hardly of the level of Motherless Brooklyn or The Fortress of Solitude, but it's fun and gently pokes fun at US arts culture (particularly in LA) and the self-regarding indie music scene... next up will be Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce, the follow-up to the brilliant Three Day Road, which I mentioned a few pages back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 October, 2009, 10:30:55 am
Just started re-reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesk_trilogy) trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 08 October, 2009, 08:29:35 pm
Just started re-reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesk_trilogy) trilogy.

Easily his best work so far IMHO, and very good fun. I thought his earlier stuff was a bit too over-interested in weapons and had sketches for plots rather than real plots
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 08 October, 2009, 09:06:01 pm
I've just read Terry Pratchett's latest, which is... OK.  It's more of a continuation of the series than a book in its own right, and the new characters don't add much.  There's some wonderful, laugh-out-loud riffage on the subject of football managers and the psychobabble which surrounds the game.

I'm just about to embark on The Big Book of Pulps, a 1000-page collection of crime stories from the twenties, thirties and forties.  Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Cornell Woolrick, James M. Cain, oh my.  All for £1.99 at one of those publisher's outlet places :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 October, 2009, 11:17:34 pm
Just started re-reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesk_trilogy) trilogy.

Those were very good.  I made a false start with "Transition" and put it to one side while I re-read Tim Powers excellent "Declare". I must look up some of his other stuff. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 09 October, 2009, 01:35:59 am
Tim Powers excellent "Declare". I must look up some of his other stuff. 

The Anubis Gates
is one of my favourite ever SF novels (or perhaps it's urban fantasy...) - by turns ridiculous, literary, zany and really quite beautiful, it has time-travel, magic, gypsies and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a dirty, dangerous London... what more could you want?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 October, 2009, 09:26:36 am
I'm reading a fun little book that Butterfly persuaded me to buy at Stanfords (http://www.stanfords.co.uk/info/company-history,14,GP.html) in London on saturday.

It's Byways, Boots & Blisters by Bill Laws (http://www.booktopia.com.au/byways-boots-blisters/prod9780750945929.html#).  It's a personal selection of the history of walking as a pastime, a sport, and a political force.  But it's very light-hearted, and great for dipping into.  A good 'bathroom book', though I'm reading it through.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 October, 2009, 10:15:45 am
Just started re-reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesk_trilogy) trilogy.

Easily his best work so far IMHO, and very good fun. I thought his earlier stuff was a bit too over-interested in weapons and had sketches for plots rather than real plots

I en't read any of his other stuff; I got given Felaheen as a birthday present coz TWFKAML had seen it given a good review somewhere, and only after the first Several of confusing chapters did I discover that:

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alan on 09 October, 2009, 05:36:25 pm
My recently acquired AUK member's Handbook  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 October, 2009, 05:41:21 pm
I finished reading Ruth Rendell's 'Shake Hands Forever' today.  I found it on the shelves at work.  I don't normally read crime ficiton, but I know a few people who do, and it's a Wexford, which are supposed to be good, so...

It was light & fluffy, and a bit dated, which is fine, cause it was written in the 70s, and I'm a retro kinda guy.  The story was quite well written, though one of the subplots was ridiculous.  The tension ramped up OK until the last 30pages, when it just got to 'oh, let's finish it anyway'.  The twist at the end was very neat, but really deeply deeply implausible, and ill-thought out, which was a shame.  I'd started expecting very little, but the early part of the book made me hope for much more. :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 09 October, 2009, 07:46:36 pm
"Fat Land", by Greg Critser. An excellent description of how the US acquired it's obesity problem, and an explanation of why the UK is following right behind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 10 October, 2009, 05:28:49 pm
'Chainsaws a History', almost the archetypal blokey book, except in our house, where Heather will be wanting a look at it.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 13 October, 2009, 08:52:18 pm
"The Upside of Down" by Thomas Homer-Dixon.

It's a treatise on the coming calamities: climate change, peak oil, food shortages, riots - all that sort of reassuring stuff. He draws a parallel between the state of the modern world with that of ancient Rome. I particularly like the calculation he does regarding the amount of energy required to build the Coliseum.

Later in the book (I'm just short of half-way through) he describes ways in which we, as a species, might survive the onslaught of these calamities.

Eminently readable - considering it was considered essential reading for my son's PhD.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 13 October, 2009, 11:39:21 pm
I've just finished Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Hills_of_Africa), which I rather enjoyed. I don't have any interest in hunting wild animals, but Hemingway's descriptions of the hunts, and Tanzania in general, is very evocative.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 13 October, 2009, 11:53:31 pm
That reminds me of 'The Weather in Africa' three novellas by Martha Gellhorn, who was married to Hemingway at one time. I shall reread it I think. She had a beautiful style.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 14 October, 2009, 10:56:02 am
I've just reread The World Inside by Robert Silverberg, which is minor but interesting early 70s eco-disaster / overpopulation SF. It's a bit too earnest to match the intensity of Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room! (AKA Soylent Green, for film fans) and isn't up to the quality of John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, but it's interesting none the less. It seems quite influenced by Huxley's Brave New World, but I am not sure if that is deliberate or not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 22 October, 2009, 10:00:06 am
I'm still working my way through Cryptonomicon, which is a bit of a beast of a book at >900 pages........
I've finally struggled my way to the end of Cryptonomicon. The first two-thirds of the book were good, but I got bored by the rambling nature of the book by the end and just wanted it to finish. Not a ringing endorsement for the book.

I'm now reading Daisy Miller by Henry James.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 October, 2009, 10:24:05 am
I realised the other day that my son is now the same age I was when I first read The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, so I dug out my well-thumbed old copy and gave it to him to read.

I was concerned it might seem a bit dated now, but not a bit of it. And he absolutely loves it. It's the first time in a while he has had a book that he has chosen to pick up and read rather than do something else, like watch telly or talk to girls on facebook.

I also had a look at it myself - for the first time, I think, since I became a parent, and there's lots in it that you probably only get as a parent. I've never really thought about it this way before, but I now realise it is essential reading for any young person reaching that time of their life when the hormones are starting to kick in and wreak havoc. Totally and utterly brilliant.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 October, 2009, 02:46:14 pm
I'm still working my way through Cryptonomicon, which is a bit of a beast of a book at >900 pages........
I've finally struggled my way to the end of Cryptonomicon. The first two-thirds of the book were good, but I got bored by the rambling nature of the book by the end and just wanted it to finish. Not a ringing endorsement for the book.

Don't read his Baroque Trilogy then...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 22 October, 2009, 03:44:33 pm
Chuck Yeager's biography. Light enough and very 'merican.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 October, 2009, 12:35:55 pm
The Hell Of It All ~ Charlie Brooker

I'm utterly ignorant concerning 95% of the TV programmes he writes about, and his descriptions thereof mean that this will probably continue to be the case.

He's spot-on about David Attenborough and Oliver Postgate too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 October, 2009, 12:40:33 pm
He's spot-on about David Attenborough and Oliver Postgate too.

His brilliant obit of Oliver Postgate on Screen Wipe moved me to tears.

From the sound of it, I must get that book.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cyclone on 23 October, 2009, 12:56:15 pm
Finished in the past week, "In search of Robert Millar" and Wiggos book.. Now re-reading Nick Cave's "And the ass saw the Angel" - probably the most difficult book I've read (more like Southern Poetry...) then I'll attack the "Death of Bunny Munroe" (which at first glance doesnt seem as good...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 October, 2009, 01:21:29 pm
He's spot-on about David Attenborough and Oliver Postgate too.

His brilliant obit of Oliver Postgate on Screen Wipe moved me to tears.

From the sound of it, I must get that book.

d.


You can probably still read 99% of it on the Grauniad's webby SCIENCE, but books are, well, Better.  £7.99 from Sainsbury's.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 23 October, 2009, 01:26:45 pm
Just finished my annual fix of Pratchett - Unseen Academicals.
He still seems to be on form.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Arno on 23 October, 2009, 01:30:20 pm
"The Upside of Down" by Thomas Homer-Dixon.

It's a treatise on the coming calamities: climate change, peak oil, food shortages, riots - all that sort of reassuring stuff. He draws a parallel between the state of the modern world with that of ancient Rome. I particularly like the calculation he does regarding the amount of energy required to build the Coliseum.

Later in the book (I'm just short of half-way through) he describes ways in which we, as a species, might survive the onslaught of these calamities.

Eminently readable - considering it was considered essential reading for my son's PhD.

Not unlike 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_%28book%29


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 23 October, 2009, 01:46:23 pm
Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton. Another largely Oxford-set, children's novel with elements of fantasy. It's romping along at the moment...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 October, 2009, 02:40:04 pm
Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton. Another largely Oxford-set, children's novel with elements of fantasy. It's romping along at the moment...

IRTA "Edmonton Spring" and wondered why anyone would set a book in what Mr. Sunshine refers to as "The Death of The Soul" :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 23 October, 2009, 02:48:37 pm
I'm reading a fun little book that Butterfly persuaded me to buy at Stanfords (http://www.stanfords.co.uk/info/company-history,14,GP.html) in London on saturday.

It's Byways, Boots & Blisters by Bill Laws (http://www.booktopia.com.au/byways-boots-blisters/prod9780750945929.html#).  It's a personal selection of the history of walking as a pastime, a sport, and a political force.  But it's very light-hearted, and great for dipping into.  A good 'bathroom book', though I'm reading it through.

Just finished.  Really interesting (boot poorly proofread - an increasing trend, IME :( ).

I could have done with less about the poets, and more about Benny Rothman, GHB Ward etc, but that may have been a different book.  I'd have liked a bit more about equipment over the years, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 24 October, 2009, 02:13:11 am
"Annapurna", by Maurice Herzog. As the title suggests, the book describes the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950 by a French expedition. Right now I've just finished the part where they realize that their maps are inaccurate, and Dhaulagiri is well beyond their capabilities, so they've decided to find Annapurna and climb it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ray 6701 on 24 October, 2009, 12:59:38 pm
Fallen angel (The passion of Fausto Coppi)

By
William Fotheringham
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 24 October, 2009, 06:27:50 pm
a history of western philosophy - Bertrand Russell
Slow going
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 24 October, 2009, 06:31:07 pm
"Annapurna", by Maurice Herzog. As the title suggests, the book describes the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950 by a French expedition. Right now I've just finished the part where they realize that their maps are inaccurate, and Dhaulagiri is well beyond their capabilities, so they've decided to find Annapurna and climb it.

Sounds like a possible future read for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 24 October, 2009, 10:00:29 pm
a history of western philosophy - Bertrand Russell
Slow going

But fantastic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 26 October, 2009, 08:18:58 pm
I've just finished The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, which is bizarre and nightmarish, but compelling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 27 October, 2009, 12:05:46 am
I'm working my way through Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.

Awesomely violent. Makes Jack Bauer from 24 look like a little girl.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 October, 2009, 11:32:15 am
Being incredibly anal and scouring twenty year old motorcar wank mags for information concerning the genesis of the Lamborghini V12.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Really Ancien on 27 October, 2009, 01:16:33 pm
Being incredibly anal and scouring twenty year old motorcar wank mags for information concerning the genesis of the Lamborghini V12.

I saw a Lambo cyclinder head stripped down in a motor engineers in Canterbury once, I was picking up a mate's BSA Thunderbolt head after a Helicoil job on a stripped spark plug thread. The surprising thing was that the inlet ports were between the twin cams, so as to give a lot of downdraught. This Youtube video of a rebuilt engines shows that.
YouTube - Lamborghini Espada S3 V12 Engine Reborn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LNMZ1CA_g)
I'm reading 'Holidays in Hell' by P.J. O'Rourke. Interesting to see the gonzo style of journalism evolve in the mid 80's and to see which of the world's trouble spots are still active. It's funny as well.

Damon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 28 October, 2009, 09:45:35 am
Saturday by Ian McEwan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 28 October, 2009, 09:47:57 am
a history of western philosophy - Bertrand Russell
Slow going

But fantastic.

Not really a history bokok, more of a 'Russels opinion on western philosophy'

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 28 October, 2009, 10:58:50 am
a history of western philosophy - Bertrand Russell
Slow going

But fantastic.

Not really a history bokok, more of a 'Russels opinion on western philosophy'

..d

Which is what makes it all the better :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Spinners on 01 November, 2009, 05:48:17 am
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

After finishing the book I took away on holiday I found this in our holiday cottage and blasted my way through half of it in a day before having to leave it behind. I found it riveting so it's off to the library on Monday...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 02 November, 2009, 08:59:21 am
Just finished reading 'A Quiet Flame' by Philip Kerr. Yet again, brilliant writing, great black humour and an opportunity to learn about aspects of WW2 that are not talked about very much.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 03 November, 2009, 07:39:01 pm
Non-violence.The history of a dangerous idea, by Mark Kurlansky.

Excellent stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RW on 03 November, 2009, 11:07:07 pm
The Trouble with Spain - Martin Lloyd

A book about riding a bike around Spain, which I've become increasingly bored with.  I didn't buy it, Polly picked it up from Mannings Heath Village Hall, where they have a book lending scheme. 

I've nearly finished it and quite frankly I don't give a damn if he gets back over the Pyrenees or not.  (He will though - he's written the book) and I'm certainly not interested in whether he gets dinner in a Spanish hotel and  I'm hugely irritated by his smug cleverness.

Here's a quote

"But I suspect that you are all wondering about breakfast, aren't you.

I shal not say a word about breakfast.  That would be to trivialise my achievements."

and another -
"I remind them that I travel alone because nobody will cycle with me anymore....."

I wonder why
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 November, 2009, 03:07:17 am
I am now burying myself in permaculture and gardening books, in preparation for next year... currently going through one of my favourites: my old teacher, Patrick Whitefield's How to Make a Forest Garden (which is exactly what I plant to do). Great stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 04 November, 2009, 06:51:48 am
The incredibly bad Majestic, by Whitley Streiber.  I've discovered that if you read if with Johnny Depp's Fear and Loathing voice as the narrator's, it's a lot of fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 04 November, 2009, 01:16:53 pm
I'm really excited by a book I've found on the shelves at work.

Our Street by Jan Petersen (7Seas).  No cover, which is how I'd missed it before, and it's quite fragile, as it's published in 1960, and not awfully well bound.  But that's aside.

It's the true story of a single street in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and their resistance to the coming of the Nazis.  I'm afraid I'd never heard of the book or the author before, but it promises to be a gripping read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 07 November, 2009, 01:27:48 pm
Part one of my Dad's autobiography.  He's been writing this gradually over the past few years and has finally got part one (birth to moving to where he lives now) done.   Printed off and bound, a copy to each member of the family.

Gulp.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 07 November, 2009, 08:49:21 pm
Just finished Nazi Nexus, by Edwin Black. It's a disturbing account of how various big American corporations (General Motors, IBM, Ford Motor Company and others) did business with Nazi Germany before and during WWII, raking in enormous profits while enabling Adolf Hitler to carry out his plans.

I'm now part way into The Cyclist's Manifesto, which is far more enjoyable reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 07 November, 2009, 10:41:15 pm
Just finished Nazi Nexus, by Edwin Black. It's a disturbing account of how various big American corporations (General Motors, IBM, Ford Motor Company and others) did business with Nazi Germany before and during WWII, raking in enormous profits while enabling Adolf Hitler to carry out his plans.


Interesting, this gets a mention in the book I'm reading "Non-violence.The history of a dangerous idea", by Mark Kurlansky
Clearly it was helpful to the Allies (prior to the Nazi's signing the non-agression pact with Stalin) to support the Nazi's since fascism was preferable to communism.  Suprising how quick friends become enemies - especially if you've sold them arms.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 07 November, 2009, 10:57:52 pm
Canal Dreams by Iain Banks.
Much better than his newer stuff. Gory, bloody, violent and with a great balsy female protagonist. The way he used to write them back then. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 08 November, 2009, 12:08:44 am
I liked Iain Banks's stuff, The Bridge is my fave I think (ripped off by Irvine Welsh in The Marabou Stork Nightmares imo). I've got a big black and white section of my bookshelf!

Currently for me it's "What I Saw At Bethesda", an account of the "Streic Fawr", the quarrymen's strike at the turn of the last century.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 08 November, 2009, 02:13:45 am
Just finished Nazi Nexus, by Edwin Black. It's a disturbing account of how various big American corporations (General Motors, IBM, Ford Motor Company and others) did business with Nazi Germany before and during WWII, raking in enormous profits while enabling Adolf Hitler to carry out his plans.

Interesting, this gets a mention in the book I'm reading "Non-violence.The history of a dangerous idea", by Mark Kurlansky
Clearly it was helpful to the Allies (prior to the Nazi's signing the non-agression pact with Stalin) to support the Nazi's since fascism was preferable to communism.  Suprising how quick friends become enemies - especially if you've sold them arms.


That's not the impression I got from "Nazi Nexus". In spite of the strong isolationist and anti-Communist feelings prevalent in the US, the Roosevelt administration seems to have figured out very quickly that A. Hitler & Co. were very bad news indeed for the rest of the world. The book cites a New York Times article from 1933 calling Hitler a menace to the rest of the world, and claims that by 1934 the US War Department was expressing misgivings about selling any technology wiith military applications to the Germans. My impression from reading Edwin Black's books is that Charles Watson (IBM) and Alfred Sloan (GM) would have jumped at a chance to do business with Stalin, Hitler and the Allies simultaneously, before or after the German-Soviet non-aggression pact was signed. As it is, both men and their corporations did a pretty good job of making money off the Allies and the Nazis simultaneously, throughout WWII.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 08 November, 2009, 07:47:01 pm
Mark - thanks for the wider point of view - useful to know.

I've finshed Non-violence (rather appropriate today) and moved onto "Big Business - Poor Peoples" by John Madeley.  It's ten years old so possibly a slightly out of date view of the impact of multi-national companies, though sadly probably still highly relevant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 08 November, 2009, 09:16:12 pm
I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns from the chap who wrote The Kite Runner.  Very harrowing but utterly compelling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 08 November, 2009, 09:29:13 pm
I've just finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which I hadn't before read. It's bonkers. Totally bonkers, but brilliant. It's great to read the original references to things such as The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter etc. It's time I listened again to Jefferson Airplane singing White Rabbit.

I've now started Paul Theroux's The Kingdom by the Sea.


Saturday by Ian McEwan.
Of the McEwan books I've read (The Cement Factory, Atonement, On Chesil Beach and Amsterdam), Saturday is my favourite. I thought it was beautiful written and I was amazed how the story could captivate me so much.


I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns from the chap who wrote The Kite Runner.  Very harrowing but utterly compelling.
Yes, very harrowing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 08 November, 2009, 10:19:59 pm
I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns from the chap who wrote The Kite Runner.  Very harrowing but utterly compelling.
Yes, very harrowing.

And Dr RJ (having read both) doesn't understand why I don't want to read either  ::-)

I've got Bacon's Essays next to the bed - unread since it was on my Eng Lit undergraduate reading list, but now quite enjoyable, an essay at a time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 November, 2009, 01:04:34 pm
The Men Who Stare At Goats ~ Jon Ronson.

I've read something very similar to the first chapter - in which General Stubblebine tries and fails to walk through his office wall - somewhere else recently and I can't remember where and it's driving me maaaaaaaaaaaaaad!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rower40 on 09 November, 2009, 02:08:33 pm
Branch Line Britain, by Paul Atterbury.

(Birthday present)

For someone at the rockface of the cutting edge in the firing line of the decline of Britain's Railways, this is nostalgic in the extreme.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 09 November, 2009, 02:51:20 pm
The Men Who Stare At Goats ~ Jon Ronson.

I've read something very similar to the first chapter - in which General Stubblebine tries and fails to walk through his office wall - somewhere else recently and I can't remember where and it's driving me maaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

There was a load of excerpts etc. published on The Guardian website recently because of the film release....and also a couple of years back in the magazine. Could have been there?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 09 November, 2009, 04:00:14 pm
I liked Iain Banks's stuff, The Bridge is my fave I think (ripped off by Irvine Welsh in The Marabou Stork Nightmares imo). I've got a big black and white section of my bookshelf!
I think Iain M Banks is the forum's unofficial favourite author. Doesn't get so many mentions without the M, but that's how I prefer him.

Wasp Factory, Complicity, Crow Road, Espedair St would be my top ...err... 4

(or Player of Games WITH the 'M' )

Song of Stone was deeply depressing, with no redeeming features
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 November, 2009, 04:24:26 pm
I think Iain M Banks is the forum's unofficial favourite author. Doesn't get so many mentions without the M, but that's how I prefer him.

I've never read any with the M. Don't know why, just never fancied any of them, even though I liked those of his non-M books that I've read.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 10 November, 2009, 12:27:51 am
The Men Who Stare At Goats ~ Jon Ronson.

I've read something very similar to the first chapter - in which General Stubblebine tries and fails to walk through his office wall - somewhere else recently and I can't remember where and it's driving me maaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

I read this ages ago, I loved it! Especially about that mass gathering of all the political heavyweights - was it Bildenberg? Cannot remember. Jon Ronson is fab.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 November, 2009, 10:23:50 am
The Men Who Stare At Goats ~ Jon Ronson.

I've read something very similar to the first chapter - in which General Stubblebine tries and fails to walk through his office wall - somewhere else recently and I can't remember where and it's driving me maaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

There was a load of excerpts etc. published on The Guardian website recently because of the film release....and also a couple of years back in the magazine. Could have been there?

This was definitely in a book.  It may have been in Simon Schama's "The American Future", but the General doesn't get a mention in the index...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 10 November, 2009, 12:55:32 pm
I liked Iain Banks's stuff, The Bridge is my fave I think (ripped off by Irvine Welsh in The Marabou Stork Nightmares imo). I've got a big black and white section of my bookshelf!
I think Iain M Banks is the forum's unofficial favourite author. Doesn't get so many mentions without the M, but that's how I prefer him.

Wasp Factory, Complicity, Crow Road, Espedair St would be my top ...err... 4

(or Player of Games WITH the 'M' )

Song of Stone was deeply depressing, with no redeeming features

Totally agree, Song of Stone was terrible, I think its the only book that I have failed to get through and has put me off Iain Banks for a very long time or until someone can reassure me that he has written better ones since?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 10 November, 2009, 09:35:23 pm
I read this ages ago, I loved it! Especially about that mass gathering of all the political heavyweights - was it Bildenberg? Cannot remember. Jon Ronson is fab.

That was in his 'Them - Adventures with Extremists'.  It had chapters on KKK, The Tottenham Ayatollah, David Icke, Ian Paisley, through to Bilderburg.  Very entertaining.  Very fab.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 November, 2009, 12:03:42 am
I read this ages ago, I loved it! Especially about that mass gathering of all the political heavyweights - was it Bildenberg? Cannot remember. Jon Ronson is fab.

That was in his 'Them - Adventures with Extremists'.  It had chapters on KKK, The Tottenham Ayatollah, David Icke, Ian Paisley, through to Bilderburg.  Very entertaining.  Very fab.

Thank you so much! The chapter about Ian Paisley was extremely entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 November, 2009, 10:47:15 pm
I'm working my way through Stella Duffy's Saz Martin novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 12 November, 2009, 02:38:54 am
I am becoming unusually non-fictional. I am just working my way through Trees of Ontario, Wildflowers of Ontario and Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada... along side my permaculture books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 November, 2009, 09:40:31 am
Are YOU Dave Gorman? ~ Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace

Utterly bonkers in a gentle and restrained sort of way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 November, 2009, 12:39:56 pm
Are YOU Dave Gorman? ~ Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace

Utterly bonkers in a gentle and restrained sort of way.

I loved  this - I heard good things about the tour as well. 'Googlewhack' by Dave Gorman is also very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 November, 2009, 02:19:30 pm
Are YOU Dave Gorman? ~ Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace

Utterly bonkers in a gentle and restrained sort of way.

I loved  this - I heard good things about the tour as well. 'Googlewhack' by Dave Gorman is also very good.

That's next on the list :)  I can also recommend his America Unchained.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 12 November, 2009, 03:00:33 pm
'Red File for Callan' which I found on a second hand bookstall yesterday.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 November, 2009, 04:24:51 pm
Are YOU Dave Gorman? ~ Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace

Utterly bonkers in a gentle and restrained sort of way.

I loved  this - I heard good things about the tour as well. 'Googlewhack' by Dave Gorman is also very good.

That's next on the list :)  I can also recommend his America Unchained.

Ooh thanks!

Just started 'The Gargoyle' by Andrew Davidson. It's a Richard and Judy recommendation, and so far their book club has contained some stunning reads.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 12 November, 2009, 04:32:49 pm
Just taken delivery via Amazon (2nd hand) of Cycling home from Siberia by Rob Lilwall. Not sure this qualifies as I haven't actually started reading it. Flicked through the pages quickly and looked at some of the pics, so maybe that counts!?

Cycling home from Siberia (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cycling-Home-Siberia-Rob-Lilwall/dp/034097981X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258043483&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 13 November, 2009, 08:40:39 pm
Are YOU Dave Gorman? ~ Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace

Utterly bonkers in a gentle and restrained sort of way.

I loved  this - I heard good things about the tour as well. 'Googlewhack' by Dave Gorman is also very good.

That's next on the list :)  I can also recommend his America Unchained.

I laughed so hard at the Googlewhack show I had to use my inhaler. Some of Danny Wallace's books are good too - I liked Join Me and Friends Like These, but wasn't so keen on Yes Man.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 November, 2009, 02:30:57 pm
Right just got back from the local library (Lewisham libraries are fab btw) and next on my list are:

'Charlotte Church - Keep Smiling - The Autobiography'
'Our Betty - Scenes from my life' - Liz Smith (the front cover is fantastic)
'The Nightwatch' - Sarah Waters
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 23 November, 2009, 06:25:40 pm
Just finished The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - thoroughly enjoyed it  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 23 November, 2009, 06:29:14 pm
I just finished re-reading "I Am Legend".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 November, 2009, 07:38:43 pm
Have just finished:

Admirals (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Admirals-Andrew-D-Lambert/dp/0571231578/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259004756&sr=1-1) Andrew Lambert

It details the biography and careers of the British admirals he thinks were the greatest from the time of Henry VIII onwards (basically since the beginning of the Royal Navy). Each admiral gets a chapter of their own and we learn about the changing nature of the job and the interaction between the Navy and politicians. A fascinating book and an in sight into the use of the Royal Navy as an instrument of Empire for over 200 years. Some of the men featured I had never heard of (I'm not much of a navel historian) and Nelson isn't included as he is assumed to be in a different league to all British Admirals before or since.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 November, 2009, 09:16:07 pm
Just finished The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - thoroughly enjoyed it  :thumbsup:

Fantastic book  :thumbsup: I would recommend Kate Atkinson's books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 24 November, 2009, 03:36:04 am
Occupied City by David Peace. The second of his Tokyo trilogy, the dense, repetitive writing and tricky structure makes this one a bit harder to get into than the grimy, atmospheric Tokyo Year Zero, but once you are in, it doesn't let up. I have a feeling this guy may be one of the most talented English writers currently working. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2009, 10:46:47 am
I just finished re-reading "I Am Legend".

I just finished "I Am Ozzy",  Even scarier ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pip on 24 November, 2009, 01:37:20 pm
Just finished Julian Barnes' 'History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters'.

Didn't enjoy it  :(

However, previous book was Wilkie Collins' ' The Woman in White' which was fab  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 24 November, 2009, 03:39:18 pm
My 1908 copy of The Campers Handbook by TH Holding has arrived today  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 24 November, 2009, 03:41:18 pm
Great - so we can find what type of caravan he used, and whether he had a hook-up and a satellite dish ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 24 November, 2009, 04:56:13 pm
Great - so we can find what type of caravan he used, and whether he had a hook-up and a satellite dish ;)
A quick glimp at the pics reveals a caravan; horse drawn. I'd like to do that. There's a bloke near here goes off into the Cotswolds every year with his horse drawn van, lurcher and chickens. He's away about four months on the round trip. Trices are cheaper than a good 'oss though  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 24 November, 2009, 11:03:28 pm
Just finished 'The girl with the Dragon Tattoo' realise what the fuss on here's about, it's a long time since I read over 500 pages in 10 days
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 25 November, 2009, 10:03:10 am
Just finished 'The girl with the Dragon Tattoo' realise what the fuss on here's about, it's a long time since I read over 500 pages in 10 days

My mother-in-law is on the final book in the trilogy, she has thoroughly enjoyed them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moondog on 25 November, 2009, 07:27:18 pm
Just finished reading 'A Quiet Flame' by Philip Kerr. Yet again, brilliant writing, great black humour and an opportunity to learn about aspects of WW2 that are not talked about very much.

That is the next book in line.I have just finished the earlier instalment of Bernie's post war career.

Currently reading the latest Harry Hole (alcoholic,obstreperous,stubbon bastard  of an Oslo Police detective) by Jo Nesbo......    Nemesis. I really enjoy this series.

n
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 25 November, 2009, 08:32:09 pm
I'm really enjoying "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat" by John Gribbin at the moment. It's made me realise how much I enjoyed physics (I did a PhD in it), especially the exciting developments around the start of the 20th century. All those evocative names - Rutherford, Bohr, Boltzmann, Planck, Einstein, Dirac...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 November, 2009, 08:53:04 pm
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 November, 2009, 10:26:12 am
Last Rituals ~ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Not, I hasten to add, in the original Icelandic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 26 November, 2009, 10:38:06 am
Wuss.*





* Icelandic for wuss ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 26 November, 2009, 10:55:28 am
Ermm. This one: click (http://www.malliaris.gr/books/book.asp?id=85.1017).
Very slowly.  Despite the target age range being some 40 years younger than me. :-[


 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 26 November, 2009, 04:49:49 pm
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 26 November, 2009, 05:50:50 pm
Just started reading 'The Journal of Dora Damage' by Belinda Starling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 27 November, 2009, 03:36:15 am
"The Chaco Meridian", by Stephen Lekson. A description of Chaco, a city/power center that existed in the southwestern US before the Pueblo Indians whose influence extended as far as Central America. The title is taken from the claim that the rulers of this city migrated between 3 points in New Mexico and Mexico during their history, with all 3 points being located along the same north-south meridian. As a literary effort the book is nothing great, but I'm sufficiently intrigued by the concept to want to visit Chaco Canyon next spring.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 27 November, 2009, 04:08:49 pm
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

I love that one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 27 November, 2009, 07:14:29 pm
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

I love that one.

It's my favourite of his novels by far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pedaldog. on 30 November, 2009, 10:18:41 pm
Thief of time - Terry Pratchett.   For is it not written that he does good stuff?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 November, 2009, 10:21:33 pm
Finally finished Mark Beaumont's book.  It is terrifically dull, although something happens on about p370.

Now reading Merrie England by Nunquam (Robert Blatchford, editor of the Clarion).  Should reinforce my socialist principles ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 December, 2009, 03:28:08 pm
The Business ~ Iain Banks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 02 December, 2009, 09:05:30 pm
The Business ~ Iain Banks

Enjoyed that one immensely  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 02 December, 2009, 09:36:01 pm
London - A Biography
Peter Ackroyd
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 02 December, 2009, 09:44:17 pm
Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - the New York Times' Mergers and Acquisitions man on the subject of last year's bank crash.  I caught an hour-long interview with him on CNBC, and thought it might be worth reading, so bought it on spec.  It's a hefty tome, even in paperback, but so far it's good reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 03 December, 2009, 02:39:09 am

The bonehunters' revenge : dinosaurs, greed, and the greatest scientific feud of the gilded age / David Rains Wallace (http://lccn.loc.gov/99031904)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 03 December, 2009, 03:18:56 pm
I am reading I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. Considering he wrote the brilliant Goedel, Escher, Bach, this is a pretty pedestrian book with little in the way of new insight and his folksy style starts to grate rather than illuminate...

Instead I would recommend The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger, for anyone who wants a really good work on the new philosophy and science of self.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moondog on 03 December, 2009, 07:40:04 pm
Flashfire.    The Violent World of Parker (http://www.violentworldofparker.com)

Heroic. :)

n
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 04 December, 2009, 12:41:59 am
The Bodies Left Behind -  Jeffrey Deaver
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 04 December, 2009, 06:34:54 pm
Just finished Guernica by Dave Boling.  Not bad, but not as good as Captain Correlli. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 04 December, 2009, 08:42:01 pm
Lustrum - Robert Harris
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 December, 2009, 05:06:37 pm
I'm really excited by a book I've found on the shelves at work.

Our Street by Jan Petersen (7Seas).  No cover, which is how I'd missed it before, and it's quite fragile, as it's published in 1960, and not awfully well bound.  But that's aside.

It's the true story of a single street in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and their resistance to the coming of the Nazis.  I'm afraid I'd never heard of the book or the author before, but it promises to be a gripping read.

That took me rather longer than expected to complete!

But I'm there now.  What a harrowing read.  I think some of it has been 'recreated', but the basis of the book is a chronicle made by the author of how the Nazis consolidated their power, closed down opposition, and put an entire population in fear of speaking out.  Almost.

The last scene, of a funeral, is still uplifting and terrifying at the same time.  

A brilliant portrayal of the human spirit.  And, since it was published before the second world war, it is another reason why we had no excuse to say we didn't know what was happening.  Concentration camps for communist prisoners are mentioned almost in passing, though the details are frighteningly real.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 09 December, 2009, 09:19:03 pm
clarion - do you know if that book's in print?  Ta, RJ.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 December, 2009, 09:30:48 pm
No idea.  I know it was published in German & English in about 1937, and the edition I found was Seven Seas Press (an E. German English Language imprint) from the late 70s.

I have never seen it before in my life.

EDIT:  Here's a link to Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571254209/ref=asc_df_0571254209506366/?tag=panghotbot03-21&creative=7966&creativeASIN=0571254209&linkCode=asn)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 09 December, 2009, 09:32:50 pm
The new Stephen King - Under The Dome. Quite enjoying it. I haven't liked his more recent works, but he's getting back on form with this one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nightrider on 10 December, 2009, 08:24:42 am
New York.The history of one of the worlds greatest cities.From the day of Dutch control to the present day.Written by Edward Rutherford.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 10 December, 2009, 09:34:43 am
Just started 'The Girls' by Tori Lansens (another on the Richard and Judy's bookclub).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 10 December, 2009, 08:17:26 pm
Oh, I read that last summer and really enjoyed it.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 11 December, 2009, 04:21:41 pm
Re-reading Ursula Le Guin's gentle anthropological utopian novel, Always Coming Home. It's calm, beautiful, comfortable... and just a little bit boring  - the big problem with all utopias. Still, I would love to live in her world.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 11 December, 2009, 04:47:57 pm
Currently reading

The Toymaker by Jeremy de Quidt (David Fickling Books)

It's another one I found on the shelves at work, and is a Galley Proof.  But I checked, and it was actually published.

It's pitched quite interestingly somewhere between teen & adult novel, and written in a storytelling style, all intimacies & teasing, intractable situations and impending menace.

The setting is a bit arch, being a sort of central European gothic, with travelling shows, wolf-ridden forests, deep snows, inns filled with shady characters etc.

It gets a bit implausible, but it is quite a page turner, and a well-told story.  I'm a wee bit over half way through - I'll report back when I'm done.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 11 December, 2009, 07:29:21 pm
Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain.  If there's an epiphany in a hot tub, I'm going to get shirty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 12 December, 2009, 03:30:48 am
Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain.  If there's an epiphany in a hot tub, I'm going to get shirty.

heh heh -not that I can recall, but I can't say that it's either his strongest or most memorable book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 12 December, 2009, 07:44:19 am
slightly behind the curve, but I just finished "the road" by Cormac McCarthy.  Great.  Not sure if I want to see the film though. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mr endon on 12 December, 2009, 01:28:58 pm
Just finished A L Kennedy's "Paradise".
Utterly brilliant. Made me hoot and hoot again with laughter. Never read her before, took a chance for a journey read. Gotta read me some more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 December, 2009, 06:00:59 pm
Just started 'The Girls' by Tori Lansens (another on the Richard and Judy's bookclub).

God that was BRILLIANT! Onto 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 13 December, 2009, 03:00:26 pm
"Last Light" by Alex Scarrow.

I'm more of a dabbler than a proper reader but I've been glued to this. I started it last night and I'm already over 150 pages in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 13 December, 2009, 09:22:44 pm
"Last Light" by Alex Scarrow.

I'm more of a dabbler than a proper reader but I've been glued to this. I started it last night and I'm already over 150 pages in.

Well, just finished it. Absolutely riveting book. Over the past 24 hours I've averaged 20 pages an hour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 13 December, 2009, 11:07:12 pm
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 14 December, 2009, 10:14:43 am
'Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II' by A.N. Wilson. One I just want to keep kicking up. It is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek in places  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dunedin on 14 December, 2009, 01:51:59 pm
The time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England- Ian Mortimer  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 15 December, 2009, 09:49:58 am
"Head On"  - Ian Botham's autobiography.

Not very well written (didn't expect it to be) and predictable (and understandably) boastful, but nicely nostalgic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 15 December, 2009, 10:46:57 am
Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain.  If there's an epiphany in a hot tub, I'm going to get shirty.
heh heh -not that I can recall, but I can't say that it's either his strongest or most memorable book.

Frank just had his Buddhist / sporty chick epiphany.   ::-)

C'mon KSR!  A new trope please!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 15 December, 2009, 02:40:26 pm
Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain.  If there's an epiphany in a hot tub, I'm going to get shirty.
heh heh -not that I can recall, but I can't say that it's either his strongest or most memorable book.

Frank just had his Buddhist / sporty chick epiphany.   ::-)

C'mon KSR!  A new trope please!

The Buddhist stuff works in The Years of Rice and Salt because it's part of the structure of the book - which is still his finest IMHO - he's been in a bit of down phase since then...

I am reading Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution. This is a beautiful natural farming work (originally published in the 1960s, I think) from a genuine visionary.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 15 December, 2009, 09:59:04 pm
I'm reading The Box Of Delights yet again.  It's far too good for children.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 15 December, 2009, 10:04:38 pm
Currently reading

The Toymaker by Jeremy de Quidt (David Fickling Books)

It's another one I found on the shelves at work, and is a Galley Proof.  But I checked, and it was actually published.

It's pitched quite interestingly somewhere between teen & adult novel, and written in a storytelling style, all intimacies & teasing, intractable situations and impending menace.

The setting is a bit arch, being a sort of central European gothic, with travelling shows, wolf-ridden forests, deep snows, inns filled with shady characters etc.

It gets a bit implausible, but it is quite a page turner, and a well-told story.  I'm a wee bit over half way through - I'll report back when I'm done.

Hmmm.

Got to the end, and it breaks a storytelling basic: Doesn't resolve the storylines.  Too much left hanging, including the identity of the main protagonist.

Not a satisfying read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 December, 2009, 10:57:05 pm
Because I now work in a Library it is extremely tempting for books, have now started reading 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a day'. Utterly charming.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 17 December, 2009, 08:23:11 pm
The Great Gatsby (again).  Not the right time of year, but it makes me warm.  Comfort reading.  Lord Jim lined up next and probably finished in time for whatever Santa may bring, probably something more modern.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 17 December, 2009, 10:14:16 pm
Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain.  If there's an epiphany in a hot tub, I'm going to get shirty.
heh heh -not that I can recall, but I can't say that it's either his strongest or most memorable book.

Frank just had his Buddhist / sporty chick epiphany.   ::-)

C'mon KSR!  A new trope please!

The Buddhist stuff works in The Years of Rice and Salt because it's part of the structure of the book - which is still his finest IMHO - he's been in a bit of down phase since then...

Aye, Rice and Salt is a gobsmacker of an alternative history and a pure delight, beautifully threaded and with, well, at least one artistic rewrite between his research notes and his draft.  40 Signs ain't dat.  50 Degrees is shaping up as bad, but at least the apocalypse is bloody happening at last.   ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 December, 2009, 10:56:54 am
A Few Kind Words And A Loaded Gun ~ Noel "Razor" Smith.

Autobiography of a right villain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moondog on 20 December, 2009, 06:28:52 pm
Being Prez..Biography of Lester Young.Important Jazz Saxo player..but let me not detain you with this....
I have taken to Robert Wilson and his creation Javier Falcon  a series of Policiers based in Seville.The first: The blind man of Seville.
Those who enjoyed Phillip Kerr and Bernie Gunther should give them a go.

n
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 26 December, 2009, 10:20:12 pm
I've finally picked up The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So far, it's great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 26 December, 2009, 11:51:18 pm
Re-read Use Of Weapons

Banks at his best. The anti hero, the main protaganist, they do terrible thngs, they are likable but at the same time they can be bastards.

Hugely capable people but quite patently broken by past events, doomed, always doomed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JohnP on 27 December, 2009, 09:49:07 am
Just read 2 Mike Carden books - light hearted touring/meandering books.   A Bit Scott - ish visited most of the spots that we visited over the past 3 years. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 27 December, 2009, 11:42:59 am
Re-read Use Of Weapons

Banks at his best. The anti hero, the main protaganist, they do terrible thngs, they are likable but at the same time they can be bastards.

Hugely capable people but quite patently broken by past events, doomed, always doomed.

And they are books that you can re-read time and again, I think.  I'm looking forward to the eldest being old enough for Ian M - he's going to love 'em.  He's currently enjoing Harry Potter, Terry Pratchet and the Hitchhiker's Guide.

I got a new Banks book for Christmas!  An Ian, rather than an Ian M but I like both.  I also got 5 other books, and am still working through the mountain of books purchased to use up a £30 'thank you for doing your job really well' borders voucher that I was given just before they went pear-shaped - dearly_beloved and the eldest cub went in and spent about £70 on impulse buys when you could still pay for half of the value of the sale in vouchers in the correct expectation that the voucher would have zero value shortly afterwards.  So I still have a couple of big fat Peter F Hamiltons to go... lots of reading :)  Yesterday I finished one of the Void trilogy.  And read Billy Back to Front, about three times :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 27 December, 2009, 02:36:06 pm
I got a new Banks book for Christmas!  An Ian, rather than an Ian M but I like both. 

I got the Ian M. (Transitions)... but I am currently reading Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson. I'm a third of the way through and t's moderately amusing and quite well-written and engaging so far... not sure where it's going though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gaseous Clay on 27 December, 2009, 04:52:37 pm
Monkey - its very erm, entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bobb on 27 December, 2009, 05:57:03 pm
I'm currently working through the books I got for xmas. I'm currently reading "My shit life so far" by Frankie Boyle. Absolutely hilarious! Also incredibly crude as you might expect from him  :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 27 December, 2009, 07:33:29 pm
Cycling home from siberia.
Still slowly making progress through Russell's history of western philosophy. Up to Plotinus so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 December, 2009, 08:36:21 pm
The Complete Richard Hannay collection by John Buchan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 27 December, 2009, 09:22:21 pm
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

I haven't read much sci-fi recently, and it was a gift from someone who claims to know f-all about the genre.  I haven't encountered the author before, and after 150 pages or so, it is rather excellent..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 27 December, 2009, 11:03:17 pm
I've just finished "The Rider" by Tim Krabbé. That's where I got my sig line.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 December, 2009, 04:43:52 pm
I've just finished "The Rider" by Tim Krabbé. That's where I got my sig line.

The only good novel ever written about cycling. In fact it's more than good, it's superb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 28 December, 2009, 04:55:10 pm
The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh. The author describes late WWI and the post WWI period in some detail and gives a good picture of just how chaotic Germany was in those years, in an attempt to explain just how Adolf Hitler was able to sieze power.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cpjmathieson on 28 December, 2009, 05:04:50 pm
I am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne...great book he's a complete nutter lol
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ray 6701 on 28 December, 2009, 06:15:05 pm
Hero's villains & velodromes by Richard Moore.  A Christmas present from my big sister   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 29 December, 2009, 06:12:37 pm
Having finally abandoned The Illuminatus Trilogy half way through the Appendices I started  Light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_%28novel%29) by M John Harrison, which is pretty good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 December, 2009, 11:06:40 pm
'Girl with the dragon tattoo' by Larssen. We had a bumper donation of good books into the library today  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LadyVet on 29 December, 2009, 11:13:27 pm
Journey through Britain - John Hillaby. Very good - reading it 'cos of the quote, recorded at the start of an Arrivee article, of an old man's comment before the end of page 1.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 30 December, 2009, 08:47:41 am
Just started on:

Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar

Then it will be two more from more Christmas trove:

The Making of Modern Britain: vol 1 and 2 by Andrew Marr

Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde by Roger Scruton

I might have to read some trashy Space Opera in between those as sometimes my brain needs a rest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Palinurus on 31 December, 2009, 11:39:36 am
Nothing really special recently until Alistair Horne's "Seven Ages of Paris".

Good stuff, and it'll surely lead to further reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 December, 2009, 11:51:19 am
Journey through Britain - John Hillaby. Very good - reading it 'cos of the quote, recorded at the start of an Arrivee article, of an old man's comment before the end of page 1.

If you like that follow it up with Nicolas Crane's "Two Degrees West",  a more contemporary account of a long foot journey through England  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 31 December, 2009, 03:07:45 pm
Finished Kalooki Nights (ho-hum... well-written but hardly the work of genius some reviewers claimed - more like a Jewish Buddha of Suburbia). Then read Le Guin's predictably lovely Tales from Earthsea. Now reading the new Ian M. Banks...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LadyVet on 31 December, 2009, 05:19:09 pm
Journey through Britain - John Hillaby. Very good - reading it 'cos of the quote, recorded at the start of an Arrivee article, of an old man's comment before the end of page 1.

If you like that follow it up with Nicolas Crane's "Two Degrees West",  a more contemporary account of a long foot journey through England  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364)

Thanks for this tip - I'll certainly give it a try  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 31 December, 2009, 05:44:26 pm
I have started my annual post-birthday Wodehouse binge.

To explain: I am collecting (albeit very slowly) the gorgeous Everyman hardback editions and it's become the done thing that everyone gets me Wodehouse books for my birthday. Which is brilliant.

Ergo, two days ago, which was my birthday, I acquired ten more for the collection, viz:
Bill The Conqueror
A Gentleman of Leisure
Heavy Weather
The Inimitable Jeeves
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
Nothing Serious
Right Ho, Jeeves
Sam The Sudden
Something Fishy
Uneasy Money

It's actually starting to look like A Collection now, rather than just a coincidence. There are even a few among these that I haven't read before.  ;D

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 31 December, 2009, 06:21:26 pm
I have clutched in my grubby mits a copy of "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 December, 2009, 09:15:43 pm
Journey through Britain - John Hillaby. Very good - reading it 'cos of the quote, recorded at the start of an Arrivee article, of an old man's comment before the end of page 1.

If you like that follow it up with Nicolas Crane's "Two Degrees West",  a more contemporary account of a long foot journey through England  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364)

Thanks for this tip - I'll certainly give it a try  :)

You might also like Hamish Brown's "Hamish's Groats End Walk",   that would give you one from 60's, 70's and 90's.  Different authors, different routes and an evolving picture of Britain/England.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 31 December, 2009, 09:37:51 pm
I'm about half way through Tim O'Grady's Divine Magnetic Lands (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099469537/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=471057153&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0436205130&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=173A8JQWWR5AJ3S22SCC). Excellent read :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 01 January, 2010, 12:40:03 am
I'm about to start a right old doorstop

The Official History of MI5

I might be some time . . .  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LadyVet on 02 January, 2010, 11:27:13 am
Journey through Britain - John Hillaby. Very good - reading it 'cos of the quote, recorded at the start of an Arrivee article, of an old man's comment before the end of page 1.

If you like that follow it up with Nicolas Crane's "Two Degrees West",  a more contemporary account of a long foot journey through England  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Degrees-West-English-Journey/dp/0140272364)

Thanks for this tip - I'll certainly give it a try  :)

You might also like Hamish Brown's "Hamish's Groats End Walk",   that would give you one from 60's, 70's and 90's.  Different authors, different routes and an evolving picture of Britain/England.
Thanks - I'd best start writing a list methinks!! The John Hillaby route goes through some LEL places - but he doesn't add a lot to my memory of them  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MSeries on 02 January, 2010, 11:31:41 am
The Midnight Bell - Francis Lathom
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Richard & Nicholas Crane
WWII Behind Close Doors - Laurence Rees
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 02 January, 2010, 01:17:24 pm
Have just finished 'Girl with the dragon tattoo'. It were reet bloody good. Desperately trying to find a library copy of the second one (the girl who played with fire) but there are lots of reservations for this trilogy at the library  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 02 January, 2010, 03:25:23 pm
I'm about to start a right old doorstop

The Official History of MI5

I might be some time . . .  ::-)

Sorry, that was my fault. Still, I've managed to get as far as p19 of the introduction to section A...   ;D

The Andrew Ross Sorkin "Too Big To Fail" should be required reading for anyone who's interested in last year's 2008's financial lunacy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Manotea on 02 January, 2010, 03:29:22 pm
I've just ordered Starship Troopers, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ringworld for Ms Manotea the Elder  to take to college.

Well, she is reading Classics...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 02 January, 2010, 06:11:07 pm
Quote
Well, she is reading Classics...

Plenty of parallels between Starship Troopers and the Iliad in their approach to perpetual violence and the cult of the warrior

(Edit)  ...and quite possible that the society Heinlein describes was influenced by reading Plato's Republic
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 03 January, 2010, 07:25:01 pm
Am 200 pages into 'The Girl who played with fire', the second of the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 January, 2010, 01:44:49 pm
Hypothermia ~ Arnaldur Indriðason.  And a nice big pile of other Scandiwegian crime fiction still waiting.  Johna Theorin's "Echoes FRom The Dead" says "If you like Stieg Larsson you'll love this" on the cover.  If I don't there'll be trouble.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: groucho on 04 January, 2010, 02:09:52 pm
Let the Great World Spin - Collum McCann & The Death of Bunny Munroe - Nick Cave. Both riveting and quite different.
 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 January, 2010, 06:33:40 pm
Just finsished Transitions by Iain M. Banks. Well-written but incredibly derivative - Michael Moorcock should sue Banks several times over for ripping off not only Nomad of the Time Streams, but also the Jerry Cornelius and the Dancers at the End of Time sequences! And probably Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright stuff, which did acknolwedge its debt ot Moorcock, too. In addition, it doesn't really go anywhere; there is no convincing revelation that brings any sense to the whole caper. And at least one of the narrative strands doesn't really work at all. Fun but not really much more than fluff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 04 January, 2010, 06:37:43 pm
re-re-re-...-reading one of my favourites: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 04 January, 2010, 11:30:59 pm
Still reading Russell. Up to the early fathers..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 04 January, 2010, 11:35:06 pm
Just finsished Transitions by Iain M. Banks. Well-written but incredibly derivative - Michael Moorcock should sue Banks several times over for ripping off not only Nomad of the Time Streams, but also the Jerry Cornelius and the Dancers at the End of Time sequences! And probably Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright stuff, which did acknolwedge its debt ot Moorcock, too. In addition, it doesn't really go anywhere; there is no convincing revelation that brings any sense to the whole caper. And at least one of the narrative strands doesn't really work at all. Fun but not really much more than fluff.

Loved the 'Dancers at the End of Time' must be 30 years since I read it
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 January, 2010, 11:26:56 am
Now moved onto Echoes From the Dead ~ Johan Theorin.  It's OK, and the translation from the Swedish is way better than that of the Millennium Trilogy, but Larsson it ain't  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 06 January, 2010, 01:46:02 pm
'A soldier of the great war' by Mark Helprin.

It's what 'captain corellis mandolin' was hyped up to be.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 06 January, 2010, 01:54:29 pm
Trying to understand exactly what the Riemann Hypothesis is again in "Music of the Primes".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 06 January, 2010, 09:51:22 pm
Now onto the final book in Larsson's trilogy, 'The girl who kicked the hornets nest'. I've got a bad feeling about Salander, the heroine of the piece.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 07 January, 2010, 12:54:10 pm
I'm reading A Case of Exploding Mangoes, by Mohammed Hanif, that I happened across in Waterstones. It's set in Pakistan in 1988 prior to the death of General Zia ul Haq and is a bit of a mystery book because you're not quite sure where things are leading to. I'm enjoying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Spinners on 07 January, 2010, 06:31:25 pm
"'Tis" the sequel to "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and, so far, every bit as good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 08 January, 2010, 10:59:58 am
"Too Many Men" by Lily Brett.

Funny and tragic, an American woman returns to Poland with her father who escaped the nazis.

She becomes haunted by the spirit of Hoess and her father revisits his old confiscated house in Krakow.

Much funnier than it sounds.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 January, 2010, 11:58:26 am
Blackwater ~ Kerstin Ekman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TimO on 11 January, 2010, 01:24:37 pm
I just rapidly went through The Osiris Ritual by George Mann, since I've travelled on the Tram for a few days.  I seem to have run out of fresh fiction, so I'm reading the Map Addict by Mike Parker which I picked up in Stanfords at the weekend.  It seems to be worth a chuckle, one of the bits which has stuck in my mind so far, was a sign which says "Road impassable to vehicles of the Queen Mary type."(1) ;D

Footnote (1): I think the Queen Mary is a Bedford Truck trailer which was used by the RAF to move aircraft.  Why it's called this is a mystery to me
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 January, 2010, 01:32:00 pm
Your Soul To Take ~ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 11 January, 2010, 01:45:24 pm
"Effendi" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (thanks for the tip, Flying Monkey!) middle of the trilogy...going well  though a bit bogged in structure (e.g. updating new readers) compared to "Pashazade". .Good stuff though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 January, 2010, 09:49:44 pm
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 January, 2010, 10:05:34 pm
'The Good Husband of Zebra Drive' by Alexander McCall Smith. These books are like prozac for the soul  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 13 January, 2010, 11:18:17 pm
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.

Any good? It's on my pile of things to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 13 January, 2010, 11:22:35 pm
I am struggling to read The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

The author is called Scarlett.  The narrator is called Ariel.  That may give you a clue as to the nature of the book.

But, beneath the waves of pretension and faux-cleverness, there is an interesting story developing, so I'm going to persist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 14 January, 2010, 01:08:37 pm
"Effendi" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (thanks for the tip, Flying Monkey!) middle of the trilogy...going well  though a bit bogged in structure (e.g. updating new readers) compared to "Pashazade". .Good stuff though.

Cheers! I have a weakness for 'arabesque' stuff. I'd recommend The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin if you want something a bit darker and more edgy in this vein (and not SF, more like fable)...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 14 January, 2010, 01:17:35 pm
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland.  I am a fan of Vermeer, so quite an interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TimO on 14 January, 2010, 01:35:30 pm
I just finished Stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(novel)) by Adam Roberts, which was kind of interesting.

I don't think I'd read it again, which isn't much of a recommendation, since I've got some books which I've read multiple times, but it did have some interesting snippets.

One element I found slightly irritating is that the author has obviously got some information about Quantum Physics and the collapsing of wave-functions, but doesn't really understand what observation means in this context, and takes a rather metaphysical approach to it, which isn't really what Quantum Physics says.

(Don't click the link to Wikipedia if you want to read the book, it isn't actually a very accurate synopsis, and is full of spoilers which give away the entire story).

Now I need something else to read on the Tube/Tram home!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 14 January, 2010, 08:50:00 pm
One element I found slightly irritating is that the author has obviously got some information about Quantum Physics and the collapsing of wave-functions, but doesn't really understand what observation means in this context, and takes a rather metaphysical approach to it, which isn't really what Quantum Physics says.

I wouldn't get too wound up about it. Lots of SF authors treat scientific ideas in a poetic manner. It's not 'hard SF' (c.f. someone like Greg Egan) but then, that's not the point... it's not necessarily the case that he doesn't understand it at all, but more that he's chosen to use the concept in this more literary way. Mind you, I am not a huge fan of Roberts's work - he tends to have ideas that don't ever go anywhere or which end up being something much less interesting than you thought they were going to be. Salt is still his best book, I reckon, although Yellow Blue Tibia came close.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 14 January, 2010, 08:53:45 pm
Halfway through the latest Le Carre "A Most Wanted Man", so far, so good..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TimO on 15 January, 2010, 09:19:37 am
Fair comment Flying_Monkey, it was just particularly irritating since it was central to the story, but really so wrong.  Still it wasn't as bad as Digital Fortress, which shows that Dan Brown really doesn't have a clue about crypto or computers.

Now I need to find something to keep me going for the commute into work and back today!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 January, 2010, 11:50:03 am
Only When I Larf ~ Len Deighton

I am curious as to why, when They published a matching set of Deighton's paperbacks in 1987 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "The Ipcress Files", they left this out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 15 January, 2010, 05:26:26 pm
Fair comment Flying_Monkey, it was just particularly irritating since it was central to the story, but really so wrong.  Still it wasn't as bad as Digital Fortress, which shows that Dan Brown really doesn't have a clue about crypto or computers.

That's worse because his books do rather depend on those sorts of 'facts' and are supposed to be 'researched' (by his wife as it happens...).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 January, 2010, 05:29:45 pm
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Read this in one evening. It's quite harrowing. Not sure if I want to see the film now as I can't imagine it will be as good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 17 January, 2010, 08:33:09 pm
I am struggling to read The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

The author is called Scarlett.  The narrator is called Ariel.  That may give you a clue as to the nature of the book.

But, beneath the waves of pretension and faux-cleverness, there is an interesting story developing, so I'm going to persist.

It wasn't worth the effort.  Droning, adolescent writing and dull characters.

I've now started to read The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks.  With a deep sigh of relief. It's a similar feeling to breathing in a fine scotch after guzzling Vimto.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 18 January, 2010, 09:51:30 am
'The Reader'

I was surprised by this, as knowing what the subject was I expected the book to be heavy going. It isn't, it's a quick read.

Very good, worth reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 18 January, 2010, 10:57:57 am
'The Reader'

I was surprised by this, as knowing what the subject was I expected the book to be heavy going. It isn't, it's a quick read.

Very good, worth reading.

I read that recently and whole heartedly agree with you.  I have yet to see the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 18 January, 2010, 01:20:52 pm
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

it starts with "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."  and it just gets better & better :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 18 January, 2010, 02:09:00 pm
'The Reader'

I was surprised by this, as knowing what the subject was I expected the book to be heavy going. It isn't, it's a quick read.

Very good, worth reading.

I read that recently and whole heartedly agree with you.  I have yet to see the film.

Whilst I would not normally pass up the chance to watch Kate Winslet get nekked act, I'll pass on the film because I think it would spoil the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 18 January, 2010, 03:33:57 pm
I just read Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen again. I hadn't wanted to for a long time because it is a rewriting of an earlier 'trilogy' of his which I loved. But actually, this is even better. In fact I would go so far as to say this is amongst the greatest American novels ever written and certainly says more about America as a culture than many careful non-fiction accounts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 19 January, 2010, 09:42:19 pm
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

it starts with "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."  and it just gets better & better :)

I'm glad you reminded me - after reading this, I ordered it from the library.  The librarian clearly thought I was sending her up, and she was flabbergasted when it turned out to be in the catalogue :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 19 January, 2010, 09:50:27 pm
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Read this in one evening. It's quite harrowing. Not sure if I want to see the film now as I can't imagine it will be as good.

I started it this morning. I can't believe how much I have read and how much is packed into the story. The simplicity of the it is wonderful, I'm hooked and can't wait to get back to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tourist Tony on 19 January, 2010, 10:11:41 pm
'The Reader'

I was surprised by this, as knowing what the subject was I expected the book to be heavy going. It isn't, it's a quick read.

Very good, worth reading.

I read that recently and whole heartedly agree with you.  I have yet to see the film.

Whilst I would not normally pass up the chance to watch Kate Winslet get nekked act, I'll pass on the film because I think it would spoil the book.
For those who are interested (and Tim) I have the film available to borrow, and it is a gem
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 20 January, 2010, 01:51:01 pm
On the recommendations made in another thread I am reading Years of Rice and salt .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 20 January, 2010, 01:56:29 pm
David Lodge.

I've read:
Changing Places (funny, but so so)
Small World (much better)

Now on Nice Work, which is shaping up Nicely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 January, 2010, 02:08:05 pm
David Lodge.

I've read:
Changing Places (funny, but so so)
Small World (much better)

Now on Nice Work, which is shaping up Nicely.

I love Small World - I've read it a few times. Very clever and very funny. I also enjoyed Nice Work and Changing Places.

I've also read Therapy and Paradise News, neither of which I would particularly recommend.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 20 January, 2010, 06:19:07 pm
Just finished Danny Wallace - Join Me (very funny)

Just started Dan Simmons - the Hyperion omnibus (very large!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 20 January, 2010, 06:35:43 pm


I've now started to read The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks.  With a deep sigh of relief. It's a similar feeling to breathing in a fine scotch after guzzling Vimto.

But a little reminiscent of some of his other stuff, no?  The Business and to a lesser extent Whit?

Still v enjoyable though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 20 January, 2010, 09:25:21 pm


I've now started to read The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks.  With a deep sigh of relief. It's a similar feeling to breathing in a fine scotch after guzzling Vimto.

But a little reminiscent of some of his other stuff, no?  The Business and to a lesser extent Whit?

Still v enjoyable though.

I was only about 3 pages in at that point - I was commenting on how much better the writing is compared to the book I was reading previously.

Now I'm a bit further in, and I do agree, though it's reminding me more of The Crow Road than either of those.  I think it's the hints at family secrets, the adolescent reminiscences, and the distance between Alban and his family all remionding me of Prentiss.  Mr Banks does families a lot, doesn't he?

(I'm pretty sure I've read The Business, but I can't remember much about it)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 20 January, 2010, 10:24:50 pm


I've now started to read The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks.  With a deep sigh of relief. It's a similar feeling to breathing in a fine scotch after guzzling Vimto.

But a little reminiscent of some of his other stuff, no?  The Business and to a lesser extent Whit?

Still v enjoyable though.

I was only about 3 pages in at that point - I was commenting on how much better the writing is compared to the book I was reading previously.

Now I'm a bit further in, and I do agree, though it's reminding me more of The Crow Road than either of those.  I think it's the hints at family secrets, the adolescent reminiscences, and the distance between Alban and his family all remionding me of Prentiss.  Mr Banks does families a lot, doesn't he?

(I'm pretty sure I've read The Business, but I can't remember much about it)

Its probably time I read some more Iain Banks. I love his books but they make me feel a bit ignorant. I read them, gripped by the story and loving the writing but when I get to the end of the book I find myself asking the question, "what the hell was that all about?" The Wasp Factory in particular springs to mind. Maybe I should re-read them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 20 January, 2010, 10:55:44 pm
Now, I loved the Wasp Factory.  It was the first of his novels I read, and I was carried away by the narrator's world and obsessions and isolation.  It did seem to be a punk novel.

I've read most of Iain Banks' "normal" fiction novels, and I know what you mean by feeling a bit confused at the end.  I enjoyed the ending of Walking on Glass and how the three stories complemented one another, but it was immensely frustrating at the same time.   I'll have to re-read Canal Dreams to try to work out what was going on there.

The Crow Road is his most satisfying novel.  The TV adaptation was excellent, as well.  I've got the DVD of that somewhere at my sister's house :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 20 January, 2010, 11:37:17 pm
Just finishing: "Final Impact" the last of John Birmingham's "Axis of Time" trilogy.  International military naval fleet from the 2030's accidentally goes back in time to 1942, and everything goes tits-up from there.  Not bad.

Just finished: "Dies the Fire" the first of the "Emberverse" books by SM Stirling.  In an unexplained storm-like phenomenon, the laws of physics slightly alter, rendering all electrical machines & combustion devices (including guns etc.) useless - and everything goes tits-up from there.  Very Good.  This is a spin-off from Stirling's "Nantucket" trilogy (island of Nantucket goes back in time 4000 years due to same unexplained storm-like phenomenon).  Great stuff  :thumbsup:

Just about to start: "The Greatest Show on Earth", Dawkins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 January, 2010, 11:08:04 am
The Crow Road is his most satisfying novel.  The TV adaptation was excellent, as well.  I've got the DVD of that somewhere at my sister's house :)

It is indeed excellent, and was described as "annoyingly better than the novel in so many ways" by someone named Iain Banks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 January, 2010, 12:15:12 pm
Now, I loved the Wasp Factory.  It was the first of his novels I read, and I was carried away by the narrator's world and obsessions and isolation.  It did seem to be a punk novel.
...
The Crow Road is his most satisfying novel.  The TV adaptation was excellent, as well.  I've got the DVD of that somewhere at my sister's house :)

Have to agree with you on all of the above. Complicity is a close second after Crow Road for me.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 21 January, 2010, 02:27:37 pm
Now, I loved the Wasp Factory.  It was the first of his novels I read, and I was carried away by the narrator's world and obsessions and isolation.  It did seem to be a punk novel.
...
The Crow Road is his most satisfying novel.  The TV adaptation was excellent, as well.  I've got the DVD of that somewhere at my sister's house :)

Have to agree with you on all of the above. Complicity is a close second after Crow Road for me.

d.


I still think Espedair Street is his most satisfying straight novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 21 January, 2010, 09:54:16 pm
As it happens, I haven't read either Complicity or Espedair Street.  They're on the list, but it's a very long list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 January, 2010, 12:22:05 am
Come to think of it, I don't recall that I ever got round to reading Espedair Street. I shall add it to my own very long list.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 25 January, 2010, 09:51:47 pm
I was given "Under The Dome" by Stephen King as a Christmas present and started it last week.  Just finished it now, he certainly knows how to keep you turning the pages.  All 877 of them!   His usual small Maine town and cast of characters , but very well done.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 25 January, 2010, 10:32:01 pm
I still think Espedair Street is his most satisfying straight novel.
+1. But I don't have a copy! Read a library copy. At least twice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 25 January, 2010, 10:51:11 pm
Blair Unbound by Anthony Seldon.

Brilliant

Depressing

Worrying
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 25 January, 2010, 11:01:36 pm
The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 25 January, 2010, 11:29:10 pm
I couldn't resit a brand new hardback copy of William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal, The Fall of a Dynasty that I found for £5 in The Works. I'm only a copy of chapters in, but given his other work is fantastic, I imagine this'll be great, although I do feel like I need a dictionary beside me when reading the book because Dalyrmple manages to use lots of words I've never heard of before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 26 January, 2010, 07:44:22 am
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 26 January, 2010, 08:10:07 am
Breath - Tim Winton (and enjoying it immensely)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 26 January, 2010, 08:29:39 am
Blue Highways (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Highways-Journey-into-America/dp/0316353299) by William Least Heat-Moon.

Superb read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ian H on 26 January, 2010, 09:00:04 am
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel.

I was given that for Christmas. It's next on my list.
Just finished LTC Rolt's biography of the Stephensons and now rereading Watt by Sam Beckett.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 26 January, 2010, 09:00:15 am
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby.

I think the cliche is, a return to form.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 26 January, 2010, 09:11:41 am
I'm enjoying it (Wolf Hall).  I was frequently confused to start with before I realized that when there was any ambiguity 'he' always referred to Thomas Cromwell.  Hope that helps you Ian H.

It has made me want to read up a bit of the history.  It seems that the prevailing view (judging by the published histories and biographies, or the Wikipedia summaries of them, at least) of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell over the last couple of decades have been reversed.  TM in Wolf Hall is not the same TM of A Man for All Seasons.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 January, 2010, 10:17:29 am
It has made me want to read up a bit of the history.  It seems that the prevailing view (judging by the published histories and biographies, or the Wikipedia summaries of them, at least) of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell over the last couple of decades have been reversed.  TM in Wolf Hall is not the same TM of A Man for All Seasons.

Might I recommend you add Peter Ackroyd's Life Of Thomas More to your reading list. It's more towards the Man For All Seasons end of the spectrum in its portrayal of More, which may or may not be a good thing depending on where your sympathies lie, but it's a fantastic read.

I've not read Wolf Hall yet but it's high on my list.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 26 January, 2010, 10:23:05 am
The Age of Wonder.  How the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science.  By Richard Holmes.

So far, so (suprisingly) good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 26 January, 2010, 12:27:05 pm
Thanks Smudge.  I'll add it to the list (am currently ambivalent about Ackroyd, based on just on 2 of his works of fiction).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikenerd on 26 January, 2010, 01:59:29 pm
Philip K. Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.  Completely brilliant exploration of human conscious experience and how it might be changed by drugs, religion and external stress.  Set on a dying planet and Mars and featuring a cyborg.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 January, 2010, 04:38:50 pm
Thanks Smudge.  I'll add it to the list (am currently ambivalent about Ackroyd, based on just on 2 of his works of fiction).

Ah. Might I ask which two? I'm a huge fan of his, though even I would admit that his more recent stuff isn't a patch on his earlier works. He just seems to churn identikit books off a production line these days.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 26 January, 2010, 06:45:09 pm
Philip K. Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.  Completely brilliant exploration of human conscious experience and how it might be changed by drugs, religion and external stress.  Set on a dying planet and Mars and featuring a cyborg.

One of his best, certainly... as for what it's about, well, I cant be sure, but I don't think it's about 'mights' - I think it's a commentary on the nature of reality as it is (or at least as PKD, in his gnostic way, saw it).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 26 January, 2010, 09:31:10 pm
my JoGLE diary
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 26 January, 2010, 09:53:16 pm
Smudge - Hawksmoor and First Light. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 27 January, 2010, 07:11:24 am
Just finished The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. As that followed The Road by Cormac McCarthy I think I am due for a happy book now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 January, 2010, 10:42:01 am
Smudge - Hawksmoor and First Light. 

Hmm, well, neither is among his very best works but they are fairly representative, so I guess Ackroyd may not be for you. Still might be worth looking at the Thomas More biog if you're interested in the subject matter.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moloko on 27 January, 2010, 12:28:57 pm
Someone kindly gave me completely gratis a copy of the Haynes Bike Book that they had found in their
large book collection.

Some parts of it regarding instruction, are really bad,  especially for a complete novice if they read it.
Their method of removing cotter pins, being one of them.  :o


Luckily cotter pins have now been mostly superseded, so there now won't be so many about with
bent-over shafted threads any more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 27 January, 2010, 12:32:47 pm
Half of my fleet of solos have cotter pins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moloko on 27 January, 2010, 12:34:14 pm
Half of my fleet of solos have cotter pins.

I hope you can easily get the retaining nut back on on all of them.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 27 January, 2010, 12:35:37 pm
I try hard not to take them off, though I have to say that my previous experience of cottered chainsets is that the nuts like to ease themselves ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moloko on 27 January, 2010, 12:38:48 pm
I miss the ol' cottered chainsets.

There was something nice about having the manufacturers name (the better ones) making up part of the spoking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 27 January, 2010, 12:41:11 pm
If I wasn't an Irish nationalist, I'd love to get an Ulster hand chainset for my Rudge...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Moloko on 27 January, 2010, 12:53:12 pm
If I wasn't an Irish nationalist, I'd love to get an Ulster hand chainset for my Rudge...

Oh yeah, I remember seeing THAT (http://www.jimlangley.net/spin/rudgeringaniforever.gif) one before.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 27 January, 2010, 12:57:00 pm
Just finished The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. As that followed The Road by Cormac McCarthy I think I am due for a happy book now.

Well it is Holocaust Memorial Day to day so its very appropriate!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 27 January, 2010, 07:49:25 pm
George Orwell's "Animal Farm". I dimly remember reading it many years ago, but I was too young to really appreciate it and I've forgotten too much of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 January, 2010, 09:42:44 pm
Tim Powers excellent "Declare". I must look up some of his other stuff. 

The Anubis Gates
is one of my favourite ever SF novels (or perhaps it's urban fantasy...) - by turns ridiculous, literary, zany and really quite beautiful, it has time-travel, magic, gypsies and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a dirty, dangerous London... what more could you want?

Just finished "The Anubis Gates",  a very good read, thanks for the recommendation.   Next one's going to be a toss up between Jon Courtenay Grimwood's "Redrobe" or Kim Stanley Robinson's  "Icehenge"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 February, 2010, 03:38:25 pm
Tim Powers excellent "Declare". I must look up some of his other stuff. 

The Anubis Gates
is one of my favourite ever SF novels (or perhaps it's urban fantasy...) - by turns ridiculous, literary, zany and really quite beautiful, it has time-travel, magic, gypsies and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a dirty, dangerous London... what more could you want?

Just finished "The Anubis Gates",  a very good read, thanks for the recommendation.   Next one's going to be a toss up between Jon Courtenay Grimwood's "Redrobe" or Kim Stanley Robinson's  "Icehenge"

Hmm. Neither are their best works. Redrobe has more guns.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 February, 2010, 06:18:01 pm
Tim Powers excellent "Declare". I must look up some of his other stuff. 

The Anubis Gates
is one of my favourite ever SF novels (or perhaps it's urban fantasy...) - by turns ridiculous, literary, zany and really quite beautiful, it has time-travel, magic, gypsies and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a dirty, dangerous London... what more could you want?

Just finished "The Anubis Gates",  a very good read, thanks for the recommendation.   Next one's going to be a toss up between Jon Courtenay Grimwood's "Redrobe" or Kim Stanley Robinson's  "Icehenge"

Hmm. Neither are their best works. Redrobe has more guns.

So I believe, but I've not read anything before the Arabesque series.  Redrobe is supposed to have a talking gun, the last one of those I encountered was in Ken Mcleods "Star Fraction"  :)

I've read and enjoyed most of KSR's other stuff so Icehenge is just tidying up the bits. I think I read "The Gold Coast" when it was first published and picked up "Pacific Edge" and "The Wild Shore" on Ebay a few years ago. Good stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 01 February, 2010, 09:55:24 pm
I've just finished The Damned Utd and enjoyed it so much I think I'll see if I can get secondhand copies of Cloughie's autobiographies on Amazon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 01 February, 2010, 09:58:31 pm
Me Cheeta: The Autobiography

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 01 February, 2010, 10:46:32 pm
Single Man. I like to the read book before I see the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 02 February, 2010, 11:20:20 am
Magnus Mills - The Maintenance of Headway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 02 February, 2010, 06:36:12 pm
An Edgar Allan Poe collection. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 02 February, 2010, 08:21:22 pm
The True Blood Omnibus by Charlaine Harris. Not high literature but very entertaining  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: toekneep on 03 February, 2010, 11:03:11 am
In search of Robert Millar. Somebody in the pub was returning it to it's owner and I raised the old sex change question. "Read it and find out for yourself" was the response. Now I feel obliged to read it whether it is interesting or not.  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 03 February, 2010, 11:06:19 am
It's an interesting book by a pretty good writer.  I really like Millar, irascible or not.  As for the sex change thing, I really don't care.  It's his life, and I would like him to be able to live it in peace as far as possible.  He was a terrifically exciting rider.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 03 February, 2010, 01:42:49 pm
I think the book is inconclusive on the sex change rumour.  It's a good read, though, and I like the little email exchange at the end. He was a great rider.  I forget which climb it was (Super Bagneres, maybe?),  but I that clip of him passing his bottle to a rival rider who had run out of water sums the man up for me. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 04 February, 2010, 07:35:32 pm
Cosmonaut Keep.  There's a project manager as a hero.  That's new.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 04 February, 2010, 08:17:53 pm
Cosmonaut Keep.  There's a project manager as a hero.  That's new.

I've been doing heroic work as a Project Manager for years ;D.
I may be biased of course & I realise that self-praise is no reccommendation but I don't suffer from false modesty where work is concerned 8)

Currently I am reading Arrivee :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 04 February, 2010, 08:36:55 pm
The True Blood Omnibus by Charlaine Harris. Not high literature but very entertaining  :thumbsup:
I read these books as individual stories a while back - they sadly go downhill quite a lot after the fifth or sixth book and rather spoiled my enjoyment, retrospectively, of the first book. Hope you get on better with them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 February, 2010, 08:47:03 pm
The True Blood Omnibus by Charlaine Harris. Not high literature but very entertaining  :thumbsup:
I read these books as individual stories a while back - they sadly go downhill quite a lot after the fifth or sixth book and rather spoiled my enjoyment, retrospectively, of the first book. Hope you get on better with them.

Yes, thats the impression that I got from other readers on the Interwebs, but we shall see  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 04 February, 2010, 10:31:15 pm
"The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. Thought it was a bit one-paced to start with but actually the author was just being strict with himself, presumably so's not to show off too much. Technically it's dazzling, with deft switches of style and idiom, double narrative lines and the story-within-a-story plus a whole world of sci-fi technical wizardry. But even better it's a rattling good yarn to boot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 February, 2010, 05:44:10 pm
"The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. Thought it was a bit one-paced to start with but actually the author was just being strict with himself, presumably so's not to show off too much. Technically it's dazzling, with deft switches of style and idiom, double narrative lines and the story-within-a-story plus a whole world of sci-fi technical wizardry. But even better it's a rattling good yarn to boot.

Yeah, it was the last disciplined book he wrote (or maybe the last time he had an editor). Consequently, it's by far his best IMHO. He seems only to write bloated and overblown things now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 06 February, 2010, 11:12:57 pm
"Castorp", by Pawel Huelle. Very good, so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 07 February, 2010, 12:15:11 am
Now, I loved the Wasp Factory.  It was the first of his novels I read, and I was carried away by the narrator's world and obsessions and isolation.  It did seem to be a punk novel.

I've read most of Iain Banks' "normal" fiction novels, and I know what you mean by feeling a bit confused at the end.  I enjoyed the ending of Walking on Glass and how the three stories complemented one another, but it was immensely frustrating at the same time.   I'll have to re-read Canal Dreams to try to work out what was going on there.

The Crow Road is his most satisfying novel.  The TV adaptation was excellent, as well.  I've got the DVD of that somewhere at my sister's house :)

Complicity is my fave non SF Banks novel. The Crow Road is very good, but I think Complicity beats it hands down for 'can't put it down-ness'. Steep approach pales in comparison, and I thought The Business was frankly a bit wet.

Anyway, I am nearing the final few chapters of Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire and it's pretty gripping. I don't tend to read crime/thriller novels but I've been enjoying these, even if they're not the most amazingly well written books in the world....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 07 February, 2010, 12:27:14 am
Just started "Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic" by John "Drumbo" French. Might take a while - 860 pages of dense print.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 11 February, 2010, 08:58:17 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 11 February, 2010, 09:05:16 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
+1
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 February, 2010, 11:53:44 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
+1
+ 2. God, they (the trilogy) are good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 12 February, 2010, 08:10:53 am
Early days yet, but I have a feeling I may be buying the other two.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 February, 2010, 10:59:25 am
Skin And Bones ~ Tom Bale

Surprisingly non-crap conspiracy thriller mostly set in El Supremo / West Kent CTC territory.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 15 February, 2010, 06:41:48 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
+1
+ 2. God, they (the trilogy) are good.
You know, the Search Wizard says I'm mistaken, but I thought Stieg Larsson was the 2nd most raved about author on YACF (after Iaiain M.Banks). I also thought 90% of the posts were by La Rringtone.

Anyway, 1st book pretty good, but wordy, 2nd one excellent. 3rd review TBD
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 15 February, 2010, 08:16:30 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
+1
+ 2. God, they (the trilogy) are good.
You know, the Search Wizard says I'm mistaken, but I thought Stieg Larsson was the 2nd most raved about author on YACF (after Iaiain M.Banks). I also thought 90% of the posts were by La Rringtone.

Anyway, 1st book pretty good, but wordy, 2nd one excellent. 3rd review TBD

The following may be of interest:

 Noomi Rapace's Lisbeth was a suicide mission - Times Online  (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7021904.ece)

Quote
It is Salander, the unlikeliest of literary heroines, with whom Rapace has become inextricably entwined. As the character’s screen embodiment, she has starred in all three film adaptations of the books, the third of which has just opened in Scandinavia. Belatedly, the first one, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is about to launch in the UK; the other two follow later in the year. It has been worth the wait. The story of the wealthy Vanger family and the unresolved disappearance of the patriarch’s niece in 1966 is far from a trashy screen translation. A superior thriller, it has been nominated for gongs across Europe, not least for its female lead.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 15 February, 2010, 08:19:10 pm
Cider With Roadies  - Stuart Maconie.  A great read, as he ricochets through the music of his youth.  Much to recognise, and actually quite astute cultural observations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 16 February, 2010, 01:40:46 am
Just finished a book called Quintet of the Year, which traces the history of teh participants in a 1953 Massey Hall gig that brought together Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and Mingus. The book wasn't in itself that great, but was a nice reminder of just what a period of musical genius the be-bop era was and how racism and prejudice in many ways still prevent us from understanding the brilliance of these black musicians, who were every bit the equal of the great white classical composers..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 February, 2010, 12:42:23 pm
The White Spider ~ Heinrich Harrer.  Tells the tale of attempts on the Eiger Nordwand up to the late fifties.  Harrer was one of the party who made the first successful ascent, so has some claim to know what he's talking about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 16 February, 2010, 01:29:23 pm
The White Spider ~ Heinrich Harrer.  Tells the tale of attempts on the Eiger Nordwand up to the late fifties.  Harrer was one of the party who made the first successful ascent, so has some claim to know what he's talking about.

"The White Spider" is an excellent read, but every other account I've read suggests that Harrer was a bit of a bumbly climber. Neglecting to bring crampons and getting the party lost on the way down are not exactly confidence inspiring moves.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mobbsy on 17 February, 2010, 09:11:15 pm
The Medical Detective: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera by Sandra Hempel
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 17 February, 2010, 09:27:55 pm
Specsavers Guide to Wearing Soft Contact lenses
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 17 February, 2010, 09:50:33 pm
Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden

(Another of FM's tips (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg441425#msg441425) - cheers :thumbsup:)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 February, 2010, 10:32:18 pm
"Fear Of the Dark" by Walter Mosley.   Not Easy Rawlins, this time it's Fearless Jones, but a similar milieu the black LA neighbourhoods in the mid 50's.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 February, 2010, 09:58:04 am
White Line Fever ~ Lemmy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 18 February, 2010, 09:59:24 am
Let us know what he says about Pete Gill.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 February, 2010, 10:12:16 am
Let us know what he says about Pete Gill.

It said something along the lines of "I later heard that he'd come out, which man go some way towards explaining [$ODD_BEHAVIOUR]".

I'm fairly sure I read it somewhere else before Mr. O'Luftwaffe's book was published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 February, 2010, 10:23:07 am
The Generals by Simon Skarrow, an interesting historical novel about Napoleon and Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 18 February, 2010, 01:29:30 pm
Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden

(Another of FM's tips (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg441425#msg441425) - cheers :thumbsup:)

Did you read Three Day Road first? If not, make sure you do afterwards, it's even better...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 18 February, 2010, 01:30:47 pm
"Fear Of the Dark" by Walter Mosley.   Not Easy Rawlins, this time it's Fearless Jones, but a similar milieu the black LA neighbourhoods in the mid 50's.

Aah, one of my favourite contemporary writers. He can do anything (literary novels, crime, sf etc.), always has something important to say, but he still manages to make it readable.

I've just finished reading Banana Yoshimoto's Hardboiled & Hard Luck - two deceptively simple stories of love and loss. She was a breath of fresh air on the Japanese scene some twenty years ago, and she's still writing the kind of beautiful novellas where not a word is wasted. Anyone interested should read her first novel Kitchen and her last one Goodbye, Tsugumi in particular...

In complete contrast, I am now reading Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered, which has a great premise (ethical guy who wants to be a diplomatic is, unknown to him, trained through hypnosis to be an assassin) but doesn't really seem to make enough of this, instead being a series of rather standard and naively-written alien contact stories...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 February, 2010, 02:49:54 pm
Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1 - John Birmingham

This is an above average page turner of an alternative history novel. In 2021 a UN task force of ships from several nations including Japan, UK, Australia and the USA is preparing to depose a revolutionary Islamic group who have taken over the most of the Indonesian islands  declared a Caliphate and begun to slaughter Chinese and Christians. This against a backdrop of a world where London and other cities have seen terrorist attacks worse than 9/11 and the war on terror has been ratchet up several notches.
Just as they are about to start the operation an experiment on a research vessel that is being protected by this fleet goes wrong and the fleet is thrown back through time to 1942 right into the middle of the US Fleet just before the battle of Midway. Most of the 21 century personnel are unconscious and the 1940s ships open fire upon seeing the Japanese flag on one of the ships. Automatic systems on the modern ships reply and carnage ensues.
From their history begins to diverge from that we know. It's a fun if bleak and dark story and the first in a trilogy. I am going to order the other two.
One classic bit has Prince Harry as an officer in the SAS !
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 18 February, 2010, 03:37:52 pm
Just finished Andre Marr's History of Modern Britain. A good but lengthy read, and a chance to view part of my history through a different pair of eyes.

..d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 18 February, 2010, 09:28:22 pm
Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1 - John Birmingham

I read the trilogy last year and enjoyed them.  They may not be Dickens or Dostoyevsky, but very good fun nonetheless.


One classic bit has Prince Harry as an officer in the SAS !

Prince Harry becomes one of the major characters in the second and third books - his SAS kick a lot of Nazi ass.  :thumbsup:

There are a lot of major characters though - sometimes the story spreads a bit too thinly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 18 February, 2010, 11:31:44 pm
Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden

(Another of FM's tips (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg441425#msg441425) - cheers :thumbsup:)

Did you read Three Day Road first? If not, make sure you do afterwards, it's even better...

Nah - Through Black Spruce was a Christmas pressie so I gratefully took it out of sequence (and have no reason 20 chapters in, for complaint)...but I'll scurry off to Amazon to remedy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 19 February, 2010, 12:07:22 am
Just finished Kingdom Come - J G Ballard. One of his last, & IMO worst, an obvious rehash of previous work. Perhaps he ran out of ideas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 February, 2010, 10:59:49 am
Just started The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith.  Sequel of sorts to the better-than-expected Child 44.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 19 February, 2010, 12:49:30 pm
The Brooks Bugle
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 19 February, 2010, 12:58:28 pm
Standard for Verification and Validation in CFD and Heat Transfer, ASME V&V 20-2009.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 19 February, 2010, 01:00:50 pm
Standard for Verification and Validation in CFD and Heat Transfer, ASME V&V 20-2009.

I didn't think the plot was very good, nor the characters well-developed.  There is a degree of suspense, though, and a twist in the denouement. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 February, 2010, 01:21:00 pm
I'm with Clarion on this one.  The Everyday Uses Of Portland Cement (http://www.archive.org/stream/everydayusesofpo00assorich#page/n5/mode/2up), now that's a bangin' read...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 19 February, 2010, 01:28:21 pm
I suggest that you read The White Book by British Gypsum.It is available F.O.C. on the internet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 February, 2010, 02:21:40 pm
Ooh, ta.  I shall pass the reference on to my grate frend Uncle Marvo, the celebrated aqua-pikey, who first tipped me off to The Everyday Uses Of Portland cement :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 19 February, 2010, 03:08:28 pm
The Brooks Book 2010
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 19 February, 2010, 04:44:16 pm
Standard for Verification and Validation in CFD and Heat Transfer, ASME V&V 20-2009.

I didn't think the plot was very good, nor the characters well-developed.  There is a degree of suspense, though, and a twist in the denouement. ;D

I can provide the online link for direct order... if you want? USD 59.00. A bargain!

To be fair it seems very well written and exhaustive.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 19 February, 2010, 04:53:38 pm
The Day Of The Triffids.

I am just popping into the garden to stab a giant cactus with a pitch fork.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 19 February, 2010, 10:06:26 pm
Re-reading Hunter Thompson.  Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas used to be an annual  ritual around this time of year.  It's been that sort of sleep-deprived week ...

The good news is that it stands up to re-reading in a different context.  I find HST's righteous anger weirdly inspirational.

Next up: Generation of Swine (which got a laugh out of my fellow Trumpton vets in Furryboots city this morning ...).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 21 February, 2010, 10:38:52 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
+1

I read the majority of this over the weekend. I really enjoy it when I get into a book in such a way and am constantly wanting to find out more of the plot. It is a bit of a thriller, but the writing is good and the characters are believable. I really liked reading about Lisbeth and watching her struggle to accept friendship. I now really want to read the second book in the series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 22 February, 2010, 08:43:11 am
Finished it yesterday.  Not really my thing in the end, though it zipped along at quite a pace.  And I wasn't as taken with the writing/translation(?) as you αdαmsκι.  The film's coming out soon.  I can imagine it making a great thriller (if you haven't read the book!)

Netherland by Jooseph O'Neill next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 February, 2010, 11:03:21 am
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 22 February, 2010, 11:07:48 am
I should be re-reading The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (no relation of Alec), but I forgot to bring it to work :(

I have two copies, because I needed to check on something at a time when my first copy was in store, so I plan to leave it on the shelves at work when I've finished.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arallsopp on 22 February, 2010, 03:27:00 pm
Currently reading 'Company of Liars' by Karen Maitland. Doing a book swap with the other half at the moment. I think I faired better than her. She got 'Cryptonomicon'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 22 February, 2010, 10:08:41 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...

Is the film to be subtitled or dubbed?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 23 February, 2010, 01:48:28 am
Now reading several back issues of McSweeney's (the literary mag run by Dave Eggers) - great production values and some interesting ideas for issues, but the quality is too variable and tends to favour wanky self-impressed graduates of Creative Writing MAs, and it doesn't have the serious reportage of something like Granta...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 23 February, 2010, 09:55:25 am
I've started reading one of the classics I picked up in Asda (two books for £5 was a bargin I couldn't refuse) - All Quiet on the Western Front. It's one of those books I've heard about many times over, but until now haven't gotten round to actually reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 23 February, 2010, 10:16:37 am
It is brilliant.  there are dull passages, where nothing much happens other than playing cards, but it's a depiction of the strange uneven pace of trench warfare, so stick with it.

Well worth digging out a copy of the sequel, The Road Back, which says more about the dislocation of war, as the surviving soldiers try hard to re-integrate into a society in turmoil, among people who have no conception of what they have just been through to defend a state that has crumbled in their absence.

Three Comrades also covers much the same ground, but gives a slightly different aspect.

If you like All Quiet..., it's also worth trying to find Under Fire by Henri Barbusse.  I think it should be compulsory reading for all those comfy Yanks who propagate the myth of the French as cowardly.  Gripping.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 February, 2010, 01:39:05 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...

Is the film to be subtitled or dubbed?

The snippet I saw in the most recent issue of "Q" (yes, I've cancelled my subscription but it's taking them a while to notice) says it's "in Swedish" so I assume subtitled.  They gave it four stars too, so my Social Secretary is on special alert to find where it's going to be on in That London.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 23 February, 2010, 01:54:18 pm
If you like All Quiet..., it's also worth trying to find Under Fire by Henri Barbusse.  I think it should be compulsory reading for all those comfy Yanks who propagate the myth of the French as cowardly.  Gripping.

Cycling around France a few years ago, I was struck by the war memorials in every little village I passed through. I would look at the long list of names of dead from 1914-18, look around at the tiny little village I was in, and wonder who was left to carry on after the war.

"Under Fire" is available from Amazon on both sides of the pond, btw. I just downloaded a copy to my Kindle software.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 23 February, 2010, 03:15:31 pm
I'm reading Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_to_frankfurt).  My mum had a big Christie collection, but I only recall reading one of them.  I wasn't that impressed.

The plot is wooden, the writing is piss-poor, and you can tell it was dictated without being proofread.  I did wonder if it were just written under her name as a sort of franchise, as happened with Alastair Maclean, and, I think, Neville Shute.  But no, it was apparently 'penned' by the great lady herself, though she was 80 when it was published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 February, 2010, 03:39:48 pm
Generals: Ten British Commanders Who Shaped the World - Mark Urban

This was an interesting read. Most of us know the bare bones of the careers of most of the generals in  this book but I learned a lot of stuff I didn't know. I was particularly impressed with Monck who could have made himself Lord Protector but didn't and paved the way for a constitutional monarchy and Fredrick Duke of York that rarest of things a useful member of the Georgian royal family. A lot of interesting stuff about the interplay between the military and parliament.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Valiant on 24 February, 2010, 12:32:43 am
John Fowles - The Magus. Awesome
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 24 February, 2010, 10:29:10 am
I like John Fowles. I founf his French Lieutenant's Woman very moving
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2010, 11:02:10 am
Handling The Undead ~ John Ajvide Lindqvist

Non-violent Swedish zombies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 24 February, 2010, 11:05:59 am
Just finished The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I kept waiting for it to improve. It didn't. However did it get such good reviews?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 24 February, 2010, 04:21:14 pm
Just finished The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I kept waiting for it to improve. It didn't. However did it get such good reviews?

Beats me. She knows reviewers? It's a pretty cliquey world.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Valiant on 24 February, 2010, 04:22:22 pm
Cos the teens loved it. Film is out on Friday I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 24 February, 2010, 09:32:36 pm
John Fowles - The Magus. Awesome

My favourite book.   :thumbsup:  Although I've never recommended it to anyone as I would hate to do so then that person not to love it / be shocked by it / be excited by it as I was.

The French Lieutenant's woman is excellent too, but my second favourite Fowles is "The Collector".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 24 February, 2010, 09:34:48 pm
Just finished Frankie Boyle's autobiography, "My Shit Life So Far".   ;D

Now halfway through Wodehouse's "The Mating Season" - classic Jeeves & Wooster.  The funniest writer ever IMO.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 February, 2010, 09:56:43 am
The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward ~ L P Hovercraft
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 February, 2010, 03:00:50 pm
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...

Is the film to be subtitled or dubbed?

The snippet I saw in the most recent issue of "Q" (yes, I've cancelled my subscription but it's taking them a while to notice) says it's "in Swedish" so I assume subtitled.  They gave it four stars too, so my Social Secretary is on special alert to find where it's going to be on in That London.

Stop Press: Social Secretary claims it opens in That London on March 12th, not 22nd :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pneumant on 26 February, 2010, 06:46:20 pm
The Bridge - Iain Banks

Story about a man in hospital who starts living in another very strange reality, some chapters are more difficult than others, not sure if this is Banks' style as this is the first novel of his that I have read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 02 March, 2010, 08:38:16 am
A little break from Netherland to read 'Barring Mechanicals' by our own Andy Allsopp (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1441).  A wry, spry account of one man's debut Audax (LEL, lying down through two countries): the thrills, the spills, the highs, the lows, the tears, the gears, the laughter, the drafter.  Oh, and the zip ties. How could I forget the zip ties?

Did he make it?  Well you can follow the link on his profile to order a copy to find out.  It would probably be bad form to offer it for a lend. 

Recommended to fellow participants, fellow randonneurs and fellow cyclists.  Well, anyone really. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 02 March, 2010, 08:49:18 am
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp - am almost at Thorne - brought back many memories of LEL and with the wonders of the interweb has arrived here in Australia before VeloYellow's brevet!

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/barring-mechanicals---from-london-to-edinburgh-and-back-on-a-recumbent-bicycle/8116858 (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/barring-mechanicals---from-london-to-edinburgh-and-back-on-a-recumbent-bicycle/8116858)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 02 March, 2010, 09:44:44 am


I shall be passing through Cromford today where there are several bookshops & will look for this book specifically. (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/barring-mechanicals---from-london-to-edinburgh-and-back-on-a-recumbent-bicycl
[/quote)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 02 March, 2010, 10:10:56 am
Jogler - I think you may only be able to purchase on line?  Try this link if the other doesn't work

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/barring-mechanicals---from-london-to-edinburgh-and-back-on-a-re/6302388 (http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/barring-mechanicals---from-london-to-edinburgh-and-back-on-a-re/6302388)

Otherwise do a search at Self Publishing - Lulu.com    (http://www.lulu.com) for barring mechanicals

[but be careful - when I did that the second item on the results is "Shadowman & Other Gay Male Erotica" - TORRID STORIES OF GAY MALE LOVE!)
 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arallsopp on 02 March, 2010, 10:56:09 am
Oh! Bless you! You're talking about me! :)

Here, have a tiny url: tinyurl.com/lelbook (http://tinyurl.com/lelbook)

Distribution to UK / Europe / Australia / US / Canada is exclusively through lulu.com at the moment, but it is (very slowly) also on its way to the Americas via amazon.com.
At the moment, a search on amazon mostly returns the work of Torsten Barring. I would order 'A novel of Gay Male Bondage' but I don't have a Kindle to read it on.

Andy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 02 March, 2010, 10:58:04 am
...[but be careful - when I did that the second item on the results is "Shadowman & Other Gay Male Erotica" - TORRID STORIES OF GAY MALE LOVE!)
 

So is it any good?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 02 March, 2010, 09:51:41 pm
The Bridge - Iain Banks

Story about a man in hospital who starts living in another very strange reality, some chapters are more difficult than others, not sure if this is Banks' style as this is the first novel of his that I have read.

It's not typical in a lot of ways, and I don't think I especially enjoyed it when I read it (about ten years ago).  Maybe I should re-read it.

Currently, I'm reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, after noticing his name being mentioned on here, and spotting the book in the library.  It's certainly not what I was expecting - part of me is waiting for the aliens to make an appearance.  But the level of detail is extraordinary, and it's enthralling.  Even though most of the science goes over my head.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 03 March, 2010, 11:16:19 pm
Just finished "A Very British Coup" by Chris Mullin
Just started "Bomber" by Len Deighton
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 04 March, 2010, 06:32:41 pm
The former is one of my favourite books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 March, 2010, 07:44:14 pm
'If the Dead Rise Not' by Philip Kerr, another Bernie Gunther gem  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 04 March, 2010, 09:03:13 pm
The former is one of my favourite books.

Kind of sad isn't it.  :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 04 March, 2010, 09:18:16 pm
Ringworld 2.  Still spanks a lot of modern fluff and sends it running home to Mum.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 04 March, 2010, 10:12:02 pm
Re-reading Hunter Thompson.  Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas used to be an annual  ritual around this time of year.  It's been that sort of sleep-deprived week ...

The good news is that it stands up to re-reading in a different context.  I find HST's righteous anger weirdly inspirational.

Next up: Generation of Swine (which got a laugh out of my fellow Trumpton vets in Furryboots city this morning ...).

Next:  Songs of the Doomed
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: valkyrie on 04 March, 2010, 10:56:42 pm
Just finished "Transitions" by Iain Bank. Probably my favourite author and it's his best book in a long time. Recommended :thumbsup: Interesting that he writes normal fiction as Iain Banks and SF as Iain M Banks. I'd class this book as SF but it's Iain No-M Banks. Maybe 'cos it's actually set on planet Earth, or maybe he's decided to drop the distinction between genres.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 March, 2010, 08:34:13 am
Just finished "Transitions" by Iain Bank. Probably my favourite author and it's his best book in a long time. Recommended :thumbsup: Interesting that he writes normal fiction as Iain Banks and SF as Iain M Banks. I'd class this book as SF but it's Iain No-M Banks. Maybe 'cos it's actually set on planet Earth, or maybe he's decided to drop the distinction between genres.

I seem to remember that in the UK it's Ian Banks and Ian M Banks because the publishing or more correctly the reviewing industry is snooty about SF whereas in the USA they are all published as Ian M Banks because his SF sell so much more that the publishers want to trade on this to sell more of his non SF books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 March, 2010, 10:53:19 am
"Transitions" is certainly an Iain M Banks in USAnia.

I've just started "The Steep Approach To Garbadale", which doesn't have an M.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 05 March, 2010, 11:09:18 am
I'm reading Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_to_frankfurt).  My mum had a big Christie collection, but I only recall reading one of them.  I wasn't that impressed.

The plot is wooden, the writing is piss-poor, and you can tell it was dictated without being proofread.  I did wonder if it were just written under her name as a sort of franchise, as happened with Alastair Maclean, and, I think, Neville Shute.  But no, it was apparently 'penned' by the great lady herself, though she was 80 when it was published.

What a pile of steaming turd!

Christie had clearly lost her marbles by the time she dictated this one.  She clearly has no idea about world politics, and just has miles of improbable expositionary dialogue about some fanciful neo-Nazi plot which is behind the student insurrection of the times.  Yeah, right.  And  apparently Castro & Guevara (both mentioned by name) are behind an Aryan supremacist movement.

And then, out of the blue, the main character we started with and lost about half way through, appears in an Epilogue to have a romantic happy ending. ::-)

It's supposed to be a thriller (with no action at all?), but is basically Christie's diatribe about how the world has gone to the dogs, and young people these days etc etc.  Although the Nazis are the baddies, you can sense a certain admiration for their discipline etc creeping through creepily.  Reading what she says about the Third World is just cringingly embarrassing.  She doesn't even understand the term. :-\

Not really recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 March, 2010, 04:54:09 pm
Just finished "Transitions" by Iain Bank. Probably my favourite author and it's his best book in a long time. Recommended :thumbsup: Interesting that he writes normal fiction as Iain Banks and SF as Iain M Banks. I'd class this book as SF but it's Iain No-M Banks. Maybe 'cos it's actually set on planet Earth, or maybe he's decided to drop the distinction between genres.

I thought it was confused, very derivative amd didn't go anywhere...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 06 March, 2010, 10:43:26 am
[All Quiet on the Western Front] is brilliant.  There are dull passages, where nothing much happens other than playing cards, but it's a depiction of the strange uneven pace of trench warfare, so stick with it.

Well worth digging out a copy of the sequel, The Road Back, which says more about the dislocation of war, as the surviving soldiers try hard to re-integrate into a society in turmoil, among people who have no conception of what they have just been through to defend a state that has crumbled in their absence.

Three Comrades also covers much the same ground, but gives a slightly different aspect.

If you like All Quiet..., it's also worth trying to find Under Fire by Henri Barbusse.  I think it should be compulsory reading for all those comfy Yanks who propagate the myth of the French as cowardly.  Gripping.

From your description I thought there'd be large sections of card games etc., but I didn't find that to be the case and the story seemed to continue at a decent pace.  It's an amazing anti-war book. Extremely powerful, and the talk about the lack of food gives an excellent sense of the starvation that was taking place in Germany by 1918. I'll certainly hunt out The Road Back.

I'm now reading The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, which is the follow-up to his bestseller The Shadow of the Wind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 06 March, 2010, 12:25:22 pm
I'll certainly hunt out The Road Back.


If you PM me your address, I can lend you my copy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 09 March, 2010, 03:37:16 pm
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp -

My copy arrived today :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 09 March, 2010, 04:25:41 pm
Little G is enjoying Mademoiselle Gorilla: Amazon.co.uk: Simon Puttock, Nicola Slater: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mademoiselle-Gorilla-Simon-Puttock/dp/1405020350/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268151840&sr=8-2-spell)

I am going through my newly acquired Asterix!! (new, 2£ each!! An unbelievable find this WE...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 09 March, 2010, 07:50:49 pm
Quote from: Frenchie link=topic=342.msg566678#msg566678 date=1268151941

I am going through my newly acquired Asterix!! (new, 2£ each!! An unbelievable find this WE...)
[/quote

jealous !  I loved Asterix as a child!   And then later TinTin..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 10 March, 2010, 02:55:24 am
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence, my schoolboy hero (ok I'm showing my age) would have saved a lot of strife if a few politicians had read it.
     Also Serge Bastarde stole my Baguette
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 March, 2010, 09:14:32 am
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 10 March, 2010, 09:18:22 am
Re-reading Dune.  Again.

Interspersed with Kano Jigoro's Mind Over Muscle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 March, 2010, 09:19:46 am
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp -

My copy arrived today :thumbsup:

So did mine.  Home at 16:35, book finished by 17:30.  And I'm in it!  One of my photos, one signature and one uncredited guest appearance as the finish controller at Cheshunt.

Still struggling through the crap Swedish zombies of "Handling The Undead".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arallsopp on 10 March, 2010, 09:36:39 am
And I'm in it!  One of my photos, one signature and one uncredited guest appearance as the finish controller at Cheshunt.

Wow. You whipped through that! Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry I didn't recognise you at the Cheshunt. To be fair, I barely recognised me.

(scans closing pages to make sure he says nothing nasty about the end.... no, we're good. Phew!).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 10 March, 2010, 10:42:30 am
I'm reading mine a bit at a time between the evil necessities of working.It's like savouring a good wine a bit at a time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 10 March, 2010, 11:05:19 am
I'm halfway through this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bold_As_Love_%28novel%29 (by Gwyneth Jones)

It's the first of a 5-book series, so I really wanted to like it! So far it swerves between heavy-going and gripping.

I would reckon the subject matter would hit the YACF demographic square-on - anyone else read it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 10 March, 2010, 02:05:44 pm
I'm halfway through this:

Bold As Love (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bold_As_Love_%28novel%29) (by Gwyneth Jones)

It's the first of a 5-book series, so I really wanted to like it! So far it swerves between heavy-going and gripping.

I would reckon the subject matter would hit the YACF demographic square-on - anyone else read it?

Yes. I've read most of them. They are very, very English - Spinal Tap meets pagan eco-political science fiction and in consequence they move between being rather brilliant and rather stupid. I am never sure which. Probably both at the same time (just like the rock- band dominated future politics they imagine). Jones is a very talented writer anyway - my favourite of hers is another vaguely and weirdly apocalyptic novel, Kairos.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 10 March, 2010, 03:55:48 pm
I’m re-reading some really, really bad fantasy novels.  I’m too ashamed to say which ones.  My brain is mush.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 11 March, 2010, 09:26:06 am
The Fall of the West - The Death of the Roman Superpower
Adrian Goldsworthy

Picked this up in the LSE Bookshop yesterday. Started it on the train on the way home. So far it is excellent. In it he attempts to explain how the Roman Empire in the West manage to disintegrate in what was a relatively short time when there was no other power of equal size or strength to challenge it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 March, 2010, 09:39:49 am
Cityboy: Beer And Loathing In The Square Mile ~ Geraint Anderson.

If ever you want your prejudices concerning the financial markets confirmed, this is the book for you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 11 March, 2010, 02:41:32 pm
Re Roman Empire - Rubicon by Tom Holland also (nothing to do with Rome) one of the books I can recommend very highly  and have read three times and will read again (stop waffling and gerron with it)
                            Embers by Sandor Marai
    I call brilliant authors who "put you there"  word artists, this author was truly one
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 11 March, 2010, 02:53:39 pm
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp -

My copy arrived today :thumbsup:

Finished it now.Really enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 11 March, 2010, 02:53:44 pm
Re Roman Empire - Rubicon by Tom Holland

I've read that. A good book about the end of The Republic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arallsopp on 11 March, 2010, 02:57:44 pm
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp -

My copy arrived today :thumbsup:

Finished it now.Really enjoyed it.

Glad to hear it. Thanks for your interest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 12 March, 2010, 10:05:42 pm
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp

Mine arrived today. A picture of me in a ditch and several mentions. Excellent.

I read all of the work in progress on Cyclechat but it's much nicer reading it all in one book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 13 March, 2010, 03:08:10 pm
Sophie's choice. Haunting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 17 March, 2010, 02:38:33 pm
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Finished.

It's an interesting book, first published 1963.  I've got (two copies of) the first Penguin edition, reprinted 1965.

He addresses 'The Negro Question' from an interesting perspective.  Baldwin was a young preacher before becoming disaffected once he knew the tricks, and he turns first to the way in which the churches help black people cope with persistent poverty and oppression by promising future salvation.  Then he recounts in detail a visit to see Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam.  There is much that he admires in the philosophy and practice of the Nation, but he has reservations about the parallels with far right groups, and, ultimately, finds the assertions and vocal support, while superficially comforting, at heart a bit empty and unconvincing.

His conclusion is, well, inconclusive.  But he does talk about how the creation of a US identity depends upon the liberation of white men, which can only come with the liberation of the blacks.

Baldwin is, of course, gay, and I'm not sure how many of his readers would have known this, although Giovanni's Room was published in 1956.  Muhammad was not understanding of homosexuality, so his visit (and potential conversion) may not have happened if he had been aware.

Nevertheless, Baldwin is an outsider in many respects, including his schooling among white jewish boys (which he describes in the first part of the book, which is in the form of a letter to his nephew), and takes an outsider perspective on most issues, allowing him an objective approach as well as offering the experience of coming from within the community he describes.

Baldwin has an interesting voice, and his experience as a preacher shows.  He uses long and convoluted sentences, and a floweriness of language that sometimes overshadows the meaning behind it.  I don't know what Baldwin sounded like (I hope there's something on Youtube I can check out), but the portentous and authoritatively didactical tone puts Morgan Freeman's voice in my head.

For a 90 page essay, it is bursting with held-in emotions of all sorts, and a reasoned, if perhaps flawed, conclusion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 17 March, 2010, 03:22:17 pm
Just finished Michael Crummey's Galore. What a fantastic book! A magical realism-tinted saga of hardscrabble fishing families on the Newfoundland coast up until WW1. It starts with a man being pulled alive from the body of Humpback Whale... and gets better and better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 24 March, 2010, 12:26:18 am
I've just finished the Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and currently I'm reading a random pick from the library shelves, After The Gold Rush: A Bicycle Journey through American History by John Stuart Clark.  It wasn't until after I checked out the book that I realised the author is better known as the cartoonist Brick (http://www.brickbats.co.uk/Dev.html).  Very good, so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 March, 2010, 10:10:40 am
An Utterly Exasperated History Of Modern Britain: Or Sixty Years Of Making The Same Stupid Mistakes As Always ~ John O'Farrell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 24 March, 2010, 10:14:05 am
I'm getting into Mr Love & Justice, by Colin Macinnes.  I've tried a couple of times before, and got nowehre, but I'm really liking it this time.  I was wary of Macinnes, despite repeated recommendations, after seeing the abysmal film of Absolute Beginners, but I do like his style.  It's set in London of the late 50s/early 60s, and depicts Police corruption and the seedy 'vice' world.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 24 March, 2010, 11:14:37 am
Mary Tudor,The First Queen:Linda Porter
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 24 March, 2010, 06:31:59 pm
Having finished the Hyperion omnibus by Dan Simmons I'm now about half way through Ring by Stephen Baxter (shame I've just found out it's the fourth part of a book 'sequence'). Rather interesting concept & I'm being helped along by Wonders of the Solar System on BBC2 in 'getting' some of the theory.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 March, 2010, 11:18:19 pm
Germania, A personal history of Germans ancient and modern - Simon Winder

A book that's just stuffed with trivia and interesting things about Germany it's politics and culture from Roman times onwards. It's funny and informative and wanders all over the place whilst somehow sticking to a roughly chronological order. Makes me want to go and visit an out of the way town in Saxony.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 March, 2010, 09:42:12 am
I'm getting into Mr Love & Justice, by Colin Macinnes.  I've tried a couple of times before, and got nowehre, but I'm really liking it this time.  I was wary of Macinnes, despite repeated recommendations, after seeing the abysmal film of Absolute Beginners, but I do like his style.  It's set in London of the late 50s/early 60s, and depicts Police corruption and the seedy 'vice' world.



The two main characters first interact on p.109.  They glance at each other!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 March, 2010, 10:42:17 am
Spitfire ~ Leo McKinstry.

Good account of both the aircraft and the politics, though I think he's a bit harsh on the Hurricane.  "Lancaster" vy the same author is also worth a look.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 25 March, 2010, 01:17:27 pm
Homage to Catalonia by Orwell.  An interesting mix of social and military history recreated from Orwell's experience of fighting in, and observations of, the Spanish Civil War
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 31 March, 2010, 01:06:43 am
Homage to Catalonia by Orwell.  An interesting mix of social and military history recreated from Orwell's experience of fighting in, and observations of, the Spanish Civil War

Excellent book, as I commented in this thread a few pages back. This forum (and this thread in particular) has encouraged me to read a fair bit of Orwell's work
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 31 March, 2010, 09:13:19 am
I'm getting into Mr Love & Justice, by Colin Macinnes.  I've tried a couple of times before, and got nowehre, but I'm really liking it this time.  I was wary of Macinnes, despite repeated recommendations, after seeing the abysmal film of Absolute Beginners, but I do like his style.  It's set in London of the late 50s/early 60s, and depicts Police corruption and the seedy 'vice' world.



The two main characters first interact on p.109.  They glance at each other!

Well, I've just finished it.  One of the curious things about the book, which isn't intrusive but becomes increasingly apparent as a stylistic device, is that only the ponce Frankie Love, and the bent copper Edward Justice, get named.  All the others remain described by their role - Detective sergeant, star sleuth, star ponce, the madam etc etc.  This even extends to the women who live with Frankie & Edward, who are generally described as their 'girls'. 

It points up an objectification of people in a world where you aren't valued for what you are, but of how much use you can be, so you need to be constantly aware that your status can change very rapidly, depending upon the company you are in.

It's a London which is only just shaking off its wartime life, and yet to emerge into the 60s, but with a struggle between morality and the practicalities of living on the edges of society.  Many of the issues within the book give Macinnes an opportunity to discuss the complexities of racial and sexual politics in a rapidly changing society.

A great read, with a wry humour strung through it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 31 March, 2010, 11:17:22 am
I'm getting into Mr Love & Justice, by Colin Macinnes. 
I think I read that 35 years ago. Good book.

My age is showing. :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 31 March, 2010, 11:22:31 am
Mary Queen of Scots:Antonia Fraser
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 31 March, 2010, 12:17:13 pm
Mary Queen of Scots:Antonia Fraser

Her books on the wife of King Henry VIII is good too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 31 March, 2010, 12:22:12 pm
I've just finished the Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
I read this a couple of years ago.  I just thought it was a bit self indulgent at the time.  But even now I sometimes find little bits of Cloud Atlas coming back to haunt me.  In retrospect, really rather good.

I'm taking 'Leviathan' back to the library this afternoon.  I've got the new Ian McEwen, 'Solar', on order.   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 31 March, 2010, 12:53:44 pm
Mary Queen of Scots:Antonia Fraser

Her books on the wife of King Henry VIII is good too.

I did contemplate that but in the interests of trying different authors I bought David Starkey's book on the same subject.
Thanks for the heads-up anyway.
Next on the agenda is an Elizabeth I biography
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 31 March, 2010, 02:34:33 pm
Mary Queen of Scots:Antonia Fraser

Her books on the wife of King Henry VIII is good too.

And Elizabeth as well  :thumbsup:

TBH I did not really like Antonia Fraser's book on Mary Queen of Scots, in fact I thought it was dire. I prefer her sister's books (A S Byatt and Margaret Drabble).

Am just about to start 'Swansea Terminal', by Roger Rees.

I did contemplate that but in the interests of trying different authors I bought David Starkey's book on the same subject.
Thanks for the heads-up anyway.
Next on the agenda is an Elizabeth I biography
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 31 March, 2010, 02:38:39 pm
I am finding Fraser's style less engaging than that of Linda Porter & David Starkey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 31 March, 2010, 02:42:45 pm
Mary Queen of Scots:Antonia Fraser

Her books on the wife of King Henry VIII is good too.

I did contemplate that but in the interests of trying different authors I bought David Starkey's book on the same subject.
Thanks for the heads-up anyway.
Next on the agenda is an Elizabeth I biography

David Starkey?  David Stab-eye, more like, cause that's what he makes me want to do.  if not his, then mine.  I've heard him on the radio far too much.  How anyone can know so much, yet understand so little, and yet be such a smug, pompous, self-satisfied prig I cannot fathom.

I can stop sitting on the fence if you like ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 31 March, 2010, 08:18:12 pm
What are we reading at the moment?


      Unshelved by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes
     (http://www.unshelved.com/2009-2-25)

[just what the world obviously needs - library humour]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 31 March, 2010, 10:11:31 pm

Am just about to start 'Swansea Terminal', by Roger Rees.


Ooh.  Never heard of it/him, but just looked it up.  Looks good, if only for the local interest.  Don't forget to post an update.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 05 April, 2010, 10:02:16 am
I too am reading Barring Mechanicals by Arallsopp

Mine arrived today. A picture of me in a ditch and several mentions. Excellent.

I read all of the work in progress on Cyclechat but it's much nicer reading it all in one book.

Read it last night.  The stuff with the pro plus and the female audaxer rummaging through your bag had me laughing out loud.  Really enjoyed it and am going to make the GF read it  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 April, 2010, 10:08:36 am
Just finished Merrie England by Robert Blatchford (Nunquam)

Quite difficult to get hold of, but I was lucky enough to get a facsimile reprint from the 70s.

Because it's a facsimile, the pages are tinted brown, and it has the original double columns of small print, so has been a bit difficult to read.

Nonetheless, it is an inspiring book, and an uplifting one.  For those who don't know, Nunquam was the editor of The Clarion newspaper - a popular socialist paper from 1891 to the First World war, when it lost sales because of its support for the war, in contrast to most other, more internationalist, socialists, though it lasted to 1931.

I had thought that Merrie England was a compilation of a series of columns by Nunquam in the paper, but I now find that the dates show that it was a book first, later serialised in The Clarion.

It takes the form of a series of expositions addressed to John Smith, an Oldham weaver, representing an everyman.  Nunquam addresses the concerns and misconceptions of socialism which working people might have (so many of them still apply today), and explores the fundamental paradoxes of capitalism, and how they lead to inequality, before describing how John might join with his colleagues to achieve the socialism which would benefit them.

The style catches on to a growing movement of the time towards workers' self-education, which has its lasting effects in the public library system, and organisations such as WEA.  So, despite the format of the author explaining to the worker, it never strays into being patronising, despite using everyday language to express quite complex ideas.

Well worth a read, as an insight into the ethical socialism of Morris, Hyndman et al, as well as a documentary record of current conditions in England at the time.

I also have an original copy of the companion volume, Dismal England, which I started reading last year, but it is hard to get through, because it is unpleasant to think that humans can treat others in the way described.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 10 April, 2010, 11:15:45 pm
Hunger, Knut Hamsun.

Hard going. I keep wanting to give the protagonist a good kicking for being such an arsehole.

NB. I'm told that the 1899 English translation is linguistically accurate but bowdlerised, & the 1967 US translation is total garbage, the translator apparently having too little knowledge of Norwegian, & too much confidence in his own creative talent.

Before that - Bliss, by Peter Carey. I liked it far less than any of his other books that I've read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 11 April, 2010, 11:07:19 pm
Rereading The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nutkin on 11 April, 2010, 11:16:15 pm
Just finished One Day by David Nicholls.

I was looking for something lighter to follow after The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. By the end I wasn't sure that I had picked the right book...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 12 April, 2010, 09:20:32 am
Hunger, Knut Hamsun.

Hard going. I keep wanting to give the protagonist a good kicking for being such an arsehole.

NB. I'm told that the 1899 English translation is linguistically accurate but bowdlerised, & the 1967 US translation is total garbage, the translator apparently having too little knowledge of Norwegian, & too much confidence in his own creative talent.

Before that - Bliss, by Peter Carey. I liked it far less than any of his other books that I've read.

I was a big fan of Hamsun's novels, recommended to me by someone who knew I liked Dostoyevsky.  The parallels are there, but the politics are very different.

I like Hamsun's evocation of the life of rural Norway at a particular point in history, feeling change on the horizon seeping across and undermining the containment and self-sufficiency (personal and communal) that he so admires.

Shame he ended up a fascist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 April, 2010, 09:49:32 am

Am just about to start 'Swansea Terminal', by Roger Rees.


Ooh.  Never heard of it/him, but just looked it up.  Looks good, if only for the local interest.  Don't forget to post an update.

Just finished it Nuncio. I really enjoyed it, and it was great reminiscing about the places I used to go to. There is no absolute structure, you just have to go along with it. I don't know whether you have checked out the new Swansea library, its fantastic!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 April, 2010, 11:02:41 am
The Dark Room ~ Minette Walters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tourist Tony on 12 April, 2010, 12:37:47 pm
Most of the way through "Europe at War", Norman Davies. A bit controversial as he stresses the nature of the GULag and points out that other groups apart from Jews were dealt with by the system in that awful way. Stories of German Communists who flee the Reich, get tortured and imprisoned by Uncle Joe, then end up back in the hands of the SS for more of the same......
He doesn't downplay the death camps, he simply points out that a bigger system ran a lot longer.One shocking statistic:
Mortality rate of "zeks" (GULag inmates) in their first year: 30%
In their second year it rose to 90%.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 April, 2010, 12:46:04 pm
The Dark Room ~ Minette Walters.

Oooh I enjoyed that one - I do like Minette Walters
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 April, 2010, 01:15:51 pm
The Dark Room ~ Minette Walters.

Oooh I enjoyed that one - I do like Minette Walters

Me too.  I picked up The Devil's Feather cheap the other day and having zipped through it, have started re-reading her earlier stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 April, 2010, 01:25:45 pm
Finished 'Gridiron' by Philip Kerr a few days ago which was good, but am aching for some more Bernie Gunter books!

Just finished 'Snow Hill' by Mark Sanderson, all based around Farringdon and Clerkenwell, very nostalgic indeed. Not a bad crime story either.

Just about to start reading 'The Second Angel' by Philip Kerr.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 23 April, 2010, 07:47:27 pm
The Flying Scotsman - Graham Obree, shame he wasn't mentioned in otherwise excellent coverage of the worlds by the beeb, strange that establishment figure Chris Boardman was, a very good read anyway and anyone that has gone down that deep dark hole will sympathise Grahame
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 24 April, 2010, 09:51:19 am
Mary Queen of Scots:Antonia Fraser

Finished this apart from Appendix 1 &  II which are a copy of the English & Scottish versions respectively of the Long Casket Letter.
Enjoyed it enornously & the ending has an unexpected climax ( relating to the Westminster Abbey tomb ) which would not be out of place in a fiction novel.
Interesting final comment regarding the progenetive impact on subsequent UK monarchs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 24 April, 2010, 07:17:52 pm
I have just finished a few books I wanted to read a while back and didn't get around to: Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, which explains why the US occupation of Iraq was even more damaging than you imagined; The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle, which is a rather good fictionalisation of the life and work of pioneering sex researcher, Kinsey, and his crew; and finally,  A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, by Xiaolu Guo, which I found quite affecting and convincing.

Next on my pile are Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor and Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 26 April, 2010, 11:53:26 am
I've just finished The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks. It took a bit of time for me to get engrosed by this book, although that's probably more because I've been busy than anything wrong with the book, and once I gave the book some time I wizzed through the second half. It's very much a character book, rather than a plot book, and also a reflection on British society in the 1960s. I thought it was very good.

I'm now onto The Girl Who Played with Fire.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 26 April, 2010, 06:52:11 pm
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

This was quite, quite beautiful. I was unsure about whether the style would work at first, but it drew me in and enchanted me, before kicking my teeth in. One of the very few recent books about which I am now prepared to endorse the hype.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 26 April, 2010, 07:03:58 pm
I finished The Good Life by Jay McInerney a few days ago. A rather disappointing sequel to Brightness Falls.  I must have lost my taste for angsty New Yorkers because I took ages to read it.

Now working through Terminal World by Alistair Reynolds,  so far, so good (wonder if I can bring the Inhibitors into the Hawking thread in POBI ..?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Spinners on 27 April, 2010, 06:00:56 am
I'm having another retro spell at the moment...

Kitchen - Blur "Park Life" (whilst doing me dishes  O:-) )

Lounge - Blur "13"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 01 May, 2010, 03:05:44 am
Just started "Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII", suggested by Topurist Tony in another thread. It promises to be a very interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 01 May, 2010, 05:32:39 pm
Bought Dan Brown Davinci Code from a charity shop, good reading so far!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2010, 11:14:33 am
The Greatest Show On Earth ~ Richard Dawkins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 04 May, 2010, 11:24:59 am
Funnily enough, I just finished The God Delusion.  I've not read it before, but it was on offer for £3.99 in WH Smith in Croydon, so I couldn't resist.

I had the idea that it was going to be an embarrassing, frothing, fundamentalist rant, for that is how it has been depicted, and I've been wary of using Dawkins in discussions on religion for that reason.

However, it is a systematic and well-argued book, dealing with a great many aspects of religions, and taking it a step further, by sometimes making an assumption that the churches might be correct on some key points of their arguments, and following through the logical outcomes.

An interesting read, and, given the number of rather limp and poorly-aimed responses from a religious standpoint (yes, I've read a couple, and skimmed some more), one that seriously rattles the cages of those who substitute belief for reason and use that as some kind of 'authority'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 04 May, 2010, 01:43:11 pm
Why does E=mc2 by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.

Mrs. Hall and The Boy have both read it. He found a bit simple, but then he is doing science, science, more science and Hard Sums for A level.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 May, 2010, 02:47:59 pm
However, it is a systematic and well-argued book, dealing with a great many aspects of religions, and taking it a step further, by sometimes making an assumption that the churches might be correct on some key points of their arguments, and following through the logical outcomes.

An interesting read, and, given the number of rather limp and poorly-aimed responses from a religious standpoint (yes, I've read a couple, and skimmed some more), one that seriously rattles the cages of those who substitute belief for reason and use that as some kind of 'authority'.

I agree. As with many things, a lot of people with very weak arguments would prefer to deal with a safely caricatured version of something that scares them... you see this at every level from forums like this to international negotiations.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2010, 03:26:00 pm
Funnily enough, I just finished The God Delusion.  I've not read it before, but it was on offer for £3.99 in WH Smith in Croydon, so I couldn't resist.

Curiously, my copy was also a special offer, in this case from Sainsbury's in a special "Summer Stuff" section.  Right up there with the charcoal, garden furniture and sun cream.

Odd, that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 04 May, 2010, 03:46:37 pm
Need charcoal for the fiery furnaces.  If you can't get brimstone, that is...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 04 May, 2010, 08:11:50 pm
Just finished "In the Shadow of the Wall" by Gordon Anthony set 1900 years ago in the town in which I grew up and ancient Rome.  A cut above what I think of as "Swords and Sandals".  Hugely enjoyable.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 May, 2010, 03:25:44 pm
This Body Of DETH ~ Elizabeth George

Better than her previous couple of efforts, and Lynley has a new motor-car.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 07 May, 2010, 03:39:50 pm
Just starting on a biography about Lillie Langtree.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 07 May, 2010, 03:46:20 pm
Having just finished The God Delusion, I'm now onto Elected Silence by Thomas Merton, a man I greatly admire, but don't yet know enough about.  Eclectic, I'd say.

Oh - I did read through The People's Manifesto collated by Mark Thomas.  I'd have stood on that ticket.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 07 May, 2010, 04:00:03 pm
Re-reading 54 by wu ming (a collective rather than a person, also responsible for Q by Luther Blissett).

Very imaginative book, chronicling cold-war shenanigans in and around Italy/Trieste/Yugoslavia.  Also featuring Cary Grant, and the birth of the KGB.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 07 May, 2010, 06:14:29 pm
a book of maps a.k. a. a road atlas to check a route from Lands End to Redruth & possibly beyond for tomorrow morning
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 09 May, 2010, 12:45:32 am
Why does E=mc2 by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.

In my previous life I did have several beers with Jeff Forshaw at various conferences etc.  I can't remember if I crossed paths with Brian Cox, so probably didn't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 09 May, 2010, 03:23:48 pm
The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I should read it in Spanish really (as my mind actually tries to translate it back to Spanish as I read it) but I'm too lazy.  :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 09 May, 2010, 11:02:38 pm
Re-reading 54 by wu ming (a collective rather than a person, also responsible for Q by Luther Blissett).

Very imaginative book, chronicling cold-war shenanigans in and around Italy/Trieste/Yugoslavia.  Also featuring Cary Grant, and the birth of the KGB.

Thanks, I must read it. I loved Q.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tourist Tony on 10 May, 2010, 12:13:03 am
"The Forgotten Highlander" by Alistair Urquhart. Captured, beaten, tortured, worked almost to death on the Burma Railway, shipped off to Japan, torpedoed, recaptured, sent to work again in Nagasaki.....
Words fail me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 13 May, 2010, 06:29:32 pm
Just started "Teenage" by Jon Savage. Contrary to what you'd expect, his history of the teenager ends in 1945. Very interesting so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 13 May, 2010, 09:13:47 pm
Re-reading His Dark Materials, because my nine-year old is reading them and I'd happily forgotten enough detail to make it interesting to go over the books again. The writing really is high quality as is most of the concept/conceit. And it's good stuff to read out loud with different voices.  

A pleasant spin-off has been the added depth given to lunchtime jaunts up the Oxford canal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bobb on 13 May, 2010, 09:17:18 pm
I'm currently reading "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis" by Tony Hawks. I've had it for years, but for some reason I've never actually read it. It's hilarious!!!  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 14 May, 2010, 05:52:46 pm
Recently finished  Manual  (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/daren-king/manual.htm) by Daren King - not his best work.

Just started  Ilium  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilium_%28novel%29) by Dan Simmons - promising so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 15 May, 2010, 10:40:37 am
I've just finished the Stieg Larsson - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.
Enjoyed them a lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 May, 2010, 10:56:42 am
I've just finished the Stieg Larsson - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.
Enjoyed them a lot.

There is a huge reserves list for these books in our libraries. Cannot wait for the film to come out on DVD.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 15 May, 2010, 07:58:56 pm
Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf.

Found in the Oxfam shop a few days ago.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 25 May, 2010, 08:53:03 pm
Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf.


Ooh, what's that about?

I'm re-reading The Screwtape Letters.    So funny, and although it's dated it's still bang on target  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 May, 2010, 11:46:44 pm
The Screwtape Letters is excellent, I read it years ago. I'm currently working on The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. it's the story of Sir Robert Scott's journey to the South Pole, and his attempted return. I've read South, which is Shackleton's story of his attempt to traverse the Antarctic continent, and Endurance, which is the story of Shackleton's attempt written by Alfred Lansing. I suppose I should find something about Amundsen's journey, since he succeeded where Scott and Shackleton did not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 26 May, 2010, 12:30:25 am
I've just finished the Stieg Larsson - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.
Enjoyed them a lot.

There is a huge reserves list for these books in our libraries. Cannot wait for the film to come out on DVD.
I'm a hundred or so pages through the second one.  Also enjoying them a lot.  But gosh, isn't there a lot of nookie!?!?  :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 26 May, 2010, 09:13:52 am
I'm currently working on The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. it's the story of Sir Robert Scott's journey to the South Pole, and his attempted return. I've read South, which is Shackleton's story of his attempt to traverse the Antarctic continent, and Endurance, which is the story of Shackleton's attempt written by Alfred Lansing. I suppose I should find something about Amundsen's journey, since he succeeded where Scott and Shackleton did not.

OT, but some of the rock samples they collected on the Scott expedition are still on display in the Natural History Museum.  We had a few strange moments of awe and sadness standing looking at them in their glass case. 

I shall search out 'Endurance' in the library catalogue forthwith.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 26 May, 2010, 09:32:20 am
Bank statements:P&L sheets.
Does that count?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 26 May, 2010, 09:48:52 am
Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf.


Ooh, what's that about?


It's on our shelves somewhere at home.  I haven't read it myself, but if it's the book I'm thinking of, mrs_o's eyes went something like this:  :o when she read it.  I think the depictions of sexual depravity were the reason.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 26 May, 2010, 09:52:33 am
Not reading, just browsed.

On the shelves at work is a wonderful book based on a TV series.  It is Brian Magee in conversation with several people on the subject of modern western philosophy. 

Interesting enough, and I doubt that the series would even get commissioned today, but the list of guests inludes Ayer, Marcuse, Chomsky etc etc etc! :o

That must have been a magnificent piece of television.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 May, 2010, 11:26:28 am
I have recently finished The Regiment, by Michael Asher.  Clearly he knows a great deal about the SAS.  But as soon as he gets to writing about a battle, whoa!  There are three possibilities:


"Scranching" artillery shells and "blebbing" blood from a gunshot wound to the leg?

Edit: Now on Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, which is altogether less grating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 26 May, 2010, 11:33:08 am
Just finished Ian McEwan's Solar.

Very puzzled re: what all the fuss is about.  It isn't that good.  And not particularly funny, either.  Though insightful in its examination of human frailty.

YMMV
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 26 May, 2010, 02:01:00 pm
I am reading Family Britain by David Kynaston still, but ...Barring Mechanicals arrived yesterday evening, and I read it through immediately. Wonderful stuff. I have placed it on my colleague's desk in the hope that it will inspire him to do some training rides in prep for the 200km we're doing next month.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 May, 2010, 02:32:20 pm
I'm re-reading The Screwtape Letters.    So funny, and although it's dated it's still bang on target  :)

I've never read it but I got the audiobook as a birthday present from an aunt many years ago. John Cleese was the reader. I remember it being very good and making me laugh lots.

I think Andy Hamilton owes a debt to Screwtape - its influence on Old Harry's Game is clear.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 29 May, 2010, 05:30:16 pm
Just finished "Transitions" by Iain Bank. Probably my favourite author and it's his best book in a long time. Recommended :thumbsup: Interesting that he writes normal fiction as Iain Banks and SF as Iain M Banks. I'd class this book as SF but it's Iain No-M Banks. Maybe 'cos it's actually set on planet Earth, or maybe he's decided to drop the distinction between genres.

I thought it was confused, very derivative and didn't go anywhere...

+1

Of all his books that I have read, this is the one I least enjoyed.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Si on 30 May, 2010, 05:04:23 pm
Reading a Nicci French whodunit.

It's about a cycle courier who finds murders happening around her.

I think that if I didn't have a small amount of knowledge concerning cycling then I'd find it an interesting book.  As it is, every little error that the authors make about bikes screams out and diverts attention from the perfectly good plot, characters and writing style.  Reading such books must be hellish for members of the police force  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 30 May, 2010, 06:49:01 pm
Which book is it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 30 May, 2010, 11:06:53 pm
The Last Witchfinder - James Morrow

[Edit]Finished, but only because I find it hard not to finish a book I've started. Starts well, but goes steadily downhill. And it's a long book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deborah on 31 May, 2010, 09:30:33 am
'Becoming a Writer' Dorothea Brande. I'm desparate to improve my writing style. The papers I write for work are dense and dry and I want to find away for the papers to be more engaging.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 31 May, 2010, 01:19:56 pm
The papers I write for work are dense and dry and I want to find away for the papers to be more engaging.

I know what you mean. However, I warn you that you will get a lot of papers rejected if you try to write in a lighter style. It's amazing how much peer-reviewing is influenced by superficial expectations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 31 May, 2010, 01:50:53 pm
Just finished The Angel's Game - pretty good escapism. Now half way through an Anne Mustoe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 31 May, 2010, 02:13:13 pm
Finally got round to Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise. And... it is almost entirely unremarkable. Given the laudatory reviews, I was expecting something brilliantly written, genuinely harrowing and insightful about the war. Instead I get a rather limp, dated (unsurprisingly) satire of French manners and class. Had this not been 'undiscovered' for so many years, and had been published at the time, I don't think it would have been remembered as being that great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 31 May, 2010, 02:28:07 pm
Recently finished:

"Q", by Luther Blisset.
"Doctor Brodie's Report", by Borges.
"What a Carve Up!", by Jonathan Coe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Si on 31 May, 2010, 05:23:42 pm
Which book is it?

"Until It's Over"

(assuming that the question was directed at me?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 31 May, 2010, 06:49:09 pm
It was.  Thanks. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 31 May, 2010, 08:33:03 pm
Just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's set in Mississippi in the early 60s and it's told from the perspective of two black women working as household maids, and one white woman who was brought up by a black maid (there's quite a bit in it about white women locking up their jewellery before the black "help" arrives - but trusting the maids to bring up their kids!) but came home from college one holiday to find the maid had been sacked and nobody would tell her why. I enjoyed it very much.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 03 June, 2010, 08:39:59 am

Am just about to start 'Swansea Terminal', by Roger Rees.


Ooh.  Never heard of it/him, but just looked it up.  Looks good, if only for the local interest.  Don't forget to post an update.

Just finished it Nuncio. I really enjoyed it, and it was great reminiscing about the places I used to go to. There is no absolute structure, you just have to go along with it. I don't know whether you have checked out the new Swansea library, its fantastic!

Assuming you got the name wrong (my Swansea Terminal was by Roger Lewis!) I've finished it.  I enjoyed it but suspect that it was purely because of the local interest - all the pubs and locations were familiar to me, even if the characters and the 'world' they inhabited were not.  I'll be able to confirm this if I ever get through Last Train to Llanelli, which, despite its title, appears to be set in Bristol.

I haven't been to the new library yet.  I used to work in town opposite the old one (which makes an apearance in Swansea Terminal) and popped in regularly - I was sorry to see it go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 03 June, 2010, 03:30:11 pm
Reading a Nicci French whodunit.

...the authors ...
I didn't realise this until I was watching Only Connect a couple of weeks ago.

(I've got a couple of Nicci French hand-me-downs on the bookshelf but haven't read any of them yet.  Are they any good?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 03 June, 2010, 04:31:35 pm
Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson

A history of football tactics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 June, 2010, 10:00:04 am
Just finished "Where The Hell Have You Been? by Tom Carver.  A biography of his father Richard, concentrating mostly on his capture by the Afrika Korps and subsequent incarceration in, and escape from, a POW camp in Italy.  The he happened to be General Montgomery's stepson added a certain interest, but fortunately the Germans didn't find out, as otherwise he'd have been off to Colditz like a shot...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tral-rat on 04 June, 2010, 10:05:42 am
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51f5NtgpOWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 04 June, 2010, 10:10:32 am
Last Orders by Graham Swift.

Incredibly powerful book about death and life, written in a beautifully simple way.  One to go on the 're-read in about a year' pile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 04 June, 2010, 11:30:10 am
Seen the film?

Good book, but not as good as Waterland, I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 04 June, 2010, 12:17:42 pm
Seen the film?

Good book, but not as good as Waterland, I think.

didnt know it was a film, will look out for it.  Have ordered waterland too, ta!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Si on 04 June, 2010, 12:23:23 pm
Reading a Nicci French whodunit.

...the authors ...
I didn't realise this until I was watching Only Connect a couple of weeks ago.

(I've got a couple of Nicci French hand-me-downs on the bookshelf but haven't read any of them yet.  Are they any good?)


Yep, they are husband and wife: Sean French and Nicci something I think (she being the bod from the Observer).

Anyway, I liked the two that I've read (if that counts for anything).  I found them quite well written with intelligent plots, and moved at a quick pace.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 04 June, 2010, 03:35:00 pm
Currently 3/4 of the way through "Kraken" by China Mieville. So  far very good. A bit less existential than "The City and The City"  and a lot more entertaining than "Iron Council"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 June, 2010, 02:16:23 pm
Currently 3/4 of the way through "Kraken" by China Mieville. So  far very good. A bit less existential than "The City and The City"  and a lot more entertaining than "Iron Council"

I've had that recommended by others too - not that I needed any recommendation! I loved The City and the City, and as you say, found Iron Council a little bit too didactic and not always that much fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 05 June, 2010, 05:33:25 pm
Seen the film?

Good book, but not as good as Waterland, I think.

didnt know it was a film, will look out for it.  Have ordered waterland too, ta!
Last Orders. 2001 - starring Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren & Ray Winstone. Pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 06 June, 2010, 07:26:34 am
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: plum on 06 June, 2010, 07:33:21 am
Haven't read any science fiction since the 1980s. Haven't read much of anything in fact, though I do recall that a book I read back then that really impressed me was Vonnegut's 'Galapagos'. Very strange book.

Meanwhile I'm nearly finished Ranulph Fiennes' 'Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know'. And the title doesn't begin to get it over, an absolute mental that bloke. You wouldn't want to walk down the street with him for fear of getting lost, frostbitten, or dropped from a great height just by association.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 June, 2010, 09:39:09 am
A History Of Modern BRITAIN ~ Andrew Marr.  I may have to take back some of the rude things I have said about Mr Marr depriving Honest Historians of work...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 11 June, 2010, 01:34:29 pm
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5

Fantastic.  Must read this again.

I'm trying again with 'Leviathan - or The Whale' by Philip Hoare.

Modified after a trip to the library, to add:

All bets are off.  I have two Carl Sagans in my pannier.

I may be some time.   :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Biff on 13 June, 2010, 05:22:22 pm
Hope this hasn't been posted before but I'm not trawling 91 pages:

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall: Amazon.co.uk: Anna Funder: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stasiland-Stories-Behind-Berlin-Wall/dp/1862076553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276446016&sr=1-1)

The next time I whinge about CCTV cameras.......
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 14 June, 2010, 03:57:38 pm
seabiscuit.

I've avoided this one for a while, fearing it would be mawkish and sentimental. My wife read it, and kept quoting chunks to me, which sounded like the writer had researched her material.

So gave it a try.

It isn't really a novelisation of history, more of a documentary. It's as much about american society and horse racing of the time as it is about the titular Seabiscuit.

I'm finding it very hard to read, as too much reminds me of my dad, and his struggles with horses, injuries and the racing establishment in Australia.  Found myself weeping while reading about a wife whose husband was brain injured falling from a horse (my father had a similar injury when I was 16).

Well worth reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 14 June, 2010, 06:19:29 pm
Amitav Ghosh -  The Calcutta Chromosome  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calcutta_Chromosome).

Couldn't get into it the first time I picked it up, but going along nicely now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 14 June, 2010, 06:28:50 pm
Cycling back to happiness

Cycling Back to Happiness: Adventure on the North Sea Cycle Route: Amazon.co.uk: Bernie Friend: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cycling-Back-Happiness-Adventure-North/dp/1906206716)

Quite a good read, and some descriptive stuff about the North sea route that makes me want to do it. Soon
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 14 June, 2010, 09:34:19 pm
New Grub Street - George Gissing.

Going through classics I've not read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 14 June, 2010, 09:54:33 pm
Dancing With Big Eunice by Alistair Findlay. Alistair was a social worker in Scotland until he retired, and this book of poems is about social work. Here's one.

Parenting Classes

They've put me in charge of
Parenting classes for Scotland.

Lesson number one:
this is a bairn, not a football.

Lesson number two:
a bottle does not mean

Coke, Bud or Newcastle.
Lesson number three:

above all, do not call
your first born Placenta.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 June, 2010, 10:01:27 am
Dancing With Big Eunice by Alistair Findlay. Alistair was a social worker in Scotland until he retired, and this book of poems is about social work. Here's one.

Parenting Classes

They've put me in charge of
Parenting classes for Scotland.

Lesson number one:
this is a bairn, not a football.

Lesson number two:
a bottle does not mean

Coke, Bud or Newcastle.
Lesson number three:

above all, do not call
your first born Placenta.

Got any booze for the baby?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 15 June, 2010, 02:09:35 pm
Simon Doughty's long distance cycling bible...you know the one
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 15 June, 2010, 09:36:12 pm
Got any booze for the baby?
:o You can't give a baby booze!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 15 June, 2010, 09:45:27 pm
Got any booze for the baby?
:o You can't give a baby booze!

Mine did,  knocked me out for 12 hours...which I believe was the desired effect  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 June, 2010, 08:50:34 am
Got any booze for the baby?
:o You can't give a baby booze!

Mine did,  knocked me out for 12 hours...which I believe was the desired effect  ;D

You should have seen the terrible effect half a pint of neat Gordons Export1 had on a nine-year-old Mr Larrington.

1 - It was an accident, honest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 16 June, 2010, 10:40:06 pm
Brown booze?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 16 June, 2010, 11:11:31 pm
 "hard core" Edinburgh parents use methadone (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_east_and_fife/10264909.stm)   :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 17 June, 2010, 12:53:56 pm
Got any booze for the baby?
:o You can't give a baby booze!
Traditional remedy to guarantee a peaceful night: a pint of the fermented malt beverage of the mothers choice, to be imbibed by her.

Then breast-feed baby.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 June, 2010, 06:42:49 pm
Are Mr Larrington and I the only fans of the Smell of Reeves and Mortimer?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 June, 2010, 08:18:40 pm
Kirst, there are some things a Lady should not admit to on a public forum... :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 June, 2010, 08:56:07 pm
Can you list them for me to avoid embarrassing incidents?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 June, 2010, 09:59:38 pm
Can you list them for me to avoid embarrassing incidents?

I'm afraid it's too late,    you are beyond redemption... :-*
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 June, 2010, 10:26:12 pm
Oh well. *shrugs*
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 June, 2010, 01:42:30 pm
Currently on "The girl that played with fire" by Steig Larsson.

Very very good, BUT why did I choose to start the trilogy on the second book, not the first ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 June, 2010, 02:35:43 pm
Currently on "The girl that played with fire" by Steig Larsson.

Very very good, BUT why did I choose to start the trilogy on the second book, not the first ???

I did that with Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk trilogy.  Duh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 23 June, 2010, 11:18:21 pm
I have just finished Lanark by Alasadair Gray, which is dark and bleak and ambitious, and probably not as good as it wants to be.  it's another book I've been meaning to read for ages.

Currently I'm reading the Bonfire of the Vanities. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 23 June, 2010, 11:34:55 pm
I have just finished Lanark by Alasadair Gray, which is dark and bleak and ambitious, and probably not as good as it wants to be.  it's another book I've been meaning to read for ages.

One of my favourites - I felt really drawn in and my state of mind temporarily altered by the book (if that doesn't sound too arsey).

Just finished "Sum" by David Eagleman - 40 very short stories outlining possible afterlives.  Highly recommended as a book to make you think.

Now reading "Red Square" by Martin Cruz Smith - the third Arkady Renko detective thriller set in Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union.  I thought that these books gave a good "feel" of Moscow, but he keeps referencing cars and mentioning Ladas and Zhigulis - AIUI they're the same thing - Lada was just the brand used for export?  :(

R
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 24 June, 2010, 10:19:20 am
After reading all of China Mievilles other work I finally bought his young adult novel, "Un Lun Dun" and I'm enjoying it immensely!

Carnivorous giraffes,  flying routemasters and binja warriors, good stuff :-D

http://www.sfreviews.net/unlundun.html (http://www.sfreviews.net/unlundun.html)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 24 June, 2010, 01:11:01 pm
Are Mr Larrington and I the only fans of the Smell of Reeves and Mortimer?



No. :thumbsup:


Also I am currently ploughing through the Audacity of Hype by Armudo Ianucci(sp)?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 June, 2010, 02:43:59 pm
I have just finished Eoin Colfer's "And Another Thing", and rather wish I hadn't bothered.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 24 June, 2010, 06:17:02 pm
I finally got around to starting my Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy 5-book omnibus last week. First book done with, just about to start the Restaurant...

Lots of small references that I've seen on here & elsewhere are suddenly clicking into place  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 24 June, 2010, 07:08:58 pm
I have just finished Lanark by Alasadair Gray, which is dark and bleak and ambitious, and probably not as good as it wants to be.  it's another book I've been meaning to read for ages.
I went through all the Alasdair Gray I could find, many years ago. Interesting books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 24 June, 2010, 11:30:25 pm
I have just finished Lanark by Alasadair Gray, which is dark and bleak and ambitious, and probably not as good as it wants to be.  it's another book I've been meaning to read for ages.
I went through all the Alasdair Gray I could find, many years ago. Interesting books.

I've got 1982 Janine unread in a box somewhere.  I'll have a skeg and try to find it.

I sounded a bit negative previously, probably owing to the fact that there is so much in the book to mull over!  Lanark was an extremely engrossing and thought-provoking read.  I enjoyed the scale and ambition, but I though the references to a Faust/Faustus-style over-reacher were extremely apt, as the author's ambition seems to outstrip his abilities.  It doesn't quite hold together, and some parts are horribly self-indulgent, but it's a dazzling ferment of ideas, and the picture he paints of Glasgow is astonishingly detailed and vivid.  It's one I'll have to re-read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 June, 2010, 10:59:36 am
Rake's Progress ~ Denis Rake.

Having come across references to Major Rake in Joe Saward's superbly researched but ultimately slightly dull tome "The Grand Prix Saboteurs", I dug this out from where it had lain for the last twenty-odd years.  'tis the autobiography of WW2's least ept and most camp secret agent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 25 June, 2010, 01:20:41 pm
I have just finished Lanark by Alasadair Gray, which is dark and bleak and ambitious, and probably not as good as it wants to be.  it's another book I've been meaning to read for ages.
I went through all the Alasdair Gray I could find, many years ago. Interesting books.

I've got 1982 Janine unread in a box somewhere.  I'll have a skeg and try to find it.

I sounded a bit negative previously, probably owing to the fact that there is so much in the book to mull over!  Lanark was an extremely engrossing and thought-provoking read.  I enjoyed the scale and ambition, but I though the references to a Faust/Faustus-style over-reacher were extremely apt, as the author's ambition seems to outstrip his abilities.  It doesn't quite hold together, and some parts are horribly self-indulgent, but it's a dazzling ferment of ideas, and the picture he paints of Glasgow is astonishingly detailed and vivid.  It's one I'll have to re-read.

It's one of those books that is worth re-reading as you age.  I first read it when I was about 15 and had an entirely different experience when I re-read it aged 38.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 25 June, 2010, 05:08:26 pm
"Pandaemonium" by Christopher Brookmyre.  A bit rehashed "video game meets reality" as found in "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away". Not too sure about the demons aspect either - serious suspension of disbelief needed, rather than good guys vs bad guys plus black humour I'm used to.

It's getting better though. One of the demons has been told he fights like a lasssie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mikeitup on 28 June, 2010, 12:13:04 am
Just finished "Giri" and "Dai-Sho" by Marc Olden.

Just started "Kisaeng" by Marc Olden.  Very very good blasts from the past.
Contemplating getting my Eric Van Lustbader books from out the loft when I have finished "Kisaeng". Not read them for at least 10 years.

Also read Charlie Brooker's "Screen burn" and "Dawn of the Dumb". I am glad I am not the only person who hates every thing and everyone  ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 June, 2010, 01:20:24 pm
Finally getting round to Neal Stephenson's Anathem. It's pretty good so far, but he is still padding things way too much, in fact, in that regard, he's getting worse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 30 June, 2010, 02:16:29 pm
"Pandaemonium" by Christopher Brookmyre. 

I read "Quite Ugly One Morning" a few years ago and have never felt inspired to read another of his.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 30 June, 2010, 02:28:51 pm
Just chewed through Transition (great) and American Gods (has its moments, very Gaiman); now embarking on John Stuart Mills's On Liberty.  Well, it might help me work out how I feel about the current political sitch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 30 June, 2010, 06:23:17 pm
Just finished 'The Golden City' by John Twelve Hawks and started 'The end of Mr Y' by Scarlett Thomas
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 30 June, 2010, 06:33:22 pm
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 June, 2010, 07:35:54 pm
Just chewed through Transition (great)

Really? You're the first person I know, Banks fans included, who thinks so... what did you like about it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 30 June, 2010, 07:57:42 pm
Much as I love the Culture, I love unfettered Banks too.  It wasn't perfect, for sure, but I just enjoyed how it flitted along.  I got vibes of the Bridge from it, and I always like Banks's pervert villains.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 07 July, 2010, 08:57:23 pm
I've just finished The Fuller Memorandum, the 3rd novel in Charles Stross's Laundry series....  very enjoyable.  If you've not read the previous books think Len Deighton meets HP Lovecraft,  the Laundry being a British government agency set up to protect us from the supernatural.

Standout line......... "Zombies sir,  Thousands of them......."  :thumbsup:

Free Laundry here (http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html) , The Concrete Jungle

Edit:  The story also features the use of Shuvels in anti zombie mode  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frenchie on 10 July, 2010, 04:01:14 am
Finished Fatherland -- interesting, expected better! -- and a good way through Pirate Latitudes -- okay but fairly light storyline so far, expecting some Deus ex Machina effect and a good end to make it memorable.

Next on the list the 1984 crossing of the Atlantic by Amyr Klink, Cem dias entre ceu e mar, I think. Or Enigma.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 10 July, 2010, 02:05:03 pm
The Ultimate C2C Guide
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 10 July, 2010, 10:43:49 pm
Modern Nature by Derek Jarman.    Gardening and gay sex...

The man wrote like an angel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 13 July, 2010, 01:37:23 pm
The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge

Just read The Secret Life of Birds by CT

Both are excellent and full of readable informative stuff.

(I liked Transition too)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 13 July, 2010, 06:48:20 pm
Due to the recent Banks mentions on this thread, I'm re-reading 'The Player of Games' yet again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 22 July, 2010, 04:57:24 pm
Just re-read Inverted World, by Christopher Priest, after about 30 years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 23 July, 2010, 12:29:21 pm
Peter Abelard by Helen Waddell.  Again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 July, 2010, 12:37:42 pm
The Unfair Advantage ~ Mark Donohue with Paul Van Valkenburgh.

How Donohue applied SCIENCE to the black art of setting up a racing motor-car.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 23 July, 2010, 02:40:34 pm
A Friend of the Earth by TC Boyle. He's a cynical bastard is TC Boyle, but I like his stuff, although this one is a bit ho-hum. His most recent book, The Inner Circle, a fictionalised account of Kinsey, the sex-researcher and his group, was much better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 23 July, 2010, 03:08:57 pm
The Second Angel by Phillip Kerr...or Cities Of The Plain by Cormack McCarthy

Need to make my mind up about which one to get into first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 23 July, 2010, 03:18:51 pm
Am re-reading Q by Luther Blissett.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 23 July, 2010, 05:17:50 pm
Fair Stood the Wind for France - H E Bates. Just read his The Feast of July.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 29 July, 2010, 12:46:21 am
Flakes, Jugs and splitters: A Rock Climber's Guide to Geology (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=flakes+jugs+and+splitters+a+rock+climber%27s+guide+to+geology&sprefix=Flakes&ih=2_0_0_1_2_0_0_0_1_1.336_298&fsc=-1)

I've learned a little about geology through the climbing I've done, enough to want to buy the book. A while back, I spent a few days climbing with a lady who  had a degree in geology. She gave me quite the lecture on how the rock in Eldorado Canyon was formed when she wasn't rambling on about 9/11 being an inside job, Texans haven't suffered enough, etc., etc.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jaded on 18 August, 2010, 03:50:07 pm
In the kitchen by Monica Ali.

The blurb on the cover got me. It took about 90 pages to get into it and then the best bit was the chef's mad walk about about 40 pages from the end. Otherwise, meh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 18 August, 2010, 04:11:36 pm
Just reread "Devil in a Blue Dress" by Walter Mosley.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 18 August, 2010, 04:39:00 pm
'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' by Ann Schaffer - best book that I have read all year, so far. Did not know anything about how the Channel Islanders fared during WW2 and it gives you a real insight into it. Have not stopped thinking how good this book is and how thought provoking it was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 18 August, 2010, 07:55:17 pm
In the kitchen by Monica Ali.

The blurb on the cover got me. It took about 90 pages to get into it and then the best bit was the chef's mad walk about about 40 pages from the end. Otherwise, meh.

This was given to me to read only last week by M.I.A. of this parish.   

Currently reading "A Boy's Own Story".  I've never read any "gay literature" before, not being gay it never occurred to me to do so.  I didn't realise that this was "gay literature" until I started it.  It seems so far to be sort of a gay "Catcher in the Rye".   Did I mention that it's a "gay" book?  Why is it gay? Is it gay because it's written by a gay author about a gay protagonist (mostly autobiographical I understand).  The publisher seems to think that it's very important that it's a "gay" book. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 19 August, 2010, 10:05:26 am
Labelling of fiction (or anything for that matter) can create confusion – I was looking for a Jake Arnott book in a bookshop a while back.  Since he is a moderately well known modern writer, I would have expected to find his books in the A-Z of fiction by author, didn’t find them there, tried the crime section and then found them in the gay section.  Fair enough to have them in labelled sections for people who do browse purely by genre/category but probably worthwhile to duplicate copies in the A-Z section.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 19 August, 2010, 10:08:34 am
Living Dolls, the Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter.  >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JT on 19 August, 2010, 10:11:14 am
Le Métier by Michael Barry.

Struggling on the first few pages with being completely knackered and the tiny print.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 19 August, 2010, 11:51:20 am
As Meat Loves Salt - Maria McCann

A tale of murder, bisexuality, the army and the diggers during the Civil War. An unusual combination but an excellent book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: groucho on 19 August, 2010, 03:01:19 pm
Zoli - Collum McCann

A tale of Romany life/song pre-WW2 through to 2003 in fascist/communist regimes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 August, 2010, 03:57:21 pm
Just finished "The Girl Who Kicked A Hornets Nest" - good book, but the ending seemed rushed.

Now reading "The Man Who Cycled The World", slow start but is picking up, he has just made it to Turkey, love the bit about his wheels being too stressed for the weight he was carrying, and him thinking that the rebuilt wheels would be like jelly to ride on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 19 August, 2010, 04:05:24 pm
Its all about the bike ,I bought it to take on holibobs on september and Im halfway through it .Great read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 19 August, 2010, 04:08:10 pm
The Wind In My Wheels by Josie Dew, The Last Hurrah by Des Molloy, Heroes, Villains & Velodromes by Richard Moore, It's Not About The Bike by Lance, and for mental chewing gum Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 20 August, 2010, 12:25:26 pm
Just re-read Absolute Truths and Glamorous Powers by Susan Howatch.  Am now two pages into Ultimate Prizes. 

Scandal, theology, mysticism and filth, all within the Church of England.  Top stuff.   :smug:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 August, 2010, 02:58:19 pm
Postwar by Tony Judt. Not many books really deserve to be called a masterpiece. This one does. RIP.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 23 August, 2010, 06:55:49 pm
Recently read the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy 5-part series at long last: and was seriously underwhelmed- just not as funny as I was expecting (particularly after the demise of Marvin).

Just finished Glue by Irving Welsh which I enjoyed. Could quite easily be added to the Coming of Age thread. I do wish he'd use quotation marks for speech though: it would make it so much easier to follow.
Being a glutton for punishment, however, I started Filth today - also by Welsh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 23 August, 2010, 09:25:32 pm
In my alternating gulag misery / classic fiction series, have just finished Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier. What a great book!!  I was completely hooked by about 1/3 of the way through and read till about half one this morning to finish it.  Never knowing the lead characters name really bothered me, much more than it should have done, but very thought provoking book on the way women were viewed in the 1930s.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 23 August, 2010, 10:21:23 pm
Recently read the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy 5-part series at long last: and was seriously underwhelmed- just not as funny as I was expecting (particularly after the demise of Marvin).


The radio series was the best.  The first book was pretty good, the second one wasn't bad and the rest were mostly awful.  It seemed to me that he increasingly padded the books with the jokes that were rejected from the radio series.  And even wrote a last couple of books when those had completely ran out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 23 August, 2010, 11:25:02 pm
following the recent Pratchett thread I've started on Carpe Jugulum
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 24 August, 2010, 11:50:36 pm
I'm just finishing the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, after recommendations from a couple of people.  Meh.  It's OK, it started quite well, with an interesting set-up and a couple of (OK, one) interesting characters.  Shame it seems to have degenerated into a tedious serial killer romp.  I doubt I'll bother reading the sequels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 25 August, 2010, 12:12:38 am
In the kitchen by Monica Ali.

The blurb on the cover got me. It took about 90 pages to get into it and then the best bit was the chef's mad walk about about 40 pages from the end. Otherwise, meh.

This was given to me to read only last week by M.I.A. of this parish.   

Currently reading "A Boy's Own Story".  I've never read any "gay literature" before, not being gay it never occurred to me to do so.  I didn't realise that this was "gay literature" until I started it.  It seems so far to be sort of a gay "Catcher in the Rye".   Did I mention that it's a "gay" book?  Why is it gay? Is it gay because it's written by a gay author about a gay protagonist (mostly autobiographical I understand).  The publisher seems to think that it's very important that it's a "gay" book. 

      Which of course raises the question is a gay book only for gays, I see no reason for discrimination in any way shape or form but (always a but) I think that as gay people have had to struggle to become part of the mainstream and have in the most part achieved this they should stop banner waving, or should I organise a march of banner bearing beer loving/recumbent riding straight bearded males.
      Vive le difference but I feel sexuality is a private thing and not to brandished about.
                           Perhaps it's me age
                                             8)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 25 August, 2010, 04:55:37 pm
In the kitchen by Monica Ali.

The blurb on the cover got me. It took about 90 pages to get into it and then the best bit was the chef's mad walk about about 40 pages from the end. Otherwise, meh.

This was given to me to read only last week by M.I.A. of this parish.   

Currently reading "A Boy's Own Story".  I've never read any "gay literature" before, not being gay it never occurred to me to do so.  I didn't realise that this was "gay literature" until I started it.  It seems so far to be sort of a gay "Catcher in the Rye".   Did I mention that it's a "gay" book?  Why is it gay? Is it gay because it's written by a gay author about a gay protagonist (mostly autobiographical I understand).  The publisher seems to think that it's very important that it's a "gay" book. 

      Which of course raises the question is a gay book only for gays, I see no reason for discrimination in any way shape or form but (always a but) I think that as gay people have had to struggle to become part of the mainstream and have in the most part achieved this they should stop banner waving, or should I organise a march of banner bearing beer loving/recumbent riding straight bearded males.
      Vive le difference but I feel sexuality is a private thing and not to brandished about.
                           Perhaps it's me age
                                             8)

Or because you are not gay and couldn't truly experience the reasons why visibility still remains highly necessary.  The current hypocritical kerfuffle in the Conservative Party should indicate that we are still not living in some golden age of equality and tolerance.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 25 August, 2010, 05:00:12 pm
I'm just finishing the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, after recommendations from a couple of people.  Meh.  It's OK, it started quite well, with an interesting set-up and a couple of (OK, one) interesting characters.  Shame it seems to have degenerated into a tedious serial killer romp.  I doubt I'll bother reading the sequels.

Yeah, it's pretty forgettable really IMHO.

I've just read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. It starts off as a beautifully imagined portrayal of the Dutch trading settlement at Dejima in pre-modern Japan, but then degenerates in a kind of WTF? way into a frankly rather ridiculous and orientalist sub-James Clavell / or even Rider Haggerd boy's own adventure before trying to rescue itself rather unsuccessfully with a moody coda. Maybe there's some kind of parodic intent, but the two elements do not gel at all. It's especially disappointing because Mitchell has real writing talent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 25 August, 2010, 10:02:35 pm

I've just read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. It starts off as a beautifully imagined portrayal of the Dutch trading settlement at Dejima in pre-modern Japan, but then degenerates in a kind of WTF? way into a frankly rather ridiculous and orientalist sub-James Clavell / or even Rider Haggerd boy's own adventure before trying to rescue itself rather unsuccessfully with a moody coda. Maybe there's some kind of parodic intent, but the two elements do not gel at all. It's especially disappointing because Mitchell has real writing talent.

That's a pity.  I'm looking forward to reading that, as I thought the Cloud Atlas was wonderful, and I have Number9Dream on a shelf to read shortly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 25 August, 2010, 10:34:14 pm

      Vive le difference but I feel sexuality is a private thing and not to brandished about.
 

Is walking down the street holding your lover's hand "brandishing it about"?  Or just kissing them in public?  A straight couple can do that without comment, but even today, even in London, a gay couple trying that risk serious assault.   The mainstream is still some way away.  If that kind of thing ever stops, maybe you'll have grounds for your straight bearded male protest.  Till then, no.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 26 August, 2010, 11:00:08 am
I have Number9Dream on a shelf to read shortly.

If you like Haruki Murakami, you'll like Number9Dream. Both Mitchell's first two novels were, let's say, highly influenced by Murakami.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 26 August, 2010, 10:57:36 pm

      Vive le difference but I feel sexuality is a private thing and not to brandished about.
 

Is walking down the street holding your lover's hand "brandishing it about"?  Or just kissing them in public?  A straight couple can do that without comment, but even today, even in London, a gay couple trying that risk serious assault.   The mainstream is still some way away.  If that kind of thing ever stops, maybe you'll have grounds for your straight bearded male protest.  Till then, no.
             As a taxi driver I have picked up from the several gay pubs and clubs that are in Oxford ranging from guys in bondage gear to more moderately attired people, most have been nice approachable folk, there have however been the completely artificial camping it to max in your face effect types that (I feel) do damage to acceptance by others, couple that with marches by some gay campaigners that have taken place and you have the reverse image of that (possibly) intended, whatever I say, in this PC world, will probably be misunderstood.
              Whatever, vive le difference anyway and btw that applies to all genders etc
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 August, 2010, 08:15:55 am
No one is suggesting you are anything other than a perfectly open-minded individual, Quint, but the point is that many people out there don't share your live and let live philosophy, which is precisely why gay people feel the need to go on marches.

As for the camping it to the max on a night out thing, just go to any provincial town centre on a Saturday evening for brazen displays of rampant heterosexuality...

Anyway, back on topic...

After listening to Brett Easton Ellis give an entertaining interview on the Grauniad books podcast the other day, I've just picked up American Psycho - yet another one of those books I really should have read by now. I only hope the satire hasn't dated too badly.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 28 August, 2010, 11:56:23 pm
As for the camping it to the max on a night out thing, just go to any provincial town centre on a Saturday evening for brazen displays of rampant heterosexuality...

       Taxi driver remember  ;D

                      As you say, my latest book is How the Irish saved civilization by Thomas Cahill, it is a damn good read and I feel everyone would enjoy this who has an enquiring mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 29 August, 2010, 02:30:25 am
No one is suggesting you are anything other than a perfectly open-minded individual, Quint, but the point is that many people out there don't share your live and let live philosophy, which is precisely why gay people feel the need to go on marches.

As for the camping it to the max on a night out thing, just go to any provincial town centre on a Saturday evening for brazen displays of rampant heterosexuality...

Anyway, back on topic...

After listening to Brett Easton Ellis give an entertaining interview on the Grauniad books podcast the other day, I've just picked up American Psycho - yet another one of those books I really should have read by now. I only hope the satire hasn't dated too badly.

d.
American Psycho is good but you when you read it you will set it to one side at least once as you read it and promise your self that you will not pick it up again.

It's violently pornographic in some unpleasant ways and you feel guilty reading it, but then I think that is the point.

It is indeed a test
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 29 August, 2010, 08:41:23 pm
American Psycho is good but you when you read it you will set it to one side at least once as you read it and promise your self that you will not pick it up again.

It's violently pornographic in some unpleasant ways and you feel guilty reading it, but then I think that is the point.


Exactly my feelings.

I said almost these exact words to M.I.A. of this forum about this very book three weeks ago. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 02 September, 2010, 08:03:22 pm
Alexander McCall Smith's The Charming Quirks of Others, which is much as I expected, and Emma Donoghue's Room which is zomgwtf but in a good way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ariadne on 02 September, 2010, 08:13:04 pm
ooh, I've bought Room - look forward to reading it. I'm currently hooked on Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 02 September, 2010, 09:21:14 pm
Re-reading The Tin Drum (prior to a planned re-reading of Peeling the Onion)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 02 September, 2010, 09:28:28 pm
A Journey

Well someone has to
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 02 September, 2010, 09:57:10 pm
Ringworld    Larry Niven


Years since I last read it, but its a damn good book
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 02 September, 2010, 10:06:03 pm
I'm 2/3 of the way through Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter and have just had a major BUSTED! moment.  Things are going to take a turn from here on.  My my, Greene could be a crafty bugger.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 03 September, 2010, 05:01:17 pm
Now on to Ismail Kadare's The Siege. One of my favourite writers so looking forward to this! Still reading Postwar too...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: YahudaMoon on 03 September, 2010, 05:03:40 pm
Down and out in Paris and London. My third time round reading this old classic by G. Orwell
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 03 September, 2010, 05:11:46 pm
Down and out in Paris and London. My third time round reading this old classic by G. Orwell

An excellent book. It was a long time before I could go into a restaurant after reading it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 03 September, 2010, 05:45:03 pm
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

I've just read The Purple Plain, by H E Bates, & Life Class, & The Century's Daughter, by Pat Barker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jane on 03 September, 2010, 05:50:42 pm
The fall of the Imam by Nawaal El Sadaawi
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: YahudaMoon on 03 September, 2010, 07:48:01 pm
I recently read 'The road to Wigan Pier' G. Orwell. another depressing autobiography on the mans experiance up north. If you look at the paper back jacket on this release (Theres many differnt jackets released)  It clearly shows a man with a full laiden touring bike. Was it Mr Orwell himself ?. And after reading the book I was a little dissapointed in that there was no mention of a push bike let alone touring. 'Don't let this put you of reading it as it's a great book '. So why the touring bike on the jacket ' have a been reading a edited version ?
The pic on the jacket is here : Google Images (http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/x2/x11216.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/george-orwell/road-to-wigan-pier.htm&usg=__d38Nvd-bKd9PvS664TK1ENWbrd4=&h=475&w=309&sz=18&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=c8kJB_CAqlAhHM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=84&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Broad%2Bto%2Bwigan%2Bpier%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4ADRA_enGB376GB376%26tbs%3Disch:1)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 04 September, 2010, 10:50:55 am
Ringworld    Larry Niven


Years since I last read it, but its a damn good book

Shame about all the sequels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 September, 2010, 08:58:34 pm
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 September, 2010, 09:12:22 am
I'm 2/3 of the way through Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter and have just had a major BUSTED! moment.  Things are going to take a turn from here on.  My my, Greene could be a crafty bugger.

Read that for A level and loved it. Can't help thinking 18 is too young to appreciate the finer points of Graham Greene though. Might read it again now I'm older and wiser/more world-weary...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 06 September, 2010, 10:35:14 am
I Shall Wear Midnight, the latest Tiffany Aching novel from Terry Pratchett.

Absolutely perfect when you have a stinking cold and want to stay in bed  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 06 September, 2010, 03:03:03 pm
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.
Er, well, me missus is Japanese - and I noticed oddities & off-putting things. It looks as if his sources of Japanese information didn't proof-read the book. Some of the names, diminutives, etc. are just plain wrong.

But it wasn't Rider Haggard like, IMO.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 07 September, 2010, 04:14:39 pm
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.
Er, well, me missus is Japanese - and I noticed oddities & off-putting things. It looks as if his sources of Japanese information didn't proof-read the book. Some of the names, diminutives, etc. are just plain wrong.

But it wasn't Rider Haggard like, IMO.

You didn't think the whole thing with the Abbot was at all out-of-place, or as I described it in my review 'gobsmackingly ridiculous' then?

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 07 September, 2010, 04:16:30 pm
I'm reading Professor Stewarts Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.

Splendid mind-bending stuff - lite.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 07 September, 2010, 07:23:49 pm
Just started Dan Simmons' Olympos the follow-up to Ilium a sci-fi retelling of Homer's Iliad & Odyssey with references to plenty of other literary work too.

 Ilium/Olympos wiki  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilium/Olympos)

A bit of a change from Irving Welsh's Filth , which I've just finished.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 07 September, 2010, 07:41:34 pm
Ballard - High Rise
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 07 September, 2010, 07:44:34 pm
I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 September, 2010, 08:06:56 pm
Tacitus  The Annals of Imperial Rome

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 08 September, 2010, 01:14:12 pm
I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.
Even when I first read that, aged about 10, I wondered about how some things didn't quite seem to add up, but now I know why they didn't I think that even if he was capable of writing one (& I suspect he found it impossible to be open, even to himself), a completely honest account wouldn't have sold, even if he could have got it published.

Good read, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 September, 2010, 11:27:14 am
American Psycho is good but you when you read it you will set it to one side at least once as you read it and promise your self that you will not pick it up again.

It's violently pornographic in some unpleasant ways and you feel guilty reading it, but then I think that is the point.


Exactly my feelings.

I said almost these exact words to M.I.A. of this forum about this very book three weeks ago. 

It's taken me a while to get going with American Psycho - partly due to lack of time/energy for reading, and partly because I found the first few chapters highly irritating. All the namechecking of clothes labels is quite hard to digest. I know it's a deliberate stylistic thing, but it makes for heavy reading.

However, once I got into the rhythm of it, I started to really enjoy it. And then I actually started finding it really funny. Laughing-out-loud-on-the-train funny. Yeah, a bit depraved in places, but I was thinking,  "What's all this about setting it to one side and not wanting to pick it up again? Are Zoidburg and Captain Zep just big girly wusses or something?"

And then I got to the first proper murder scene, where he does the tramp and his dog...

zOMG!!!!!1  :o

I like to think I'm not easily shocked, but OK, I admit it. I did have to put the book down for a few minutes after reading that bit. But then I picked it up again... and he continues by launching straight into a hilarious chapter about why Genesis are the best English band of the 80s. Like, WTF?

This book is a total headfuck. I love it.  ;D

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 10 September, 2010, 05:27:55 pm
Just wait until you get to the drainpipe murder :sick:

That was a definite: close book/hope no-one's reading over my shoulder moment

Now that will get your imagination going if you haven't already reached that part of the book yet!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 10 September, 2010, 09:11:43 pm
Neuromancer - William Gibson (again)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 10 September, 2010, 09:23:46 pm
I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.
Even when I first read that, aged about 10, I wondered about how some things didn't quite seem to add up, but now I know why they didn't I think that even if he was capable of writing one (& I suspect he found it impossible to be open, even to himself), a completely honest account wouldn't have sold, even if he could have got it published.

Good read, though.

I've read Maxwell's otter trilogy and the 2 available biographies,  definitely an "interesting" chap, though probably not very likeable. The film version was a saccharin travesty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 10 September, 2010, 09:26:31 pm
Re-reading the complete Sherlock Holmes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 10 September, 2010, 09:27:37 pm
I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.

I watched the film when I was quite young and was in tears for days after. Even now, over forty years later, I still find it difficult to watch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: αdαmsκι on 10 September, 2010, 11:48:32 pm
I've read Maxwell's otter trilogy and the 2 available biographies,  definitely an "interesting" chap, though probably not very likeable. The film version was a saccharin travesty.
I've got the second and third books in the otter trilogy to read at a later date. And, yeah, certainly an "interesting" person who was happy to be by himself.



I watched the film when I was quite young and was in tears for days after. Even now, over forty years later, I still find it difficult to watch.
I too cried when I watched the film as a youngster.



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 14 September, 2010, 10:37:56 am
Last Rites: the end of the Church of England by Michael Hampson.

An interesting, but embittered, view of things.  Thought-provoking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 14 September, 2010, 11:13:03 am
The film version was a saccharin travesty.

Or, possibly, a 'Traversty'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 14 September, 2010, 11:16:55 am
Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith.

I have had to put it down as it is breaking my heart but the writing is brilliant. It is about a woman who keeps a happy diary of events throughout her life, but slowly you can see the cracks in her life and relationships. I'm not sure whether I can continue reading it  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 September, 2010, 12:25:23 pm
Just finished Terry Pratchett's Nation and now reading "Unseen Academicals", I don't think I have laughed so much at one of his books in a long long while, and I am only ~50 pages in!

Makes a nice change from the heavier books I have been reading recently, such as TGWTDT and The Man Who cycled the World....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 14 September, 2010, 01:57:14 pm
Recently: A Gate at the Stairs (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gate-at-Stairs-Lorrie-Moore/dp/057119530X) by Laurie Moore. Quite brilliant & shocking with beautifully evocative writing. Though opinions about it differ in the household.

And a couple of children's books:

Inkheart (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inkheart-Paperback-Cornelia-Funke/dp/1904442218/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284468834&sr=1-1) - Cornelia Funke

The Thirteen Treasures (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thirteen-Treasures-Michelle-Harrison/dp/1847384498/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284468880&sr=1-1) - Michelle Harrison
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 14 September, 2010, 02:47:31 pm
Lanark, A life in four Books by Alisdair Gray
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 14 September, 2010, 05:12:11 pm
Just finished the Monkey Wrench Gang.  Powerful, angry stuff.

And I've started to read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.  The first few pages were dense with references, but I think I've got the measure of it now, and it's shaping up to be the novel The Da Vinci Code probably imagines itself to be.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 18 September, 2010, 11:29:19 pm
The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev. I've read it a few times before, but it's worth re-reading. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a rebuttal of Jon Krakauer's account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, where several commercial expeditions to Mt. Everest were caught by bad weather high up on the mountain. Boukreev paints an excellent picture of all that can go wrong when people try to purchase an adventure instead of learning how to have their own adventures.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 September, 2010, 02:45:04 pm
London: The Biography ~ Peter Ackroyd

Only thing I could find in the airport bookshop that actually appeared to be worth a punt.  I am not a teenage girl and thus am not interested in vampires.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 27 September, 2010, 03:17:42 pm
I should be reading Mark Beaumont's "The Man Who Cycled Round the World" courtesy of this forum's lending library but mrs. jogler got to the post-delivery first & hasn't yet put it down ::-)
It must be good 'cause she is reading it avidly;something she very rarely does
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Katie on 27 September, 2010, 03:19:58 pm
I'm between books having lost volumes 5 and 6 of Scott Pilgrim somewhere in the depths of the house.  Must make a trip to the library...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 27 September, 2010, 06:56:00 pm
Just finished Ian McEwan's The Innocent, which I found pretty powerful, and reminded me of other European existentialist novels. So much better than Solar, which to me read like a long drawn-out bad joke.

Now I've just started It's All About The Bike, and then it's on to Jean Bobet's inspirationally-titled "Tomorrow We Ride".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SiD on 27 September, 2010, 06:58:33 pm
The Golden Age of Advertising - The 70s.

It's 350pp but I 'read' it in about an hour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 27 September, 2010, 07:05:29 pm
"Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made".

Apart from being excellent reading, this is the first book that I've purchased for my Kindle.

Mr. Larrington has pointed out one more benefit to owning a Kindle: as long as I've got a cell phone signal or Wi-fi connectivity, I will never be limited to the selection in the airport bookshop.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 27 September, 2010, 07:16:05 pm
Right, have set myself the target of reading all 6 short-listed Man Booker titles by the time the winner is announced (mid October).

So far have read 'Room' by Emma Donoghue, very good stuff - I think she gets into the mind of the little boy really well.

Have just started reading 'The Long Song' by Andrea Levy. So far, so good  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 September, 2010, 07:34:45 pm
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. Nearly finished it. It's enjoyable, but it's not as heavyweight as it thinks it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dinamo on 27 September, 2010, 08:11:46 pm
Michael Hutchinson ~ The Hour

Reading this again  :thumbsup:  a jolly good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 September, 2010, 10:26:36 pm
Right, have set myself the target of reading all 6 short-listed Man Booker titles by the time the winner is announced (mid October).

I'll be very interested to hear how you get on. Have to admit the Andrea Levy one doesn't appeal at all - from the brief extracts I've read, I think I would find the narrative style rather irritating over the course of a whole novel.

I really like the sound of the Tom McCarthy one though.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 28 September, 2010, 01:57:15 am
2/3 through The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, which is excellent and not just a Swedish Rebus as I saw it described.

One niggle, though - I had to remove a sticker from the cover describing the author as 'The New Stieg Larsson, which given that Jo Nesbo started first, and indeed was known here first, I kind of object to. Mankell as the next Larsson? Peter Hoeg? Ibsen?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 September, 2010, 06:42:32 pm
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Superb and intimate account of one Jewish family in an alternative 1940s America led by Nazi-sympathizer, Charles Lindergh. And, what's more, surprisingly readable and not at all self-consciously 'literary'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 28 September, 2010, 10:27:00 pm
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FNF8uPJ7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

The New Penguin History of the World, 1,264 pages (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/ratings/stars-5-0._V192196906_.gif)

How does it end?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 28 September, 2010, 10:52:47 pm
I have Number9Dream on a shelf to read shortly.

If you like Haruki Murakami, you'll like Number9Dream. Both Mitchell's first two novels were, let's say, highly influenced by Murakami.

I've just finished Number9Dream, and I see what you mean - though it's not as if he tried to hide it.

I enjoyed the book, as well - very dreamlike, and I came to enjoy the narrator's lies, after finding them irritating at first.  It's all completely unbelievable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 29 September, 2010, 01:22:00 pm
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FNF8uPJ7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

The New Penguin History of the World, 1,264 pages (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/ratings/stars-5-0._V192196906_.gif)

How does it end?

Sudd
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 September, 2010, 02:25:10 pm
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FNF8uPJ7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

The New Penguin History of the World, 1,264 pages (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/ratings/stars-5-0._V192196906_.gif)

How does it end?

With a whimper?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 September, 2010, 10:34:35 pm
Right, have set myself the target of reading all 6 short-listed Man Booker titles by the time the winner is announced (mid October).

I'll be very interested to hear how you get on. Have to admit the Andrea Levy one doesn't appeal at all - from the brief extracts I've read, I think I would find the narrative style rather irritating over the course of a whole novel.

I really like the sound of the Tom McCarthy one though.

d.


OMG just finished reading 'The Long Song' by Andrea Levy. I absolutely loved it. I can imagine why she does not appeal Citoyen, but she is a bloody good story-teller. It must be hard for the Booker judges to even compare these books, they must all be immensely different.

Tomorrow will start reading 'Parrot and Olivier in America' and then 'The Finkler Question'. Working in public libraries is cool  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 29 September, 2010, 10:38:34 pm
On Roads (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roads-Hidden-History-Joe-Moran/dp/1846680522) - Joe Moran.

It's probably been mentioned upthread, but just in case it has not - beautifully written, draws you in to a contemplative vibe, always thoroughly interesting and amusing  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 30 September, 2010, 10:04:50 am
Arrrgghhhhhhaaaiiiieeee.

Am 4 pages in on 'Parrot and Olivier in America' and am already bored  >:(. And its 450 pages long  >:( Mayhap my Booker quest is at an end?  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Katie on 30 September, 2010, 01:45:24 pm
I'm between books having lost volumes 5 and 6 of Scott Pilgrim somewhere in the depths of the house.  Must make a trip to the library...
Hurrah! Found them.  Back on SP until I find  the time to find a "proper book".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 September, 2010, 05:01:57 pm
Rather embarassingly, I started on a copy of The Other by David Gutterson, recently purchased from a bargain bin, only to realise I had already read it last year... clearly it wasn't very memorable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 02 October, 2010, 09:20:06 pm
Just read the Man in a white suit (or similar title), the Stig autobiography.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 02 October, 2010, 09:45:17 pm
Lustrum by Robert Harris
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 02 October, 2010, 09:51:34 pm
Rather embarassingly, I started on a copy of The Other by David Gutterson, recently purchased from a bargain bin, only to realise I had already read it last year... clearly it wasn't very memorable.
Done that - and I can't even remember what the book was, which shows just how memorable it was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 02 October, 2010, 10:04:17 pm
Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Notsototalnewbie on 03 October, 2010, 02:22:48 pm

So far have read 'Room' by Emma Donoghue, very good stuff - I think she gets into the mind of the little boy really well.

Have just started reading 'The Long Song' by Andrea Levy. So far, so good  :thumbsup:

I've just finished Room, I thought it was brilliant - a real page turner.

I liked Andrea Levy's Small Island so I may give the Long Song a go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 03 October, 2010, 06:12:23 pm

So far have read 'Room' by Emma Donoghue, very good stuff - I think she gets into the mind of the little boy really well.

Have just started reading 'The Long Song' by Andrea Levy. So far, so good  :thumbsup:

I've just finished Room, I thought it was brilliant - a real page turner.

I liked Andrea Levy's Small Island so I may give the Long Song a go.

I am pretty certain that you will enjoy 'The Long Song' - I think its already been adapted for the BBC.

Am about 87 pages into 'Parrot and Olivier' (Peter Carey) in America, and it is still doing my head in  :( Part of me thinks 'dump him, hes not worth it' and the other part is saying 'No, you have got to carry on with the quest'  ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2010, 07:53:18 pm
Send it to me - I'll read it for you. I like Peter Carey. ;)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 03 October, 2010, 09:37:59 pm
Send it to me - I'll read it for you. I like Peter Carey. ;)

d.

I would, with all joy in my heart, except its the libraries' copy  :-[ I hope you enjoy it if you read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 October, 2010, 05:43:59 pm
Have finished reading 'Parrot and Olivier in America'. I have to say that Peter Carey is a writer of extraordinary imagination, you cannot help admire him for it. But (and you could tell there would be a but), it is awfully hard to engage with and like the characters, and ultimately they are not the easiest books to read.

Next book on the Booker Quest is 'C' by Tom MacCarthy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Notsototalnewbie on 05 October, 2010, 09:54:55 am
I struggle with books where I'm not engaged by, say, the first 100 pages. Even doing Eng Lit at uni, if I really hated a set book I wouldn't finish it if I could get away with not discussing it in a seminar or somesuch, or didn't especially need to include it in an essay. Well done for finishing! I might take a look at the free preview and see what I think. Although the Long Song is next on my list. So many books...

I'm currently in the middle of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Very good and very readable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 October, 2010, 10:42:05 am
Agent Of Evolution - a biography of Bill Hicks.

It's crap.  Srsly.  It appears to consist of nine or a dozen of Hicks' friends telling the "author" what drugs they did, and when, and where.

This grow tedious after the second relating of the same incident.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 05 October, 2010, 01:38:22 pm
It has made me want to read up a bit of the history.  It seems that the prevailing view (judging by the published histories and biographies, or the Wikipedia summaries of them, at least) of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell over the last couple of decades have been reversed.  TM in Wolf Hall is not the same TM of A Man for All Seasons.

Might I recommend you add Peter Ackroyd's Life Of Thomas More to your reading list. It's more towards the Man For All Seasons end of the spectrum in its portrayal of More, which may or may not be a good thing depending on where your sympathies lie, but it's a fantastic read.

I've not read Wolf Hall yet but it's high on my list.

d.


resurrecting this... I'm on Wolf Hall at the mo. It's a lovely read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 05 October, 2010, 01:45:09 pm
I'm currently reading  "Potatoes Not Prozac: How to Control Depression, Food Cravings and Weight Gain" by Kathleen Desmaisons .

Interesting reading so far!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 06 October, 2010, 01:56:34 pm
I struggle with books where I'm not engaged by, say, the first 100 pages. Even doing Eng Lit at uni, if I really hated a set book I wouldn't finish it if I could get away with not discussing it in a seminar or somesuch, or didn't especially need to include it in an essay. Well done for finishing! I might take a look at the free preview and see what I think. Although the Long Song is next on my list. So many books...

I'm currently in the middle of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Very good and very readable.

It is bloody hard work reading something that you are not into. If I were you NSTN I would not bother with Carey's book.

'The Help' is one of the most reserved books in the library (the most reserved one at the moment is 'A journey' by T. Blair  ::-)) - I am looking forward to reading that one when I can get my hands of it.

I was going to read 'C' by Tom MacCarthy but I felt so weighed down by the massive tome of Carey's that I have opted to read 'In a Strange Room' by Galgut. Its all about travel, but very much inverted upon itself. Most travelogues and books are normally uplifting and generally approving about the type of travel involved, this is more about the hardships of travel, both as a group, with a singular travelling companion and having to baby-sit someone else. Not bad at all.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 06 October, 2010, 08:07:36 pm
The Blood Meridian

Not quite at the end but I think the Judge is the actual devil leading men astray to meet their doom in the desert.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 06 October, 2010, 08:38:28 pm
The Little Red Rider - a list of amusing, incredible and otherwise items bands have added to their riders.

The best so far (if not ever) is Iggy Pop:

A sharp knife
Chinese gunpowder tea
A monitor man who speaks good English and is not afraid of death
Seven dwarves
a Bob Hope Impersonator
An English language newspaper
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 07 October, 2010, 09:05:53 am
This thing of Darkness (Harry Thompson)

27 pages in and I'm-a-luvin' it. Thought about getting it from Amazon, then traipsed up to local 2nd-hand shop. Bingo. They had it for £2.

This Thing of Darkness: Amazon.co.uk: Harry Thompson: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0755302818/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d1_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1ZHCZA83H7YKGKQQADJB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 07 October, 2010, 10:20:36 am
And, currently listening (or more accurately, Listening Again) to Harry's narration of his book about cricket, on the radio right now, only to hear the introduction as by … the late Harry Thompson. And what a shame it is, when you read the obituary below. The untimely death. What he died of, and how sad to be married on the day you die.

This time, a tearful 'smiley' just won't do it for me.

 Harry Thompson | Times Online Obituary  (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article588041.ece)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 07 October, 2010, 11:14:05 am
I should be reading Mark Beaumont's "The Man Who Cycled Round the World" courtesy of this forum's lending library but mrs. jogler got to the post-delivery first & hasn't yet put it down ::-)
It must be good 'cause she is reading it avidly;something she very rarely does

I finally have the book :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 07 October, 2010, 01:32:50 pm
I have finished reading 'In a Strange Room', I highly recommend it. And its bloody short too!

Thats 4 out of 6 books read, 2 more to go. Next one to read will definitely be 'C' by Tom McCarthy - in the last few days it has had thousands of pounds in bets placed on it as potential winner. 5 days to go!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 09 October, 2010, 09:04:34 pm
Still in Booker Prize territory, this link here is about a village in Scotland that read and rated the shortlisted books:

BBC iPlayer - The Culture Show: Britain's Biggest Book Prize: A Village Decides (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v9gk0/The_Culture_Show_Britains_Biggest_Book_Prize_A_Village_Decides/)

Am about 50 pages into 'C' at the mo, its challenging and am finding it hard to get its context.

Sad to say that I will probably not be able to finish all 6 books now as 'The Finkler Question' is not within my grasp yet, there is still time though!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Palinurus on 10 October, 2010, 10:35:33 am
Lanark, A life in four Books by Alisdair Gray

One day I'll finish it. I've had that one hanging around for years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 10 October, 2010, 10:39:49 am
Have just started "Zero History" by William Gibson.   Hannu Rajaniemi's "The Quantum Thief" and Iain M Banks's latest Culture tome are on the "waiting to be red" pile. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 October, 2010, 02:39:57 pm
Have just finished the 5th book on my Booker Prize List, 'C'.  Perhaps I am being uncharitable but I thought it was the biggest pile of crap that I had read, in a long long time. If this wins I will be disgusted. :sick:

Just about to start on the last book (I managed to get hold of a copy) 'The Finkler Question' by Howard Jacobsen, I have until the winner is announced tomorrow night so I don't have a lot of time!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 11 October, 2010, 03:19:49 pm
I am trying to read The Devil's Whisper by Miyuki Miyabe. But people keep coming in the office and I have to pretend to be working. Chuffing liberty if you ask me.

I like the surreal quality of a lot of Japanese writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 October, 2010, 03:29:26 pm
First Light - Peter Ackroyd

I'm a big fan of Peter Ackroyd but this is one of his earlier works that I've overlooked until now and it's not one of his better ones. I'm ploughing through it dutifully but without an awful lot of pleasure so far. Disappointing.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JStone on 11 October, 2010, 03:39:07 pm
Just finished le Carré's Our kind of traitor. Something of an obsession, as I've read all of his previous works, but felt that - although well written and topical - it didn't have the interest of his earlier Cold War-based novels. Perfect spy remains my favourite.

Now wading through Petzold's Annotated Turing - heavy going in places (for me, at least), but very well explained and proving more accessible than I'd feared. Many 'aha - now I understand that' moments along the way. Deeply sad choice of 'leisure' reading, I know, but sometimes relish a challenge.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 11 October, 2010, 06:41:11 pm
Just finished le Carré's Our kind of traitor. Something of an obsession, as I've read all of his previous works, but felt that - although well written and topical - it didn't have the interest of his earlier Cold War-based novels. Perfect spy remains my favourite.

Mind you, you can't beat him for a cynical, well-turned spy novel. I recently read A Most Wanted Man, and was surprised by how well it stood up as a novel.

I just re-read Mythago Wood, by Robert Holdstock (RIP), a very nice piece of modern English fantasy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 11 October, 2010, 06:47:51 pm
Dammit, I'd promised myself Our Kind of Traitor once I've finished writing my current report!  Now I can't suspend belief that it'll be his best work ever.  I do think that his later  books have got a bit samey, with The Constant Gardener being the best and A Most Wanted Man coming second. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 October, 2010, 07:03:23 pm
My husband and I are collecting the audio books of Le Carre, we absolutely loved An Honourable Schoolboy....they are a fantastic treat on long car journeys.

20 pages into the 6th and final book of the Booker Prize Quest, and have already fallen in love with 'The Finkler Question'.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: JStone on 12 October, 2010, 10:28:28 am
Dammit, I'd promised myself Our Kind of Traitor once I've finished writing my current report!  Now I can't suspend belief that it'll be his best work ever.  ...

Don't worry - it's still classic le Carré, just a matter of personal taste as to where it fits in a spectrum of good to excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 12 October, 2010, 10:34:27 am
I am reading Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy on my Kindle. Have just finished 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and started 'The Girl Who Played with Fire'. Pretty good books so far :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 12 October, 2010, 12:28:33 pm
Transition.

I confess I’ve found Iain Banks’s work variable at best, but it was in the cheap bin and sounded promising from the jacket blurb. I know, I know I shouldn’t believe that. But what’s not to like, infinity-verse spanning conspiracies, shadowy organisations etc. etc.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 12 October, 2010, 12:37:21 pm
'Who Is Mr Satoshi', a first novel by Jonathan Lee discovered in the library. Looking forward to the last 100 pages this evening  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 October, 2010, 01:31:35 pm
I do not think that I am going to complete the 6th Booker title by this evening  :(

But I will rate them in order of preference:

Room - Emma Donoghue 9.5/10
The Long Song - Andrea Levy 9/10
The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson 8.5/10
In a Strange Room - Damon Galgut 8.0/10
Parrot and Olivier in America - Peter Carey 7.0/10
C - Tom McCarthy 4/10
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Notsototalnewbie on 12 October, 2010, 07:35:21 pm
Well I think you've done pretty well to wade through that lot H_W....

The only one on the list I read was Room, and I did really like it.

Just finished One Day by David Nicholls; thought it was brilliant. Also very easy to read.

Moved on to Diary of a Nobody 'cos it's free on the Kindle and I once read an extract and liked it. The protagonist could rival YACFers for bad punnage  ::-) which he's ever so proud of, and it's pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rower40 on 12 October, 2010, 09:53:23 pm
I Shall Wear Midnight, the latest Tiffany Aching novel from Terry Pratchett.

Absolutely perfect when you have a stinking cold and want to stay in bed  :thumbsup:
+1. The book must be a plague carrier, as I'm all flu-afflicted within a week of buying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 October, 2010, 10:12:39 pm
And the winner is:

In an upset, 2010 Man Booker Prize goes to 'The Finkler Question' | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/10/2010-man-booker-prize.html)

Chuffed for Howard Jacobsen.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasper the surreal cyclist on 13 October, 2010, 09:14:49 am
I have not read the winning tome. But on past form I have never been able to finish a Jacobsen novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 13 October, 2010, 09:49:10 am
I enjoy the essays and reviews by Jacobson which occasionally appear in the Guardian Review.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 13 October, 2010, 02:00:19 pm
I have not read the winning tome. But on past form I have never been able to finish a Jacobsen novel.

But he's such a witty and easy-reading writer. Kalooki Nights was superb. I will get round to reading this one soon.

I've just finished Blackout by Connie Willis. It's an SF novel featuring time-travelling historians set largely in the Blitz. All the US reviews of this seem to think it is fantastically authentic, and in some ways it reads that way. But it's actually the future elements that don't appear to work very well - the future historians all sound like early C20th dons and the Oxford of the future seems a stereotype of a university life that has already disappeared. However there may be a good reason for this anachronism, to be explained in the second and concluding volume, All Clear. Added to this is the fact that the style and tone has the feel of a novel for teenagers, a very good novel for teenagers - think Philip Pullman - but nevertheless there is something rather naive about it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 13 October, 2010, 07:30:40 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 14 October, 2010, 11:01:45 am
Archy and Mehitabel, by Don Marquis
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 October, 2010, 11:42:27 am
Nerd Do Well ~ Simon Pegg

Watch Spaced instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 October, 2010, 01:56:59 pm
The Children Of Men ~ PD James.

I wish I'd thought of that as a plot...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 18 October, 2010, 02:02:06 pm
Metamorphosis by Franz K.

I suddenly realised I'd never read it, despite having read most of his books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 18 October, 2010, 02:25:05 pm
Nerd Do Well ~ Simon Pegg

Watch Spaced instead.

Oh really? That is such a shame. Mind you the amount of plugging that he has been doing for it recently has been close to indecent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 18 October, 2010, 02:40:45 pm
just finished Matterhorn by Karl Malantes, which I'm very glad I've read.  It describes the utter crap that the front line soldiers have to live through and how if they live or die is determined by ego-driven decisions taken from hundreds or thousands of miles away by people with no idea of what is going on.  It's also very good at showing how if you live or die is more about chance than skill, and 'being brave' has very little to do with it.

But I was frustrated by it as well and it's not an unconditional recommendation.  So much of it is obviously autobiographical, there is a huge amount of detail which seems utterly real and unneccesary for a novel, but because it *is* a novel 'based on fact' you dont know how much it's been sexed up and how much was really that bad.  I'd rather it had been either a pure novel, with less micro detail and more storylines, or a pure auto-biog with all of it's challenges. 

Good book though. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 October, 2010, 03:27:31 pm
Nerd Do Well ~ Simon Pegg

Watch Spaced instead.

Oh really? That is such a shame. Mind you the amount of plugging that he has been doing for it recently has been close to indecent.

Almost as indecent as the amount of name-dropping inside it.  I met Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, and Quentin Tarantino, and George Romero, and I used to go to the pub with Chris Martin1, and I had that Gillian Anderson in my pub quiz team2, and Peter Jackson, and Bill Nighy, and have we had George Lucas oh yes, and I was in a film with Leonard Nimoy, and George Romero's mate, and the voice of Darth Wossname and and and I'm photographed with Charlie Watts (cont. Trash, by Robyn Hitchcock) and oh fuck off >:(  The only issue on which we find common ground is that the Star Wars prequels were indeed rubbish.

And I bet I had that T-shaped shirt with the alien's head on it before you did.  And I wore it when I visited the Black Mailbox.

1 - Though why anyone would want to brag about this I do not know...
2 - Note for Rogerzilla and other X-Philes: this, on the other hand...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 18 October, 2010, 03:35:31 pm
Quote
Matterhorn by Karl Malantes

Read a long review of this in the LRB and was left wondering if the review was better than the book :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 18 October, 2010, 03:56:33 pm
Nerd Do Well ~ Simon Pegg

Watch Spaced instead.

Oh really? That is such a shame. Mind you the amount of plugging that he has been doing for it recently has been close to indecent.

Almost as indecent as the amount of name-dropping inside it.  I met Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, and Quentin Tarantino, and George Romero, and I used to go to the pub with Chris Martin1, and I had that Gillian Anderson in my pub quiz team2, and Peter Jackson, and Bill Nighy, and have we had George Lucas oh yes, and I was in a film with Leonard Nimoy, and George Romero's mate, and the voice of Darth Wossname and and and I'm photographed with Charlie Watts (cont. Trash, by Robyn Hitchcock) and oh fuck off >:(  The only issue on which we find common ground is that the Star Wars prequels were indeed rubbish.

And I bet I had that T-shaped shirt with the alien's head on it before you did.  And I wore it when I visited the Black Mailbox.

1 - Though why anyone would want to brag about this I do not know...
2 - Note for Rogerzilla and other X-Philes: this, on the other hand...

Ahh thanks for that, thats one I will not be reading!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 18 October, 2010, 03:59:56 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 18 October, 2010, 04:07:58 pm
"Dreams from my Father" by one B. Obama.

This was a present from my daughter a yule or two ago. I read about 200 pages whilst sitting in the waiting rooms at Southend Hospital over the past 3 days. I suppose it's reasonably well-written but hasn't filled me with enthusiasm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 18 October, 2010, 05:06:00 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 October, 2010, 06:44:04 pm
"Dreams from my Father" by one B. Obama.

This was a present from my daughter a yule or two ago. I read about 200 pages whilst sitting in the waiting rooms at Southend Hospital over the past 3 days. I suppose it's reasonably well-written but hasn't filled me with enthusiasm.

Funny, I guess it's context. I read it two years ago, before he became president, and it did fill me with enthusiasm. It might not have done if I had read it inthe aftermath of the inevitable disappointment. It's his second book that isn't so inspiring in itself.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 19 October, 2010, 06:47:16 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.

Half way through it. Thanks for the plot spoiler ZB  ;D

Just finished Depths by Henning Mankell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 October, 2010, 06:51:13 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.

I've not started it yet, thanks Zoiders ! (are you only Kim at weekends ?)

And yes, SC = CIA  or any similar government bunch of nasties.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 19 October, 2010, 06:53:53 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.

I've not started it yet, thanks Zoiders ! (are you only Kim at weekends ?)

And yes, SC = CIA  or any similar government bunch of nasties.
I didn't say that much and I am only half way through as well

It's been in quotes and such already in the press so it's not that much of a spoiler...anyone who has read the books knows what they are like anyway and you can tell from reading the first chapter that it's going to involve them heavily.

They use people.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulF on 20 October, 2010, 06:29:02 pm
Somehow I missed the release of Surface Detail. Thanks for the heads up my copy is on it's way.

SC evil? Never saw that coming :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 20 October, 2010, 07:15:25 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.


I've not started it yet, thanks Zoiders ! (are you only Kim at weekends ?)

And yes, SC = CIA  or any similar government bunch of nasties.
I didn't say that much and I am only half way through as well

It's been in quotes and such already in the press so it's not that much of a spoiler...anyone who has read the books knows what they are like anyway and you can tell from reading the first chapter that it's going to involve them heavily.

They use people.

Finished it now.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 20 October, 2010, 08:34:05 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.



I've not started it yet, thanks Zoiders ! (are you only Kim at weekends ?)

And yes, SC = CIA  or any similar government bunch of nasties.
I didn't say that much and I am only half way through as well

It's been in quotes and such already in the press so it's not that much of a spoiler...anyone who has read the books knows what they are like anyway and you can tell from reading the first chapter that it's going to involve them heavily.

They use people.

Finished it now.

(click to show/hide)

Git, Git, Git........I know I shouldn't have clicked it but Git, Git , Git  ;)

Now behave yourself or I'll give away the plot to Zero History.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 20 October, 2010, 08:36:15 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.


I've not started it yet, thanks Zoiders ! (are you only Kim at weekends ?)

And yes, SC = CIA  or any similar government bunch of nasties.
I didn't say that much and I am only half way through as well

It's been in quotes and such already in the press so it's not that much of a spoiler...anyone who has read the books knows what they are like anyway and you can tell from reading the first chapter that it's going to involve them heavily.

They use people.

Finished it now.

(click to show/hide)
I have not clicked on it but I sort of guessed he might get a mention from quite early on.

It's his kind of story if it's who I think it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 21 October, 2010, 06:56:21 pm
Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

Me too.
Seems to be a back story for Culture fans about just what a real gang of bastards SC really are.



I've not started it yet, thanks Zoiders ! (are you only Kim at weekends ?)

And yes, SC = CIA  or any similar government bunch of nasties.
I didn't say that much and I am only half way through as well

It's been in quotes and such already in the press so it's not that much of a spoiler...anyone who has read the books knows what they are like anyway and you can tell from reading the first chapter that it's going to involve them heavily.

They use people.

Finished it now.

(click to show/hide)

Git, Git, Git........I know I shouldn't have clicked it but Git, Git , Git  ;)

Now behave yourself or I'll give away the plot to Zero History.....

OK I'll behave ;D

Like ZB I thought I'd seen him before but didn't make the connection.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 21 October, 2010, 07:57:22 pm
Rereading Mr Nice.

I can't decide whether he is just a stoner, a businessman, hard done by or full of shit.

Kind of admire him for having more front than Brighton on a bank holiday but can't help thinking that if he had applied himself to a different business other than drug smuggling he would have become just as rich and successful . . . and not had to spend a decade or so in jail.

Anyone seen the film, yet?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 22 October, 2010, 06:34:28 pm
"The Gathering Storm", the first volume of Winston Churchill's 6 volume history of World War II and the years leading up to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 24 October, 2010, 12:37:46 pm
Just finished reading 'Tamara Drewe' by Posy Simmonds. Very good  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Zoidburg on 26 October, 2010, 01:44:07 pm
Zero History.

No spoilers please...lah lah lah...not listening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 26 October, 2010, 01:56:22 pm
Elizabeth's Spy Master (Francis Walsingham & the secret war that saved England) by Robert Hutchinson
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 October, 2010, 03:53:40 pm
I Sank The Bismarck ~ John Moffat with some bloke whose name ICBA to look up.  Memoirs of a Swordfish pilot.  Charles Lamb's War In A Stringbag is better written, but then again, Lamb didn't even try to sink the Bismarck on account of being elsewhere at the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 26 October, 2010, 08:37:29 pm
Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku. Mind-blowing stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 26 October, 2010, 11:29:20 pm
I am currently reading The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson but I am just not getting into it. Not sure if this is because I am reading it in little chunks because so busy working this week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 27 October, 2010, 09:00:46 am
Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku. Mind-blowing stuff.

I think I might have to order that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 27 October, 2010, 09:09:28 am
"How To Win Friends And Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. An old book, originally published in the 1930s, but still very interesting.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 October, 2010, 10:37:46 am
Anzio ~ Lloyd Clark.  Could be interesting as most of what I know about the Italian campaign has been gleaned from Spike Milligoon's memoirs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 27 October, 2010, 11:37:20 am
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.  Much funnier and more readable than I expected.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 27 October, 2010, 08:28:45 pm
Sea room by Adam Nicolson - Island life on the edge of Scotland
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: E.C. Ryder on 30 October, 2010, 12:47:21 pm
Just started on `What you see is what you get` by Alan Sugar
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 30 October, 2010, 12:51:49 pm
Just started "The Lollipop Shoes" by Joanne Harris, haven't read Chocolat, so it is a bit confusing to start with, until I realised there are two grown up female characters in the book!!!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 30 October, 2010, 08:23:12 pm
Finally got round to reading The Siege by Ismail Kadare (which for some reason had slipped down my 'to read' pile). It really was brilliant. More people should read Kadare. I guess a lot of people haven't head of him, and those that have are put off by the fact that he's Albanian and 'intellectual'. But actually he has a really readable style, his English translator (David Bellos) is superb, and his novels can be read in many different ways. I would suggest starting with the The Siege if you don't know him, or Chronicle in Stone, if you want something a bit weightier.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 30 October, 2010, 10:22:54 pm
I'm still re-reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes (but nearly finished now!).

I have a queue of new books once I finish that though, all of which I'm really looking forward to:

Hungry Cyclist - Tom Kevill Davies
Freedom Evolves - Daniel Dennett
Zero History - William Gibson
Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks
Heartstone - C.J.Sansom
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 01 November, 2010, 09:33:47 pm
Waterlog by Roger Deakin. He has a real way of using three words to conjure up a huge mental image.
It's a book about him wild swimming throughout Britain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 November, 2010, 09:46:36 am
Life ~ Keith Richards.

Pretty much what you'd expect, i.e. sex, drugs, rock'n'roll.  His parents were keen cyclists.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 03 November, 2010, 12:49:32 pm
Harukumi Murakami & Hilary Mantell.

Got through Wolf Hall, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd & After the Quake so far.

Beyond Black & Kafka on the Shore await.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 November, 2010, 10:18:52 am
The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen.  I've been meaning to read it for years but have been spurred on by the publication of Freedom.  I thought it was going to be sardonic, knowing and cruel to its characters but it's not. It's even quite funny at times, in a literary kind of way.  I'm really enjoying it. I'm surprised it hasn't featured on this thread before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 04 November, 2010, 10:21:26 am
The newest Iain M Banks Culture novel,  Surface Detail, onna Kindle.

It's my first ebook-only purchase.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 November, 2010, 11:04:01 am
Other People by Martin Amis. I used to like Martin Amis when I was a teenager, probably would have said he was my favourite author if pushed, but I gradually went off him the further he disappeared up his own arse. Time's Arrow was the last new book of his I read. But this is one of his early works that for some reason I've never got round to reading before. I started it on the train this morning and really didn't want to put it down at the end of the journey. I'm totally gripped. So far, it's been bleak, dark, poignant and yet very funny. Beautifully written, some exquisite turns of phrase. I dare say someone more knowledgeable than me can point out where he's nicked all the ideas from, but I'm not judging it for originality. It's raw and sometimes a bit rough around the edges, but this is Martin Amis from back when he actually cared about his craft more than his teeth. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen.  I've been meaning to read it for years but have been spurred on by the publication of Freedom.  I thought it was going to be sardonic, knowing and cruel to its characters but it's not. It's even quite funny at times, in a literary kind of way.  I'm really enjoying it. I'm surprised it hasn't featured on this thread before.

I read it when it first came out and absolutely loved it. Freedom being in the news has made me want to read it again. I also want to read Freedom, of course.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 05 November, 2010, 05:38:37 pm
'Eating for England' by Nigel Slater. A book full of small chapters about the beauties and horrors of our cultural gastronomy. Nigel Slater is a food God and a fabulous writer  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 November, 2010, 08:56:54 pm
Another area of literature on which we shall have to agree to differ, I'm afraid! I find Slater unbearably smug. And based on a few disastrous experiences with his recipes, I find it hard to believe they can possibly be tested prior to publication.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 06 November, 2010, 12:10:55 am
The newest Iain M Banks Culture novel,  Surface Detail, onna Kindle.

A dead-tree copy of that is in my (growing) to-be-read pile.

I'm not reading it yet though - this morning,  I picked another book out of the pile.  "The Hungry Cyclist" by Tom Kevill-Davies.

I'm about a fifth of the way through and I'm hooked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jord on 06 November, 2010, 11:09:57 am
Death Dealer by Rudolph Hoss - very disturbing I've no idea why I thought it would be anything different! I'm sure he never chose the title!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 06 November, 2010, 11:50:46 am
I am reading a bargain-bin find called Night Train to Lisbon. It is supposed to have sold 2 million copies worldwide and has positive comments by Isabel Allende and some top reviewers.

So far, it is bilge. Self-indulgent, overwritten, portentous, dull bilge.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 06 November, 2010, 11:55:55 am
Another area of literature on which we shall have to agree to differ, I'm afraid! I find Slater unbearably smug. And based on a few disastrous experiences with his recipes, I find it hard to believe they can possibly be tested prior to publication.

d.


Have we disagreed before? As you have such lovely manners I cannot believe it! I loved his TV show 'Food of my Life' .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 November, 2010, 01:18:46 pm
IIRC you loved Andrea Levy and didn't think much of Tom McCarthy, which is the polar opposite of my view.

I suppose, this being the Internet, I should therefore go off on a vitriolic character assassination spree and maybe compare you to Hitler, but I've long since reconciled myself to the view that other people are allowed to have different opinions on books. Even if their opinions are wrong. ;)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 06 November, 2010, 01:35:36 pm
IIRC you loved Andrea Levy and didn't think much of Tom McCarthy, which is the polar opposite of my view.

I suppose, this being the Internet, I should therefore go off on a vitriolic character assassination spree and maybe compare you to Hitler, but I've long since reconciled myself to the view that other people are allowed to have different opinions on books. Even if their opinions are wrong. ;)

d.

Ahhh now I remember. Perhaps I was too harsh on McCarthy because an awful lot of people really enjoyed his book.

I was in the pub last week after a cycle ride, there was about 7 of us round the table having a chat. A rather intense chap starts up a conversation about Stieg Larsson's 'The Girl who played with fire'. He thought it was the worst book of the trilogy. He rather decimated the character of Lisbeth and said that it was totally unrealistic. He then said 'well if you read the book..' to which I interrupted 'I've read all three a few times duh I am a librarian after all'. I then pointed out that most people I have spoken to enjoyed it and moved the conversation onto another subject as we were the ony two people who had read the book.

He then diverted the subject of the conversation back to the book on 2 later occasions, and went onto explain why his opinion was correct, i.e. its teaching people that revenge is OK, that the female character could hack and kill people but the men were very black and white. It's *ucking fantasy, for gods sake. Just because I read the book does not make me want to grab some electrodes and stick them on a man's b*ll*cks!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 07 November, 2010, 06:01:56 pm
Just because I read the book does not make me want to grab some electrodes and stick them on a man's b*ll*cks!

You're no fun any more. :-*
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: noisycrank on 07 November, 2010, 08:50:53 pm
The One from the other - Philip Kerr

Great dialogue, interesting setting, slightly flawed plot B+
Joe Bob says check it out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 07 November, 2010, 10:32:41 pm
The One from the other - Philip Kerr

Great dialogue, interesting setting, slightly flawed plot B+
Joe Bob says check it out.


He is a fab writer!

Am currently reading 'The very best of Linda Smith'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 November, 2010, 01:51:36 pm
Just finished Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles.  I was expecting a luvvie-filled version of that Simon Pegg thing I dissed the other week, but it was rather better than I had feared.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 09 November, 2010, 10:30:02 pm
The new Robert Jordan.

I started reading the series about 15 years ago, dammit, so I'm going to finish it, even if he did have the bad taste to die before he'd completed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 November, 2010, 10:53:21 am
Last Chance to See ~ Mark Carwardine.  The Sequel featuring Mr. S. Fry.  I re-read it to confirm my suspicions that rather more of it is ripped off from DNA than the author gives credit for.

It is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 14 November, 2010, 11:24:48 pm
The newest Iain M Banks Culture novel,  Surface Detail, onna Kindle.

It's my first ebook-only purchase.

It was mine too, and while I enjoyed the story, the mess that the publishers have made of the formatting is irritating.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 16 November, 2010, 12:05:56 am
J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter. Thirty pages in and it promises to be an excellent read.

this book represents a return to dead trees after a bunch of reading on the Kindle. The Kindle is a great thing to have, but e-book readers will never completely replace real books, just augment them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 17 November, 2010, 10:15:25 pm
I'm still reading "Waterlog" by Roger Deakin and thoroughly enjoying it.
Recently finished "Attention All Shipping" by Charlie Connolly which is a tour around the areas of the shipping forecast with all the attendant tales. Also recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 17 November, 2010, 10:18:07 pm
Ubik, by Philip K. Dick. Another brain-twister...  8)

I've got a couple of Charles Stross books lined up next - Singularity Sky, and it's sequel, Iron Sunrise.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 18 November, 2010, 10:47:27 am
Just finished another random one off the shelves at work:

Wilt On High by Tom Sharpe.

Oh dear.

Unlike Toekneep and LEE, who specifically mentioned this one as a book which made him laugh out loud, I felt it was very dated and limp humour, like an embarrassing 80s ITV sitcom.

I got to the end.  It was OK, but didn't go anywhere.  It felt like Sharpe wanted to go outside and shout 'bum' and 'willy' but felt he had to put it down on paper.

As I was putting it back on the shelf, I noticed a book entitled 'Growing Up In The Swinging Sixties' by Susan Cleeve.  It appeared to be a school book, published in 1980, so the perspective was interesting.

I was pulled up short by a mention of Stevie Wonder, which described him as 'The blind negro singer'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 November, 2010, 08:47:11 am
I started Stephen Leather's "Rough Justice" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Justice-Spider-Shepherd-Thrillers/dp/0340924942 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Justice-Spider-Shepherd-Thrillers/dp/0340924942))on Wednesday night, and finished it last night!

This is exceptional for me, as it usually takes me a good month to finish a book, sometimes longer!

Anyways it's a good book
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 19 November, 2010, 08:50:51 am
British Gypsum's "White Book"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 November, 2010, 03:01:28 pm
British Gypsum's "White Book"

Follow it up with this: Clicky (http://www.archive.org/stream/everydayusesofpo00assorich/everydayusesofpo00assorich_djvu.txt).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 19 November, 2010, 03:14:50 pm
Only had a v.quick scan of the first third-ish.
Big Problem
NO PICTURES :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 November, 2010, 03:31:32 pm
Just finished another random one off the shelves at work:

Wilt On High by Tom Sharpe.

Oh dear.

Unlike Toekneep and LEE, who specifically mentioned this one as a book which made him laugh out loud, I felt it was very dated and limp humour, like an embarrassing 80s ITV sitcom.

I had my Tom Sharpe phase as a teenager in the 80s. I found his stuff very funny then, but it was the right time and I was the right age. I don't remember Wilt On High specifically but the Wilt books generally were quite amusing. Not sure I'd feel the same about them now, though - I can well believe they'd be dated.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 19 November, 2010, 03:47:42 pm
It doesn't feel fair taking a fairly throwaway book from about twenty years ago and subjecting it to a new eye.  Tom didn't ask me to read the book, after all ;D

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 19 November, 2010, 06:59:31 pm
To Kill A Mockingbird.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 November, 2010, 10:36:21 am
On Tour by Bradley Wiggins - his frank diary of the 2010 Tour de France, illustrated with lots of lovely black & white pictures. Nice.

It doesn't feel fair taking a fairly throwaway book from about twenty years ago and subjecting it to a new eye.  Tom didn't ask me to read the book, after all ;D

I've been (re-)reading a lot of PG Wodehouse lately and although his stuff seems dated, this isn't an obstacle to enjoying it - to be fair, much of his writing probably seemed dated even when it was new, so in that sense it's timeless. Maybe we'll look back on Tom Sharpe in the same way in years to come.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 22 November, 2010, 12:04:18 pm
Having attended the Thoughtbubble comics con in Leeds at the weekend, I am perhaps understandably working my way through a tasty haul of graphic novels.

Currently on my platter is the eighth trade paperback collection (TPB) of the series 100 Bullets, which began life as a dark "moral proposition scenario" story and has evolved into a quasi-conspiracy theory style story. Possibly one of the best and most original tales of our modern era.

Along side that is the first TPB of Elephantmen, which currently centres around a futuristic genetic mutation scenario. It's difficult to define exactly what the story is about but it is very compelling and beautifully drawn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 22 November, 2010, 12:20:35 pm
'In the Land of Invented Languages' by Arika Okrent  - most entertaining  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 22 November, 2010, 02:34:56 pm
"Their Finest Hour", the second volume of Churchill's history of WWII. Back to Kindle for this one, and it turns out that the tables, maps and charts in this edition are so poorly scanned as to be worthless. Increasing the font size doesn't help either. Luckily the text more or less clarifies what the charts, tables and maps are trying to say, so it's no big deal, but it's something to think about when choosing between the electronic and paper versions of the same book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 November, 2010, 11:34:06 pm
Pirate Utopias by Robert Lambourne Wilson - it's a great piece of anarchist history about the Barbary Coast nations from the 16th to the 18th Centuries.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 23 November, 2010, 08:26:40 am
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø

Slow to start with, but is picking up a bit.  Dunno if I can relate to the main character, hence why it is a little hard for me to get into.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 November, 2010, 10:13:52 am
Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.  Recounts how in the post-war period BRITAIN had super-triff jet aer-o-planes built by brown-coated Men in Sheds and test-flown (and frequently crashed) by Chaps with moustaches and Brylcreem.  And how we contrived, by the usual BRITISH combination of muddle-headedness, unscientifically-applied gittery and the odd b0rken Comet, to piss it all away to the point that we are shortly to have an aircraft carrier with no fixed-wing aircraft.  On it.  With a name like James Hamilton-Paterson, the author is probably a Chap too.

If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 23 November, 2010, 10:21:05 am
Hand-grenade Practice in Peking: My Influence on the Cultural Revolution by Frances Wood

An account of a year's study in Peking in 1975. Title a little flip, but for me, who studied there 5 years later, it's a wonderful evocation
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nightfly on 23 November, 2010, 09:06:44 pm
Just finished both Al Humphrey's books - Moods of Future Joys & Thunder and Sunshine. Not bad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 23 November, 2010, 09:36:52 pm
Bloody hell, a man after my own heart

                                                                    :)

Present book Gods Executioner (Oliver Cromwell and the conquest of Ireland) very well written and a real eye opener
    
Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.  Recounts how in the post-war period BRITAIN had super-triff jet aer-o-planes built by brown-coated Men in Sheds and test-flown (and frequently crashed) by Chaps with moustaches and Brylcreem.  And how we contrived, by the usual BRITISH combination of muddle-headedness, unscientifically-applied gittery and the odd b0rken Comet, to piss it all away to the point that we are shortly to have an aircraft carrier with no fixed-wing aircraft.  On it.  With a name like James Hamilton-Paterson, the author is probably a Chap too.

If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2010, 09:32:42 am
Full Dark, No Stars ~ Stephen King.

Only one killin' so far, or two if you count the cow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 24 November, 2010, 09:43:53 am
I read whatever I could get my hands on second-hand at backpackers and campsites Down Under, including:

Corduroy Mansions, Alexander McCall Smith
Wilderness of Mirrors, Linda Davies
Unnatural Exposure, Patricia Cornwell
Goodfellowe MP, Michael Dobbs

Finding books in Aus and NZ was hard! You pay a fortune for new books - e.g. approx. NZ$30-45 for a new paperback.  I've resolved to buy an e-reader for our next trip.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2010, 10:05:19 am
If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).

It seems I have done the Americans something of a disservice here as, contrary to what I had read elsewhere2, Hamilton-Paterson-Chap says that it was a combination of Rolls-Royce and Sir Stifford Crapps who flogged the RR Derwent to the Russkies.  Seventeen-time winner of Soviet Moustache of the Year and all-round Professional Git Mr. J. Stalin reckoned that no-one could possibly be that stupid, so when he discovered that they could, he reportedly fell about laughing and ran around the Kremlin with a lampshade on his head.  Possibly.

2 - Step forward Mr. R. Coltrane.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 24 November, 2010, 12:36:17 pm
If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).

It seems I have done the Americans something of a disservice here as, contrary to what I had read elsewhere2, Hamilton-Paterson-Chap says that it was a combination of Rolls-Royce and Sir Stifford Crapps who flogged the RR Derwent to the Russkies.  Seventeen-time winner of Soviet Moustache of the Year and all-round Professional Git Mr. J. Stalin reckoned that no-one could possibly be that stupid, so when he discovered that they could, he reportedly fell about laughing and ran around the Kremlin with a lampshade on his head.  Possibly.

2 - Step forward Mr. R. Coltrane.

Aksherly, it was the R-R Nene engine that we were blitheringly stupid enough to sell to the Reds, who reverse engineered it into the Klimov RD-45 and then VK-1- which went into the MiG-15.

Oh how UN pilots in Korea must have laughed...  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 24 November, 2010, 01:05:20 pm
I'm exploiting the anonymity of the e-reader to gobble some Star Wars extended universe novels*, without dying of geekshame.  You have to read them with the right voices, and add the scene wipes, and it's pretty good.




* Thrawn Trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2010, 02:23:42 pm
Aksherly, it was the R-R Nene engine that we were blitheringly stupid enough to sell to the Reds, who reverse engineered it into the Klimov RD-45 and then VK-1- which went into the MiG-15.

Oh how UN pilots in Korea must have laughed...  :facepalm:

(Googles)

Both the Derwent and the Nene, it would appear.  I knew there were two but I couldn't remember which the second one was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 24 November, 2010, 02:54:30 pm
Aksherly, it was the R-R Nene engine that we were blitheringly stupid enough to sell to the Reds, who reverse engineered it into the Klimov RD-45 and then VK-1- which went into the MiG-15.

Oh how UN pilots in Korea must have laughed...  :facepalm:

(Googles)

Both the Derwent and the Nene, it would appear.  I knew there were two but I couldn't remember which the second one was.

I remembered the Nene being a freebie for Uncle Joe from a book by Bill Gunston - I forget the title, but it was a catalogue of bad decisions, cockups and general fusterclucks in aviation history, most of which appeared to come c/o HMG.

Anyway, you've given me inspiration for something else to add to the Chrimble list.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 November, 2010, 03:06:58 pm
Anyway, you've given me inspiration for something else to add to the Chrimble list.  :thumbsup:

A Gloster Meteor?

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 24 November, 2010, 06:31:17 pm
Currently reading Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio, from wiki:

"In the novel, a new form of endogenous retrovirus has emerged, SHEVA. It controls human evolution by rapidly evolving the next generation while in the womb, leading to speciation.
The novel follows several characters as the "plague" is discovered as well as the panicked reaction of the public and the U.S. government to the disease."

Just finished the first section dealing with the discovery of the 'disease'. Very readable so far...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 24 November, 2010, 09:03:54 pm
I believe we have just paid them off for their assistance in WW2 and are still paying them off for WW1 (or maybe t'other way round, I get so annoyed), prostitutes are more honest, we paid dearly and are still paying for their "generous" assistance, couple that with their threats over our little Suez fiasco and , well, special relationship eh ?

 
If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).

It seems I have done the Americans something of a disservice here as, contrary to what I had read elsewhere2, Hamilton-Paterson-Chap says that it was a combination of Rolls-Royce and Sir Stifford Crapps who flogged the RR Derwent to the Russkies.  Seventeen-time winner of Soviet Moustache of the Year and all-round Professional Git Mr. J. Stalin reckoned that no-one could possibly be that stupid, so when he discovered that they could, he reportedly fell about laughing and ran around the Kremlin with a lampshade on his head.  Possibly.

2 - Step forward Mr. R. Coltrane.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 24 November, 2010, 10:59:55 pm
Currently reading Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio,

Me too!  I must be about 75 pages ahead of you.  :)  How are you finding all the biology? - all I know about biology is where my 3 kids came from.  :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 25 November, 2010, 06:32:18 pm
Currently reading Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio,

Me too!  I must be about 75 pages ahead of you.  :)  How are you finding all the biology? - all I know about biology is where my 3 kids came from.  :-[

Not too bad I think - I've read a few popular science books that deal with genetics & evolution so I have a bit of knowledge. But then again I may be convincing myself I understand more than I actually do! I'm not sure I'd be able to explain it to someone else in any sort of technical detail, which I suppose is a good test.

That's my answer re: the biology in the book, not where your kids came from, by the way... ;D

Might have to check out more of Bear's work - this is my first by him.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 26 November, 2010, 01:27:28 pm
Might have to check out more of Bear's work - this is my first by him.

Some of his earlier stuff was very interesting - Blood Music is a bit of a classic now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ray 6701 on 28 November, 2010, 07:57:31 pm
Joss the life & times of the legendary Lake District fell runner & shepherd Joss Naylor.

Redirect Notice (http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCEQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rivergretawriter.co.uk%2F%3Fc%3Dbooks%26a%3Djoss&ei=zrPyTOn4OdCXhQfS3aXtCw&usg=AFQjCNEYYjKQozPM3CcP7d6K4OFNZpqhdA)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 29 November, 2010, 09:42:15 am
Gogol. A collection of stories & 'The Government Inspector'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 29 November, 2010, 01:01:20 pm
'On Tour' by Messrs Wiggins and Gallagher.

Quite a good read and a refreshingly different style.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 06 December, 2010, 12:51:57 pm
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving.  A slow and downbeat start compared to the swing and verve of the others I have read  (Garp, Owen Meany, Hotel New Hampshire), but it’s early days yet - there are another 500 pages to go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 06 December, 2010, 03:09:57 pm
Now reading Mark Mazower's Hitler's Empire, a very readable account of the organisation of occupation under the Nazis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: E.C. Ryder on 09 December, 2010, 01:29:08 pm
Just started on Life by Keith Richards
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 09 December, 2010, 08:11:17 pm
Joss the life & times of the legendary Lake District fell runner & shepherd Joss Naylor.

Ooh, that's going on my Xmas list. I always fancied a stab at the Bob Graham Round but have never been remotely fit enough. Mind you, Bob way slightly older than me when he did it so there's hope for me yet. If Joss did 72 peaks he's up there with my all time heroes. What a chap!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 December, 2010, 08:12:32 pm
There was an article about Joss Naylor in TGO last month.  Astonishing man.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 December, 2010, 09:00:01 pm
Fields of Death by Bernard Cornwell Simon Scarrow.

Good so far, and will be right the way through, if his other three about Napoleon and Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) are anything to go by.  I normally like to read "junk" thrillers, but have a soft spot for historical, er, pseudo fiction, I suppose you could call it.  It's not completely fictional, nor is it completely fact, but sits somewhere in the middle.  Mr Scarrow and Mr Cornwell seem to be the lead purveyors of this kind of gendre, apart from the Sharpe novels....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 09 December, 2010, 09:04:13 pm
Revisiting Asimov's Foundation trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 10 December, 2010, 04:22:26 pm
'Possession' by A.S. Byatt
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Little Jim on 10 December, 2010, 04:42:35 pm
The House by Bill Bryson - full of fairly useless facts and some wonderful names (heard of Canvas White?) - an anorak's dream!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 11 December, 2010, 12:57:08 pm
Revisiting Asimov's Foundation trilogy.

Every time I've done that, I've found it more silly and portentous than ever.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 11 December, 2010, 02:54:53 pm
The White War by Mark Thompson

History of the Italian participation in WW1. A ghastly farce, which would have been comical if it was not so horrific, with (until the catastrophe of Caporetto made his incompetence too obvious to ignore) a commander who blamed every failure on his troops, sacked officers who refused to order extra-judicial executions of soldiers, & had critics (including officers who suggested changing failing tactics) imprisoned.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 December, 2010, 11:17:12 am
'Possession' by A.S. Byatt

Tip for you - ignore completely the Gothic victorian stories in between and then you will be fine  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: groucho on 15 December, 2010, 11:16:57 am
Clean Business Cuisine, Now and Z/Yen - Michael Mainelli & Ian Harris.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 15 December, 2010, 10:21:04 pm
Silence and Honey Cakes - Rowan Williams
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 16 December, 2010, 09:27:49 am
God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 December, 2010, 11:09:39 am
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
(hence the question about it in the pop quiz thread)

One of those books I probably should have read years ago but only got around to it this week because of a set of coincidences. First, it was referred to in a discussion on Riddley Walker (probably my favourite book of all time) on the Guardian books website. Then I was at my parents' house at the weekend and I noticed it on the bookshelf, so I picked it up and started reading it. And was very quickly engrossed.

It's completely bonkers but I love it.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 16 December, 2010, 02:19:04 pm
The Pyramid - William Golding.

Read it long ago, & thought I should re-read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 16 December, 2010, 10:45:51 pm
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
(hence the question about it in the pop quiz thread)

One of those books I probably should have read years ago but only got around to it this week because of a set of coincidences. First, it was referred to in a discussion on Riddley Walker (probably my favourite book of all time) on the Guardian books website. Then I was at my parents' house at the weekend and I noticed it on the bookshelf, so I picked it up and started reading it. And was very quickly engrossed.

It's completely bonkers but I love it.

d.


Ditto.  I got completely into KVJr in my teens. His use of language and idea is completely fresh.  Love him.  And still dip into him now and again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 17 December, 2010, 02:19:50 am

It's completely bonkers but I love it.

d.


So it goes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 December, 2010, 11:58:29 am
Wonders Of The Solar System ~ Brian Cox.  Worth the price of admission just for the pictures.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 26 December, 2010, 05:56:49 pm
I've just finished Vonneguts's

Breakfast of Champions, Or Goodbye Blue Monday


It's my least favourite of his (so far!). On the surface it's much less weird than Slaughterhouse5 or Sirens of Titan, but the structure is stranger, and I just didn't relate to any of the main characters. To quote Wiki:

Quote
These structural experiments were continued in Breakfast of Champions (1973), which includes many rough illustrations, lengthy non-sequiturs and an appearance by the author himself, as a deus ex machina.

Now reading: Fight Club - at least as good as the film!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nightfly on 28 December, 2010, 02:19:31 pm
Just finished 'Why don't you fly?' Backdoor to Beijing - by Bicycle, Christopher JA Smith.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 28 December, 2010, 05:15:59 pm
The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor - Colin Tudge

Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett

Examples: The Making Of 40 Photographs - Ansel Adams.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 December, 2010, 08:15:20 pm
Mary Ann in Autumn, the latest Tales of the City installment.   Also reading The Lucifer Effect, Phillip Zimbardo's account of his Stanford Prison experiment and it's relevance to events such as the Rwandan massacres & Abu Ghraib
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 28 December, 2010, 08:23:45 pm
Stephen Fry's Moab is My Washpot. Disappointing so far - he does seem to be getting bogged down somewhat (about 1/3 of the way through so far); not as enjoyable nor as informative as S Fry in America.

Next up is Franzen's Freedom.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 28 December, 2010, 08:37:24 pm
PJ O'Rourke - Don't vote it only encourages the bastards, quite good so far
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nightfly on 28 December, 2010, 09:30:10 pm
Stephen Fry's Moab is My Washpot. Disappointing so far - he does seem to be getting bogged down somewhat (about 1/3 of the way through so far); not as enjoyable nor as informative as S Fry in America.

Next up is Franzen's Freedom.

I think I gave up about a 1/3 of the way through. It was ....... disappointing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 28 December, 2010, 11:50:27 pm
The Star of The Sea by Joseph O'Connor.

Early Victorianesque style novel (2003) about a sea crossing taking emigrant Irish to the US during which  a rich Earl must be murdered by a down on his luck Irish criminal. Lots of back story from different viewpoints, a warts and all view of the great Irish famine,  and the murder eventually happens but with a number of twists and turns along the way. This book does not read in a straight line but is tantalysing all the way through.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 29 December, 2010, 09:12:42 am
I think I gave up about a 1/3 of the way through. It was ....... disappointing

There's a never-ending excerpt from something by E.M. Forster at about that stage that almost did it for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 29 December, 2010, 01:57:31 pm
Just finally got round to reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which was really rather good, in fact a classic piece - well maybe more of a lump given its size - of whimsical British fantasy, which put me in mind of Mythago Wood, The Anubis Gates or Little, Big, as well as all those William Morris novels of Victorian faerie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 29 December, 2010, 02:03:16 pm
Quote
Tip for you - ignore completely the Gothic victorian stories in between and then you will be fine

Good advice, HW  - many thanks! (nearly at p400 now  :) )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bluebottle on 29 December, 2010, 02:31:43 pm
Having finally finished the thoroughly engrossing trip through the history and philosophy of quantum mechanics Beyond Measure by Jim Baggot, I is now on Estive by Blaise Hofmann.  So far it would appear that this is an exploration of Zen and the art of alpine shepherding, naturally.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 29 December, 2010, 06:23:55 pm
Journey To The End Of The Night by Céline.

"a nihilistic novel of savage, exultant misanthropy, combined, however, with cynical humour", apparently.

Rather tedious so far say I.

Xmas cash & vouchers = the following 'to read' list & they can't come soon enough:

Iain Banks - Transition
Ian McDonald - The Dervish House
M. John Harrison - Nova Swing
Richard Dawkins - The Greatest Show On Earth

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 02 January, 2011, 07:58:40 pm
William Gibson, Zero History. A christmas present.
also on the go Anne Mustoe, Amber Furs and Cockleshells.
Really enjoying both so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 02 January, 2011, 08:38:03 pm
Oh gave up on Jonathan strange half way grew tiresome. However in a similar vein hugely intrigued by Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman daft but good ripping yarn read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 January, 2011, 09:12:11 pm
Haven't started it yet but next on my "to read" pile is What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly (http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Technology-Wants-Kevin-Kelly/dp/0670022152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294001976&sr=8-1).

My interest in this book was piqued by a podcast (Little Atoms, iirc) in which Kevin Kelly broadly outlined his premise, namely that technology evolves in much the same way as living organisms, according to its needs. It's a fascinating idea and I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops it.

After that, I've got another volume of non-fiction: An Edible History Of Humanity by Tom Standage (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-History-Humanity-Tom-Standage/dp/1843546353/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294002485&sr=1-1). It's the follow-up to his History Of The World In Six Glasses (http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-World-Six-Glasses/dp/1843545950/ref=pd_cp_b_2), which I enjoyed immensely, even if at times I felt it was lacking a little depth.

I've not in the past been much of a non-fiction reader, but my appetite seems to have changed recently. Though having said that, I've got a stack of novels to work my way through after these two books.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 03 January, 2011, 05:41:52 pm
Stephen Fry's Moab is My Washpot. Disappointing so far - he does seem to be getting bogged down somewhat (about 1/3 of the way through so far); not as enjoyable nor as informative as S Fry in America.

Next up is Franzen's Freedom.

I think I gave up about a 1/3 of the way through. It was ....... disappointing.

I was unimpressed by "The Liar", which was very slight and superficial.  More superficial and rather less clever than it thinks it is.  Mr Fry is over-indulged, not least by himself.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 03 January, 2011, 05:46:51 pm
Just finally got round to reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which was really rather good, in fact a classic piece - well maybe more of a lump given its size - of whimsical British fantasy, which put me in mind of Mythago Wood, The Anubis Gates or Little, Big, as well as all those William Morris novels of Victorian faerie.

I wouldn't class Mythago Wood as whimsy; it's a more ambitious and sombre work, which treats the emotions and plight of its protagonists seriously (this is even more true of the sequel).  The fact that the author has a sense of humour doesn't make it a humorous book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 January, 2011, 06:08:54 pm
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I've read it several times before. I just wanted something comforting and familiar.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 04 January, 2011, 11:08:56 pm
Travels in France during the years 1787, 1788 & 1789, by Arthur Young. Some Americans have put the 1909 edition online for anybody who wants to download it, which is nice.

Very interesting book, apparently very popular in France for many years, where many editions were published, starting in the early 1790s when the Convention had 20000 printed - probably because of the line 'Whenever you stumble upon a grand seigneur, even one that is worth millions, you are sure to find his property desert'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 January, 2011, 12:37:47 am
I wouldn't class Mythago Wood as whimsy; it's a more ambitious and sombre work, which treats the emotions and plight of its protagonists seriously (this is even more true of the sequel).  The fact that the author has a sense of humour doesn't make it a humorous book.

Oh, I'd agree entirely, and I didn't mean to say that Mythago Wood was whimsical - that's not the reason it came to mind; it was more to do with its 'Britishness'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 05 January, 2011, 03:44:58 am
My second hand copy of The Complete Book of long Distance Cycling arrived from an ebay seller today. I had really wanted to buy this book for my Kindle but it isn't yet in ebook form :(

I haven't read a book made of real paper in weeks  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 05 January, 2011, 07:09:53 am
I read "Into The Wild" by John Krakauer in one sitting on New Years Eve (yeah, that's me, the party animal). It's an interesting read - the story behind it is true, but I still haven't decided whether or not the protagonist, if he can be called such, was misguided, plain stupid or some combination of the two. It doesn't have quite the same "OMGWTF?!" feeling of something like "Touching The Void" but it's worth a punt.

Got a couple of books on iPhone programming beside me, but they'd hardly count as reading for pleasure, and a couple of books on travel in Australia as preparation for my epic road trip (which do count as reading for pleasure) :)

There's a whole bunch of 'Golden Age' sci-fi on my iPad, too  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 05 January, 2011, 07:17:54 am
I'm reading 'Heartstone', the new CJ Sansom book in the Shardlake series.

Very good!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 05 January, 2011, 08:53:00 am
Also read a couple of books on North Korea recently - "Nothing To Envy" by Barbara Demick is an absolute must-read, especially if you want the living bejeezus scared out of you. Makes "1984" look like a fairy story yet the stuff she writes about is still happening. Also, "This is Paradise!" by Hyok Kang - more of the same kind of stuff.

Both books are the literary equivalent of a road accident - you want to look away, yet you just can't seem to. Demick's accounts are, quite frankly, scary.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 05 January, 2011, 02:11:48 pm
The stuff various British governments have got up to undercover of secrecy and the disgusting way they have turned our police into a paramilitery government protection force is enough for me. Feel sad for people living in places like North Korea.
       The Angels Game Carlos Ruiz Zafon, superb read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nightfly on 06 January, 2011, 02:36:24 am
Re-reading Alistair Humphrey's RTW books Moods of Future Joys and Thunder and Sunshine which I read before Christmas. Just as good second time around, infact better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 January, 2011, 11:38:35 am
Innocent ~ Scott Turow

Came recommended by Dr Larrington.  Not bad, but I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy more of his stuff any time soon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 06 January, 2011, 03:46:20 pm
I caught the following title out of the corner of my eye today: "Vampire Daleks". I thought that would be a good read until I actually re-read the title as "Vampire Diares"   :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 06 January, 2011, 04:49:35 pm
"The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen.  Meant to read it a while back but it got stuck in a box in our garage. It's solemnly hilarious and savage at the same time. I'm just on the Gunnar Myrdal at the moment, with my heart in my mouth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 10 January, 2011, 07:46:32 pm
Have just finished 'The Duchess' by Amanda Foreman, a biography of the Duchess of Devonshire, best mate of the Prince Regent and the leader of the ton in the tail-end of the 18th century. I don't really know that much about the history and politics (apart from seeing 'the Madness of King George III') of that era and it was a real period of female emancipation. Good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 10 January, 2011, 08:03:58 pm
"Long Way Down" - but the big hardback version with far more pictures, and only cost me a tenner from Go-Outdoors in Leeds :)

Whoever did the abridging of the text did a mighty fine job. The photos are, naturally enough, pure awesome. Unfortunately, there wasn't a mega-illustrated version of "Long Way Round" :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 January, 2011, 11:05:35 am
Surface Detail ~ Iain M Banks.  Is it a bit slow, or is it just me?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 11 January, 2011, 11:07:38 am
Finished 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' by Steig Larson, about to start 'The Girl who Played with Fire' by Steig Larson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 11 January, 2011, 11:17:30 am
Finally reading The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. It's okay. He's clearly an interesting guy but it's basically diary ramblings plus later additions from Wikipedia. I was hoping for better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 11 January, 2011, 11:38:58 am
Surface Detail ~ Iain M Banks.  Is it a bit slow, or is it just me?
It's not just you - I've found all of the Culture novels to infuriatingly slow going at times.
They're generally very good, but boy do they take a while to warm up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 January, 2011, 11:59:26 am
"Consider Phlebas" seemed OK from the off, but maybe that was just coz it was the first one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dinamo on 12 January, 2011, 11:37:02 am
Inside Out

A Personnal History of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 12 January, 2011, 11:54:08 am
The Redbreast
by Jo Nesbø
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 12 January, 2011, 01:40:22 pm
The Grand Alliance, by Winston Churchill. Volume 3 of his history of WWII.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 January, 2011, 01:43:20 pm
The Glass Rainbow, James Lee Burke.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 13 January, 2011, 10:43:45 am
What were your parents reading at your conception?

BibliOZ.com Birthday Best Sellers (http://www.biblioz.com/best_sellers.php?a=0&i=43622970)

(I'm not posting mine - it was pretty depressing!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 January, 2011, 01:05:10 pm
I've actually read three of the fiction bestsellers (The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Shoes Of The Fisherman & On Her Majesty's Secret Service).  I am not certain whether to be pleased or appalled.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 13 January, 2011, 02:14:13 pm
What were your parents reading at your conception?

BibliOZ.com Birthday Best Sellers (http://www.biblioz.com/best_sellers.php?a=0&i=43622970)

(I'm not posting mine - it was pretty depressing!)

Bestseller lists are always pretty depressing...

For me it was apparently The Exorcist amongst other things...  :demon: although of course that is the New York Times list rather than a British one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 13 January, 2011, 03:22:10 pm
What were your parents reading at your conception?
I haven't asked, but I'd like to think that they were reading anything.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 January, 2011, 12:32:38 pm
From The Dead ~ Mark Billingham.  I should have finished "Surface Detail" before starting it but so far nothing has happened all the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 January, 2011, 01:18:40 pm
Birthday book, Sex, Lies and Handlebar tape by Paul Howard Very good (and the cover is brilliant)
                                                   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 21 January, 2011, 06:18:46 pm
Just finished Nova Swing by M. John Harrison - a bit 'meh' compared to Light

Now well into Transition by Iain Banks which is good so far.

Next-up is The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 22 January, 2011, 05:58:16 am
i somehow seem to have got to a point of having three books on the go:

A Dog In A Hat
Bad Blood
The Bear and The Dragon - Tom Clancy
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nightfly on 23 January, 2011, 06:17:46 pm
Boy Racer by Cav.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 23 January, 2011, 06:20:05 pm
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. I found it abandoned in the kitchen at work and it looked good. It's a bit odd.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 23 January, 2011, 06:21:10 pm
Bad Science. Someone gave me it for Christmas. Ghastly familiarity to some of it, but it's nice to have a lot of what I've read before neatly packaged.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 23 January, 2011, 06:26:00 pm
As a result of a kind offer from andrewc of this parish, I started reading "Cold Beer and Crocodiles" last night - one man's account of a little spin around Australia. 'Around' being the operative word.

I shall probably finish it tonight - it's really rather good (but needs more photos!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 23 January, 2011, 06:29:32 pm
Under my daughter's instruction, I am reading Graham Green. I started with "The Quiet American" which I found hard going initially but I persisted. It got better, but I felt I'd not really appreciated the first half of the book on the first reading so I read the whole lot a second time. Definitely better at the second attempt.

On that basis I am now tackling "Our Man in Havana" but haven't got very far yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 23 January, 2011, 06:32:16 pm
I read Our Man in Havana when I was in 6th form because I boy I fancied liked it. It got me nowhere with him, but the book was quite good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 23 January, 2011, 06:36:17 pm
Should also mention that I'm dipping in and out of "Treat Your Own Back" by Robin McKenzie - if you suffer from back trouble (or neck trouble - he also wrote a companion volume "Treat Your Own Neck") then it's worth looking into.

The exercises in the book (known as "The McKenzie Exercises" to yer average physio) do actually work, although in my present situation it helps to be mobile enough to actually do them  :-\

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treat-Your-Back-Robin-McKenzie/dp/0958269203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295807731&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treat-Your-Back-Robin-McKenzie/dp/0958269203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295807731&sr=8-1)

(regular link, none of this referral malarkey)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 23 January, 2011, 06:41:43 pm
Depending on mood, Bleach (manga) or Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 23 January, 2011, 06:42:12 pm
Under my daughter's instruction, I am reading Graham Green. I started with "The Quiet American" which I found hard going initially but I persisted. It got better, but I felt I'd not really appreciated the first half of the book on the first reading so I read the whole lot a second time. Definitely better at the second attempt.

On that basis I am now tackling "Our Man in Havana" but haven't got very far yet.

Congratulate your daughter on her taste!  Our Man in Havana is a good one, so persevere.  The Power and the Glory is my favourite, probably followed by The Heart of the Matter, though they've both got quite a Catholic feel which you may or may not like.  One day you might even learn to spell his name  :P

As for me, I'm currently reading Brave New World, which I gave up on as a kid and have now decided to finish off, and Our Tragic Universe (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Tragic-Universe-Scarlett-Thomas/dp/1847677622) by Scarlett Thomas.  I'm not far enough through it to say anything but I enjoyed her last book The End of Mr Y (http://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Mr-Y-Scarlett-Thomas/dp/1847671179), which felt a bit like Jostein Gaarder had gone all streetwise and included sex and drugs in his mystery novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 23 January, 2011, 08:18:33 pm
Something by Mike Burrows on bike design. Interesting, but in an academic way. Though he has got me thinking I should have a 3 wheel recumbent in the stable.

Which, now I think of it, might be the point of the book.

And 'The Ascent of Money'. Which makes me go 'Hmm?', and 'ARRRGH!', often on the same page.

And finally, the Cyclist's Companion, quite the most sensible thing anyone anywhere has ever put together.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 24 January, 2011, 01:36:33 pm
Just finished Nova Swing by M. John Harrison - a bit 'meh' compared to Light

Really, I thought it was better (or interesting in a different way)... 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 24 January, 2011, 03:10:30 pm
Finished "The Redbreast"

Not bad, but I found the ending a bit of an anti-climax though.
I found his style a bit "quirky" (for want of a better word). Nothing I could really put my finger on... It might have just been the translation.

Also, I thought this was the first book in the series - it is listed as such on English-language websites. It is actually the third book in the Harry Hole series, but the first one translated into English.
Certain things are mentioned in The Redbreast that I suspect were covered in the earlier stories. This gave me the feeling that I'd missed something and I kept having to go back and check.  :-\


I'm currently reading "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 24 January, 2011, 06:34:16 pm
Just finished Nova Swing by M. John Harrison - a bit 'meh' compared to Light

Really, I thought it was better (or interesting in a different way)... 

Maybe it's because the main characters' involvement just peters out and is almost dismissed in a few sentences after they've entered the Event Site. An interesting approach I suppose - and obviously in keeping with the weirdness of the time/space of the Site - but even the 'fringe' characters that round off the story didn't get enough page-time imo. Maybe there'll be a follow-up.

I've probably just got too used to reading long SF epics to be able to cope with a story that ends so quickly... :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 24 January, 2011, 09:30:32 pm
I have just finished The Beautiful Machine by Graeme Fife ,I enjoyed it  from begining to end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 24 January, 2011, 10:08:03 pm
I'm about halfway through "Freedom Evolves" by Daniel C. Dennett.

It's very thought provoking, and as per most of Dennett's books eases you in quite gradually although I'm now firmly into the sections that are going to need careful re-reading to fully "get".  It probably doesn't help that I'm somewhat worn out for about half of my reading time (train home from work and bedtime.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 25 January, 2011, 09:07:08 am
Whee! New Iain Banks!  Surface Detail here.  Cultureiffic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 31 January, 2011, 10:24:55 am
My last three have been:

Surface Detail  - Ian Banks

I really like this. There again I love all the Culture series.

A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

The first time I have read any Dickens. I licked it and now my read dome of his others though this one is atypical in apparently.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

I'm not normally a reader of crime fiction but I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Good page turner with some nice twists to the plot. Good enough that I have downloaded the other two in the series to my Kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 31 January, 2011, 06:00:07 pm
My last three have been:

Surface Detail  - Ian Banks

I've just got round to finishing this.  The last word of the Epilogue made me laugh.

Very good book that; one of his best I'd say.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 February, 2011, 01:08:37 pm
My last three have been:

Surface Detail  - Ian Banks

I've just got round to finishing this.  The last word of the Epilogue made me laugh.

Very good book that; one of his best I'd say.

I've been stalled around page 220 for about a fortnight :(  Blame it on a Waking The Dead DVD binge...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 01 February, 2011, 02:17:31 pm
Just started Dr Zhivago, the writing is quite beautiful, I love what I call word artists (a couple of words and you have a complete picture as if you were familiar with the scenery - Zola  (Germinal) is like that)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 February, 2011, 04:00:04 pm
Just started Dr Zhivago, the writing is quite beautiful, I love what I call word artists (a couple of words and you have a complete picture as if you were familiar with the scenery - Zola  (Germinal) is like that)

Is that the new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky? I've been wanting to get this since I heard about it because I always felt the first translation into English was a bit crap...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 01 February, 2011, 05:39:16 pm
Got three on the go at the moment:


In more run of the mill terms, I'm also re-reading Brave New World on my iKindlePad1, with a couple of 'start your own business' type books for later.

1 - iPad running the Kindle App :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 01 February, 2011, 05:53:03 pm
After getting so peed off with the TV series, have begun reading Lark Rise to Candleford. It's very good so far and a time-capture of rural Oxfordshire before real industry set in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 01 February, 2011, 06:32:19 pm
Will check when I get home from work

Just started Dr Zhivago, the writing is quite beautiful, I love what I call word artists (a couple of words and you have a complete picture as if you were familiar with the scenery - Zola  (Germinal) is like that)

Is that the new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky? I've been wanting to get this since I heard about it because I always felt the first translation into English was a bit crap...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RW on 03 February, 2011, 08:36:19 pm
Just finished It's all about the bike by Rob Penn, which I bought new in Oxfam.  Coincidentally I saw the telly programme on the weekend.

He has a blikered view of what a bike is, for him the diamond frame is all there is to be said about cycling, and a bit self indulgent, by a quarter of the way through I couldn't care less about his "dream bike".

There was a big omission as well - he didn't go to see the Carradice ladies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 03 February, 2011, 08:47:25 pm
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott.  A lovely conceit, and a very interesting thought experiment.  Most of the fun was in struggling to imagine an extra, fourth dimension, though the hints of irony in the descriptions of the lower classes and women in Flatland provided some entertainment.

Now reading Dead Air by Iain Banks.  An author whom I always enjoy reading, but the litter of cultural references (bands, books, people) seems a bit forced in this one.  Still, early days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 03 February, 2011, 08:51:55 pm
There's very few Iain or Iain Ms that I haven't enjoyed, but I've had one sat on the bedside table for weeks now without getting around to reading it.  Must do so....  I don't seem to have the attention span to read anything longer than about 3 paragraphs at the moment which is a bit shocking as I've probably read (or re-read) at least 3 or 4 books a week most weeks of my life since before I was a teenager  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 03 February, 2011, 08:58:09 pm
Greenmantle by John Buchan. The Boy bought me a huge John Buchan volume for Christmas. Completed the Thirty Nine Steps and just about finished Greenmantle.

After that I've been informed i should read The Girl's nanowrimo offering. Bound and everyfink, available on Amazon apparently. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 03 February, 2011, 09:03:17 pm
Just started Dr Zhivago, the writing is quite beautiful, I love what I call word artists (a couple of words and you have a complete picture as if you were familiar with the scenery - Zola  (Germinal) is like that)

Is that the new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky? I've been wanting to get this since I heard about it because I always felt the first translation into English was a bit crap...
Often a problem. I remember when I read Hunger, the 1990s translator felt it necessary to comment on the two previous translations. (1) by an English woman soon after publication (1890s IIRC), whose translation he thought accurate & generally close to the right mood, but which deliberately omitted some crucial passages because of their sexual nature, & (2) by an American writer in the 1960s, which was a heap of stinking walrus crap with all the fertilising elements removed, retaining only the foul stench & unpleasant appearance, texture, & staining qualities. The translator didn't understand Norwegian well enough, & also didn't grasp the idea of translating more than just the words.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 03 February, 2011, 09:04:16 pm
There's very few Iain or Iain Ms that I haven't enjoyed, but I've had one sat on the bedside table for weeks now without getting around to reading it.  Must do so....  I don't seem to have the attention span to read anything longer than about 3 paragraphs at the moment which is a bit shocking as I've probably read (or re-read) at least 3 or 4 books a week most weeks of my life since before I was a teenager  :-\

I haven't read much Iain M stuff - just one book which was OK-ish.  Any recommendations?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 03 February, 2011, 10:30:54 pm
Player of Games - and Dearly_Beloved said the same. I like pretty much all of them apart from feersum enjinn or however it's spelt. I couldn't parse any of it as apparently I read very much visually not phonically and it just made my head hurt!  We have a fair old collection if you want to borrow :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 03 February, 2011, 10:58:35 pm
I might take you up on that.

I t woz Feersum Endjinn wot I redd.  Reminded me of Walking on Glass, as it had the same tripartite structure and throwaway ending.  And I didn't like that too much, either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: newtoncap on 03 February, 2011, 11:06:57 pm
Wyrd Sisters - an oldie but a goody, Granny Weatherwax is my favourite of all TP characters.

and

The Secret Life of Birds - by Colin Tudge.  Struggled through the preface (not a good sign) but it was a Christmas gift so I will stick with it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 03 February, 2011, 11:27:09 pm
I might take you up on that.

I t woz Feersum Endjinn wot I redd.  Reminded me of Walking on Glass, as it had the same tripartite structure and throwaway ending.  And I didn't like that too much, either.

I can't remember anything about feersum endjinn apart from finding it more painful than reading in a foreign language and not enjoying it at all.  But I like walking on glass - although maybe that's because it was the first one I read, which must have been over 25 years ago, and I absolutely loved it.  Never got on with the Wasp Factory tho, and really didn't like the one with the muso on the boat that I can't remember the name of - Canal Dreams, maybe?  I absolutely love Espedair Street, and Complicity, and Whit made me laugh far more than is reasonable for proper literature.

I once bought a friend an Iain Banks novel as a wedding present.  Not sure if that makes me a good friend or a bad one :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 03 February, 2011, 11:42:05 pm
I found the phonetically-written part of Feersum Endjinn the best part to read.  Much like Trainspotting, it took some time to get used, to but it rewarded the effort.  I really can't remember much about the rest of the book.

I'd agree about Canal Dreams - but it's a long time since I read it, and sometimes these things make more sense at the second time of asking. 

Actually, I seem to be quite disparaging about all of his books, even though there's more that I like than I dislike.  On the whole, I enjoyed Walking on Glass, but I just didn't think the three stories fit together terribly well, and one of the narrators was so hard to like. 

The Wasp Factory was the first that I read - I bought my nephew it as a Christmas gift a few years ago, which probably makes me a terrible uncle too. 

The Crow Road remains my favourite - I thought it combined his love of modern settings with such an aching sense of place, and the deep family secrets in the loch, far better than almost anything else of his I've read.  The Steep Approach to Garbadale was pretty much the same book, with slightly different settings and characters.  Still good, mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 February, 2011, 01:33:32 pm
I found the phonetically-written part of Feersum Endjinn the best part to read.  Much like Trainspotting, it took some time to get used, to but it rewarded the effort.  I really can't remember much about the rest of the book.

All that stuff about slofs never fails to crack me up (see .sig) oops, that's on another forum

The Crow Road remains my favourite - I thought it combined his love of modern settings with such an aching sense of place, and the deep family secrets in the loch, far better than almost anything else of his I've read.

And the TV adaptation was good enough for Banksie to describe it as "annoyingly better than the novel in so many ways".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 February, 2011, 02:07:02 pm
Often a problem. I remember when I read Hunger, the 1990s translator felt it necessary to comment on the two previous translations. (1) by an English woman soon after publication (1890s IIRC), whose translation he thought accurate & generally close to the right mood, but which deliberately omitted some crucial passages because of their sexual nature, & (2) by an American writer in the 1960s, which was a heap of stinking walrus crap with all the fertilising elements removed, retaining only the foul stench & unpleasant appearance, texture, & staining qualities. The translator didn't understand Norwegian well enough, & also didn't grasp the idea of translating more than just the words.

It's one of the reasons I love both Italo Calvino and Ismail Kadare - they both, in William Weaver and David Bellos respectively, have superlative English translators.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 05 February, 2011, 07:56:38 pm
I finished Birdsong today. I found it incredibly moving in places.
Not my usual type of book. But I enjoyed it anyway.
I've now resolved to learn more about WW1 and to visit some of the battlefields and memorials next time I'm in France.

BTW: Sebastian Faulks is on BBC2 at 21:00 tonight. Faulks on Fiction.


So, what shall I read next?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 February, 2011, 09:46:54 pm
I think I might start re-reading the James Bond books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 05 February, 2011, 09:53:44 pm
I finished Birdsong today. I found it incredibly moving in places.
Not my usual type of book. But I enjoyed it anyway.
I've now resolved to learn more about WW1 and to visit some of the battlefields and memorials next time I'm in France.

BTW: Sebastian Faulks is on BBC2 at 21:00 tonight. Faulks on Fiction.


So, what shall I read next?

Maybe not right away but you should try "Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain sometime, if you haven't already.  But you need to be strong - I pretty much had a breakdown when I'd finished it, though I might have been due for one anyway!  (It's about the loss and futility of the FWW and the terrible cost to her personally.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 05 February, 2011, 10:33:53 pm

All that stuff about slofs never fails to crack me up


+1

I like most of his stuff; I found The Algebraist slow going and I hated Song of Stone.  Use of Weapons was disturbing.

Excession is fantastic, but it's a boys' book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Palinurus on 05 February, 2011, 11:01:06 pm
While there's some talk of translations...

I've been re-reading a collection of Isaac Babel's short stories, various collections since I lent my first copy of 'collected stories" (translated by Walter Morrison) to someone. With luck I managed to get it back, but only after ordering two similar collections by different translators.

I first replaced it with a translation by Peter Constantine. Then David McDuff. I got rid of the Constantine so I can't demonstrate. It wasn't as good as Morrison. By that I mean it didn't read as good. Here is a paragraph from the story "Guy de Maupassant", Walter Morrison's translation.

"I left the granite house on the Moyka between eleven and twelve, before the sisters and the husband returned from the theatre. I was sober and could have walked a chalk line, but it was pleasanter to stagger, so I swayed from side to side singing in a language I had just invented. Through the tunnels of the streets bounded by lines of street lights the steamy fog billowed. Monsters roared behind the boiling walls. The roads amputated the legs of those walking on them"

Here's McDuff.

"I left the granite house on the Moyka before midnight, when the sisters and husband would return from the theatre. I was sober and could have walked a single board, but it was much better to stagger, and I swayed from side to side, singing loudly in a language I had only just invented. Down the tunnels of the streets, lined by a chain of street lamps, in waves, passed the vapours of the fog. Monsters roared behind seething walls. The wooden pavements cut off the legs of those who walked upon them.

I prefer Morrison. Especially amputated! I'm not so sure about steamy fog (but it's better than vapours), or one or two of those commas, but it beats the other two.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 06 February, 2011, 12:15:22 pm
I finished Birdsong today. I found it incredibly moving in places.
...
So, what shall I read next?
I liked Birdsong, but not Charlotte Gray nor The Girl at the Lion d'Or.  Have you tried the Pat Barker Regeneration trilogy?

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 06 February, 2011, 03:12:16 pm
Don Quixote.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 06 February, 2011, 09:00:25 pm
Pandemonium by Christopher Brookmyre.

I always find his books hard to get into.  This time I was half way through before the story takes off and then its a great, can't put it down read.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 06 February, 2011, 09:12:19 pm
I've only read one of his - Quite Ugly One Morning - but it left me with no desire to read another.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 February, 2011, 10:55:30 am
Shunt - Tom Rubython's breeze-block sized biography of James Hunt.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 07 February, 2011, 11:58:16 am
Patrick O'Brian's HMS Surprise and, although I've found it a moderately good read, I don't think this am equal to Richard Woodman's chronicles of Nathaniel Drinkwater (based around a real-life character) and, having devoured the first 2 volumes (6 books already) have now ordered, and await with drooling lips, the 3rd and 4th volumes. Yum-yum!

As the Observer er, observes… 'Action to the bone, no romantic bilgewater'.

Has plenty of sailing jargonese and old words that has me 'scrambling', as if called 'to arms', for the dictionary.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 08 February, 2011, 01:28:43 pm
Ray Mears, Essential Bushcraft.

He always reminds me of an overgrown boy scout, but the book is surprisingly informative and very well written. Even better, its one of those rare books that you can dip in and out of pretty much at random and still learn something useful  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 08 February, 2011, 04:24:43 pm
Re-reading Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith.

Clever, original sci-fi refound when I was clearing room in the bookcases.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 08 February, 2011, 08:16:30 pm
I finished Birdsong today. I found it incredibly moving in places.
Not my usual type of book. But I enjoyed it anyway.
I've now resolved to learn more about WW1 and to visit some of the battlefields and memorials next time I'm in France.

Having visited Newfoundland Park (http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/newfoundland.html) I get the impression that Faulks used it as the setting for the end of Birdsong.  Worth a visit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 08 February, 2011, 08:39:59 pm
Patrick O'Brian's HMS Surprise and, although I've found it a moderately good read, I don't think this am equal to Richard Woodman's chronicles of Nathaniel Drinkwater (based around a real-life character) and, having devoured the first 2 volumes (6 books already) have now ordered, and await with drooling lips, the 3rd and 4th volumes. Yum-yum!

As the Observer er, observes… 'Action to the bone, no romantic bilgewater'.

Has plenty of sailing jargonese and old words that has me 'scrambling', as if called 'to arms', for the dictionary.

The first Aubrey/Maturin novel "Master and Commander," and indeed the character of Jack Aubrey, is based on Cochrane, in particular his adventures in the Med.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 08 February, 2011, 08:54:12 pm
I think I might start re-reading the James Bond books.

Just started Doctor No . . . A copy I bought in August 1976

'Three weeks later, in London, March came in like a rattlesnake . . .' Brill!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 08 February, 2011, 10:27:01 pm
Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas"

It's twisted... very twisted...  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 February, 2011, 10:28:52 am
Shunt - Tom Rubython's breeze-block sized biography of James Hunt.

Oh dear.  If you want a biography of James Hunt, read the one by Gerald Donaldson.  That way you won't be plagued with diabolical standards of proof-reading1 and stupid factual errors2.  It's up there with Brock Yates' biography of Enzo Ferrari which, IIRC, turned Gerhard Berger into a German on practically the first page.

I needed something to read on the tube yesterday and as a result am about a third of the way through Malcolm Pryce's From Aberystwyth With Love.  Well up to snuff.

1 - Hunt had a toy ape which, the first time it was mentioned, was a gorilla.  In the next sentence it had morphed into a guerilla :o
2 - Niki Lauda couldn't possibly have been given a 288 GTO when he signed for Ferrari.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nightrider on 16 February, 2011, 01:44:44 pm
Fall of giants by Ken Follett.Historical fiction covering the first world war and the Russian revolution.800 pages long,a good read. :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 16 February, 2011, 07:44:49 pm
So was Hunter S Thompson

         
Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas"

It's twisted... very twisted...  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 17 February, 2011, 08:04:15 am
Dan Brown - Deception Point.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 February, 2011, 10:01:29 am
Bloody hell.  Someone admits to reading Dan Brown in a forum renowned for its erudition?

Redclaw ~ Philip Palmer.  Not-terribly-good sci-fi.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: oncemore on 17 February, 2011, 10:44:52 am
History of the World in a 100 Objects (an Xmas prezzie from the daughter).

In general I share the historian's amused disdain for archaeologists, but it really is rather well constructed and certainly demonstrates an unusually broad and wide ranging knowledge, with seemingly disparate "items" and their socio-economic origins placed in the genuinely "bigger picture".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 17 February, 2011, 10:48:39 am
Bloody hell.  Someone admits to reading Dan Brown in a forum renowned for its erudition?

Never mind that, I'm reading Denis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out.

Well, I've read all the good books on the shelves in the kitchen at work.  I've even read the appalling Agatha Christie :-\

I know that TDRO was written in the 30s, but my goodness it is racist.  Among other things, while condemning the Nazis for anti-semitism, Wheatley repeatedly refers to one of the principal characters as 'The Jew...'. ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 17 February, 2011, 02:36:50 pm
Odd is it not that even in this enlightened age the J word is still mostly accepted as ok while (quite rightly) the N or P word is not.
    Having said that I still do not understand how a religion transformed itself into a nationality (maybe I should start a thread on this one)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: vorsprung on 17 February, 2011, 02:46:22 pm
Just finished "The Carhullan Army" by Sarah Hall
Now reading Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent"

I am trying to read a few books this year
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 17 February, 2011, 11:51:04 pm
Just finished "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know" the updated autobiography of Ranulph Feinnes (Voldemort's cousin apparently.)

This includes the infamous "I sawed my own fingers off with a fretsaw" paragraph :o

Clearly a bit of a lad, but a likeable and inspirational one.  Climbing the North Face of the Eiger after cutting your own frostbitten fingers off is the work of a hard* man.



* saves carrying a second ice pick ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 18 February, 2011, 07:15:44 am
Odd is it not that even in this enlightened age the J word is still mostly accepted as ok while (quite rightly) the N or P word is not.
    Having said that I still do not understand how a religion transformed itself into a nationality (maybe I should start a thread on this one)

A new thread might be interesting, though it is likely to be littered with Palestinian/Israeli comments.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 18 February, 2011, 02:32:06 pm
Odd is it not that even in this enlightened age the J word is still mostly accepted as ok while (quite rightly) the N or P word is not.
    Having said that I still do not understand how a religion transformed itself into a nationality (maybe I should start a thread on this one)

That's the thing. And 'Jew' is not a term like either 'Nigger' or 'Paki' (which I presume is what you mean by your coy capitals). It is a term used by Jewish people (Jews) and has been as long as Jews have been using the English language. Read some Howard Jacobson and you'll soon get over your problem with the word! It's all about context...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 18 February, 2011, 06:50:49 pm
Why on earth are you being so offensive toward me and my comments, the word Jew has very often been used as an offensive term, the word Jewish not, also there is nothing "coy" about using initials for words that most civilised people find completely offensive, just ask any Pakistani their opinion on the matter.
     I have no problem with authors or for that matter people who use terms or words that I find racially or for that matter sexually offensive(ie bitch or whore used in so called normal speech to descibe someones wife/girlfriend) I just steer as clear from that sort of oafish behaviour as possible.
      I obviously must censor my comments or those of a  fascist mind set will take even more offence
 

Odd is it not that even in this enlightened age the J word is still mostly accepted as ok while (quite rightly) the N or P word is not.
    Having said that I still do not understand how a religion transformed itself into a nationality (maybe I should start a thread on this one)

That's the thing. And 'Jew' is not a term like either 'Nigger' or 'Paki' (which I presume is what you mean by your coy capitals). It is a term used by Jewish people (Jews) and has been as long as Jews have been using the English language. Read some Howard Jacobson and you'll soon get over your problem with the word! It's all about context...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 February, 2011, 09:56:43 pm
Why on earth are you being so offensive toward me and my comments

eh?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 19 February, 2011, 10:42:02 pm

         Well, I didn't think the capitals (P and N) were "coy" and I don't feel "I have a problem with the (Jew) word" I feel these comments made the  style of writing quite sneering and attacking.
          I notice by the way that Paul Daniels (show biz) has got in very deep water for use of the "P" (not meant coyly) word in the press today, all comments are quite condemming.
          I obviously touched a raw nerve somewhere or your style of writing is to abrasive, anyway, back to the books, anyone tried  "A simples Life"   the story of Alexander Orlov :)



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 20 February, 2011, 09:58:54 am
The War of Wars - Robert Harvey

A history of what was the first global war that between Britain and France 1789-1815. A hell of a long war.
I'm about half way through and it's very good. Covers the politics well not just the famous battles. It doesn't spare the famous "hero's". Nelson is described as a strange, vindictive, depressive and harsh man as well as a genius seaman for example.
Well worth it for a good overview of the whole war.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 20 February, 2011, 03:15:19 pm
Odd is it not that even in this enlightened age the J word is still mostly accepted as ok while (quite rightly) the N or P word is not.
A label for a religious or ethnic group is not inherently offensive, & is rarely seen as such, unless invented for that purpose. It can be used rudely, but that merely shows the attitudes of the person using the word, not how it is generally perceived.

Jew is no more a term of abuse than Spaniard or Hindu. As already said, it is commonly perceived as neutral by Jews, & routinely used by them to reference themselves.

The words Paki & Nigger began as insults, & were always used mostly by those who wished to insult. These words carry an emotional weight which has never been attached to 'Jew', but only to such unambiguously offensive (& meant to be) words as Yid & Kike.

I fear you are suffering from the same mistaken perceptions as those sad people who get het up at the mention of blackboards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 20 February, 2011, 04:15:37 pm
Yes, I read that article and no I do not subscribe to that sort of PC patheticness (sorry bout the made up word) I can speak from first hand experience that the word "Jew" is indeed often used in an extremely offensive and hateful way. Jew, has been used through history and in literature to denote a racially inferior race/group and mainly used by those with a smaller capacity brain, it however does not make it any better when it is spat at you by people with hate in their eyes, I do not suffer from mistaken perceptions on this.
      And for those on topic back to The Queasy Mongoose, (read A Simples Life)

Odd is it not that even in this enlightened age the J word is still mostly accepted as ok while (quite rightly) the N or P word is not.
A label for a religious or ethnic group is not inherently offensive, & is rarely seen as such, unless invented for that purpose. It can be used rudely, but that merely shows the attitudes of the person using the word, not how it is generally perceived.

Jew is no more a term of abuse than Spaniard or Hindu. As already said, it is commonly perceived as neutral by Jews, & routinely used by them to reference themselves.

The words Paki & Nigger began as insults, & were always used mostly by those who wished to insult. These words carry an emotional weight which has never been attached to 'Jew', but only to such unambiguously offensive (& meant to be) words as Yid & Kike.

I fear you are suffering from the same mistaken perceptions as those sad people who get het up at the mention of blackboards.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 20 February, 2011, 04:49:45 pm
Oh, dear.

This all springs from a misconception.

As I recall 'The devil rides out' is about Satanism.

The characters in the book, who worship the devil, refer to Jesus Christ as 'the Jew' but do not refer to other people in this way. 

This appears to be a way of expressing their contempt for this particular person.  The contempt is expressed in their refusal to say his name.   It's part of the plot of the novel, rather than an extension of any widely used form of abuse.

That's not to say people won't refer to one's ethnic or religious background when attempting to bully or intimidate, of course.   The terms 'Jew-boy' 'Paki' 'Nigger' were in everyday use when I was at school.  Children can be such a joy.

It's a horrible book anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 20 February, 2011, 05:01:48 pm
You are perfectly right. Queasy Mongoose anyone ? (my local landlord is adamant he won't change the pubs name to this, shame,

Oh, dear.

This all springs from a misconception.

As I recall 'The devil rides out' is about Satanism.

The characters in the book, who worship the devil, refer to Jesus Christ as 'the Jew' but do not refer to other people in this way. 

This appears to be a way of expressing their contempt for this particular person.  The contempt is expressed in their refusal to say his name.   It's part of the plot of the novel, rather than an extension of any widely used form of abuse.

That's not to say people won't refer to one's ethnic or religious background when attempting to bully or intimidate, of course.   The terms 'Jew-boy' 'Paki' 'Nigger' were in everyday use when I was at school.  Children can be such a joy.

It's a horrible book anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 20 February, 2011, 05:05:13 pm
I obviously touched a raw nerve somewhere or your style of writing is to abrasive

Neither. You just got completely the wrong end of the stick. I was just commenting on your post and you went off on one for reasons best known to yourself.

The point is that it really isn't the same kind of word in itself as Nigger or Paki, although in certain contexts gets used as an insult, because being Jewish both historically and still today, is enough in itself to be a locus of hate. You say you know about this. About a quarter of my family* ended up in the UK because of it. They, by the way, were Jews.

And you really should read some Howard Jacobson. All about Jews who don't like being Jews, Goyim who secretly want to be Jews... anyway, you get the idea. Very much about Jews and being Jewish, by a Jew.

*the rest of us were Scots, French, and American music-hall entertainers. We certainly learned how to laugh at ourselves...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 20 February, 2011, 05:08:38 pm
Having finished the excellent Known to Evil, I am now taking a trip back in time in terms of Black American crime fiction, and reading Chester Himes's The Big Gold Dream. I hope it is the better recent versions which have stopped replacing the word 'motherfucker' with 'mother-raper'... apparently white audiences were too sensitive to read it how he wanted it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 21 February, 2011, 04:18:07 pm
'I Shall Wear Midnight' (again)

I'm a bit of a Terry Pratchett fan...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 21 February, 2011, 06:41:44 pm
About a third of the way through Richard Dawkins' - The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence For Evolution.

Very clear and concise explanation of the evidence for evolution & rebuttals of the opinions of followers of creationism/ID. Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 21 February, 2011, 11:16:07 pm
Weaveworld - Clive Barker

It was recommended to me about 13 years ago, and rightly so, I think.  The good characters were a bit weak, but the baad characters were enjoyably gruesome, and there was enough of a sense of wonder to make the central tenet plausible. 

Also, not knowing Liverpool, I wondered how accurate the descriptions were, as they seemed quite detailed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 22 February, 2011, 10:29:50 pm
Now reading A Tranquil Star, a recently released collection of the late, great Primo Levi's short stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Simonb on 22 February, 2011, 10:40:16 pm
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov again. I've forgotten so much of it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 22 February, 2011, 11:13:02 pm
Most of the way through "The Bonfire of the Vanities".  Very interesting - I do most of my reading over lunch at work.  I've spent a fair bit of the time looking at Google Maps of New York City looking for the book's locations.  Every character in the book is obsessed with percieved race - everyone has to be "Jewish" or "Irish" or "a WASP".  None of them seems to think that they're all Americans.  Is a fair reflection of American/NYC society?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 28 February, 2011, 04:40:24 pm
...I'm reading Denis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out.

Good grief.  That was crappy.  Utterly inconsistent characters, impossible timelines, and pages 236 to 306 turn out to have been all a dream (sort of).  Hope that hasn't spoiled it for anyone.

The holes in the plot should have been collected together to make a wide open space.

Can't wait to see the film ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 February, 2011, 04:53:54 pm
Most of the way through "The Bonfire of the Vanities".

I need to read that again. I was discussing it with my wife recently and she mentioned how funny she thought it was. But I don't remember it being funny at all... However, I was about 16-17 first time I read it, so I probably didn't fully appreciate it.

Same with Evelyn Waugh - I was 14 when I first tried to read his Sword of Honour trilogy, on my dad's recommendation. He'd said it was hilarious but I found it dull. Put me off Waugh for ages. Then when I tried Scoop in my mid-20s, I thought it was the funniest book I'd ever read...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 February, 2011, 05:01:34 pm
Neither. You just got completely the wrong end of the stick. I was just commenting on your post and you went off on one for reasons best known to yourself.

While I personally agree with you that context is everything, it's a simple fact that some people find the mere mention of certain words grossly offensive. Whether they are right or wrong to be offended, it doesn't hurt to show some sensitivity towards them.

For that reason, I think we need to be careful when in conversation with such people to avoid unnecessary use of potentially offensive words such as nigger, paki, arsehole, wanker, spastic, whore, motherfucker and cunt.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 28 February, 2011, 10:14:32 pm
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov again. I've forgotten so much of it!

I'm not going to read it again.  I'm still disturbed from the last time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 28 February, 2011, 10:16:36 pm
Father Frank by Paul Burke. V good so far. Basic plot - priest doesn't believe in God, drives taxi part time and falls in love. Hilarity ensues etc.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 01 March, 2011, 01:03:45 pm
Have just looked on Amazon and shall get this, it pays to be on this thread

Father Frank by Paul Burke. V good so far. Basic plot - priest doesn't believe in God, drives taxi part time and falls in love. Hilarity ensues etc.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 March, 2011, 01:14:50 pm
Down & Out In Paris & London.

After finally getting round to Nineteen Eighty-Four last year and absolutely loving it, I've decided it's high time George Orwell featured more prominently in my reading. Such an elegant writer. I've also dipped into some of his essays recently and no matter what the subject, he's always captivating. Can't believe it's taken me this long in life to realise what a fine prose stylist he is.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 01 March, 2011, 01:21:11 pm
Metro 2033

Russian TEOTWAWKI novel, set in the Moscow Metro.

Bad translation. Slightly leaden speech. Wierdly very very russian (comparing it to Cancer Ward and A Day in the life of ivan). Hated it at first and persisted for lord knows what reason. It's growing on me and I'm starting to think it is more of a political commentary on the current state of Russia, rather than a zombie novel.

<irrelevant aside> While picking up Metro 2033, I noticed that a large percentage of the libraries sf section has been taken over by vampire fiction. The most stupendously terrific title was 'Some Girls Bite'. That's almost as good as that film called Bikini Zombie Strippers or somesuch thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 March, 2011, 01:22:16 pm
Down & Out In Paris & London.

After finally getting round to Nineteen Eighty-Four last year and absolutely loving it, I've decided it's high time George Orwell featured more prominently in my reading. Such an elegant writer. I've also dipped into some of his essays recently and no matter what the subject, he's always captivating. Can't believe it's taken me this long in life to realise what a fine prose stylist he is.

d.


You should read his guide to writing of you like his style. It's a short essay "Politics and the English Language".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 March, 2011, 01:24:40 pm
You should read his guide to writing of you like his style. It's a short essay "Politics and the English Language".

Just found it online... Oh, that is wonderful! Thanks!  :thumbsup:

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 March, 2011, 01:25:24 pm
Just finishing "Without Remorse" and then heading on to "Dead Or Alive", so either end of the Jack Ryan universe stories....

After that, who knows, might hit some Orwell...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 01 March, 2011, 02:56:08 pm
Bulgakov: just finished

The White Guard
The Fatal Eggs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 March, 2011, 03:50:26 pm
The Blitz ~ Juliet Gardiner.  Although it's not a subject about which an historian is inclined to make jokes, it's still rather dull and dry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clandy on 01 March, 2011, 06:56:50 pm
The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville.

Synopsis
 
"1952. It is more than a decade since humiliation at Dunkirk brought an end to Britain’s war and the beginning of an uneasy peace with Hitler.
In Africa, the swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Gleaming autobahns bisect the jungle, jet fighters patrol the skies. The brutal presence of the SS is visible everywhere. Now, however, the demonic plans of Walter Hochburg – architect of Nazi Africa – threaten Britain’s ailing colonies.
In England, ex-mercenary Burton Cole is offered one last contract. Burton jumps at the chance to settle an old score with Hochburg, despite the protests of the woman he loves. If Burton fails, unimaginable horrors will be unleashed in Africa. No one – black or white – will be spared. But when his mission turns to disaster, Burton is forced to flee for his life. His flight takes him from the unholy killing ground of Kongo to SS slave camps and on to war-torn Angola, finally reaching its thrilling climax in a conspiracy that leads to the dark heart of the Afrika Reich itself.

Guy Saville combines meticulous research with edge-of-the seat suspense to produce a superb novel of alternate history.
"

My impression so far? It's Fatherland crossed with a Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 01 March, 2011, 08:12:54 pm
Just finished re-reading Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson, which manages to be a historical novel, an alternative history and a science-fiction novel in one book, and utterly brilliant all round. His best since The Years of Rice and Salt. IMHO, if there was less snobbery amongst literary critics about 'genre' fiction, both these novels would have won some heavyweight prizes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 02 March, 2011, 12:45:07 am
Have just looked on Amazon and shall get this, it pays to be on this thread

Father Frank by Paul Burke. V good so far. Basic plot - priest doesn't believe in God, drives taxi part time and falls in love. Hilarity ensues etc.

I've just finished. I won't spoil the ending. I guess it's a bit of chick-lit really, but funny and has a nice feel-good factor.

If you've not already ordered it then pm me your address and I'll stick it in the post. I was given the book in Denmark last week so one good turn deserves another.

Q
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 02 March, 2011, 09:38:50 am
Just finished re-reading Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson, which manages to be a historical novel, an alternative history and a science-fiction novel in one book, and utterly brilliant all round. His best since The Years of Rice and Salt. IMHO, if there was less snobbery amongst literary critics about 'genre' fiction, both these novels would have won some heavyweight prizes.

I agree. The Mars series was good but pretty generic SF. Years of Rice and Salt was brilliant. Haven't read Galileo's Dream will have to look get it now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 March, 2011, 11:34:53 am
Beware Of The Dog ~ Brian Moore.  Loudmouth hooker-turned-pundit in well-written autobiography shock.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 02 March, 2011, 01:08:49 pm
I agree. The Mars series was good but pretty generic SF. Years of Rice and Salt was brilliant. Haven't read Galileo's Dream will have to look get it now.

I would say that the Mars Trilogy was a bit more than generic SF. It had quite a lot of rather interesting writing trying to bring to life geological processes, there was some other 'gaia / world spirit' stuff going on, and the whole thing is one of the best explorations of environmental politics (on earth) that I have read, and all the better for being fictional.

His early California trilogy of alternative futures for that state is also good (The Gold Coast, The Wild Shore and Pacific Edge). I really didn't think his recent Washington trilogy (the 40/ 50 / 60 Days... ones) were much cop though.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 02 March, 2011, 11:31:24 pm
Down & Out In Paris & London.

After finally getting round to Nineteen Eighty-Four last year and absolutely loving it, I've decided it's high time George Orwell featured more prominently in my reading. Such an elegant writer. I've also dipped into some of his essays recently and no matter what the subject, he's always captivating. Can't believe it's taken me this long in life to realise what a fine prose stylist he is.

d.


Much of what he describes about the catering trade is still true.  Shockingly so.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 02 March, 2011, 11:47:20 pm
Down & Out In Paris & London.

After finally getting round to Nineteen Eighty-Four last year and absolutely loving it, I've decided it's high time George Orwell featured more prominently in my reading. Such an elegant writer. I've also dipped into some of his essays recently and no matter what the subject, he's always captivating. Can't believe it's taken me this long in life to realise what a fine prose stylist he is.

d.


You should read his guide to writing of you like his style. It's a short essay "Politics and the English Language".
And the best bit is -

Quote
1.   Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2.   Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3.   If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4.   Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5.   Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6.   Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 March, 2011, 10:41:07 am
1.   Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2.   Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3.   If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4.   Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5.   Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6.   Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous

Much of which may be further summarised by Strunk & White's dictum, viz. "omit needless words".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 March, 2011, 10:57:12 am
My personal maxim: Verbosity hinders communication.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 March, 2011, 11:13:40 am
Eschew gratuitous philological exhibitionism.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 March, 2011, 11:25:41 am
Eschew gratuitous philological exhibitionism.

POTD  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 03 March, 2011, 11:52:31 am
At the moment "It's all about the bike" by Robert Penn.  He does seem a little blinkered on what a bike should be...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 03 March, 2011, 05:38:31 pm
Now reading Maiden Castle by John Cowper Powys. No conclusions yet, it's a big book!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 03 March, 2011, 08:17:15 pm
Enjoying a classic illogy at the mo, David Brin's Uplift books.  The first two were very good, with spare prose a bit like Crichton on a good day, but somehow for The Uplift War he swallowed a thesaurus.  Everything's sprouting frumious adjectives! 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 03 March, 2011, 10:32:35 pm
Just finished Ben Elton's Meltdown - it's a polemic about taking personal responsibility with the occasional laugh out loud moment. Average to middling Ben Elton, then - wouldn't recommend to anyone coming to him new but if you are stuck on your back chewing through books at two+ a day, it's OK.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 March, 2011, 08:50:18 am
Just finished "No Angel" by Tom Bower.  It's a biography of Bernie Ecclestone.  Apparently Bernie is a bit of a chancer.  Well I never!

One has to hope that Mr Bower's reporting of the off-track dealings are more accurate that his recounting of Matters Arising from the actual racing.  When you attribute two fictitious World Championships to Sir Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac, place the 1978 British Grand Prix at a sodden Silverstone rather than a dry Brands Hatch and, most heinous of all, make Jim Clark English, you have to wonder how thorough his research was.  I'm going to have to take back some of the rude things I said about Tom Rubython and Brock Yates.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 06 March, 2011, 01:27:05 pm
At the moment "It's all about the bike" by Robert Penn.  He does seem a little blinkered on what a bike should be...

Funny you should say that. I was given William Fotherington's Cyclopedia for Christmas and while the strap line for that is "It's all about the bike", the simple fact is that if it isn't about racing, he just isn't interested.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 07 March, 2011, 07:40:53 pm
Just got round to finishing Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Really enjoyable and one of the few books I have read recently that you felt could have gone off on completely different tangents at certain points in the book, creating completely different novels but I got the impression that most of them could have been good.

I preferred it massively to the Baroque Cycle books which I didn't get anywhere with.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 07 March, 2011, 08:45:05 pm
Ray Mears Goes Walkabout

The Man[tm] heads Down Under, and it's a cracking good read, especially his conversations with Bush Tucker Man (Les Hiddins) and his dealings with Aboriginal hunters. Stick him out in the middle of nowhere and he's like a kid in a sweetshop.

The more of his stuff I read the more I want to do one of his woodcraft courses (sadly neither time nor money permit this year).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 March, 2011, 10:41:07 am
The Exploration Of The Colorado River And Its Canyons ~ John Wesley Powell.  It's all a bit geological at the beginning but it looks as though it gets a bit more Ripping Yarns once he's finished the preamble.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 08 March, 2011, 03:34:16 pm
Just got round to finishing Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Really enjoyable and one of the few books I have read recently that you felt could have gone off on completely different tangents at certain points in the book, creating completely different novels but I got the impression that most of them could have been good.

I preferred it massively to the Baroque Cycle books which I didn't get anywhere with.

Completely agree.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 08 March, 2011, 04:46:07 pm
Just got round to finishing Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Really enjoyable and one of the few books I have read recently that you felt could have gone off on completely different tangents at certain points in the book, creating completely different novels but I got the impression that most of them could have been good.

I preferred it massively to the Baroque Cycle books which I didn't get anywhere with.

Completely agree.

I’m not slagging the Baroque Cycle in particular, just that it didn’t work for me – after Cryptonomicon it was a great disappointment to me – having said that, some other friends of mine loved it, just personal taste I guess.

What I loved about Anathem was that it made me think a lot, I really enjoyed what he was doing and he sent me off onto lots of my own imaginative tangents that made me put the book down and think for a bit rather than just plowing through it.  That's rare in my experience.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 08 March, 2011, 07:15:56 pm
I was given almost all of the Harry Hole series for my birthday.
That should keep me busy for the summer...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 08 March, 2011, 11:18:20 pm
Not fashionable I know but 'The Naked Island' by Russel Braddon gives a 'on the spot' memoir of Malaya, Singapore and the Burma Railway from a unique mind.

Incisive, laugh-out-loud funny and capable of reducing you to floods of tears all at the same time, I've just bought a copy (used) off Amazon.

Note to self: Never lend anyone a good book cos you'll never see it again . . .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 March, 2011, 10:35:01 am
Just got round to finishing Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Really enjoyable and one of the few books I have read recently that you felt could have gone off on completely different tangents at certain points in the book, creating completely different novels but I got the impression that most of them could have been good.

I preferred it massively to the Baroque Cycle books which I didn't get anywhere with.

Completely agree.

I’m not slagging the Baroque Cycle in particular, just that it didn’t work for me – after Cryptonomicon it was a great disappointment to me – having said that, some other friends of mine loved it, just personal taste I guess.

This ^^^^.  It was marginally better the second time around but I don't think I'll give it a third go until retirement, or the heat death of the universe, whichever comes first.

I was given almost all of the Harry Hole series for my birthday.
That should keep me busy for the summer...

I've got four of these in the "Pending" tray but why oh why oh why have the first two not yet been translated from the Scandiwegian ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 09 March, 2011, 06:37:55 pm
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Actually I find his column rather dull (preaching to the converted after all) but the book is much better. Recommended for anybody from the reality-based community.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 09 March, 2011, 06:53:35 pm
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Actually I find his column rather dull (preaching to the converted after all) but the book is much better. Recommended for anybody from the reality-based community.

Seconded, it's a grand read, and quite funny in places.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 10 March, 2011, 10:35:27 am
...
I was given almost all of the Harry Hole series for my birthday.
That should keep me busy for the summer...

I've got four of these in the "Pending" tray but why oh why oh why have the first two not yet been translated from the Scandiwegian ???

Agreed. I started with "The Redbreast" because it was advertised as the first in the series. I kept flipping back through the book, thinking I'd missed something. I didn't find out until later that it was just the earliest of the series that was available in English.
It wasn't even the first to be translated and published. I believe that was the 4th book... His publisher ought to be shot...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 March, 2011, 10:51:21 am
I'm reading Two Wheels In The Dust by Anne Mustoe (signed 'Happy Travelling!' by Anne herself, but not to me).  It's the story of her trip in Nepal and India with two companions, following the journeys of Sita & Rama through various holy places mentioned in the Ramayana, including the disputed temple at Ayodhya.  This was 1998, and she had previously visited in 1996, when the dispute was still fresh.  The descriptions of the two visits is very interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 10 March, 2011, 11:16:44 am
^^^
I started this book but couldn't get into it so DNF
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 10 March, 2011, 11:31:51 am
Took me a few goes to get started, but I'm up to page 68, so I guess I'm reading it now ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 11 March, 2011, 07:10:35 pm
I was given almost all of the Harry Hole series for my birthday.
That should keep me busy for the summer...
I'll get started on them as soon as I finish "Cooking for Geeks", and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" on my eReader.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 15 March, 2011, 01:32:19 pm
"The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry.

blurb on the cover compared it to The Third Policeman.

That's half justified, in that parts are quite surreal and the protagonist rides a bicycle. Doesn't have Flann O'Brien's humour.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 16 March, 2011, 08:17:48 pm
"Knowing how to stop... A technique for the prevention of wrong use of the self" by F. Matthias Alexander.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 16 March, 2011, 10:29:07 pm
Currently reading 'Cider with Roadies' by Stuart Maconie

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 March, 2011, 09:42:16 am
Currently reading 'Cider with Roadies' by Stuart Maconie

:thumbsup: Much better than Pies And Prejudice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 17 March, 2011, 10:29:33 am
Have you read Cider with Rosie and the sequel?

Filth and debauchery. I'm amazed Laurie Lee didn't have an early death from venereal disease. He wanders through countries like a mild-mannered angel with a hard-on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 17 March, 2011, 02:34:25 pm
Didn't we all ?
                                       :P
Have you read Cider with Rosie and the sequel?

Filth and debauchery. I'm amazed Laurie Lee didn't have an early death from venereal disease. He wanders through countries like a mild-mannered angel with a hard-on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 19 March, 2011, 10:24:10 am
Gordon Ferris. First, the Hanging Shed, then Truth Dare Kill, courtesy of his sensible eBook pricing on Kindle. And he's good, very good. Evidence of Chandler (and an amusing hat-tip to him in Truth Dare Kill) and other such, but he's his own man. Set in the immediate post WWII period, fallible heroes, real characters. If you enjoy the genre, chances are you'll enjoy these.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 19 March, 2011, 07:41:45 pm
I believe there should be a new Bad Science book out eventually....

Anyway, I am re-reading Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds, cos I am short of new books at the mo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Billy Weir on 20 March, 2011, 08:11:46 am
Red Tory, by Philip Blond.  Easy to read analysis from the right of centre of the failings of our political system in the past 25 years.  Finding it chimes with my world view.

Singapore Grip by JG Farrell.  I read the Troubles and Siege of Krishnapur, thought both were good and so am finishing off his loose colonial trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Biff on 20 March, 2011, 12:19:38 pm
Through Hell for Hitler: A Dramatic First-hand Account of Fighting on the Eastern Front with the Wehrmacht: Amazon.co.uk: Henry Metelmann: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-Hell-Hitler-First-hand-Wehrmacht/dp/1862272085/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300623034&sr=1-1)

Somewhere on VHS I have an interview with HM working as a groundsman at a private school. He showed genuine regret. There is a certain amount of glossing over but it is a very moving account from a point of view often ignored.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 22 March, 2011, 12:24:38 am
Funland by Richard Laymon, which was mostly a stupid book about stupid adolescents, though some of the set-pieces and descriptive passages are worth reading. 

Then, The Call of the Wild by Jack London.  A book which I think I read as a kid, but it was much better and far more mature than I remembered or expected - OK, you have to accept that the main character's a dog, and capable of far more complex emotions and reactions than any dog I ever met, but he captures the mannerisms and the loyalty of dogs, and the fervour and tumult of the Klondike gold rush.  A very fine adventure.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 22 March, 2011, 04:04:56 am
White Fang, The Sea Wolf and quite a few short stories are equally good, and likewise more mature than the popular image of Jack London would suggest. London wrote at least one of his short stories (To Build a Fire) with two endings, one that would be easier to sell to a juvenile audience, and one that was quite a bit darker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 March, 2011, 11:36:55 am
Mr. Lonely ~ Eric Morecambe.  Yes, that Eric Morecambe.  Surprisingly non-crap novel about - wait for it - a comedian.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 22 March, 2011, 06:55:21 pm
Just finished  The Hunting Apes - Meat Eating & The Origins of Human Behaviour (http://press.princeton.edu/books/stanford/) - (full text link).


Just started re-reading Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 23 March, 2011, 01:15:59 pm
MR James - Collected Ghost Stories.

Masterly ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 March, 2011, 02:20:01 pm
Freedom - Jonathan Franzen

Enjoying it so far - his prose is very readable, it's funny in all the right ways and he's a good storyteller. But mostly it's just making me want to read The Corrections again.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 26 March, 2011, 10:30:54 pm
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. It's self-indulgent, meadering, pointless and yet utterly entrancing and brilliant, a disconcerting combination of headlong youthful enthusiasm and an almost forensic deconstruction of the same. The best way I can think of describing it is something like Jack Kerouac meets Marcel Proust in Mexico.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 March, 2011, 11:55:38 am
I was given almost all of the Harry Hole series for my birthday.
That should keep me busy for the summer...

I've got four of these in the "Pending" tray but why oh why oh why have the first two not yet been translated from the Scandiwegian ???

Had a long weekend of Scandiwegian crime novels and polished off all six Harry Holes by yesterday evening, then threw in a couple of Wallanders for good measure.  Best to read them in the order they were written as impatience got the better of me and I read The Leopard prior to buying The Snowman yesterday, which was a Silly Thing.

Also Gone by Mo Hayder.  Pacy but predictable.  I sussed who the arch-baddie was after about one-third distance.  Now my pending tray is empty chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 30 March, 2011, 02:43:06 pm
Now my pending tray is empty chiz.
 
 
 
   A tragic occurrence

                                     :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 March, 2011, 04:19:18 pm
The Vicar Of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith

One of those "classics" that's been on my to-read pile for years. I picked it up this morning because it's light and short, which is just what I need for a comedown after the behemoth that is Freedom (which, frankly, I'm still reeling from). Not digging it. It's... well, a bit primitive. I suppose that's because unlike Jonathan Franzen, Goldsmith didn't have 250 years of novel-writing tradition to draw on. But then I find Henry Fielding perfectly readable...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 March, 2011, 01:05:16 pm
Now my pending tray is empty chiz.
 
 
 
   A tragic occurrence

                                     :(

Fortunately I happened across The Man Who Left Too Soon by Barry Forshaw while shopping for cheesy comestibles last night.  It has a photograph of a bespectacled and now dead Swede on the cover.

You can guess the rest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 01 April, 2011, 09:39:10 pm
French Revolutions by Tim Moore, courtesy of book swap with Quint of this parish.  Contains the line "I looked like Bernard Hinault giving birth to a cement mixer" ;D

Who wants it after me.  Am happy to post it on once I'm finished.  As long as you don't live on the moon and expect First Class.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eck on 01 April, 2011, 09:42:41 pm
  :thumbsup: Excellent read, Quisling.
My favourite line, when he entered a posh restaurant after a hard, wet day on the road, was something like, " I must have looked like the sole survivor of a pot-holing tragedy."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 01 April, 2011, 10:55:32 pm
And don't forget the anchovies incident  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Furious on 02 April, 2011, 10:48:21 am
...

Who wants it after me.  Am happy to post it on once I'm finished.  As long as you don't live on the moon and expect First Class.

Me please!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 02 April, 2011, 03:44:13 pm
One of  our Thursdays is Missing - latest Jasper Fforde.  Glad he's stopped the disappointing Toytown books for the moment.  Will report back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 02 April, 2011, 08:43:55 pm
...

Who wants it after me.  Am happy to post it on once I'm finished.  As long as you don't live on the moon and expect First Class.

Me please!


PM me your address Wheezer and I'll post it on when I've finished.
Rgds
Q
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 02 April, 2011, 08:49:03 pm
"The Rough Guide To Alaska" ... initial reading for next year's planned jaunt to forn parts (work, money and fitness permitting)

Some useful info, but the storyline sucks :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 02 April, 2011, 09:05:37 pm
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sieg Larrson. Riveting stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 02 April, 2011, 10:33:19 pm
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sieg Larrson. Riveting stuff.

I highly recommend the whole trilogy, they were the first books I bought for my Amazon Kindle and I really enjoyed them!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 02 April, 2011, 10:52:39 pm
"Shoes and Pattens: finds from Medieval excavations in London" by Francis Grew and Margrethe de Neergaard

Geeking in an arty way these days - "getting really right-brained" as Douglas Coupland once put it.
My goodness, when I get the geek, I really get it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 02 April, 2011, 10:56:12 pm
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sieg Larrson. Riveting stuff.

I highly recommend the whole trilogy, they were the first books I bought for my Amazon Kindle and I really enjoyed them!

Me too !
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 03 April, 2011, 09:50:25 am
… You've Gone Too Far This time, Sir! by Danny Bent.

'Have you ever woken up in the sultry heat of the morning, your hair and beard teeming with maggots, and then had potatoes picked out of your ears? Have you ever felt the cold barrel of a semi automatic gun against your forehead?When Danny Bent cycled 15,000 kilometres from the UK to India to raise money for ActionAid, it was a decision that took twenty years and one minute. For twenty years he had wanted to do something to raise money for charity. The one minute was when as their teacher he was put on the spot by his pupils and declared that the means was by bike, and he was going to India'

I couldn't put this down once I'd started. It is a very good, non-stop read, written with passion and humour, detailing Danny's bicycle trek to India. His always optimistic view, even when suffering the trials of explosive food poisoning, is extremely infectious.
Bought it on Kindle first, but have now also ordered the book from the ActionAid website (to do my 'bit').
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 05 April, 2011, 01:45:50 am
One of  our Thursdays is Missing - latest Jasper Fforde.  Glad he's stopped the disappointing Toytown books for the moment.  Will report back.

Good enough.  Not quite a full return to form, but there are reasons why this is acceptable; a series is allowed this kind of book.  I can't explain more without spoiling not only some early suspense but a recurrent theme in the book.  Still much better than the Toytown books and has some cracking Harry Potter jokes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 April, 2011, 11:01:28 am
Just finished Maiden Castle (read several other things during the same time). Hmm. No sure what to think about it. I have an enormous feeling of pointlessness. It had some really great writing in it, but a lot of the time it just bimbled about. It seemed to be a book in need of an editor.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Majorbloodnok on 05 April, 2011, 01:20:08 pm
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sieg Larrson. Riveting stuff.

I highly recommend the whole trilogy, they were the first books I bought for my Amazon Kindle and I really enjoyed them!

They're not a trilogy, isn't the 5th due to be published at it was written before the 4th, which never was.....or something like that....

3rd film is out soon too, I think next week

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 05 April, 2011, 03:16:49 pm
Mystery on the island The Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme.

As Peter and Jane walked through the village they saw a policeman they knew. He came over to ask them if they had seen a boy he wanted to find.

"His name is Ron Dare," he said. "He is fourteen years old and he has red hair. You may know him as he used to stay near this village for his holidays."

Peter and Jane said they had not seen the ginger ponce. Peter asked the policeman why he wanted to find him.

"He owes me five large ones," said the policeman.

Peter and Jane exchanged perplexed looks. "We will certainly let you know if we do Officer," said Peter. As Peter and Jane continued through the village, Janet remarked that she thought the policeman's breath smelt heavily of drink, and… continued overleaf
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 April, 2011, 12:50:11 pm
They're not a trilogy, isn't the 5th due to be published at it was written before the 4th, which never was.....or something like that....

Apparently he intended to write ten, but only three were ever delivered to the publisher.  He was well into #4 when he died but the consensus is that there isn't enough of it to publish and one or two authors who had been discreetly approached to finish it declined to take on the job.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 08 April, 2011, 07:30:54 am
And in the flux of interest in Scandinavian authors steps Anne Holt. Just finished 1222 (as it was £1 on my Kindle) and was pleasantly surprised. The centre person of the drama is a crippled lesbian ex police inspector, and a not entirely likeable character. Actually, that's not true, it would be more accurate to say one of the least cuddly heroes you could imagine. A good plot well executed, though,  and one that left me wanting to see more of Norway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 08 April, 2011, 10:30:10 am
Euclid's Window : The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace

Not bad. Some annoying Americanisms in the text. Mainly "fit" instead of "fitted" that grated a bit but in general an engaging and witty romp through geometry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 April, 2011, 11:03:47 pm
Room - Emma Donoghue

Amazing. I'm totally spellbound. Quite horrific, of course, but that's kind of why it works...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 09 April, 2011, 08:02:59 pm
Now reading Barbed Wire - A Political History, which is a (rather horrifying) little gem of a book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 10 April, 2011, 01:17:20 pm
The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 11 April, 2011, 05:55:01 pm
Years ago I read 'No Logo' by Naomi Klein.  It was very interesting but I thought Vance Packard (The Waste Makers and The hidden Persuaders) was an earlier and better writer on the subject (1961).  I see they are about to republish the former!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: border-rider on 11 April, 2011, 06:01:36 pm
The Girl with the Peal Necklace or whatever it's called.  Mrs MV got it on the Kindle so since it was there I thought I'd give it a go

Not what I expected.  Dull, for prolonged periods, with the odd interesting bit.  Maybe it's better in Swedish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 12 April, 2011, 02:45:09 am
Just finished 'Cat's Cradle. A novel' by Kurt Vonnegut.
A really weird book but enjoyable all the same. I've never read anything quite like this before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 April, 2011, 02:07:13 pm
Bartimaeus: The Amulet Of Samarkand ~ Jonathan Stroud.  Kids' stuff really but quite droll.  I especially liked the reference to the unlikelihood of trainee wizards being packed off to boarding skool.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 13 April, 2011, 06:23:05 am
The Hinge of Fate, the fourth volume of Churchill's history of WWII. I keep saying that I'm going to get away from this topic, but I keep getting the next volume.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 April, 2011, 08:28:02 am
Just finished The Redeemer and am now on The Snowman, only The Leopard left.

That reminds me I must re-format my Anne McCaffery books for my e-reader as it can't resize the text in their current format (and my poor old eyes can't read the text as it is!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 15 April, 2011, 11:07:41 am
I'm reading Two Wheels In The Dust by Anne Mustoe (signed 'Happy Travelling!' by Anne herself, but not to me).  It's the story of her trip in Nepal and India with two companions, following the journeys of Sita & Rama through various holy places mentioned in the Ramayana, including the disputed temple at Ayodhya.  This was 1998, and she had previously visited in 1996, when the dispute was still fresh.  The descriptions of the two visits is very interesting.

I was a bit disappointed by this, I'm afraid.

It's meant to be structured round a narrative - the Ramayana - but in fact, it isn't a single journey, but a few, which does the journey out of order.  It just makes it all a bit disjointed and, despite the research she has obviously done, seems cobbled together after the fact.

The descriptions of the travel are interspersed with retelling of the Ramayana story, which is a good structure, but she isn't a great storyteller, and she's inconsistent with what belongs in the 'story' bits, so the distinction doesn't really stand.

What grated most though was her attitude.  I think she was a public school headmistress, and it kinda shows.  She's rather a snob, and doesn't seem to like people much.

Now Josie Dew can sometimes be a bit judgemental, but she does it with wit and it adds to the narrative rather than takes away.  And she knows she's doing it.

Mustoe, on the other hand, despite spending time with the people en route, makes sweeping (and inconsistent) generalisations about whole groups of people.  It verges on racism at points, and that was uncomfortable to read.

She obviously loved India.  But what was the India she aspired to?  It's the Raj - a vision of taking tea with local aristocracy in opulent palaces surrouned by beautiful gardens, waited on by servants in crisp white uniforms.  Now, I know that the Ramayana is a story wrapped about with the fulfilment of the duties of a ruler, in many ways, but this goes beyond an exploration of that.  While she writes of her horror of the caste system, she is very happy to benefit from it.

There is much of interest in the book, and I learned a lot about the temples and visual imagery, as well as the complex web of Hindu deities, but I couldn't warm to the narrator.

Oh - and the final straw was ascribing the human development of Kerala to the benevolence of some long-gone ruler, instead of the government (inconveniently both Communist and massively popular) which was elected to improve conditions for ordinary people.

Disclaimer:  I have never travelled to India (I have never had the funds nor the good health to do so).  And I am a grumpy antisocial bugger, so no good at talking to local people wherever I am, so I'm not sure I'd be a good travel writer, except in a Bruce Chatwin-y vein.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 17 April, 2011, 02:21:48 pm
Calling all Bernie Gunther fans! Have just finished Philip Kerr's latest offering, Field Grey.

I wasn't overly impressed with the last one as I just wasn't interested in his Cuban adventures. This book however is mainly set back in Germany again, which is what I was really craving.

Over 500 pages finished in 9 hours - it was bloody brilliant  :thumbsup: I think Bernie is my favourite fictional detective of all time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 17 April, 2011, 09:26:58 pm
I think Bernie is my favourite fictional detective of all time.

Not read any of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novel then?  ;)

But seriously, start with Devil in a Blue Dress and enjoy...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 April, 2011, 02:20:33 pm
American Gods ~ Neil Gaiman.  I read it a few years ago but I think that was the earlier version.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Billy Weir on 18 April, 2011, 04:54:45 pm
Just finished a translation of "Let the Right One In".   A good read, with an original setting for a vampire story, being as it is set in a Swedish sink estate.  Tthe Swedish film is excellent as well for those who can't be doing with a 500 page novel.

Now on to Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso as translated by Mark Musa.  Read before, but not for a good many years...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Psychler on 21 April, 2011, 11:26:46 am
Just started my Easter clear out and was up in the attic where I re-discovered a lot of books from my childhood.  so now I'm reading "Billy Bunter at Butlins" to be followed by a lot of "Biggles"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 22 April, 2011, 09:03:07 am
"The Men Who Stare at Goats" by Jon Ronson.  A curios find in a charity shop.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats)  

Quote
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004) is a book by Jon Ronson based on research by John Sergeant about the U.S. Army's exploration of New Age concepts and the potential military applications of the paranormal. The title refers to attempts to kill goats by staring at them. Research was carried out in part by Jon Ronson, but also by documentary filmmaker John Sergeant.
  ???

Also reading "Setting up a Tropical Aquarium week by week" by Stuart Graves.  Interesting reading, looking forward to getting my tropical tank delivered next week!  
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Valiant on 23 April, 2011, 01:52:40 am
Class of '88.

Tis an ebook about the early rave scene and very good!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Theoldguy on 24 April, 2011, 10:04:16 pm
Calling all Bernie Gunther fans! Have just finished Philip Kerr's latest offering, Field Grey.

I wasn't overly impressed with the last one as I just wasn't interested in his Cuban adventures. This book however is mainly set back in Germany again, which is what I was really craving.

Over 500 pages finished in 9 hours - it was bloody brilliant  :thumbsup: I think Bernie is my favourite fictional detective of all time.

I've bought but haven't started Field Grey yet!  I agree that Bernie is a great character and would recommend him to anyone.  Have you read Kate Atkinson's series featuring Jackson Brodie?  The first is "Case Histories", set in Cambridge and featuring three separate cases.  Also well worth reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 24 April, 2011, 10:27:54 pm
Calling all Bernie Gunther fans! Have just finished Philip Kerr's latest offering, Field Grey.

I wasn't overly impressed with the last one as I just wasn't interested in his Cuban adventures. This book however is mainly set back in Germany again, which is what I was really craving.

Over 500 pages finished in 9 hours - it was bloody brilliant  :thumbsup: I think Bernie is my favourite fictional detective of all time.

I've bought but haven't started Field Grey yet!  I agree that Bernie is a great character and would recommend him to anyone.  Have you read Kate Atkinson's series featuring Jackson Brodie?  The first is "Case Histories", set in Cambridge and featuring three separate cases.  Also well worth reading.

You are a person after my own heart! I adore Kate Atkinson's books. Case Histories was very good - Brodie is such a mix of a character. What is even better is Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

I am wondering how much more we can get of dear Herr Gunther  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Theoldguy on 24 April, 2011, 10:33:29 pm
Yeah, I've read "Behind the Scenes...".  It was because I live in York.  Apart from the local connections it was a well woven story and the end was very "satisfying".  Apparently the BBC are serialising Case Histories but I don't know when.  I keep seeing Bill Nighy playing Jackson Brodie!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 April, 2011, 12:01:43 pm
Decide to revisit Iain M Banks before Easter.  Just started Use Of Weapons.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 26 April, 2011, 12:54:33 pm
Er, Redwall. The badgers and moles are excellent. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 27 April, 2011, 10:08:37 pm
John Buchan - Mr Standfast.  Richard Hannay  :thumbsup:  Scary politics/racial stereotypes etc. etc.  It's nearly 100 years old though, and good fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 27 April, 2011, 10:12:25 pm
John Buchan - Mr Standfast.  Richard Hannay  :thumbsup:  Scary politics/racial stereotypes etc. etc.  It's nearly 100 years old though, and good fun.

Yes, Buchan (like Kipling) grates a bit now for most people in terms of stereotypes but both are great storytellers and Kipling is a great writer.  Have you read "Kim"?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 28 April, 2011, 02:15:23 pm
I'm reading a collection of interviews with anarchist and anarchist-influenced writers. It is really making me reconsider some things about my own writing practice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 28 April, 2011, 06:49:29 pm
Re reading another of the old greats, Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, very good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nightfly on 30 April, 2011, 04:05:06 am
The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart. His account of life as a POW during WW2 building the Death Railway in Thailand and then imprisoned on Singapore under the sadistic, torturing, murdering Japanese and Koreans.

Read it cover to cover without a break. A grim but compelling story. The conduct of British Government and MOD was far from supportive of troops in the Far East. Ends with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, then the author recounts his journey to get home to Scotland and his treatment once home. A must read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 May, 2011, 06:27:27 am
Finished The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, and The Descendent by Iain M Banks, now on Feersum Endjinn by same.

This last one is pretty good, but some of the sections are very hard to read as they are written in phonetics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2011, 12:46:43 pm
The Descendent by Iain M Banks

What this?  Even Mr Banks' webby SCIENCE seems not to have heard of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 04 May, 2011, 12:50:31 pm
"The Murder of the Romanovs" by Andrew Cook. For the second time. I've just finished "The Boneshaker" by Cherie Priest, which I didn't like as much as I wanted to.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 04 May, 2011, 12:53:25 pm
The Descendent by Iain M Banks

What this?  Even Mr Banks' webby SCIENCE seems not to have heard of it.

It's one of his short stories, found in "The State of the Art" collection.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2011, 01:03:57 pm
The Descendent by Iain M Banks

What this?  Even Mr Banks' webby SCIENCE seems not to have heard of it.

It's one of his short stories, found in "The State of the Art" collection.

Ah!  All becomes clear, like a glass hummingbird.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jane on 07 May, 2011, 02:05:45 pm
The Making of Our Bodies Ourselves. Well, I have just opened the first page. the original book was a kind of life manual for me and many of my female friends when we were young so I'm looking forward to reading this. I'm also reading a work of fiction called Witness the Night, a crime novel set in India with a female protagonist. It yields a dark and unpleasant vision of some  women's lives in contemporary Indian society. I'm hoping that The Making of Our Bodies Ourselves will be the light at the end of the tunnel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 07 May, 2011, 04:17:47 pm
Crikey - I remember reading Our Bodies Ourselves.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 08 May, 2011, 10:50:11 am
Just finished 'Fatherland' by Robert Harris - really enjoyed it. As an alternative future I could not really see how Germany and her conquered territories could really rub along with the UK and US  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 08 May, 2011, 02:49:54 pm
Finished The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, and The Descendent by Iain M Banks, now on Feersum Endjinn by same.

This last one is pretty good, but some of the sections are very hard to read as they are written in phonetics.

It goes from difficult to almost impossible to read, one of the main characters has become a hawk and is talking to a sparrow that has a lisp!!!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 08 May, 2011, 05:48:22 pm
It's the only IMB that I couldn't finish.  I just couldn't read it - couldn't get to the end of it.  Unlike the 2 on my bedside table, that I can't seem to get to the start of although . 

However, in shocking news, last night I actually read about a third of the most recent Kitty Norville book to appear in our household.  It's the first time that I've just read a few of chapters of one of those - normally you can swallow them up in one bite.  But that's the first time I've read a bit of a book in months - I have a vague recollection of reading a bit of something at Christmas, but couldn't guarantee it.  And I normally read or re-read anything up to half a dozen books in a normal week.  Maybe my head is stairting to work again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 May, 2011, 07:48:50 pm
Finished The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, and The Descendent by Iain M Banks, now on Feersum Endjinn by same.

This last one is pretty good, but some of the sections are very hard to read as they are written in phonetics.

It goes from difficult to almost impossible to read, one of the main characters has become a hawk and is talking to a sparrow that has a lisp!!!!

If you could understand Kirst when her keyboard was faulty you'd have no problem with Bascule .... :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 08 May, 2011, 09:27:24 pm
I had trouble with Feerdum Endjinn the first time.  Got it back out of the library a couple of months later and just read it.  Strange how the second time the phonetics wern't the problem that they had been the first time.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 May, 2011, 01:02:09 pm
Just been given a copy of Mark Beaumont's The Man Who Cycled The Americas.  :thumbsup:

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 10 May, 2011, 10:00:04 pm
I just finished The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel on my Kindle.

This was the final book of 6 in the 'earth's children' series. I had read the previous 5 books over 15 years ago and so it was a blast from the past picking up the story now. I was a bit disappointed with at least the first half of the book. It was all very predictable and samey. The story line didn't really grip me until well into the second half. It seemed that the book was mostly the author tying up loose ends rather than introducing anything really new to the story line. I had expected the book to end with the resolution of some kind of epic battle between the people of 'the clan' and 'the others' but this never happened. I am glad I read this book for closure, but in it's own right I don't think it is as good as her previous works. I still have paperback copies of the first 5 books and I will probably recommend them to my daughter to read soon since she is nearly 14.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 10 May, 2011, 10:09:52 pm
Just read Surface Detail. I kept feeling I'd read it before, though I hadn't. I fear Mr Banks wrote a book by cobbling together bits (some of them repainted, or at least touched up) from previous ones. Disappointing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: dasmoth on 10 May, 2011, 10:17:01 pm
Tiassa, by Steven Brust.  A quirky book, but good to have another dose of Vlad.  Pretty sure this one isn't the right place to start the series though (but do try them, as a series they're excellent).

And prior to that, Among Others by Jo Walton.  I don't think it's giving much away to say that it's more like a romp through the library than a novel -- but none the worse for that!  If you spent your childhood camping in the sci-fi section, this one is for you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jon P on 11 May, 2011, 10:25:29 am
Over the last 6 months or so I've read Middlemarch (twice), Pickwick Papers, Our Mutual Friend, Desperate Remedies (Hardy's first) and currently re-reading The Mayor of Casterbridge (which seems too simplified, I preferred the style of the former, which was not well-received).  Also King Lear, The Tempest, re-read Twelfth Night and currently Hamlet, and Peter Carey's new book "Olivier and Parrot in America".

I've also been re-introduced to a theory I've known about for some time but not got into:- that William Shakespeare of Stratford was not author of the plays and poems, in fact there is nothing whatever to link him to any of them, and very little link to him to the theatre either though he certainly made a fair bit of cash somehow.  A more likely contender is Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford who had the necessary classical learning, experience of the court, had travelled extensively in Italy, and was known as a first-class writer in his lifetime.  For more info try The De Vere Society - welcome (http://www.deveresociety.co.uk/index.html) or SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS - THE MONUMENT CHANGES THE PARADIGM - SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS: THE MONUMENT (http://www.shakespearesmonument.com/) are two of many sites.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 May, 2011, 10:36:36 am
After listening to a podcast interview with Gary Shteyngart, I've ordered a copy of Super Sad True Love Story. Looking forward to that.

I'm also tempted to pick up a copy of Sam Leith's The Coincidence Engine. Sounds right up my street.

Both are on the Wodehouse prize shortlist. Anyone read and care to comment on either?

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 11 May, 2011, 10:50:40 am
I made a minor start on a Harry Dresden last night.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 11 May, 2011, 11:55:38 am
Over the last 6 months or so I've read Middlemarch (twice), Pickwick Papers, Our Mutual Friend, Desperate Remedies (Hardy's first) and currently re-reading The Mayor of Casterbridge (which seems too simplified, I preferred the style of the former, which was not well-received).  Also King Lear, The Tempest, re-read Twelfth Night and currently Hamlet, and Peter Carey's new book "Olivier and Parrot in America".

I've also been re-introduced to a theory I've known about for some time but not got into:- that William Shakespeare of Stratford was not author of the plays and poems, in fact there is nothing whatever to link him to any of them, and very little link to him to the theatre either though he certainly made a fair bit of cash somehow.  A more likely contender is Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford who had the necessary classical learning, experience of the court, had travelled extensively in Italy, and was known as a first-class writer in his lifetime.  For more info try The De Vere Society - welcome (http://www.deveresociety.co.uk/index.html) or SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS - THE MONUMENT CHANGES THE PARADIGM - SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS: THE MONUMENT (http://www.shakespearesmonument.com/) are two of many sites.
That's the argumentum ex silentio - a logical fallacy. There's plenty of evidence to link the plays to someone called William Shakespear, & a total lack of any other candidate of that name.

All arguments against Shakespear except those of education & background apply much more strongly to every other candidate. The original, & still chief argument put forward by Anti-Stratfordians is snobbery. They assume that only an aristocrat was capable of such writing.

The anti-Stratfordians conveniently ignore the mountain of evidence. They're cranks, superficially plausible as long as you read only their arguments, & don't compare them with any others. For example, this, from the de Vere Society -

Quote
there is simply not a shred of evidence produced in his lifetime that he was either an author and surprisingly little evidence that he was even an actor. The only documents that link him with the theatre are two which record him being a shareholder in the Globe Theatre, and three which link him as an associate of known actors of the King’s Men and the Chamberlain’s Men.

There are no letters written by him, even though he lived apart from his wife and children for many years. There are no letters written by his contemporaries which describe any literary activities on his part.
It is, quite simply, garbage. The claim that "there is simply not a shred of evidence produced in his lifetime that he was either [sic] an author" is totally, utterly, false. There are numerous references, for example in the Palladis Tamia of 1598, where he's described as an author of unpublished sonnets, as well as named as the author of 12 of the plays. He was named during his lifetime as author of other Shakespear plays. And much, much, more.

Quote
There is nothing in the surviving papers of his literary contemporaries which refer to Shakspere as a fellow writer;
An outright lie - also from the de Vere society.

The de Vereists also wilfully misrepresent the eulogies in the First Folio, e.g. claiming that Ben Jonson's "The figure that thou here see'st put, It was for gentle Shakespeare cut" refers to a substituting of the picture of Shakespeare for that of a different, nobly-born person. Shakespeare was 'gentle', in the meaning of the time, i.e. a member of the gentry, & had been since his father was granted arms in 1596. The idea that because Jonson, who in his memoirs described Shakespeare as a good friend, would be subtly referring to an aristocrat, rather than his friend the officially, legally, 'gentle' Mr. William Shakespeare is ludicrous. The rest of the re-interpretation is similarly specious.

Etc.

The argument for de Vere is basically that he was the sort of person who snobs expect to have written great literature, & Shakespear (whose glover father's elevation to the gentry was protested against by some) wasn't. There's no evidence whatsoever that de Vere wrote any of the plays or sonnets.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 11 May, 2011, 12:22:00 pm
Have just started The Bolter, by Frances Osborne. Looks promising. It's about her grandmother, Idina Sackville, who was a woman long before her time.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 11 May, 2011, 04:26:56 pm
Re-read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, a rather good fictionally presented but pretty faithful account of the Battle of Gettysburg. I might watch the (lengthy) film tonight).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jon P on 12 May, 2011, 09:42:27 am
Quote
There's plenty of evidence to link the plays to someone called William Shakespear, & a total lack of any other candidate of that name.

I'd be interested to see it, if you have any links?  The argument as I have heard it is that WS couldn't possibly have written the plays as he lacked the necessary education and experience - so who did? - and de Vere is the most likely candidate, though others such as Marlowe have been cited.  DV may even have paid WS as a stooge - there's something in his widow's will about a payment to "my dumb man".

Don't have any more time for this till next week now, but could start a new thread on it then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 12 May, 2011, 09:29:54 pm
Just finished the first in the trilogy of "Berlin Noir" by Philip Kerr. Set in 1930's Berlin, the main character is a private detective and it's written in the style of Philip Marlow ("she had the kind of smile that would make the Pope go weak at the knees"). Well written and a good storyline, a bit gruesome at the end but looking forward to reading the second and third now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 14 May, 2011, 09:41:47 pm
Quote
There's plenty of evidence to link the plays to someone called William Shakespear, & a total lack of any other candidate of that name.

I'd be interested to see it, if you have any links?  The argument as I have heard it is that WS couldn't possibly have written the plays as he lacked the necessary education and experience - so who did? -
Indeed - and that, as far as I can see, is the entire argument. But note that it is equally applicable to Ben Jonson (began his career as a bricklayer, like his father), among others. The other supposed arguments are all specious. The lack of letters, diaries, etc., for example, applies equally to many writers of his time, e.g. Christopher Marlowe (the son of a shoemaker). Nobody back then saw any reason to preserve then.

There's the rub: the case against Shakespeare relies on applying a different standard to him than to his contemporaries. If one compares the case for de Vere, with that for Shakespeare, it quickly becomes clear that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that de Vere had eny had at all in any of the plays or poems attributed to Shakespear. He's just the sort of person who anti-Stratfordians think ought to have written them.

Wikipedia has several links, & Google turns up plenty more. Many books written on the subject, of which The Case for Shakespeare, by Scott McCrea, is recent & seems to be highly regarded. I've read older studies, but years ago, & can't remember titles. I do remember that their arguments against Will S were no better than those on the de Vere Society website, once one compared them with the pro-Shakespear evidence. The pro-de Vere 'evidence' tends to be of the 'that bit of plain language is actually an encrypted message proving that de Vere wrote  the lot', type.

The arguments that Shakespear (probably grammar school boy: it would have been normal for a prosperous tradesman such as his father to send his son the local grammar school, a short walk away) incorporated influences from & references to Greek plays which he wouldn't have read are silly. He'd probably have been able to read Latin translations, & there were plenty of English works which made reference to Greek plays, in sufficient detail for a bright bloke immersed in the theatre to have picked 'em up damn quick. One comment I've read elsewhere:
Quote
When people actively and militantly disbelieve that a creative and intelligent person could continue to educate themself post formal schooling, they say much about themselves and nothing at all about the subject of their disbelief.

They also overlook that his classical knowledge was actually rather weak, as was some of his geography (mocked in his lifetime, note), & he made frequent references to grammar school.

Ben Jonson wrote that he knew Shakespeare personally, & that Shakespeare wrote plays. Jonson endorsed the First Folio, & I can't see why anyone would believe that Jonson, who should have known, would pretend that the plays were by someone other than the true author. De Vere had been dead for almost 20 years: what secret was there to keep?

The Oxfordian view requires that during Shakespeare's lifetime & soon after, and after de Vere's death,  large numbers of people who know Shakespeare & had worked with him would collude to attribute works to Shakespeare that they almost certainly knew he hadn't written. It assumes that other playwrights who collaborated with Shakespeare after Oxford's death were in on the pretence, & never let it slip.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 14 May, 2011, 09:43:56 pm
Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey

I looked at the first page & recognised the author as a kindred spirit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 15 May, 2011, 01:32:17 am
Just whipped through The Army of the Republic by Stuart Archer Cohen, which is a kind of 'what if the Tea Party win?' US anarchistish thriller. It's competent enough, but to be honest, apart from a couple of sex scenes, it's no more politically sophisticated or grown up in its writing than Cory Doctorow's young adult 'manual for revolution', Little Brother.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 15 May, 2011, 03:59:19 am
The fear of flying _ erica jong

Its supposed to about psychaitrists and supposed to be and erotic novel written by a woman.

At the moment seems to be written for men which is not what I thought it would be.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 May, 2011, 12:24:12 pm
Just finished the first in the trilogy of "Berlin Noir" by Philip Kerr. Set in 1930's Berlin, the main character is a private detective and it's written in the style of Philip Marlow ("she had the kind of smile that would make the Pope go weak at the knees"). Well written and a good storyline, a bit gruesome at the end but looking forward to reading the second and third now.

Yay - its good to see another Bernie Gunter reader on here! Yes it was gruesome towards the end but they are very exciting to read.

I've started working back in public libraries again so its like being a kid in a candy store again  :)

I finished 'Lavinia' by Ursula le Guin a few days ago. It is her homage to Vergil's The Aeneids and I thought she put flesh on the bones of it.

I've just finished reading 'One Day' by David Nicholls. One of the best written books I have ever ever read. I had to flee to the bathroom to read the latter part of the book as I was crying so much (and the husband would have looked at me like I was deranged  ;D). Cannot stop thinking about the characters - for me thats the sign of a brilliant book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jane on 15 May, 2011, 12:58:27 pm
Thanks HW. I now know which book I will read next. I loved the Aeneid when I was young. My dad was a bit of an intellectual in many ways, despite leaving school aged 14 and working as a projectionist. He had shelves full of secondhand paperbacks, many of which I still have including Graves translations of the Greek myths, Ovid, Virgil, Homer.I loved all that stuff. I'm interested to see what Le Guin makes of Lavinia. Especially as Virgil didn't really develop her character at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 15 May, 2011, 06:13:29 pm
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I'm enjoying it. I seem to be quite into books originating from the former Soviet Union, what with my penchant for Andrey Kurkov too. Probably cos' they're a bit mad ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 May, 2011, 11:20:57 am
The Hypnotist ~ "Lars Kepler".  Better-than-average Swedish crimething, though whether the constant switches between past and present tenses are a quirk of the translation or an Original Feature I know not.  Either way it's annoying and pseudy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 May, 2011, 03:53:09 pm
After listening to a podcast interview with Gary Shteyngart, I've ordered a copy of Super Sad True Love Story. Looking forward to that.

Now reading and enjoying very much. Like a funnysexysmart Nineteen Eighty-Four. He draws a very convincing near-future dystopia - the äppärät device that features heavily is too close to the iPhone for comfort.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 18 May, 2011, 09:21:28 pm
After listening to a podcast interview with Gary Shteyngart, I've ordered a copy of Super Sad True Love Story. Looking forward to that.

Now reading and enjoying very much. Like a funnysexysmart Nineteen Eighty-Four. He draws a very convincing near-future dystopia - the äppärät device that features heavily is too close to the iPhone for comfort.

It was one of my books of the year. I had a personal campaign to get it nominated for all kinds of SF awards, but spectacularly unsuccessfully.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 18 May, 2011, 09:26:04 pm
"Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven", their tour manager Richard Cole's account of debauchery.  Anyone remember when Chris N was known as redsnapper?  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 19 May, 2011, 08:39:27 pm
Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey - by Mike Parker.

I looked at the first page & recognised the author as a kindred spirit.
Correction: thought I recognised the author as a kindred spirit. A curate's egg of a book. I wouldn't buy it, recommend it, or read it again, but there are bits in it which make me not regret having read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 22 May, 2011, 10:33:35 am
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by AJ Jacobs (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Living-Biblically-Literally-Possible/dp/0099509792/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306056786&sr=1-1)

It's interesting, funny and thought-provoking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 22 May, 2011, 02:20:49 pm
I've just bought Wide-Eyed and Legless - Inside the Tour de France by Jeff Connor.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 28 May, 2011, 02:18:53 pm
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Set in 1940's Berlin, an elderly couple start leaving cards around the city denouncing Hitler. The characters are so well drawn and despite the awfulness of the situation there are moments of humour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 29 May, 2011, 04:49:18 pm
Just finished "Alex's adventured in numberland". An interesting romp through some maths history and theory with some brain and language development stuff thrown in for good measure.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 May, 2011, 04:51:16 pm
Finishing Stephen Lawhead's The Endless Knot (having read the first two of the trilogy in super quick time)then going to move onto Bad Blood.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 30 May, 2011, 11:48:19 am
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Set in 1940's Berlin, an elderly couple start leaving cards around the city denouncing Hitler. The characters are so well drawn and despite the awfulness of the situation there are moments of humour.

I finished this yesterday. What a fabulous book. For its bleak content it is an uplifting piece of literature - ultimately welcoming death as a friend and benefactor against a cruel world.

Am now reading A Hidden Affair by Pam Jenoff. Not brilliant tbh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 May, 2011, 12:14:52 pm
I'm trying to remember where I heard about Alone In Berlin recently - probably on the Guardian books podcast. But I do remember thinking it sounded interesting. I'll add it to the list...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 30 May, 2011, 12:29:05 pm
I'm trying to remember where I heard about Alone In Berlin recently - probably on the Guardian books podcast. But I do remember thinking it sounded interesting. I'll add it to the list...

d.

You probably have - they have just rediscovered a missing chapter from the original transcript. Apparently it adds a significant change to the book. They are planning on a new edition with the extra chapter as an appendix.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 30 May, 2011, 09:35:08 pm
I'm trying to remember where I heard about Alone In Berlin recently - probably on the Guardian books podcast. But I do remember thinking it sounded interesting. I'll add it to the list...

d.

You probably have - they have just rediscovered a missing chapter from the original transcript. Apparently it adds a significant change to the book. They are planning on a new edition with the extra chapter as an appendix.

I heard the radio4 version on "Classic Serial" last year and thought it moving in a way that would normally only happen with a true story.  I think I'll read the book too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 30 May, 2011, 10:22:00 pm
The Far Corner by Harry Pearson.  A warm and wonderfully funny account of a season in North East football. Coincidentally, the first season I started going to football regularly, so a nostalgia-fest for me as well as a fine read.

Courtesy of longers (I'll send you them back once I've finished).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 May, 2011, 11:17:30 pm
I heard the radio4 version on "Classic Serial" last year

That's what it was! What I heard, I mean. I remember it clearly now.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 02 June, 2011, 09:10:30 am
Slaying the Badger (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slaying-Badger-LeMond-Hinault-Greatest/dp/0224082906/ref=sr_1_1?) by Richard Moore.
(Don't buy this if you want a critique of the Welsh Assembly's main weapon in their war on bovine TB. I feel such a fool.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 02 June, 2011, 10:07:21 pm
Just started "Silence of the Grave" by Arnaldur Indridason.  The next book after "Jar City" (Icelandic detective fiction).  I'm only a couple of chapters in, but the translation seems a bit dodgy, though it has a brilliant (in a way) first sentence:
"He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing it."
I like a book with a good map in it.  "The Name of the Rose" being the best in this respect IMO.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 03 June, 2011, 02:08:37 am
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut.

It's a bit weird but good all the same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 03 June, 2011, 01:27:33 pm
I’m waiting to read ‘Where the bodies are buried’ by Christopher Brookmyre – Ms Weasel purchased this newly published book yesterday and I’ll get to read it after her (I tried the quite frankly pathetic “But I read quicker so maybe I should read it first?” approach but quite rightly she wasn’t having any of it).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 05 June, 2011, 09:24:03 pm
I’m waiting to read ‘Where the bodies are buried’ by Christopher Brookmyre – Ms Weasel purchased this newly published book yesterday and I’ll get to read it after her (I tried the quite frankly pathetic “But I read quicker so maybe I should read it first?” approach but quite rightly she wasn’t having any of it).

I'm waiting my turn of this one from the library.  I understand that it's a non-comic crime novel, so it's under the name of Chis Brookmyre, like Iain Banks / Iain M Banks?  I met him once, and asked him a question about Spammy (from Country of the Blind & Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks), sad eh?  My two brothers-in-law know him to say "hello" to from going to watch St. Mirren of a Saturday.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 05 June, 2011, 09:57:37 pm
Bought the Laurent Fignon one today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 08 June, 2011, 11:50:03 am
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut.

It's a bit weird but good all the same.

Ahh that was part of my Booker Prize Reading Challenge last year. I thought it was really good.

I finished reading a book called Lying by Wendy Perriam, who attended our Reading Group to discuss it with us at the library last night. It's about a woman who wants to marry a man so much that she converts to Catholicism in order to be with him. It's loosely based on her parents life.

It was very interesting to see her reaction as to how we responded to her characters. We did not like them very much, whereas she felt that they had some saving graces to them. One member was astonishingly honest with the author, saying that she thought the dialogue was unrealistic. I don't believe that it was: I think we all have our opinions of what reality is. Anyway, I enjoyed it and the author was so personable and friendly, no standoffishness there at all  :thumbsup:

Next month's reading group book is 'Spies' by Michael Frayn. One of the girls who has just joined us works for a drinks company so she will be bringing free bottles of wine  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 08 June, 2011, 11:59:16 am
Flood by Steven Baxter.  I like disaster movies/books and am enjoying this one.  'Specially as it has sciency bits.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 08 June, 2011, 12:04:33 pm
Another Stephen Lawhead for me, this time Hood, a retelling of the story of Robin hood (Robin is a Welsh prince, the French are arrogant, money grabbing gits (on the whole) and life is generally hard)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 June, 2011, 12:07:26 pm
Whatever by Michel Houellebecq.

Never read any of his stuff before and only picked this up because I was given a freebie copy. I read the first chapter as a taster and liked it. I've also read a few reviews online and it seems to be a book that polarises opinion. Excellent!

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 10 June, 2011, 10:34:52 am
I’m waiting to read ‘Where the bodies are buried’ by Christopher Brookmyre – Ms Weasel purchased this newly published book yesterday and I’ll get to read it after her (I tried the quite frankly pathetic “But I read quicker so maybe I should read it first?” approach but quite rightly she wasn’t having any of it).

I'm waiting my turn of this one from the library.  I understand that it's a non-comic crime novel, so it's under the name of Chis Brookmyre, like Iain Banks / Iain M Banks?  I met him once, and asked him a question about Spammy (from Country of the Blind & Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks), sad eh?  My two brothers-in-law know him to say "hello" to from going to watch St. Mirren of a Saturday.

Really enjoyed the latest Brookmyre; for me I think it is a brilliant return to form (in that I personally enjoyed some of the more recent books less than some of his others YMMV).  I think the last one I previously really liked was ‘A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil’, the ones that followed were just a bit too ranty for my personal taste.

I’m now starting on to James Kelman’s ‘You have to be careful in the Land of the Free’.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 10 June, 2011, 02:02:33 pm
I’m now starting on to James Kelman’s ‘You have to be careful in the Land of the Free’.

Love, love, LOVE James Kelman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 10 June, 2011, 09:46:09 pm
Aye, James Kelman is one of my favourite writers. 

I'm currently reading the Maltese Falcon.  I thought I'd read it already, but I don't think I have.  Mind you, much of the plot and dialogue for the film was lifted directly from the book, so it is very familiar. I'm mainly noting the differences, but I'm enjoying the terse style as well.  Hammett was damn good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 10 June, 2011, 09:49:59 pm
much of the plot and dialogue for the film was lifted directly from the book

This is getting regrettably rare, especially since the legal requirement that all screenplays are written by Andrew Davies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 10 June, 2011, 09:53:54 pm
Mark Beaumonts   Man who cycled the Americas.  A good read so far
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 10 June, 2011, 09:55:14 pm
much of the plot and dialogue for the film was lifted directly from the book

This is getting regrettably rare, especially since the legal requirement that all screenplays are written by Andrew Davies.

I'm not sure it's such a good thing - see Lord of the Rings, much of the horribly stilted dialogue remains.  It's only a blessing they didn't leave in the damn poetry.

With the Maltese Falcon, I think it gives the movie a rather formal air, and though it works well in that case, I can think of another Humphrey Bogart movie of the same era which needed to be made into a screenplay - Key Largo.  it was adapted from a play, and it shows.  Obviously, having Humphrey Bogart, Edward G Robinson, Lauren Bacall etc in it means it has star quality, but it really needs to break away from the constraints of its source material.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 10 June, 2011, 10:02:18 pm
much of the plot and dialogue for the film was lifted directly from the book

This is getting regrettably rare, especially since the legal requirement that all screenplays are written by Andrew Davies.

I'm not sure it's such a good thing - see Lord of the Rings, much of the horribly stilted dialogue remains.  It's only a blessing they didn't leave in the damn poetry.

With the Maltese Falcon, I think it gives the movie a rather formal air, and though it works well in that case, I can think of another Humphrey Bogart movie of the same era which needed to be made into a screenplay - Key Largo.  it was adapted from a play, and it shows.  Obviously, having Humphrey Bogart, Edward G Robinson, Lauren Bacall etc in it means it has star quality, but it really needs to break away from the constraints of its source material.

Good points.  My beef about Davies, who is otherwise excellent, (especially in his original stuff like "A Very Peculiar Practice",) is that he tampers unnecessarily with accepted classics, as if he doesn't trust the public to stay with the production.

Also, (OT) all Bogart films must be in black and white!

(Now go to bed and rest for tomorrow.  Good Luck!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 10 June, 2011, 10:04:39 pm
Such as the gratuitous Colin Firth dripping wet coming out of the lake in Pride and Prejudice. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rapples on 18 June, 2011, 07:48:20 pm
Just finished re-reading Marathon Man.  I must have read it back in the late 70's before I saw the film.

Highly recommended, but if you've not seen the film read the book first!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 18 June, 2011, 08:08:11 pm
Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 18 June, 2011, 09:01:53 pm
Just finished Wireless by Charles Stross. Being a short story / novella collection, it was a bit of a mixed bag - I don't think he's always as funny as he thinks he is, but there was enough that was really good to make it worthwhile.

Am now starting Point Omega by Don De Lillo, despite the fact that I thought Falling Man was a pretentious failure.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 18 June, 2011, 09:05:51 pm
Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass.

A fascinating book, giving an insight into the unspoken part of American history.  I'm by no means convinced that it is all true, because there are certain inconsistencies, but there is no doubt that it is largely based on his experiences.

And he has some unusual political viewpoints.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ian H on 18 June, 2011, 09:12:56 pm
Just starting on Patrick Leigh Fermor's Between the Woods and the Water.

Quote
I knew that Magyar belonged to the Ugro-Finnic group, part of the great Ural-Altaic family, "Just", one of my new friends told me,"as English belongs to the Indo-European." He followed this up by saying that the language closest to Hungarian was Finnish.
"How close?"
"Oh, very!"
"What, like Italian and Spanish?"
"Well no, not as close as that..."
"How close then?"
Finally, after a thoughtful pause, he said, "About like English and Persian."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 19 June, 2011, 08:00:22 am
The Great Game.

It is a fascinating history of the goings on in Central Asia where Britain and Russia struggled for influence and mastery in the days of the East India Company and the British Empire.  The pivotal role this part of the world played in Britain's ability to retain the empire was something I had never realised and the author writes about in a way that the extraordinary story deserves.

The importance of Afghanistan, then and now, is becoming increasingly apparent as I read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 19 June, 2011, 02:03:02 pm
Do say what you think of it, reckon he was one hell of a bloke/character

Just starting on Patrick Leigh Fermor's Between the Woods and the Water.

Quote
I knew that Magyar belonged to the Ugro-Finnic group, part of the great Ural-Altaic family, "Just", one of my new friends told me,"as English belongs to the Indo-European." He followed this up by saying that the language closest to Hungarian was Finnish.
"How close?"
"Oh, very!"
"What, like Italian and Spanish?"
"Well no, not as close as that..."
"How close then?"
Finally, after a thoughtful pause, he said, "About like English and Persian."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 June, 2011, 12:38:21 pm
The Passage ~ Justin Cronin.  A cross between The Stand and Lord Of The Rings, with added pseudo-vampires.  Loads o' killin's; first part of a trilogy.  Not bad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 20 June, 2011, 12:49:17 pm
I shall soon be reading 'Moods of Future Joys' by Alastair Humphries, and 'Amber, furs and cockleshells' by Anne Mustoe.  To get me in the mood for next week.

I have ordered them from the library, online, for free.  Council tax FTW  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 20 June, 2011, 02:53:30 pm
Just starting on Patrick Leigh Fermor's Between the Woods and the Water.

Quote
I knew that Magyar belonged to the Ugro-Finnic group, part of the great Ural-Altaic family, "Just", one of my new friends told me,"as English belongs to the Indo-European." He followed this up by saying that the language closest to Hungarian was Finnish.
"How close?"
"Oh, very!"
"What, like Italian and Spanish?"
"Well no, not as close as that..."
"How close then?"
Finally, after a thoughtful pause, he said, "About like English and Persian."

Yippeee  :thumbsup: I loved his descriptions of Germania's beer halls too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 20 June, 2011, 06:12:03 pm
Well, Point Omega was basically just a stretched out short story, not even a proper novella. It was also rather obvious and dull. Don De Lillo, like Paul Auster, appears to be either overrated, or trading on past glories.

Now reading The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru, which so far seems like a well-written old-fashioned kind of novel - Indian colonial period setting, outsider (anti-)hero thrown in a series of encounters through circumstance etc. Enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 21 June, 2011, 09:44:23 am
Iain M. Banks' "The Algabraist"

only a few pages into the 500+ pages, but it it looks like a good read so far. Not bad for a £2.50 charity shop purchase!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andrij on 01 July, 2011, 10:46:00 pm
From tomorrow, Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk).  Sadly, in translation.  I learned enough Czech to get by during a week's holiday in Prague, but it's nowhere near good enough for literature.  Read an English translation a few years ago, now starting on a Ukrainian translation I recently picked up.
 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 01 July, 2011, 10:47:20 pm
Does the second edition of "Programming in Scala" count?
Didn't think so ;D (functional programming makes my head hurt)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 01 July, 2011, 11:03:47 pm
Laurent Fignon's book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 02 July, 2011, 07:44:31 am
just finished the man who cycled the americas.  very enjoyable read. mark Beaumont has quite an easily read writing style and the contrast between the cycyling stages and the mountain climbing keeps it interesting: worth a read.

Just starting Ox Tales   a series of short travel pieces put together fr Oxfam.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 02 July, 2011, 08:11:10 am
Does the second edition of "Programming in Scala" count?
Didn't think so ;D (functional programming makes my head hurt)

It is one of those things that is very hard until it clicks. Paul Hudak's book takes a very different approach from most, so sometimes helps where the traditional maths approach doesn't.

I'm reading Halting State at the moment, but very slowly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 02 July, 2011, 08:55:25 am
Drat, I fell into A Song of Ice and Fire.  Book two now.  I normally hate these dynastic schemey doorstoppers, which says a lot about how good this is. 

Mind you, "ser" drives me mad.  Our k-niggits are different?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 02 July, 2011, 09:22:49 am
Finished "The Skin Map" by Stephen Lawhead, and the next in the series is not out until September, so dallied with the idea of reading "Matter" by Iain M Banks, thought better of it so tried to start reading a couple of Ayn Rand's books, again seemed a bit too heavy for where my head is at ATM.  So I settled on reading "We Were Young and Carefree" by Laurent Fignon.  Quite good, if the events are disjointed, and he seems bitter that he is known as "Mr 8 seconds", or the guy that lost the TdF by 8 seconds, rather than someone who has won it twice!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jaded on 02 July, 2011, 10:20:45 am
Before I go to sleep.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 05 July, 2011, 03:54:31 pm
Have just finished Spies by Michael Frayn in time for our Reading Group at the library tonight. Quite similar to 'Kill a Mockingbird' in that its told through the eyes of a child and their take on the events that occur. I thought it was a brilliant book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 05 July, 2011, 03:59:23 pm
Nearly finished "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" (again) by Rober Tressell. :thumbsup:

Amazon have just delivered "Blood, Iron and Gold" by Christian Wolmar*, so I guess that's next 8)


*Yep.  I'm a Trainiac ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 05 July, 2011, 04:03:27 pm
I'm reading *big breath*

'Yet, freedom, yet, they banner torn but flying
Streams like a thundercloud against the wind'

It's a facsimile reprint of a thirties pamphlet about the story of the International Brigades, which the Clarion were selling at York.  It's a gripping story, which I keep wishing had a different ending from the one I know it reaches :(

Incidentally, some names pop up among the Brigade who I had no idea were there.  People like Tom Wintringham, expert in alternative warfare.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 05 July, 2011, 06:45:30 pm
Just finished Lavinia, by Ursula Le Guin, a really interesting novel inspired by what was left out of Vergil's Aeneid. Absolutely superb, her best work for a while.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 July, 2011, 11:16:56 am
A Boot Full Of Right Arms.  Evan Green's account of the 1974 World Cup Rally.  London to Munich doesn't sound that exciting - I once did it in 22 hours including the ferry and towing a gert big trailer.  However, I didn't go via Kano.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rapples on 07 July, 2011, 10:43:19 pm
Just started Little Miss Rapples on Animl Farm.  At 11.y.o  I thought The Ragged Trousered Philanthpists was a bit deep
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 07 July, 2011, 10:45:18 pm
I can't believe you are giving her a book by a Trotskyist! :o

Will no one think of the children?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 17 July, 2011, 02:06:23 pm
Just finished 'Moods of Future Joys' which was head and shoulders above the other cycle touring books I've read lately.

Anne Mustoe.  It's a bit like being on holiday with an autodidact head teacher  :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 17 July, 2011, 09:47:09 pm
During a break from "Nicholas Nickelby", just finished "Where the Bodies are Buried" by Chris Brookmyre and started "Voices" by Arnauldur Indridisson", the third "Inspector Erlundur" novel.  Interesting reading the Brookmyre, most of which is set in places I know (in and around Glasgow) and then to a novel set in Iceland, where I'd love to go (alone, Mrs Zep "couldn't be dragged there" apparently).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 July, 2011, 10:22:15 am
The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still ~ Malcolm Pryce.  The new Louie Knight mystery and so far just as silly as the previous five :thumbsup:

Edit: And someone gets hit with a shovel :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 22 July, 2011, 07:09:45 am
Just finished The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - v enjoyable indeed. I liked her other two books The Forgotten Garden and The House at Riverton too.  But this was the best yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 23 July, 2011, 12:42:37 pm
'Salvage' by Robert Edric, a new novelist for me  - highly readable, very bleak
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 July, 2011, 01:14:42 pm
Finally started "Europe's Tragedy - A History of the Thirty Years War"  Peter H Wilson which I have been saving up for a while now.. Fascinating. Got a love a book with that tittle when your 200 pages in and the war hasn't started yet. It's a brick of a book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 July, 2011, 02:49:28 pm
Just finished The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - v enjoyable indeed. I liked her other two books The Forgotten Garden and The House at Riverton too.  But this was the best yet.

Ooh thats good to know, thanks  :thumbsup: Just loved the The House at Riverton.

I was reading 'The Winter Ghosts' which I am getting a little bored by.

Have now started on 'Noughts & Crosses' by Malorie Blackman. Already engrossed by it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 25 July, 2011, 10:39:47 am
Finished reading 'Game of Thrones' by George R R Martin last week and immediately bought the next four books in the series. I am pounding my way through the second book 'A Clash of Kings' at the moment.

I haven't read a fantasy book that has captured my imagination like this since Harry Potter. However, this conclusively overshadows the HP series by weaving a far more complex and absorbing web. Baddies are just as clever as the goodies and don't always lose. The characters have flaws that hold them back or even lead to their deaths. Plans and actions are subject to lady luck on top of their execution.

Over time (as the books are close to 1000 pages) I have found that sometimes I have actually been willing a character to get away with something, or to fail, which is something that I haven't done for along time reading a book.

It is about £28 to buy all five books on Amazon and I would highly recommend it. If you like a fantasy novel, start by trying Game of Thrones and watch yourself get hooked!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 July, 2011, 01:11:13 pm
Stranger Than Fiction - Michael Crick's biography of Jeffrey Archer.

Edit: Sadly it's a 1996 edition so doesn't include him going to gaol.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 July, 2011, 12:30:19 pm
Heliopolis - James Scudamore. Haven't read much of it yet but it's made a promising start. I like his writing style.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 27 July, 2011, 05:18:23 pm
Finished Malorie Blackmans' Noughts and Crosses - totally brilliant  :thumbsup:

Am now reading 'Love Bites' by Christopher Hirst. Its about the culinary differences between men and women in the kitchen and a gastronomic journey into experimenting with different recipes with his wife.

It is a delightful book and I literally read 60 pages in my lunch-hour. Some definite laugh-out loud moments.

Here is an excerpt.

Quote
Women in the Kitchen (According to Mr Hirst)
Women are very difficult to get out of kitchen shops.
Women are obsessed with cleanliness to the extent that it imperils our natural resistance to bugs and germs.

Men in the Kitchen (According to Mrs Hirst)
Men want a huge amount of praise for anything they do.
Men are reluctant to follow recipes in the same way that they refuse to ask for directions when they are lost.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 27 July, 2011, 05:43:25 pm
Georgiana:Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 27 July, 2011, 09:40:12 pm
Re-reading "Cochrane" by Donald Thomas. If you are interested in history this is a top book. The man had several lives in one. He is the basis for Patrick O'Brien's series about Jack Aubrey, but has many more facets to him.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 27 July, 2011, 09:41:27 pm
Feersum Enjinn.  Again.   8)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 27 July, 2011, 09:47:33 pm
re-reading "The Rider" to kill time until my hols when I'll be reading "PopCo" and "Our Tragic Universe" by Scarlett Thomas.

(I recently re-read "The End of Mr. Y" by Thomas, a book that I've really enjoyed on both readings, and only then thought to look up if there was anything else of hers around to read).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: longers on 28 July, 2011, 10:39:04 am
(I recently re-read "The End of Mr. Y" by Thomas, a book that I've really enjoyed on both readings, and only then thought to look up if there was anything else of hers around to read).

I picked up a copy of this at the weekend in Fopp for £2. It doesn't seem such a bargain when weighed against the CD purchases.

Not doing much reading at the moment though, have a growing pile of books awaiting opening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 28 July, 2011, 11:26:22 am
Just finished David Millar's book Racing Through the Dark.
It was a very interesting read.
Next up is Ned Boulting's How I Won the Yellow Jumper.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 28 July, 2011, 11:42:36 am
(I recently re-read "The End of Mr. Y" by Thomas, a book that I've really enjoyed on both readings, and only then thought to look up if there was anything else of hers around to read).

I picked up a copy of this at the weekend in Fopp for £2. It doesn't seem such a bargain when weighed against the CD purchases.

Not doing much reading at the moment though, have a growing pile of books awaiting opening.

It doesn't seem like such a bargain when Deano's offering a copy free on here  :P

I've just been given a copy of her previous book, Popco.  It may have to wait a bit, as once I've finished The Name of The Rose (Umberto Eco) and The Bible Jesus Read (Philip Yancey), I fancy starting Virtue Reborn (Tom Wright).  For continental reading I'll probably take Our Kind Of Traitor (John Le Carre) so I may just get onto the Scarlett Thomas come September.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alexb on 28 July, 2011, 11:48:09 am
I'm staggering my way through Neil Stephenson's "Baroque cycle" on the third and last book now and loving all the attention to period detail that oozes out of these books.
I'm going to read Cryptonomicron by him (again) next, because, again, that was a fascinating read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 August, 2011, 01:35:45 pm
Agent 6 ~ Tom Rob Smith.  Third, and I imagine last, in the series featuring Leo Demidov.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 02 August, 2011, 10:04:33 pm
How I won the Yellow Jumper -Ned Boulting
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 03 August, 2011, 10:23:18 pm
'Kingdom of Ashes' by Robert Edric
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 August, 2011, 11:42:38 am
Flipping Out ~ Marshall Karp.  If you like your crime fiction to be grim and, moreover, bleak then the Lomax & Biggs series is probably not for you...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 04 August, 2011, 02:45:05 pm
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald. Tautly written, subtle and very moving.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 04 August, 2011, 06:09:49 pm
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald. Tautly written, subtle and very moving.

Sebald-ian, in fact  - though in slightly more digestible chunks than Vertigo and Austerlitz, one or both of which are IIRC single paragraphs (beautifully written & translated).   

After more than half-a-lifetime of avoiding sci-fi, I've succumbed to the temptation of Iain "M" Banks - Use of Weapons is next up ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 04 August, 2011, 06:35:51 pm
A Race for Madmen: The Extraordinary History of the Tour de France .  about half way through, very readable so far.

and at £3.99 on kindle a bargain!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 August, 2011, 06:55:10 pm
Have just finished 'Started Early, Took My Dog'. Kate Atkinson is a bloody brilliant writer  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 07 August, 2011, 10:52:50 am
'Sailing Alone Around the World', Joshua Slocum. A delight.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 07 August, 2011, 12:19:46 pm
The first 2 Stieg Larsson Millennium books, in English this time. What is hailed as good translation is in fact rather clumsy and maybe downright wrong in parts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 07 August, 2011, 12:48:06 pm
Interesting.  I wonder how many "good translations" are in fact "readable versions in language X based on the original" ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 August, 2011, 11:17:22 am
The first 2 Stieg Larsson Millennium books, in English this time. What is hailed as good translation is in fact rather clumsy and maybe downright wrong in parts.

Curiously, I'm currently reading The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg, which was translated by the same bloke.  And it reads way better than any of the Millennium translations.  I think he must have been in a hurry when he did Larsson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 09 August, 2011, 09:23:41 am
Have just finished 'Started Early, Took My Dog'. Kate Atkinson is a bloody brilliant writer  :thumbsup:

Seconded  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 09 August, 2011, 01:56:50 pm
Now reading an odd collection of stuff called Interfictions, which claims to be 'interstitial fiction', i.e. stories that fall between genres. Mostly, it's new urban fantasy and/or Angela Carter-style modern fairy tales, with a few magic realist and surrealist stories, in other words not as new as it claims  - but some of the contributions are worthwhile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 August, 2011, 02:00:24 pm
Just finished "Two Wheels Over Catalonia", fastest I have read a book in a long time, as I only received it on Saturday night! The reason for reading it so quick is that it combines two of my favourite things, cycling and Catalonia.

So back to "The Cardinal and the Kremlin" and started "Bike Snob"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 15 August, 2011, 08:32:34 am
Just started World War Z by Max Brooks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 August, 2011, 10:46:04 am
Finished "Bike Snob" and on to "The Man Who Cycled The Americas" and have nearly finished "The Cardinal and The Kremlin"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rig of Jarkness on 15 August, 2011, 07:23:48 pm
Just started World War Z by Max Brooks.

Currently being filmed in Glasgow.  Apparently it looks just like Philadelphia if you change the street signs and bring in a few dozen yellow taxis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14533210
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: E.C. Ryder on 15 August, 2011, 07:32:36 pm
Just started `one man and his bike` by Mike Carter, about his 5,000 mile cycle ride round the coast of Britain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Captain Zep on 15 August, 2011, 09:34:38 pm
Just started World War Z by Max Brooks.

Currently being filmed in Glasgow.  Apparently it looks just like Philadelphia if you change the street signs and bring in a few dozen yellow taxis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14533210

Never mind Glasgow, they're filming a scene in Grangemouth in a couple of weeks.   :o Must be a "after the world has collapsed" scene.

Excellent book btw - very original and well done - I loved it.  Zombie Survival Guide is good too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 15 August, 2011, 09:49:15 pm
'The Housekeeper and the Professor' by Yoko Ogawa
'A Week in December' by Sebastian Faulks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 16 August, 2011, 11:37:10 am
Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk a must I believe, I have asked many people (including students at a Jewish study centre) how it was that the Jewish people having suffered so much over the centuries inc the holocaust can treat the Palestinians so despicably, no one could supply an answer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 August, 2011, 02:16:08 pm
It's been said that the Israelis learned their manners from the Nazis...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 16 August, 2011, 02:23:30 pm
Well, they had a good (if you can call it that) propaganda machine/censor that distorted and denied so maybe your right, although I feel squeamish about using the word Jewish and Nazi in the same sentence.
      There again what used to be called terrorists are now called freedom fighters and that all started before WW2 in Palestine (now Israel) against the British so maybe not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 16 August, 2011, 03:21:54 pm
Mindfulness for Dummies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 16 August, 2011, 04:49:01 pm
The death of Marco Pantani - Matt Rendell
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 August, 2011, 06:57:24 pm
I don't want to spoil it for you, but he dies in the end.

Well, actually, the beginning.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 August, 2011, 09:41:19 am
Good As Dead ~ Mark Billingham.  You know how I said I would buy this and then not start reading it until I got to Thiefrow on September 3rd?

I failed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 August, 2011, 09:49:26 am
Started Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy but realised I have had enough of TC's work for now, so swapped to trying (for the 4th time) to read Imajica by Clive Barker.

Hopefully this time I will get further than the other times....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 18 August, 2011, 03:55:53 pm
I don't want to spoil it for you, but he dies in the end.

Well, actually, the beginning.

But he does get born again in the first chapter - I'll carry on reading to see if he dies a second time round
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 19 August, 2011, 12:37:37 am
Seeing as I am now one of the directors of a small Canadian crime-writing festival, I have been reading some recent Canadian crime writing: C.B. Forrest's Slow Recoil, which is a good attempt to work the legacy of the Balkan conflicts into a contemporary Toronto-based murder mystery; and, Howard Shrier's hardboiled and really rather excellent new series, starting with Buffalo Jump. On the cover, it gets praise from the creator of Law and Order, and I can see it being made into a quality mini-series. Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: scott on 19 August, 2011, 01:17:00 am
Playa Works: The Myth of the Empty (http://cluistore.org/plwomyofemfo.html), by William Fox
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 August, 2011, 11:10:53 am
Before The Poison ~ Peter Robinson.  His first non-Banks novel in 20 years; two parts murder mystery to one part ghost story.  Iz good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 19 August, 2011, 04:22:15 pm
2010 Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke. Enjoying it immensely having just finished the first one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 19 August, 2011, 04:25:28 pm
Half way through A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin

 :'( I don't want to finish the book, because then Game of Thrones will be over :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frere on 19 August, 2011, 04:38:49 pm
Just started Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, seems very promising, very nostalgic, somewhat reminiscent of Neal Stevenson's Snow Crash, but is its own book, enjoying it tremendously. Anyone else spent too much time in coin arcades in their youth? Robotron 2084 anyone?

Frere
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 25 August, 2011, 10:38:18 am
Just started Laurent Fignon's autobiography. He's pretty ruthless about Greg Lemond... very good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 August, 2011, 11:23:05 am
Just started Laurent Fignon's autobiography. He's pretty ruthless about Greg Lemond... very good read.

Is that "We were young and reckless"? If so I found it a good read, and yes he doesn't pull his punches :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 25 August, 2011, 11:02:48 pm
Crusty left my old Walt Whitman anthology lying around.  I've enjoyed dipping in there again, in between  my Arthur C Clarke gorging  :smug:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 August, 2011, 06:02:02 am
Now 200 pages into Imajica, so further than I have ever got with it before.  Have to say it is pretty good, dunno why I didn't manage it before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 29 August, 2011, 12:45:33 pm
Bonnie Prince Charlie : Charles Edward Stuart by Frank McLynn.
Found this in a marvellous second hand bookshop in Truro(next to the map shop from where i obtained the map showing the secretalldownhillroadtoLandsEnd)
A crackiing good read. Fascinating biography combined with history that goes much deeper than "O" level curriculum :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 29 August, 2011, 12:58:25 pm
The Good Life: Up The Yukon Without A Paddle by Dorian Amos.

Yet another book about Canada, eh, and Alaska - this time from a couple who decided to up sticks and move from Cornwall to the Yukon. A surprisingly engaging read, despite more typos than I can shake a stick at - doesn't gloss over the fact that living in the middle of nowhere, even by Canadian standards, is bloody hard work and, oftentimes, downright dangerous. There's an interesting account of a close encounter with a hungry black bear - personally, I'd have been too busy either a) running away, b) bricking it or c) both to have noticed such detail!

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 30 August, 2011, 06:21:33 pm
Almost finished The Algebraist, which just about concludes my re-read of all the Iain M Banks books: just got Matter left of the ones I own.

I haven't got the most recent yet - might take a visit to the library for that one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 August, 2011, 10:12:27 am
Against A Dark Background ~ Iain M Banks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frere on 31 August, 2011, 08:41:43 pm
Just started Rule 34 by Charles Stross, looking forward to receiving the latest Neal Stephenson, Reamde on 22 Sept

Frere
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 03 September, 2011, 11:50:10 am
Time's Eye by AC Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Two of my favourites collaborating. It's book one of three but they only have volumes 2 and 3 in the library so I had to buy it. Go figure.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 03 September, 2011, 04:16:50 pm
The Good Life: Up The Yukon Without A Paddle by Dorian Amos.

Yet another book about Canada, eh, and Alaska - this time from a couple who decided to up sticks and move from Cornwall to the Yukon. A surprisingly engaging read, despite more typos than I can shake a stick at - doesn't gloss over the fact that living in the middle of nowhere, even by Canadian standards, is bloody hard work and, oftentimes, downright dangerous. There's an interesting account of a close encounter with a hungry black bear - personally, I'd have been too busy either a) running away, b) bricking it or c) both to have noticed such detail!

I second this as a good read.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 04 September, 2011, 08:49:27 pm
The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone. It's a ripping yarn; a biographical novel about Michelangelo. What I really like is that Stone trained s an artist, so he understood the  processes behind the work. All too often novelists have only the faintest idea of how things happen outside literature.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 05 September, 2011, 10:16:23 pm
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

A slow start but etting interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MackieHornet on 05 September, 2011, 10:20:42 pm
Just finished The Bridges Of Madison County - makes me wonder whether I've ever truly been in love.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 06 September, 2011, 02:18:31 pm
I've decided to do the Booker Prize (shortlisted of course) reading challenge again (deadline October 18th), see nominees at the bottom of the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8744013/Man-Booker-Prize-favourite-Alan-Hollinghurst-doesnt-make-shortlist.html

I'll let you know how I get on. I think these books look a lot friendlier than last year's offerings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 07 September, 2011, 12:11:31 pm
In fairly quick succession:
Empire of the Skies by Somebody Double-Barrelled, the story of post war British aviation or 'How to Destroy an Entire Industry by Complacency' or 'The British Disease' or 'An Exercise in Futility'. Some wonderful stories about some truly great individuals but ultimately a tale of utter financial stupidity and folly, all at our expense. I hope to god no one ever writes the similar story of the UK motor industry . . . Made me angry, very angry.

From the Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine. A simple autobiography. Many of these can diminish your impression of the subject but I enjoyed the stories, even the name-dropping, because of the up-front chutzpah of the man. As down to earth as it gets from a multi millionaire superstar ego actor. Liked it.

The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson. Having seen and enjoyed the film I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the book. It is however both humorous and poignant at the same time. It manages to convey the bizarre - the  walking through walls, the remote viewing - alongside the 'dark side' - Abu Ghraib, psy-ops, torture and the outrageous MK-Ultra project, whilst all the time presenting these events in a non-sensationalist and very matter of fact style. Liked it lots.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 08 September, 2011, 11:53:45 pm
I've decided to do the Booker Prize (shortlisted of course) reading challenge again (deadline October 18th), see nominees at the bottom of the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8744013/Man-Booker-Prize-favourite-Alan-Hollinghurst-doesnt-make-shortlist.html

I'll let you know how I get on. I think these books look a lot friendlier than last year's offerings.

Thanks for that, I enjoyed doing this last year, I might well do the same again on my Kindle  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 10 September, 2011, 08:56:50 pm
'Rule 34' by Charles Stross. Yes, THAT Rule 34.

"...and Moxie showed hime the Goatsedance video followed by a brisk webtour of the shocksites of Lothian and Borders, culminating in the infamous penile degloving accident fansite which apparently left him with PTSD and permanent scarring on the insides of his eyelids"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 10 September, 2011, 09:11:33 pm
The "Alaska Highway Adventure Guide" by Ed Readicker-Henderson (which my dyslexic tendencies view as 'Ed Headkicker-Henderson'), on my newly acquired Kindle.

Preparatory reading for next year's 'other' epic ride and quite an entertaining read in its own right.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 September, 2011, 01:21:25 am
Empire of the Skies by Somebody Double-Barrelled, the story of post war British aviation or 'How to Destroy an Entire Industry by Complacency' or 'The British Disease' or 'An Exercise in Futility'. Some wonderful stories about some truly great individuals but ultimately a tale of utter financial stupidity and folly, all at our expense. I hope to god no one ever writes the similar story of the UK motor industry . . . Made me angry, very angry.

James Hamilton-Paterson-Chap.   cracking read and yes, very angry-making.

Currently going through Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels on the Kindle, mostly as a way to avoid American TV.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 September, 2011, 07:54:15 pm
Finalllllllly finished The Master and Marguerita on holiday, should have been made into a film, would be weird enuff anyway.
Romped through Surface Detail - Iain M Banks while I was on holiday, great holiday reading. He's definately gone soft in his old age though.
I want an Abominator class mind :D

Have just started The Corrections by Johnathan Frantzen. I've got a feeling I'm going to find it a stressful read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Darth Blader on 13 September, 2011, 08:26:07 am
Recently read The Steep Approach to Garbadale, last but one novel from Iain Banks. Thought it very good. I'd rather given up on him, to be honest, thought that he's rather lost his way after Crow Road and Complicity, the following books being a bit silly. However, thoroughly enjoyed this one, on a par, and similar in many ways to, Crow Road.

I read The Corrections a few years ago. Have to admit to finding it fairly hard going at first, but persevered and ultimately found it very rewarding. Good book.

After a spell of only reading Scandinavian crime fiction, I'm now on John le Carre's Our Kind of Traitor. Very promising.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 13 September, 2011, 06:40:58 pm
Because I've hardly bought a book in ages I'm in re-read mode - this time it's Robert Rankin.

Have finished the first two of the Brentford Trilogy. Just the sort of silliness that's ideal for lunchtime reading.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 13 September, 2011, 06:51:00 pm
I'm revisiting Iain Banks, albeit in his 'M' sci-fi guise, on the Kindle - currently about halfway through 'Excession', which I seem to be enjoying a lot more then when I first read it <mumble> years ago (had it in hardback)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 13 September, 2011, 07:44:06 pm
I read the yellow jumper book while away, and have now started Kim.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 14 September, 2011, 04:59:36 pm
Right have just finished my first book to read in the Booker Shortlist - Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch.

It's about an 8 year old boy who in 1857 encounters a bengal tiger in the streets of London and is rescued by a Mr Jamrach, an importer of animals and birds.

What I thought was a promising beginning - how can you not beguiled by atmospheric Bermondsey and Ratcliffe Highway in Victoriana but its when the young lad goes to sea that for me turns into an interminably dull section of the book.

It's comparable to last year's Parrot and Olivier in America but did not have the drama and flowing style of The Long Song .

Rating - 5/10

Next book to read: The Sisters Brothers by de Witt - the only Western ever to make it on the Shortlist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 14 September, 2011, 06:29:27 pm
'Rule 34' by Charles Stross. Yes, THAT Rule 34.

"...and Moxie showed hime the Goatsedance video followed by a brisk webtour of the shocksites of Lothian and Borders, culminating in the infamous penile degloving accident fansite which apparently left him with PTSD and permanent scarring on the insides of his eyelids"

I read that a few months ago. Good fun.  :thumbsup:

I've recently finished China Mievilles "Embassytown"  , very well written but I found it rather heavy going. Then again I find it hard to make time to read at the moment, so had to dip into it whenever I could. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review)

This weeks book is "Speed of Dark" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speed-Dark-Elizabeth-Moon/dp/1841491411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316021258&sr=8-1) by Elizabeth Moon.   Near future SF with an autistic first person narrator. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frere on 14 September, 2011, 11:47:46 pm
Almost halfway through Reamde, classical Stephenson writing traits present, though probably his most mainstream (itself not a criticism, just a bit more approachable). Enjoying it tremendously, hence the quietness emanating from my end :p

Frere
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 September, 2011, 02:32:49 pm
OMG, am over a hundred pages into 'The Sisters Brothers' and it is awesome. Darkly funny, poignant and the two brothers are a brilliant combination.

I don't want to finish this book  :'( I know am only on the second book but I want this one to win.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 15 September, 2011, 02:46:20 pm
Almost halfway through Reamde, classical Stephenson writing traits present, though probably his most mainstream (itself not a criticism, just a bit more approachable). Enjoying it tremendously, hence the quietness emanating from my end :p

Frere

I didn't think that was out for another five days, how did you get it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 September, 2011, 09:01:53 pm
Being mid-course marshal here at Battle Mountain affords one a Several of hours of undisturbed reading time, with just the odd radio message to give out from time to time, hence I am getting through Ian Rankin's Rebus novels at a rate of knots.  Currently on Black And Blue.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Frere on 15 September, 2011, 09:08:15 pm
Almost halfway through Reamde, classical Stephenson writing traits present, though probably his most mainstream (itself not a criticism, just a bit more approachable). Enjoying it tremendously, hence the quietness emanating from my end :p

Frere

I didn't think that was out for another five days, how did you get it?

Amazon.

Got delivered earlier than expected, didn't ask the wherefores and wheretos, and started reading it.

Frere

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: why1040 on 16 September, 2011, 12:10:44 am
I'm currently doing relaxing reading in the form of the MYTH Inc series (currently number 7-MYTH Inc Link) by Robert Asprin

It's silly, completely tongue-in-cheek and makes me giggle, which is a Good Thing!

For more work-related stuff I'm reading The Journey by Brandon Bays.  I've only just started, but it's a little difficult to get into!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 16 September, 2011, 10:15:35 pm
Finished 'The Sisters Brothers'. F*cking brilliant. I laughed out loud many times, it is so darkly humorous. The ending was rather rushed though for my liking. I want this book to win (so far).

My rating: 9.5/10

Next book to read: Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. I believe it will be a weepie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 22 September, 2011, 04:27:08 pm
Finished 'The Sisters Brothers'. F*cking brilliant. I laughed out loud many times, it is so darkly humorous. The ending was rather rushed though for my liking. I want this book to win (so far).

My rating: 9.5/10

Next book to read: Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. I believe it will be a weepie.

That's helped me make my decision which to read next! I've just finished Snowdrops by A.D. Miller which I enjoyed although it was somewhat depressing! Something darkly humorous sounds good so The Sisters Brothers is up next  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 September, 2011, 12:51:29 pm
Finished 'The Sisters Brothers'. F*cking brilliant. I laughed out loud many times, it is so darkly humorous. The ending was rather rushed though for my liking. I want this book to win (so far).

My rating: 9.5/10

Next book to read: Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. I believe it will be a weepie.

That's helped me make my decision which to read next! I've just finished Snowdrops by A.D. Miller which I enjoyed although it was somewhat depressing! Something darkly humorous sounds good so The Sisters Brothers is up next  :thumbsup:

 :thumbsup:
Thanks for the heads up about Snowdrops! I actually have now completed 'Half Blood Blues' (Book 3/6).

It's about a jazz band in pre-and during WW2 in Berlin and Paris and when we first encounter them they are trying to cut one last record. One of their nembers who is black and German disappears and the story takes the form of his two fellow bandmates 50 years later to try and find out what happened to him.

It is an awfully good story and I loved the language of the book but I felt that the main character (Sid) was not as drawn out well and was the least implausible of the characters, both in description and his actions. Quite funny in parts though.

Verdict: 7/10

Now reading 'Pigeon English'. 40 pages in and its very very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 25 September, 2011, 04:16:52 pm
Just finished reading Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English.

It is written from the point of an 11 year old Ghanian boy who has moved to the UK with his mother and older sister whilst his father and baby sister are aiming to fly over later.

It starts off with the killing of a schoolboy who he vaguely knows and as the police investigate, he and his mate Dean carry out their own detective work.

This is a beautiful book, Harrison is a wonderful boy and his appreciation for all the little things in his life amidst the bleakness of the council estate is inspiring.

I think this is in the same league as To Kill A Mockingbird and probably going to win the Booker - I still want The Sisters Brothers to win.

Rating: 9.5/10

Next book to read: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 25 September, 2011, 08:45:01 pm
What I read on my holidays:

Downhill all the way – Edward Enfield
Laboured droleries from Harry Enfields father on a cycle ride from the channel to the Med.To be fair there are some amusing moments but it does rely heavily on those stereotypical foreigners.

Rocket Boys – Homer H. Hickham
Growing up in West Virginia in the 50's with a focus on amateur rocketry. Contains the line ' the best I had ever done was a kiss on a girl's front porch after a dance...' and is consequently a work of genius. After all, that's pretty good going isn't it? Especially for the 1950s. Brilliant story, cracking book, read it!

The World Made By Hand – James Howard Kunstler
Upstate NY after socio-economic collapse of the US and perhaps the world. How will we be saved?Some mysterious God-botherers appear to have the answer; they will use religion to bring widespread social cohesion. Just like last time...wait a minute...A bit depressing really but one of those books that has rave reviews from 37 US newpapers with names like the Psoriasis Nebraska Conduit. Crazy name, crazy guy. Don't read this one.

The Trail to Titicaca – Rupert Attlee
Now look, I have cycled to Goudhurst, City in the Sky, and on the Kentish altiplano on a clapped out Coventry Eagle but this shows what can be done if you don't have to be back for tea. So, a charity cycle ride from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. This is travel writing of the 'on the third day we had to eat the tyres' variety. Appalingly edited and deserves better, for example, even if a Chilean ferry service were operated by SNCF it would be unlikely that the timetable would have the days of the week in French, ffs it's Chile, get a grip. Contains many humerous anecdotes of  the type of which I am always sceptical. Despite these shortcomings I enjoyed reading this story so ¡Sombrero! Presumably.

Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
Bestseller of a couple of years ago that analyses modern life using ecomonic models – or at least reasoning. Mine was a revised and expanded edition but even so there appeared to be a large amount of reptition here with only (as far a I could make out) three or four things being analysed in the entire book. A wanted to be astounded and I wasn't. So I can't see what all of the fuss was about.

The Road – Cormac McCarthy 
Those poor Americans, it's the end of the world again. A man and his young son travel on foot through a blasted, frozen lanscape; nothing grows, everything is covered in ash – it's worse than my back garden. They are heading for the coast to find... who knows? They live by scavenging and have to avoid others that have resorted to cannibalism. So, not terribly upbeat but a terrific book all the same – fantastic writing and short enough to be read at a single sitting. Demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit I suppose but best avoided if you are affected by the gloomy as frankly there are few jokes.

The Company of Strangers – Robert Wilson
Lisbon 1940, it's those pesky Nazis again. Later in Berlin in the 70s it's those pesky commies. Alliances and names change and everyones fibbing to everyone else but it gives all those spies something to do and keeps them on the streets. Uses the words 'cranium' and 'saltine' more than any book I have read in my life so was worth reading for that alone.

Juan
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 25 September, 2011, 09:26:05 pm
^^ Rocket Boys is a wonderful, wonderful book. The father/son relationship is ... Yeah, just read it. In my all time top 10.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 26 September, 2011, 10:47:50 am
The Road – Cormac McCarthy 
Those poor Americans, it's the end of the world again. A man and his young son travel on foot through a blasted, frozen lanscape; nothing grows, everything is covered in ash – it's worse than my back garden. They are heading for the coast to find... who knows? They live by scavenging and have to avoid others that have resorted to cannibalism. So, not terribly upbeat but a terrific book all the same – fantastic writing and short enough to be read at a single sitting. Demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit I suppose but best avoided if you are affected by the gloomy as frankly there are few jokes.

Wasn't this one made into a film recently with Vigo Mortensen as the dad?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 26 September, 2011, 11:05:22 am
The Road – Cormac McCarthy 
Those poor Americans, it's the end of the world again. A man and his young son travel on foot through a blasted, frozen lanscape; nothing grows, everything is covered in ash – it's worse than my back garden. They are heading for the coast to find... who knows? They live by scavenging and have to avoid others that have resorted to cannibalism. So, not terribly upbeat but a terrific book all the same – fantastic writing and short enough to be read at a single sitting. Demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit I suppose but best avoided if you are affected by the gloomy as frankly there are few jokes.

Wasn't this one made into a film recently with Vigo Mortensen as the dad?

Yes thats the one. I really enjoyed that book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 27 September, 2011, 09:03:09 am
I would add to my rather flippant note earlier that The Road is an excellent novel; if it has not won an award then it should.  It may even be an important novel – perhaps a classic that will endure and be taken seriously in the future. Despite the theme of desolation and horror, there is tenderness in the writing particularly in the relationship between the protagonists, that while being difficult to reconcile with the background in which it is set somehow fits precisely; it is difficult to see how this novel could be improved. It is probably one of the best, or one of the most satisfying pieces of writing I have read.

I haven’t seen the film but I imagine I would be disappointed as it would be different to my interpretation.

I have read a number of books by Cormac McCarthy and have enjoyed them – this is high quality stuff! I particularly enjoyed The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain. All are highly recommended.

With apologies for any pomposity.

Juan
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 27 September, 2011, 10:08:49 am
Two wheels over Catalonia by Richard Guise (strangely enough while Recumbent Triking around Catalonia) and One Man and his Bike by Mike Carter (read on the Bike Bus going to and from Catalonia).
    Question ! Why is an ICE recumbent trike seat more comfortable than a luxury coach seat.  8)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 27 September, 2011, 10:11:26 am
Two wheels over Catalonia by Richard Guise

I loved that book so much I finished in 3 days, then passed it on to Mrs T, who read it in a similar timeframe, and it is now with LG.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 27 September, 2011, 10:20:14 am
The phrase "Ramon ! Ramon!" keeps going through my mind reducing me to tears of laughter, yes I couldn't put it down either and although back now Barbara is reading it.
                                   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 27 September, 2011, 10:28:27 am
The Road – Cormac McCarthy 
Those poor Americans, it's the end of the world again. A man and his young son travel on foot through a blasted, frozen lanscape; nothing grows, everything is covered in ash – it's worse than my back garden. They are heading for the coast to find... who knows? They live by scavenging and have to avoid others that have resorted to cannibalism. So, not terribly upbeat but a terrific book all the same – fantastic writing and short enough to be read at a single sitting. Demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit I suppose but best avoided if you are affected by the gloomy as frankly there are few jokes.

Wasn't this one made into a film recently with Vigo Mortensen as the dad?
Yes - far and away the most depressing film I have ever watched (not read the book, though)
Guy Pearce was in it too, albeit rather briefly at the end - when I realised it was him I fell about laughing because all I could think off was "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 27 September, 2011, 12:18:28 pm
^^ Rocket Boys is a wonderful, wonderful book. The father/son relationship is ... Yeah, just read it. In my all time top 10.

my dad lent it to me years back, and i read bits of it when on teaching practice as a end of the day 'sit and listen' class book with my year 5s who absolutely loved it, and did a string of literacy lessons based on excerpts.  well, we were doing space in science that term, it had to be done.  it's a belter.

i'm still not reading anything :(

one day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 28 September, 2011, 06:52:35 pm
Two Wheels Over Catalonia by Richard Guise, borrowed from Tiermat.

I liked the light tone of his writing, and the different perspective on coastal resorts I usually associate with pictures of pissed colleagues on Friendface.  He gets some history in there as well, in a way that doesn't intrude on the narrative.  Nicely done.  Could've used more photos tho'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 28 September, 2011, 07:00:54 pm
I'm revisiting William Gibson on the Kindleslab - just finished "Neuromancer" (for the nth time) and have started on "Mona Lisa Overdrive". The 'middle' book of the trilogy, "Count Zero", doesn't appear to be available for the Kindle  ???

He spins a good yarn, to be sure, but I don't think he's nearly as good as people make him out to be - once I've got "Mona Lisa Overdrive" out of the way, there's Neal Stephenson's new one to start ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 October, 2011, 04:04:48 pm
Just finished Clive Barker's Imajica

Hmmmm, dunno what to think, part of me says it was a tad too long (could have ended after a certain point and it wouldn't have hurt the story)

Onward now, dunno what is next as it has taken me so long to read Imajica I have forgotten what I currently have on the ebook reader :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 October, 2011, 12:19:41 pm
While waiting for my replacement Kindle to I can finish the Inspector Rebus novels, The Fear Index ~ Robert Harris.  Right at the start someone beats a hedge fund manager over the head with a fire extinguisher :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 05 October, 2011, 01:12:58 pm
I have given up on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for the time being- too slow to get going and too involved (though the passages I have read that deal with TGWTDT herself were more involving for me so far).

I have just commenced Embedded (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Embedded-Angry-Robot-Dan-Abnett/dp/085766090X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317816428&sr=1-2) by Dan Abnett.

Literally just started (10 pages in) so no comment yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 October, 2011, 07:19:15 pm
A Great and Terrible King - Marc Morris

A biography or Edward I

A proper medieval King he was, not to be messed with.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 05 October, 2011, 07:20:43 pm
The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom, quite good I thought
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 05 October, 2011, 07:55:29 pm

Mountaineering - Training and Preparation by Carlton B. Cooke
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 05 October, 2011, 07:58:11 pm
Could have done with that in Catalonia  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 October, 2011, 08:06:47 pm
One Day by David Nicholls. If it had been written by a woman it would have a pink cover and be marketed as chick-lit.  :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 05 October, 2011, 08:34:33 pm
Day By Day Armageddon by J L Bourne. It's not half bad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 05 October, 2011, 08:59:18 pm
I've just finished Patrick DeWitt's 'The Sisters Brothers' and agree with HW it is a definite contender for the Booker prize.
I've now started Half Blood Blues.
They announce the winner on the 18th, I might not manage to read all of the remaining 4 books by then!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 05 October, 2011, 11:42:20 pm
I've just finished Patrick DeWitt's 'The Sisters Brothers' and agree with HW it is a definite contender for the Booker prize.
I've now started Half Blood Blues.
They announce the winner on the 18th, I might not manage to read all of the remaining 4 books by then!

Am so glad you enjoyed The Sisters Brothers Feline, its just brilliant :thumbsup:

Right, have finished reading all of the shortlisted books.

'The Sense of an Ending' - in a nutshell, for me much much better than Atonement - the twist at the end is devastatingly brilliant.

Rating: 9.0/10

'Snowdrop' by A.D. Miller. Felt very John Le Carre but that is no bad thing. Not convinced by the narrator himself but its description of Russia felt authentic.

Final prediction:

Heart says: The Sisters Brothers
Head says: Pigeon English
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 08 October, 2011, 10:44:45 pm
At the Loch of the Green Corrie - Andrew Greig (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/books/Reeling-in-the-years-Andrew.6216963.jp) - highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 12 October, 2011, 10:49:30 am
Finished all the shortlisted books.  I wouldn't have thought of reading them if it hadn't been for this thread.  For a cycling forum, yacf has a broad influence.

I enjoyed reading them all.  I did struggle a bit at the begining of Half Blood Blues.  I think thats about the language.  Strangely I didn't find that with Pigeon English which had similar use of slang.

While I enjoyed reading them all, I couldn't say that any of them were outstanding.  There were bits of both Snowdrops and Jamrach's Menagerie that thought were excellent, but only bits.  The Sisters Brothers was the least involving.  Silly without being funny.  The descriptions of jaz in Half Blood Blues were evocative.  I've never heard that much in it, but the descriptions make me think I'm missing something.

Something in The Sense of an Ending feels like its trying too hard, beautiful, but no passion.  Pigeon English feels a bit like being lectured at, I can see that as a set book in future GCSEs.

I wouldn't normally have read any of these.  Reading through the covers in a bookshop, I don't think any would have appealed and I would have headed back to my normal diet of SciFi/Fantasy, but its been a rewarding experience.  I might do it again next year.  Will it make me read more fiction in the meanwhile.... I'm not sure.  I assume that since they made the shortlist, these books are some of the better writing this year.  Given that none of them had the overall "wow" factor for me, how appealing will other books be that didn't make the shortlist?  Or maybe the judges are clueless.  Probably though, I'd be more inclined to give something different a try now.  I might not think "wow", but I'll probably enjoy reading it.

Overall, I think the one I most enjoyed was Jamrach's Menagerie.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 12 October, 2011, 11:07:56 am
Just finished a couple of PTerry's books - "I Shall Wear Midnight" and "Unseen Academicals".

Dunno if it's just me, but it seems to me that his writing has really kicked up a gear since he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. I like all of the Tiffany Aching books, but "Academicals" is a definite return to form for the 'regular' Discworld novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 October, 2011, 11:33:09 am
Finished all the shortlisted books.  I wouldn't have thought of reading them if it hadn't been for this thread.  For a cycling forum, yacf has a broad influence.

I enjoyed reading them all.  I did struggle a bit at the begining of Half Blood Blues.  I think thats about the language.  Strangely I didn't find that with Pigeon English which had similar use of slang.

While I enjoyed reading them all, I couldn't say that any of them were outstanding.  There were bits of both Snowdrops and Jamrach's Menagerie that thought were excellent, but only bits.  The Sisters Brothers was the least involving.  Silly without being funny.  The descriptions of jaz in Half Blood Blues were evocative.  I've never heard that much in it, but the descriptions make me think I'm missing something.

Something in The Sense of an Ending feels like its trying too hard, beautiful, but no passion.  Pigeon English feels a bit like being lectured at, I can see that as a set book in future GCSEs.

I wouldn't normally have read any of these.  Reading through the covers in a bookshop, I don't think any would have appealed and I would have headed back to my normal diet of SciFi/Fantasy, but its been a rewarding experience.  I might do it again next year.  Will it make me read more fiction in the meanwhile.... I'm not sure.  I assume that since they made the shortlist, these books are some of the better writing this year.  Given that none of them had the overall "wow" factor for me, how appealing will other books be that didn't make the shortlist?  Or maybe the judges are clueless.  Probably though, I'd be more inclined to give something different a try now.  I might not think "wow", but I'll probably enjoy reading it.

Overall, I think the one I most enjoyed was Jamrach's Menagerie.

Dave

I really enjoyed reading your post Dave. I loved the earlier section of Jamrach's Menagerie but the middle section I just found dire. In fact, I kept skipping through the pages. Thats not good  :-[

I agree with you about The Sense of an Ending - beautiful but cold. To me this was the most shocking of the books. The main character could not have been any more average, but that was a brilliant ploy by the author. Cannot say any more (like yourself) as it would give it away.

I think Pigeon English is an important book - I had not thought of it as lecturing to us, will have to read it again. It does demonstrate what is wrong in our society. I liked the little boy and his outlook on life.

Overall my favourite was The Sisters Brothers - firstly, the front cover was just cracking. Secondly, it was a refreshing change for myself to read and a genre which has not appeared on the shortlist. Thirdly, the plot, the characters and the two brothers was ace and I thought it was the funniest book since Then We Came to the End, another book which is brilliantly funny and so desperately sad.

We shall see on the 18th!

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 18 October, 2011, 11:42:35 pm
Finished "Born to Run" a couple of days ago.  On the one hand, I read it in under 3 days and it would have been 1 only I kept finishing a chapter and then going for a run, or doing something else active, from the sheer inspiration it provided.  On the other hand, it's a melodramatic and sentimental piece of gonzo hackwork with such a cavalier attitude to scientific method and so lacking in intellectual rigour that any copy would, I'm sure, burst into flames as soon as Ben Goldacre tried to pick it up.

None of which will dissuade me from running barefoot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 19 October, 2011, 12:02:59 am
Yay!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/8834464/Julian-Barnes-wins-the-2011-Man-Booker-Prize.html

Am really pleased for Julian Barnes, although my favourite did not win.

 :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 19 October, 2011, 07:27:54 am
Eragon by Christopher Paolini - again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 October, 2011, 08:25:34 am
Just finished a couple of PTerry's books - "I Shall Wear Midnight" and "Unseen Academicals".

Dunno if it's just me, but it seems to me that his writing has really kicked up a gear since he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. I like all of the Tiffany Aching books, but "Academicals" is a definite return to form for the 'regular' Discworld novels.

I agree, Academicals is class, isn't it?

Incidentally it appears that there might not be a TP book out this year, not a new one anyway, Amazon is all over "Making Money" which came out last year in hardback.

EDIT: I am wrong, a new Sam Vimes book was released on 11/10, oooo that's Mrs T's Xmas pressy sorted then :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 19 October, 2011, 10:51:33 am
What I read on my holidays:
Rocket Boys – Homer H. Hickham
Growing up in West Virginia in the 50's with a focus on amateur rocketry. Contains the line ' the best I had ever done was a kiss on a girl's front porch after a dance...' and is consequently a work of genius. After all, that's pretty good going isn't it? Especially for the 1950s. Brilliant story, cracking book, read it!

I wholeheartedly agree.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 October, 2011, 10:58:22 am
Having had my fill of Neal Stephenson for the moment, I turned to Alistair Coleman1's Tales Of Mirth And Woe.  I should not have started reading this when late and in wine, as the laughter turned to coughing, which in turn led to a sneezing fit which threatened to turn me inside-out.

He is not mad.

1 - Perhaps better known as Scaryduck
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 27 October, 2011, 05:46:54 pm
Armageddon by Max Hastings.

Being a perspective of the last months of the 2nd World War in Europe it is a harrowing account but it usefully describes the affair from many viewpoints showing how different the war was for a Russian compared to a soldier of the Western Allies.

Very hard to believe this was all quite recent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 27 October, 2011, 05:57:22 pm
the Idiot by Dostoywhatsit.  Fantastic, really.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 01 November, 2011, 09:47:30 am
The Road – Cormac McCarthy 
Those poor Americans, it's the end of the world again. A man and his young son travel on foot through a blasted, frozen lanscape; nothing grows, everything is covered in ash – it's worse than my back garden. They are heading for the coast to find... who knows? They live by scavenging and have to avoid others that have resorted to cannibalism. So, not terribly upbeat but a terrific book all the same – fantastic writing and short enough to be read at a single sitting. Demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit I suppose but best avoided if you are affected by the gloomy as frankly there are few jokes.

Wasn't this one made into a film recently with Vigo Mortensen as the dad?

Yes thats the one. I really enjoyed that book.

Just finished this.  I'm not sure what to make of it, tbh.  I dislike the worldview that places depravity and bestial behaviour as the default position of the human spirit in extremis.  I just don't think it's true.

And yet people do resort to cannibalism, as proved repeatedly in the experience of marooned seafarers.  And those young people in the plane crash dramatised in 'Alive'. 

I dunno.  Maybe reading Pollyanna in my childhood has scarred me.

Would this be the legacy of our species when we had destroyed our environment, once and for all?  Where goodness and love are the exception, not the rule?  I prefer to think Not.

On the whole I think I prefer the Stephen  Baxter models of post-apocalypsis, they're just more fun.  And now I need to read a Terry Pratchett, it's either that or buy up all the big bottles of water in town and start hoarding tinned peaches, what with white papers on water security and the Vatican lobbying the G12.

Hm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 November, 2011, 02:00:36 pm
It'll be Mad Max for the lot of us and only those with l33t wheelbuilding 5ki11z wil survive.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 01 November, 2011, 02:04:10 pm
It'll be Mad Max for the lot of us and only those with l33t wheelbuilding 5ki11z wil survive.

 :-\

Better read Jost Brandt then.  I shall post my opinion on here afterwards,
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 November, 2011, 02:36:37 pm
Back to reading two books at the moment, Put Me Back on the Bike and River of Blue Fire (Tad Williams)

The second one is typical Tad Williams, i.e. he makes Tom Clancy's writing style look concise.  It took me til 3/4 of the way through the first book(City of Golden Shadows) to decide if I was going to continue, and by then I had expended too much time to just give up!  A quick synopsis: Set in a undefined time in the future, where people do all their communication and get all their entertainment on the internet.  The lead character's younger brother falls into a coma after visiting a night club in the virtual world.  She, and others go to find out what happened and who is behind it.  Typically Tad Williams, there are multiple diverging threads which, I suspect, will all come together in the last 10 pages of the 4th book leaving the reader with a load of unanswered questions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 01 November, 2011, 03:07:09 pm

Quote

Just finished this.  I'm not sure what to make of it, tbh.  I dislike the worldview that places depravity and bestial behaviour as the default position of the human spirit in extremis.  I just don't think it's true.

I do agree with you on this point. So often these sorts of stories tell of degeneration into the violent downfall of society. I think that I can forgive Cormac McCarthy here – after all in the world of The Road nothing is growing and people fight over the dwindling remnants of civilisation in order to survive. But the man and his son apart, why they are bothering is another question.

But rarely does one read some ‘apocalyptic’ novel in which society is successfully rebuilt (someone is always eating somebody somewhere!). And it can be tedious and somewhat predictable; as you say it seems to be the default setting. Perhaps the desire to read about the successful reconstruction of society after a downfall indicates a particularly YACF type viewpoint.

Or perhaps not.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 01 November, 2011, 07:31:25 pm
The Church seems to feel that we are damned for eternity after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bit much, it was only an apple  :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 01 November, 2011, 08:07:44 pm
The Church seems to feel that we are damned for eternity after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bit much, it was only an apple  :o

Oooh!  I read that book too!  Bit of a curate's egg ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 01 November, 2011, 09:56:58 pm
The Church seems to feel that we are damned for eternity after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bit much, it was only an apple  :o

Oooh!  I read that book too!  Bit of a curate's egg ...

Try the sequel, the one that starts with Matthew.  The guy doesn't get the girl but it is much more optimistic overall!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gareth Rees on 01 November, 2011, 10:10:02 pm
But rarely does one read some ‘apocalyptic’ novel in which society is successfully rebuilt

There's a subgenre along these lines (mostly by British authors) for which Brian Aldiss coined the term "cosy catastrophe": for example, The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and the Tripods novels by John Christopher.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 01 November, 2011, 10:29:27 pm
AC Clarke in Richter 10 (co-authored with someone else)
(click to show/hide)
  Nice book, I thought.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 03 November, 2011, 08:51:57 am
But rarely does one read some ‘apocalyptic’ novel in which society is successfully rebuilt

There's a subgenre along these lines (mostly by British authors) for which Brian Aldiss coined the term "cosy catastrophe": for example, The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and the Tripods novels by John Christopher.

Cosy doesn't sound sexy but when it comes to catastrophes I think it's preferable! But I was thinking yesterday about what happened in Iraq after the fall of SH, and I fear that the spectacularly violent scenario is sadly the more likely one.

I have read the books that you mention, years ago now. In fact I read at least one of the Tripod books when I was at primary school; I remember feeling very grown up doing so! That was over 40 years ago...I feel very old now. Thanks!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 November, 2011, 03:09:28 pm
Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.

Aeroplaniacs might like to know that there is a new coffee-table edition of this most excellent tome, containing about 25% less text but lots more pictures of BRITISH aeroplanes, plus a few manky FOREIGN ones.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 07 November, 2011, 09:15:55 pm
Kök & Tvätt (http://www.amazon.co.uk/K%C3%B6k-Tv%C3%A4tt-Through-Scandinavia-ebook/dp/B0046H9ZA4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320700156&sr=8-3)    Mosquitoes & misery in Scandinavia.... I've toured in Norway twice, wonderfull place, but so far this isn't inspiring me to visit Lapland.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Morrisette on 08 November, 2011, 10:13:36 am
The Road was very depressing. Sadly I don't think it would even take a post-apocalypse horror show to make people behave like that. People reverted to the caveman within inside 48 hours in that football stadium in New Orleans.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 26 November, 2011, 09:37:45 pm
Having finally got up to date with the Joseph Delaney Spooks series (lightweight, seems to be losing it a bit as the series progresses.)
I have turned to the free list on the kindle. Jules Verne Blockade Runners, Frankenstein, which I had never read nor seen the film.
Now working my way through 'The Iron Heel' by Jack London which is interesting.

Then it will be some classic Stevenson 'The Wreckers'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 November, 2011, 11:25:09 am
Started reading Heliopolis by James Scudamore several months ago but didn't get very far. Finally picked it up and made a proper start on it a couple of days ago and got halfway through it in one sitting (ie 160 pages).

Still not sure quite what it's about. Class and money, I think. Plus relationships and sex. It's very modern like that. But it's sumptuous writing, with some wonderful descriptions of food (each chapter is named after something to eat that's significant in the narrator's life). And it's pretty funny too.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 November, 2011, 12:49:47 pm
The Ring Of Solomon ~ Jonathan Stroud.  Yes, I do know it's aimed at children and I don't care.  Does it all over Harry Potter And The Train Of Gravy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 28 November, 2011, 07:47:43 pm
Just finished Magnus Mills A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cruel-Bird-Came-Nest-Looked/dp/1408821206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322509181&sr=8-1).  For those of you familiar with Magnus Mills, it's more of the same. No other writer is more likely to have me throwing the book away in frustration before retrieving it hurriedly to read on. 

Next is The Sisters Brothers following favourable write-ups up-thread and elsewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 28 November, 2011, 10:55:01 pm
Just read Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt. The Grauniad review was about right.

"This is a solid account of how Britain's national mapping agency came into being, though it lacks a certain pizzazz. Hewitt works hard to bring the story to life, but it is perhaps inherently undramatic."

A decent read, but not a gripping one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 29 November, 2011, 11:48:42 am
Having finally got up to date with the Joseph Delaney Spooks series (lightweight, seems to be losing it a bit as the series progresses.)

That's exactly TGL's opinion.  Though it sustains a bit more if you know the places it's set in (close to where we used to live).

I've just finished re-reading the two books of Raffles short stories for the purpose of identifying locations.  News From Nowhere before that, for a similar reason.  Now, I'm on to Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, again for routefinding.  I hadn't realised they spent so long in London before heading to Sussex.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 29 November, 2011, 12:08:08 pm
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Superb story (loosely based on a real life scenario) about a couple who fight a propaganda war against Hitler after the death of their son in the war. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 November, 2011, 01:04:13 pm
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Superb story (loosely based on a real life scenario) about a couple who fight a propaganda war against Hitler after the death of their son in the war. Highly recommended.

That is an amazing book  :thumbsup:

I've been reading quite a few books lately:

'Saturday' by Ian MacEwan - very good but every implausible book.

'It's all about the Bike' - very entertaining although as I was saying to Clarion and Butterfly the final colour selection for his dream bike is pants quite frankly.

Just reading Orhan Pamuk's 'Museum of Innocence' for our Reading Group and 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' by Mark Haddon. 30 pages in and am already loving it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 November, 2011, 01:16:03 pm
The Rotters Club ~ Jonathan Coe.  I finally got round to buying The Closed Circle so thought I should re-acquaint myself with this first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 29 November, 2011, 07:16:59 pm
The Oyster House Siege by Jay Rayner, I thoroughly enjoyed this, now reading Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell, so far quite good  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 04 December, 2011, 04:59:47 pm
The name of the rose. 

Hell's teeth.  I know it's probably lost something in the translation, but really?  I can't remember the last time I read a book as bad as this.  True, there's a story in there, fighting to get out - and I know that that's kind of the point - but bloody hell.

It's the novelised equivalent of climbing Chomolongma.  It's a bloody long way, and you have to be determined to do it, but it takes ages even with crampons and an ice axe, and still you're not sure quite why you've bothered.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 December, 2011, 05:18:49 pm
If you think that about The Name Of The Rose then don't even bother picking up The Island of The Day Before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 December, 2011, 10:40:03 am
Sidetracked ~ Henning Mankell.  I've read a few Wallander novels, mostly in the wrong order so some bits don't make sense, so have decided to do The Lot in the right order.  Also I didn't realise until yesterday that none of the Krister Henriksson TV episodes is an adaptation of one of the books :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 07 December, 2011, 02:07:10 pm
After London - Richard Jefferies
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 07 December, 2011, 02:09:48 pm
The Bone House - Stephen Lawhead

Second book in The Skin Map trilogy.

It's good, I am enjoying it, but it seems too short at 320 pages, after reading Tad Williams books at >800 pages each.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 07 December, 2011, 05:56:47 pm
Ghost by Robert Harris, very good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eck on 07 December, 2011, 06:13:03 pm
+1, enjoyed that too.

Just finished (re)reading JB Priestly's Angel Pavement, last time about 30 years ago. It started off as a nice cosy winter's read, but ended on quite a dark note.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Salvatore on 07 December, 2011, 06:17:50 pm
Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. I think I may incorporate bits of his route into next summer's tour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 08 December, 2011, 12:46:03 pm
Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. I think I may incorporate bits of his route into next summer's tour.

I read that on my holds in Languadoc a few years a go. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 08 December, 2011, 12:48:33 pm
1Q84 Haruki Murakami

First thing I have read by him. So far very good. The third volume has a different translator apparently which may make reading it a bit odd but then again there is no way I can read it in the original Japanese.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 December, 2011, 09:00:37 am
Finished the Bone House, can't wait til next summer for the thrid part to come out

To make things a bit more challenging now I am reading 3 different books.

First is "My Shit Life So Far" by Frankie Boyle, sort of ok, but I have read much better, and much funnier, autobiographies.

Second is the absolutely brilliant "Culinary Reactions" by Simon Field (not Simon French as I told Torslanda yesterday).  Geek and cookery together, I am in heaven :)

The third is still the 3rd one in Tad Williams "Otherworld" series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 December, 2011, 11:31:42 am
Gave up on the Frankie Boyle, it should be entitles "My Shit, Cash In Book"

Finished "Culinary Reactions", but it will probably reward a re-visit in the new year.

Still wading through the Otherworld book, and have started a book reviewing "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins,  Basically a collection of essays on how that book influenced a bunch of scientists' work.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: why1040 on 16 December, 2011, 11:41:58 am
I'm currently re-reading the whole of the Clan of the Cavebear series by Jean M Auel as I've been lent the last one.

They don't half go downhill in order after the Mammoth Hunters!   :facepalm:  The repetition alone may kill me...didn't someone actually go through and proof-read this ffs??

But I still want to find out how she finishes it all off!   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 17 December, 2011, 03:09:53 pm
Part way through Miles From Nowhere by Barbara Savage, one of the best cycle touring books I've read.  Thank you MSeries for the recommendation. 

I may put this book in the Lending Library when I've finished it, if anyone would be interested.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 17 December, 2011, 03:13:29 pm
Part way through Miles From Nowhere by Barbara Savage, one of the best cycle touring books I've read.  Thank you MSeries for the recommendation. 

I may put this book in the Lending Library when I've finished it, if anyone would be interested.

I'd like to try it please
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 17 December, 2011, 03:14:20 pm
Okay lovely, as I say, I haven't finished it yet, but when I do I'll start a thread in the Library and post it to you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 17 December, 2011, 05:32:53 pm
Smileys People, never thought I would like it but I am hooked
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 17 December, 2011, 08:12:28 pm
Second is the absolutely brilliant "Culinary Reactions" by Simon Field (not Simon French as I told Torslanda yesterday).  Geek and cookery together, I am in heaven :)

Ooh, I've been promising myself a science in cooking book for years... shall take a look at that one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 December, 2011, 11:25:31 am
Today, to stave off the pre=Xmas boredom whilst at work I am reading "Damn You, Autocorrect"

It's a good job I work at home, I am seriously PMSL. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 19 December, 2011, 11:27:02 am
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

and

Mr Justice Raffles by EW Hornung

I think I've given up on Richard Jeffries for the moment - his descriptions of nature are magical, but his plots and dialogue are dreadfully dull. :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 19 December, 2011, 09:51:24 pm
The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions and Their Peoples (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Italy-History-Regions-Peoples/dp/0141043415/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324331273&sr=1-1).

A little research for an upcoming visit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Charlie Boy on 19 December, 2011, 10:34:19 pm
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens


He may have revised his opinion recently.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 December, 2011, 10:10:26 am
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens


He may have revised his opinion recently.

Who, Hitchens?  Or God?

Apparently last Saturday's Grauniad featured a cartoon in which a rather terrified Christpher Hitchens, equipped with little wings, harp in right hand, glass of iced whisky and burning fag in the other is facing a bearded gowned figure.  The bearded figure is saying, 'Relax I'm Charles Darwin'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 20 December, 2011, 10:16:55 am

I think I've given up on Richard Jeffries for the moment - his descriptions of nature are magical, but his plots and dialogue are dreadfully dull. :(

I know what you mean.  I did manage to get all the way through After London, which is very thought-provoking if gloomy, but I've given myself a break from Bevis for the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 20 December, 2011, 10:46:51 am
I've read After London before - about thirty years ago.  Just trying to get through it again.  Doesn't entirely seem worth it.

I think God will wait until Hitchens is out of earshot before saying anything abuot religion, lest he be required to disappear in a puff of logic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 20 December, 2011, 11:46:49 am
‘Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?’ by Gary Younge   - recommend for easy, non-cliched style and keen insight and simple humanity
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 20 December, 2011, 11:47:44 am
I like Gary Younge's writing, though I've only ever read his reporting in the Guardian, and not any books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Marco Stefano on 20 December, 2011, 10:23:26 pm
Wobegon Boy - Garrison Keillor

Boy from Lake Wobegon goes to New York to work. About life, love, public radio, Norwegian immigrants, Lutherans, farming, ageing, death, imagined history, going home... For me, characterful storytelling with frequent sudden snorting laughs. Good.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 December, 2011, 09:46:15 am
The Diamond Queen ~ Andrew Marr.  Biography of Her Maj.  What possessed my to buy this I ken not, but it's jolly interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 December, 2011, 08:49:09 am
The Diamond Queen ~ Andrew Marr.  Biography of Her Maj.  What possessed my to buy this I ken not, but it's jolly interesting.

I have seen posters for this everywhere, and keep thinking it might be worth reading.

Until that happens though I have a late Xmas present to read, it arrived yesterday.  The Chimp Paradox (which, as some will know, has been on my amazon wish list since July but has only just been released), TLD bought it for me for Xmas.

I may uncontactable for a while :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 December, 2011, 09:27:02 am
The Blackhouse ~ Peter May.  Polis investigating a murrder in Windy's neck of the woods (or rather no woods coz all the trees were blown down shortly afte rthe end of the last Ice age).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 29 December, 2011, 06:00:24 pm
Got Thunder and Sunshine by Alastair Humphreys for Christmas, while his journey is amazing his writing is considerably less so, he seems to skim over the journey with little detail, I would not buy anything else by him  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 29 December, 2011, 07:43:36 pm
Gorging on Rudy Rucker. Trippy SF. Mievielle's Un Lun Dun lined up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 December, 2011, 09:43:10 pm
Got Thunder and Sunshine by Alastair Humphreys for Christmas, while his journey is amazing his writing is considerably less so, he seems to skim over the journey with little detail, I would not buy anything else by him  ::-)

Somebody else mentioned that to me when we were discussing the merits or otherwise of the Mark Beumont books, and a book I read in August, Two wheels Over Catalonia by Richard Guise which is more a cycling travelogue, i.e what I was wanting from a cycling book than those of Messrs Humphreys and Beaumont.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 December, 2011, 09:47:43 pm
I really liked Un Lun Dun  :thumbsup:

Reading a review of "Chinatown" in the paper put me into an LA noir mood, so currently reading "The Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 December, 2011, 09:49:29 pm
Got Thunder and Sunshine by Alastair Humphreys for Christmas, while his journey is amazing his writing is considerably less so, he seems to skim over the journey with little detail, I would not buy anything else by him  ::-)

That's the follow on to "Moods of Future Joys" which I thought was far better, as you say he tried to cram too much into one book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 29 December, 2011, 11:57:11 pm
'Volapuk' by Andrew Drummond  - highly eccentric and highly readable, an unusual combination
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 30 December, 2011, 12:29:27 am
I enjoyed "The Happiest Refugee" by comedian Anh Do very much.  He tells of his journey by boat from Vietnam and growing up in Australia and his style is conversational and very readable.

I'm now into "V is for Vengeance" the latest Kinsey Millhone story from Sue Grafton - good (very) light reading for the holidays.

Sisters Brothers and Sense of an Ending are next taking recommendations from this thread
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 December, 2011, 12:43:18 am
Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

A pretty undemanding children's book but a very pleasant way to pass a couple of hours. It's the story of a boy who falls off the family boat and washes up on a desert island, where an old Japanese man, who has been living alone for 40 years, takes him under his wing. Superficially, it's a Robinson Crusoe-esque adventure but it's really a poignant tale about the importance of family. My son read it when he was 10-11 and that seems just about the perfect age for it.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 31 December, 2011, 09:28:17 pm
Got a Kindle for Xmas, and it's lovely to use. Just finished Hitch-22, and have spent the odd moment free of kids over the hols reading Pnin by Nabokov. When asked, I can now say that my lecturing style is Pninian.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 01 January, 2012, 06:09:58 pm
Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.

Aeroplaniacs might like to know that there is a new coffee-table edition of this most excellent tome, containing about 25% less text but lots more pictures of BRITISH aeroplanes, plus a few manky FOREIGN ones.

Got this for Chrimblemass...  :thumbsup:

... along with Machiavelli's 'The Prince' and George R.R. Martin's 'A Dance With Dragons'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 January, 2012, 06:26:28 pm
The Etymologicon - quite an amusing read for those who like word play, and How To Teach Quantum Physics To Your Dog - a but harder going, even though it is dumbed down quite a lot!
Both 99p for Kindle ATM.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 01 January, 2012, 09:26:58 pm
Etymologicon was the book of the week on radio 4 a couple of weeks back.  Very interesting, from what I heard. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 January, 2012, 09:50:36 pm
I'm enjoying it, but I've been laughing at the stories about farting and shit, so that probably enlightens you somewhat ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 02 January, 2012, 09:26:00 am
The Etymologicon - quite an amusing read for those who like word play, and How To Teach Quantum Physics To Your Dog - a but harder going, even though it is dumbed down quite a lot!
Both 99p for Kindle ATM.
Ooh, thanks for the warning about the Etymologicon - have now downloaded it on my iPad Kindle
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 02 January, 2012, 09:34:28 am
Just started Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee. Not read anything by him before, but I see that he's a keen cyclist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 02 January, 2012, 09:42:34 am
I have a kindle and kindle in iPad, which are really good for reading on the go - and I'm on the go quite a bit. However, over the holiday period I have been craving a 'real' (rather than electronic) book, so I've started the paper version of 'Pride and Prejudice'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 January, 2012, 01:38:44 pm
Blood Hunt ~ Jack Harvey.  Who is really Ian Rankin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 January, 2012, 02:28:09 pm
The Etymologicon - quite an amusing read for those who like word play

My wife took up the 99p Kindle offer for that. I had a brief look at it and found the bit I read very amusing. Looking forward to reading it properly at some point.

Currently reading Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boxer-Beetle-Ned-Beauman/dp/0340998415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325600555&sr=8-1), which I've been itching to get hold of since I heard an interview with the author and an extract from the book on the Guardian books podcast when it was shortlisted for their first book prize. Only just started it on the train this morning but I'm already liking it very much. Exuberantly inventive use of language. Hints of Will Self, but perhaps not so obviously self-indulgent. (I see others have compared Ned Beauman to Michael Chabon [not necessarily favourably] but I've never read any of Chabon's stuff so I can't comment on that.)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 04 January, 2012, 09:43:54 pm
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testament_of_Gideon_Mack (contains spoilers)

I'm enjoying it immensely.  Very readable, quite funny and a bit thought provoking.  Likeable characters too.

C
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 05 January, 2012, 07:07:58 pm
I liked that book. I ended up with 2 copies though, can't fathom how or why, other than it was not long after Dad died and head was up my fundament.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 January, 2012, 02:37:48 pm
Currently reading Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boxer-Beetle-Ned-Beauman/dp/0340998415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325600555&sr=8-1)

By way of a review: I liked it very much. Funny, clever, well written. I will watch Ned Beauman's career with interest.

Just started on Julian Barnes's The Sense Of An Ending, which is a pure joy to read. He's one of those writers I could happily read on any subject because his prose is so beautifully clear, concise and elegant. Having said that, this isn't as riveting as Arthur & George and I can't help thinking it only got the Booker to make up for past oversights, much like Scorcese getting the Oscar for The Departed. It's also very short - started reading it over lunch and will probably finish it tonight.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 January, 2012, 03:18:27 pm
Finally got round to reading Camilla Lackberg's The Gallows Bird as for some reason the other four of hers available in English made it into Sainsbury's but this didn't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 09 January, 2012, 07:14:17 pm
Just started Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bodach on 09 January, 2012, 07:46:26 pm
Just finished The Uttermost part of the Earth by Lucas Bridges. A brilliant adventure of a missionary couple who settled near Usuiaia in Tierra Del Fuego to civilise and take christianity to the Yaghans there. They saw they population drop from some few thousands to a mere handfull mainly due to introduced diseases. They endured great hardship and raised a family there, witnessing the disappearance of the indigenous culture and managed to farm large tracts of the land. Brought back memories of Patagonia a few years ago.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 January, 2012, 10:04:41 am
Just started on Julian Barnes's The Sense Of An Ending, which is a pure joy to read.

Having finished it this morning, I'm revising that opinion. I don't think "joy" is the right word at all. It's actually quite painful. But it's bloody brilliant. It's very "literary", with all that entails (good and bad - I can see why it won the Booker), but I'm a white, middle-class, middle-aged man, so it speaks volumes to me. Hell, apart from a few details, it could almost be about me. And I wanted to go back to the start and read it all over again immediately, which is not something I say about a book very often.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 10 January, 2012, 05:51:31 pm
Now on Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything, so far seems quite good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arabella on 10 January, 2012, 07:04:21 pm
I agree.  Enjoyed it immensely.
I'm not really reading anything at the moment though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 11 January, 2012, 12:08:07 am
Recently finished Reamde by Neal Stephenson. Interesting in places but a disappointment after.Anathem.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 11 January, 2012, 10:00:58 am
Just started on Julian Barnes's The Sense Of An Ending, which is a pure joy to read.

Having finished it this morning, I'm revising that opinion. I don't think "joy" is the right word at all. It's actually quite painful. But it's bloody brilliant. It's very "literary", with all that entails (good and bad - I can see why it won the Booker), but I'm a white, middle-class, middle-aged man, so it speaks volumes to me. Hell, apart from a few details, it could almost be about me. And I wanted to go back to the start and read it all over again immediately, which is not something I say about a book very often.

d.

It is a bloody brilliant book, I could not stop thinking about the characters for a long time. I think one of the main 'joys' of the book is the character of Tony, who is so 'normal' and thinks that he has been leading this normal life can exact such extraordinary events/consequences. And never underestimate the power of suggestion!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 January, 2012, 12:04:36 pm
I think one of the main 'joys' of the book is the character of Tony, who is so 'normal' and thinks that he has been leading this normal life can exact such extraordinary events/consequences. And never underestimate the power of suggestion!

I love the way he misreads the signals from Veronica when they meet again. He is such a twat!

Now on to New Grub Street by George Gissing. Really enjoying it but slightly disconcerted by the fact that I already know the main characters, Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain. Well, I already know the radio comedy version of them...

I'm reading it on my wife's recommendation, and it wasn't until she read it last year that either of us realised that's where the characters in Ed Reardon's Week (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r5ck) came from. Now I'm beginning to understand just how closely Christopher Douglas based them on Gissing's characters. It adds an extra level of humour and pathos, though I keep wondering when we'll get to the bit where the journeyman Victorian hack scripts an episode of Tenko.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 11 January, 2012, 01:38:51 pm
I've been given a copy of 'Jane Austen's Heroes and Other Male Characters: A Sociological Study' by Reeta Sahney.  I can't wait to start it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 11 January, 2012, 02:57:13 pm
A book by Sun Yat-Sen.  If I give the title it'll give away the premise of a future ride. ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 13 January, 2012, 11:50:12 am
I just received a copy of Barring Mechanicals by a Mr Allsopp, about a little jaunt he rode on.  Not had a chance to get started on it, but it has a good review from a Sue Archer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 13 January, 2012, 01:06:40 pm
Cyclebabble, a digest of the Guardian Bike Blog, a present from my sister.

Great fun spotting people who I know in the comments.  So far Wowbagger, elyob (of urc), vorsprung x 2. And there's mention of a woman towering above the crowds on a penny en route for Dunwich.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 14 January, 2012, 11:46:46 am
I just received a copy of Barring Mechanicals by a Mr Allsopp, about a little jaunt he rode on.  Not had a chance to get started on it, but it has a good review from a Sue Archer.

It is indeed a very good read! :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 14 January, 2012, 06:27:43 pm
To that London today on a trip to the British Museum. To read on the train I took Sabor a Chocolate by Jose Carlos Carmona, a  novella in Spanish. I have had this on my bookshelf for some time waiting for the right time to read it (and it fitted easily into my jacket pocket). I do not think that this has been translated but I would recommend it as an ideal read for someone with Spanish at around A Level standard. It is a story about a Swiss boy in the 1920s who falls in love with a girl that he sees returning from her music class; his attempts to form a relationship with her fail until he opens a chocolate shop in order to win her - and of course his plans do not procede smoothly. I suppose it could be described as charming and has enough sharp edges to avoid being drippy.
Each chapter is around a page, sometimes less, so at 150 odd pages it isn't too daunting a prospect. Two hours on the train and I am about half way through without the aid of a dictionary - so it might be suitable as a first novel for someone studying Spanish at school. I have had a quick look on a couple of Spanish bookworm websites and it seems to be quite well thought of. Available from Amazon.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 14 January, 2012, 08:44:27 pm
Just finished Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard, and started Humboldts Gift by Saul Bellow.

The ending of Cocaine Nights annoyed me. I felt like the twist wasn't justifiable, or at least only weakly justified by what went before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 January, 2012, 04:35:23 pm
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.

This is next on my "to read" pile. I know nothing about Japan...

d.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 January, 2012, 08:28:51 am
I left Jacob de Zoet to one side and instead picked up...

The Pickwick Papers.

Which is surprising me by being laugh-out-loud funny.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 21 January, 2012, 08:32:00 am
I am in the last 250 pages of The OtherWorld saga, and am thinking what to read next, maybe work through last year's Booker prize nominees or just read some trash.

Shall update when I have decided :)

If I could find it, I would read "Two Wheels Over Catalonia" again, but I can't remember where I have put it :( Nor, even, any of the other cycling books I had....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 21 January, 2012, 06:22:13 pm
Am reading the last of the 4 book series by Christopher Paolini, which is called 'Inheritance'. I am now more than happy to forgive the 3rd book.

On my Kindle I am reading the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are so well written!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 21 January, 2012, 06:31:39 pm
El Zorro by Isabel Allende. Elegant, crisp prose. I do enjoy reading her books; this should last me about a month on the train - sometimes I really enjoy commuting!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 22 January, 2012, 09:45:08 am
Just started the Endymion omnibus by Dan Simmons. Trying to handle this breezeblock of a book is making me warm to the idea of a Kindle...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 22 January, 2012, 09:56:59 am
Still reading Racing in the Dark by David Millar on my Christmas Kindle.
It is well written but quite sad in places, so I can't just plough through it as I would a fantasy novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 22 January, 2012, 03:10:45 pm
"The House of Silk" (Sherlock Holmes) by Anthony Horowitz
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andrij on 22 January, 2012, 09:24:51 pm
A friend has recommended S@motność w Sieci (Loneliness on the Net) by Janusz Wiśniewski, letting me borrow a translation into Ukrainian she just finished reading.

As one could guess from the title, it's not coming across as a cheery bit of writing.  I'm persevering because of her recommendation (though I have my suspicions) and because it's been ages since I've read any proper literature.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 23 January, 2012, 05:29:38 pm
"In Search of Robert Millar"
My christmas pressie book on the kindle. I'm enjoying it so far.
Next up is "Cycling Home from Siberia". Did I mention I like reading books about cycling?  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 23 January, 2012, 05:47:41 pm
Fading into the Limelight - Peter Sallis's autobiography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 24 January, 2012, 09:48:19 am
Just finished Siddhartha Mukherjee's "The Emperor of all Maladies - a biography of cancer". Excellently-written, fascinating, scary. I'm very glad my cancer is 18 years ago, though, else I might get perturbed. Don't read it if you're still in treatment as it's scary (although gets more positive towards the end).

I was interested to read that I shared my type of cancer with a thousand year old mummy from Peru.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 January, 2012, 10:10:34 am
The Weird: A Compendium Of Strange And Dark Stories.  Being an 1100 page breeze-block of a book.  Silly review at clicky (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/18/beware-the-weird-anthology).  Sorry, that links to the Grauniad :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 January, 2012, 11:18:46 am
Richard Ballantine's New Bicycle book, picked up for the princely sum of £2.99 from a charity book shop yesterday (whilst avoiding the rain and before I went back for a second dip at my favourite record shop)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 24 January, 2012, 11:23:54 am
Frontsoldaten by Stephen G. Fritz

The book is a collection of diary notes and letters written by German infantry soldiers in the Second World War. The author states in the introduction that he has only chosen the material from regular infantry, rather than elite units, as he wanted to give an impression of what the war was like for the average soldier instead of from a more radicalised perspective.

The author doesn't spend any time describing the war itself, other than to contextually place the soldiers that he is writing about in that chapter. eg. In the 1942 German push into Russia... In 1944, as the German forces were withdrawing from Russia... The chapters are made up from different diaries and letters, threaded together by Fritz with very little in the way of journalistic/artistic embellishment.

It is a very powerful book, I'm half way through it (52% according to my Kobo) and it has often left me feeling sad or bewildered, such is the impact of the passages. It really does present a tragic and upsetting human account of war, the likes of which I have not encountered before in more factual books. For anyone who has watched The World at War series, this book creates the same feeling of wonder and despair that the documentary did.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frontsoldaten-German-Soldier-World-ebook/dp/B0054Q47NQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327403391&sr=8-2
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 24 January, 2012, 01:06:09 pm
I am reading 'The Left Hand of God' by Paul Hoffman.

It's dreadful.  So dreadful that it's not even at the 'guilty pleasure' level of rubbish.

One reviewer (which I wish I had read before purchase) said "The story, though, is all over the place, like mad woman’s custard."

I don't believe in burning books but this would probably serve me better as kindling than fiction. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 24 January, 2012, 01:11:49 pm
Three Men in a Boat.

Given to me by a friend just after our own attempt on the Thames last year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 24 January, 2012, 01:15:33 pm
Am reading the last of the 4 book series by Christopher Paolini, which is called 'Inheritance'. I am now more than happy to forgive the 3rd book.

On my Kindle I am reading the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are so well written!

The Return of Sherlock Holmes. They are brilliant stories!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 24 January, 2012, 01:40:50 pm
I am reading 'The Left Hand of God' by Paul Hoffman.

It's dreadful.  So dreadful that it's not even at the 'guilty pleasure' level of rubbish.

One reviewer (which I wish I had read before purchase) said "The story, though, is all over the place, like mad woman’s custard."

I don't believe in burning books but this would probably serve me better as kindling than fiction.

Ugh, I read that a while ago. At the end it gleefully heralds the soon arrival of the next book :sick:

What a crappy book! Descriptively poor. Dislikeable characters. An indiscernible evil plot. A classically useless maiden whose uselessness is a hindrance to the boys escape. Rubbish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 24 January, 2012, 07:38:53 pm
The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone, actually very good  8)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 24 January, 2012, 07:50:23 pm
a C2C guide
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 24 January, 2012, 07:52:08 pm
Waylander by David Gemmell.............. again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 25 January, 2012, 04:37:11 pm
Am reading the last of the 4 book series by Christopher Paolini, which is called 'Inheritance'. I am now more than happy to forgive the 3rd book.

On my Kindle I am reading the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are so well written!

The Return of Sherlock Holmes. They are brilliant stories!

I think Sherlock Holmes stories are great aswell. I like when he talks about going somewhere like Yorkshire and it takes all day. Or Farnham being right out in the sticks.
Another thing that struck me recently is that all Dr Watson's patients would have been private, ie paying. I hadn't really thought about that before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 25 January, 2012, 04:40:40 pm
"The Mechanical Turk" by Tom Standage. True story of a machine made to play chess in the late 1700's. Love the way the book concludes with the "Deep Blue" matches. Very interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 January, 2012, 04:45:09 pm
Having finished After London, disappointed in the lack of geographical information (I had sadly misremembered), and coming towards the end of Andy Allsopp's excellent Barring Mechanicals, I have picked up again on the Fignon autobiography on the Kindle app.  Seems he spends a lot of time saying 'That's how it was' and suggesting the early 80s was a golden age of cycle racing.  Maybe it was, and it was certainly a time when some heroic figures competed - Hinault, Zootemelk etc, but I'm not sure.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 25 January, 2012, 09:19:12 pm
Am reading the last of the 4 book series by Christopher Paolini, which is called 'Inheritance'. I am now more than happy to forgive the 3rd book.

On my Kindle I am reading the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are so well written!

The Return of Sherlock Holmes. They are brilliant stories!

I think Sherlock Holmes stories are great aswell. I like when he talks about going somewhere like Yorkshire and it takes all day. Or Farnham being right out in the sticks.
Another thing that struck me recently is that all Dr Watson's patients would have been private, ie paying. I hadn't really thought about that before.

Farnham was featured in this afternoon's episode on TV, 'The Man on the Bicycle'. It was creepy!

I love how ACD knows the exact mileage between London Bridge and Lee, which is 7 miles and then he uses a local historical name for one of the characters. It makes you realise his local London knowledge was well researched.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 25 January, 2012, 11:03:47 pm
Tim Krabbé's The Rider - again  :)

Every time I read that book, I seem to find something new. Very droll.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 26 January, 2012, 10:29:13 am
Can't get that on my Kindle app :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Speshact on 28 January, 2012, 09:55:48 pm
In preparation of the Olympics I'm re-reading a favourite battered paperback, 'The Truth About Wilson' by W.S.K. Webb.

"Who was this Wilson? A slight, wiry figure in an old-fashioned, black running costume, he appeared out of the mists of the Yorkshire moors to shatter athletic records like cheap crockery, all over the world. He was an enigma, a mystery - but he was news! And now, at last, his astounding story can be revealed. Now the incredible truth can be told."

It's great escapist comic book fantasy (and was a comic book strip in the Wizard).

It turns out to be out of print but copies are available via Amazon from
(click to show/hide)

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Truth-about-Wilson-W-Webb/dp/B0018H0ESM



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 January, 2012, 02:18:19 pm
Have just started reading 'Lady Audley's Secret' by M.E. Braddon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jane on 29 January, 2012, 02:28:59 pm
I'm re reading In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas.  Thinking of riding the route again (did it about  7 years ago).  Some extracts here.
http://www.inpursuitofspring.co.uk/index.htm (http://www.inpursuitofspring.co.uk/index.htm)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 29 January, 2012, 02:37:30 pm
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel on my Kindle.

A very clear explanation of some principles of quantum physics; It feels like I'm getting a real understanding of the subject, albeit at the most basic level.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 January, 2012, 06:54:06 pm
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel on my Kindle.

A very clear explanation of some principles of quantum physics; It feels like I'm getting a real understanding of the subject, albeit at the most basic level.

I'm still reading that. I can only manage a couple of pages at a time, otherwise it feels too much like work :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 29 January, 2012, 07:29:13 pm
 
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel on my Kindle.

A very clear explanation of some principles of quantum physics; It feels like I'm getting a real understanding of the subject, albeit at the most basic level.

I'm still reading that. I can only manage a couple of pages at a time, otherwise it feels too much like work :(

Dunno if it's any help, but I find that if plough through it with a certain amount of suspension of understanding, and then explain it to myself, I do (I think) understand and as a result I'm finding it hard to put down. I may end up reading it more than once tho'but.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 January, 2012, 07:51:32 pm
The Chimp Paradox.

Makes a lot of things make sense.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 29 January, 2012, 08:18:21 pm
At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig - John Gimlette. Travels in and history of Paraguay. Amusingly written, I am enjoying this so recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 12 February, 2012, 01:53:34 pm
Committed, by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I'm only half way through it but it occurs to me that someone who's not even married yet, would be wise to be a bit less SMUG about her marriage  :-\

Tempting fate much Liz?

Come back in 30 years and give us a halfway sitrep.  By then I'll be prepared to give you credibility.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 12 February, 2012, 02:19:01 pm
Miles From Nowhere by Barbara Savage,courtesy of Lindagordhino otp
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 February, 2012, 02:19:51 pm
An Optimists Tour of the Future - Mark Stevenson

A look at what's just around the corner in AI, Biotech, Nanotech and Space. Basically stuff that's just leaving or about to leave  the labs and they are working out how to get into production. Fascinating and makes a change from the usual doom and gloom. Old film printing factories being bought lock stock and barrel as they go bust and getting converted to print flexible organic based solar cells on the same machinery was an eye opener.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 February, 2012, 11:09:32 am
C by Tom McCarthy

Not sure how I feel about it, tbh, but I'm only a quarter of the way through. It's another one I've been wanting to read for a while, so maybe I was expecting too much. Or maybe it's just not the best choice immediately after finishing Pickwick Papers - the change of pace is somewhat jarring. Having said that, I was beginning to get bored of Pickwick Papers by the end, and C is much more the kind of thing I like to read, though I can see why some have labelled it as pretentious literary wank.

I have Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie lined up next. Sounds like a good old-fashioned ripping yarn. Maybe I should have read that first. And David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet, which I'm building up to - sounds like a bit of an epic.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 13 February, 2012, 01:02:54 pm
I'm about a hundred pages into 'Under the Dome' by Stephen King. A weighty tome for sure but the start is encouraging.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 13 February, 2012, 01:50:40 pm
Flint by Louis L'Amour
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 14 February, 2012, 12:05:41 pm
Am full of joy as am reading the new Bernie Gunther thriller, 'Prague Fatale' by Philip Kerr  :D

And...drumroll...there will be a new one out in 2013 which makes me very happy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 14 February, 2012, 12:25:59 pm
Saturday by Ian McEwan. First book of his I've read, and a treat so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 14 February, 2012, 12:40:18 pm
Swords and Swordsmen by Mike Loades.

A difficult book to categorise. It's like 'a short history of nearly everything', but via the medium of sharp pointy bits of metal.  A look at some historical figures through the arms they carried or used - e.g. Tutankhamun's khepesh, Maximilian I's war sword.  Whatever.  It's a book about swords and swordsmen, written by someone who knows how to use the kit he's discussing.  It's well-written, and contains some of Mr Loades' personal theories, based upon spending a lot of time trying to make practical use of things that modern life has erased from knowledge.  There's also some occasional anecdote about TV and film, freezing ones bits off during long night shoots.  So far, I like it.

It's a nice complement to 'By the Sword' by the sabreur Richard Cohen, which I read some years ago.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 14 February, 2012, 06:18:02 pm
God is not great by the late great Christopher Hitchens, very good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 February, 2012, 11:56:09 am
Whatever (original title "L'Extension du Domaine de la Lutte") by Michel Houellebecq.

Love it. It's hilarious. Will probably appeal to anyone who likes the more self-indulgent end of the spectrum of Will Self's writing. Can't believe I've never read any of Houellebecq's stuff before.

Edit: it occurs to me that his studied, cynical misanthropy probably makes him a French Charlie Brooker.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 21 February, 2012, 01:19:54 pm
...

I have Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie lined up next. Sounds like a good old-fashioned ripping yarn. Maybe I should have read that first. And David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet, which I'm building up to - sounds like a bit of an epic.

d.

I'm on page 400 and something of this at the moment, having just read David Mitchell's "Black Swan Green" and "Ghostwritten" in close succession. I'm really pleased to have found this fabulous writer. The 400 odd pages have whizzed by...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 February, 2012, 01:23:51 pm
Good to hear. I'm looking forward to it.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ian H on 21 February, 2012, 02:11:56 pm
I can't honestly say that the prospect of reading about sports persons' tales of derring do has ever appealed. However, I thought I'd better skim through Laurent Fignon's autobiography, an unasked for loan, before handing it back. It's actually an engrossing story, at least as far as I've got, which is halfway. 

Before that I re-read The Ancient Mariner for the first time since my children were very young. Wonderful stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 21 February, 2012, 02:34:02 pm
The Sentinels: Fortunes of War by Gordon Zuckerman

Simply dreadful.

The basic premise is a group of uber-(inherited)rich kids, all of whom are both super beautiful and super intelligent, conspire to steal squillions from super rich industrialists who are attempting to extricate their immense wealth from a collapsing Nazi Germany, by ostensibly helping them achieve it.

The characters make me want to vomit. The plot is bearable, but I can't help but get incredibly irritated at the super-rich protagonists and the incredible privileges that their money buys them in the midst of a war that is destroying millions of lives.

I should really have known that I would hate it, but the blurb made it sound a) fiction that takes place believably within a historical setting and b) a lot more 'Robin Hood' than simply blindingly rich people, stealing from other even richer people.

http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-War-Sentinels-Book-Greenleaf/dp/1929774648


Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam by Christopher Ronnau

Bloody brilliant.

A superb illustration of the author's experience as a light infantry soldier in Vietnam. It paints a picture of the ignorance and pointlessness of the war, from the footsoldier's perspective. He focusses on his memories (and diary entries) of boredom, terror and the disgraceful lack of training that he experienced aswell as some of the lighter moments such as his description of attempting to play it cool on one occasion that they had to share a shower with some Vietnamese women, that backfired when he realised that although he had managed to nonchalantly strip off and walk into the showers - he had forgotten to take his helmet off. It had me snorting with laughter on the train.

He isn't particularly descriptive of actual events, rather focuses on telling the reader how he was feeling / what he was thinking which is a very engaging way to read about his time in 'the Nam'.

I highly recommend it. :thumbsup:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Trails-Combat-Soldier-Vietnam/dp/0891418830
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 February, 2012, 03:49:22 pm
Graham Hurley's DI Faraday series.  Unfashionably set in Portsmouth and not nearly as well known as Inspectors Banks, Thorne or Rebus, or Sergeant McRae.  Not quite as good, either, but worth a punt if you like that sort of thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 21 February, 2012, 06:18:59 pm
In a free state by VS Naipaul.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: John Henry on 21 February, 2012, 06:28:55 pm
...

And David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet, which I'm building up to - sounds like a bit of an epic.

d.

I'm on page 400 and something of this at the moment, having just read David Mitchell's "Black Swan Green" and "Ghostwritten" in close succession. I'm really pleased to have found this fabulous writer. The 400 odd pages have whizzed by...

David Mitchell is rapidly becoming one of my top 5 authors. I've recently read Cloud Atlas (wow!) and re-read 'Black Swan Green' (which I love because I live near where it's set) and I'm currently reading 'Ghostwritten'. It's all just amazingly good.

How he finds time to do all those sitcoms and panel shows is beyond me. (I know - 1/10 for wit).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 February, 2012, 07:29:48 pm
Branson by Tom Bower, actually interesting and thought provoking
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 21 February, 2012, 08:35:53 pm
Walter Isaacson's hefty biography of Steve Jobs. Totally fascinating in so many ways, not only Steve Jobs's unique and often difficult personality. The early days of personal computers and the driven characters that invented it. The fertile ground of Silicon Valley - I used to travel there once or twice a year with work, so I'm familiar with Palo Alto, Stanford University, Mountain View etc - the geography of the area and all the tech developments that came out of that atmosphere (if I could choose to live anywhere in the world it would be there). The politics of a young, rapidly expanding company, personality clashes that decided which products were developed and sold. Last but not least, the detailed history of Apple computers - although I was aware of them from the days of the Commodore Pet and Sinclair ZX81, I only bought one for myself shortly after Jobs returned in the late 90s, so the detailed history of the Lisa, the first Macintosh, the folly that was NeXT is engrossing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arallsopp on 23 February, 2012, 12:29:48 pm
...coming towards the end of Andy Allsopp's excellent Barring Mechanicals

I'm glad you enjoyed it mate (presumably you've finished now, right?). Good to see you last night.

Andy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 23 February, 2012, 12:35:40 pm
You didn't give up before the end, so I didn't either. ;D

At the risk of causing blushes, I've got to say it's a great read, and I really like your writing style.  You manage to tell the story and keep the dramatic tension going while still managing to express the longueurs of long distance riding, and covering amusing diversions.

I look forward to the next instalment ;)

Yes.  Good to see you last night.  I thought it was ambitious trying to ride that slowly on a bent, so I was trying to talk to you and leave you enough space at the same time.  Not sure it worked all the time.

Look forward to seeing you on a more normal paced ride soon :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 February, 2012, 05:54:30 pm
Totally loving Jamrach's Menagerie so far, about a quarter of the way through. I can see why some think it should have won the Booker. My vote still goes with Julian Barnes but there's not much in it.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 23 February, 2012, 05:58:57 pm
Branson by Tom Bower, actually interesting and thought provoking

        Over halfway through this book, unbiased it does not come across as, vitriol drips from every click of the keyboard, maybe Branson screwed this guys wife but something has made him hate the bloke.
        I remember back in the late 70's in The Boat Inn @ Thrupp down the road from The Manor, Richard Branson was in there with some members of one of his bands and it came up in conversation that my wife (Barbara) was pretty good on folk guitar, RB leered over saying "come up to the Manor m'dear", knowing his reputation I instinctively replied "Foxtrot Oscar" thus condemning myself to a life of poverty and rollockins from said wife for possible  lack of fame. Ah well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 February, 2012, 06:11:28 pm
Over halfway through this, unbiased it does not come across as, vitriol drips from every click of the keyboard, maybe Branson screwed this guys wife but something has made him hate the bloke.

Maybe he's listened to Tubular Bells?

I like Tom Bower and consider him to be a journalist of great integrity. His book Broken Dreams, about corruption in football, is a must-read for anyone who still thinks of it as "the beautiful game".

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 26 February, 2012, 09:27:14 am
Marcus Aurelius - Frank McLynn

A huge biography of the Stoic Philosopher and Emperor. He's the one who is Emperor at the beginning of Gladiator by the way. A fascinating man and it seems genuinely a nice guy in so much as you can be nice when your Emperor of Rome. Was fine about being criticised by the Senate or playwrites and even tried to have the man who tried to usurp him exiled rather than killed (but a centurion got their first and ran the usurper through). Spent his first 40 odd years in Rome or the environs then when trouble broke out on the Danube border turned out to be a great general (in the Eisenhower mode ie he did the planning and admin and let fighting generals handle the battles) too even though he had zero military experience. A shame his son and successor was such a nutter.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 26 February, 2012, 09:43:10 am
Just ordered Pavel and I which is a good read according to the beeb and others

http://danvyleta.com/reviews/

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: WhizzBang on 26 February, 2012, 04:10:47 pm
I am just finishing It's not about the bike.  Guess everyone knows the "story" of Lance Armstrong but the book has really bought home the enormity of his triumph against cancer and the triumph of his return...an incredible read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 27 February, 2012, 11:28:26 am
Finished Complicity by Iain Banks, and currently reading Whatever by Michel Houellebecq.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 29 February, 2012, 06:07:36 pm
Just finished The Bride Stripped Bare by Nikki Gemmell.

Disappointing.  I can only think I'm not the target audience, because I found the narrator completely unsympathetic.  She filled me with pity - which is not terribly erotic.

The best part of the book was the end.  The description of new motherhood was, in fact, quite beautiful and I read it again just for the pleasure of it.

Never mind eh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 February, 2012, 06:20:31 pm
Just finished The Bride Stripped Bare by Nikki Gemmell.

Intrigued by your report, I looked it up on Amazon and read some of the reviews. The words "shocking" and "disturbing" are bandied about a fair bit. Thing is, the only book I've read in which the sex scenes were genuinely shocking and/or disturbing was American Psycho, and somehow I doubt this is covering the same kind of territory.  ;D

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 29 February, 2012, 06:45:52 pm
I found it neither shocking or disturbing.  Mundane, if anything.
Title: Winter in Madrid
Post by: Quint on 29 February, 2012, 08:30:45 pm
Now on "Winter in Madrid" by CJ Sansom, quite good so far
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 February, 2012, 08:37:01 pm
Just finished Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds. An ok story but I wouldn't say the characters were up to his usual standard.

Now reading one of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books, just for a bit of light relief and I know I'll get through it quickly, and it was free.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andrij on 29 February, 2012, 10:42:27 pm
A friend has recommended S@motność w Sieci (Loneliness on the Net) by Janusz Wiśniewski, letting me borrow a translation into Ukrainian she just finished reading.

As one could guess from the title, it's not coming across as a cheery bit of writing.  I'm persevering because of her recommendation (though I have my suspicions) and because it's been ages since I've read any proper literature.

Finally got around to finishing this.  In spite being a bit of a romantic, I'm not really keen on 'romance' as a genre.  That said, I think it is well written (though the translation goofs were irksome).  But what I found quite annoying was the way the author messes with timelines.  I'm OK with flashbacks, but when movement from one to the next is in the same direction.  These were all over the place.  They work in this story, but can be a bit jarring.

As mentioned in the Grumble thread, I had to refer to a dictionary quite frequently.  Nought to do with the writer or translator, just kept coming across quite a few words which were new to me.  Thankfully around 1/3 of the way in my need for the dictionary drastically decreased, making the reading a bit more enjoyable.

It's still a mystery as to why my friend recommended this book.  When I meet up to return the book I must find a subtle way to to find out her motives.

If you like romances, and don't mind tragedy, I recommend this book (in a translation of your choice, of course).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 01 March, 2012, 07:42:50 am
Just finished Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds. An ok story but I wouldn't say the characters were up to his usual standard.

Now reading one of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books, just for a bit of light relief and I know I'll get through it quickly, and it was free.
There's a new book in that series out this week. The author is doing an event as part of the Essex Book Festival at our church (big 330 seat venue in central Colchester) which was sold out within a month.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 01 March, 2012, 07:52:37 am
just finished the autobiog of Chrissie Wellington (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrissie_Wellington), world champion triathlete. She's remarkable in lots of ways, not just that she didnt start triathlon (or any competitive sport, really) till she was about 30 then just kept winning stuff, but also brutally honest about her relationships with food and other people. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 01 March, 2012, 09:24:15 pm
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Very funny and quirky (reminds me of The Bromeliads by Terry Pratchett). I'm only a bit into it, but it's had me laughing out loud and it revolves around characters and plots in other famous books, difficult to explain, read it though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 01 March, 2012, 10:55:56 pm
I'm about a hundred pages into 'Under the Dome' by Stephen King. A weighty tome for sure but the start is encouraging.

That's lord of the flies Stephen King style that is. I enjoyed it.

Currently reading 11/22/63 - which is a fantastically interesting concept, and mostly well implemented, but I am a bit bogged down in the middle at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: E.C. Ryder on 04 March, 2012, 12:58:33 pm
I`ve just finished Frank Bruno `Fighting Back` I`m not a great boxing fan but I`ve met Frank a few time when he lived in Stondon Massey so it was an interesting read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 05 March, 2012, 06:29:32 pm
Just finished the epic Endymion omnibus by Dan Simmons, followed by Raiders of the Lost Car Park by Robert Rankin for a bit of light relief.

Just started The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 March, 2012, 08:29:39 pm
"Snuff" by Mr T. Pratchett.

One of his best yet.

Shame.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 05 March, 2012, 08:37:37 pm
Is Terry being sardonic there?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 11 March, 2012, 07:07:58 pm
Just finished "Inside the Giant Machine: Confessions of a Former Amazon.com Technologist". I liked doing business with Amazon a lot more before I read this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 11 March, 2012, 09:28:46 pm
I have recently read:

Me Before you- Jojo Moyes  Excellent read. I would highly recommend it.

Before I go to Sleep- S J Watson.  Another fantastic book, took me by surprise. A real insight into trauma induced amnesia.

Against All Odds - Paul Connelly.  A moving autobiography, although some of it just a touch self-congratulatory.

Till Undeath Do Us Part- Anthony Camber.  Not my usual genre of book but written by a friend of a friend. Gay zombie stories are certainly 'different'!

The Wicked Girls- Alex Marwood.  A gripping page turner. Also highly recommended.

One Cold Night - Katia Lief.  A good read with suspense and believable characters.

Currently reading:
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog - Chad Orzel.  My dogs are being a bit slow on the uptake so far, but I stopped studying physics after O' level so never had the joys of quantum physics at school. I might actually learn something (whether it will be useful or not is another matter).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 11 March, 2012, 09:32:31 pm
I heard Radio 4 Extra re-running the Father Brown Mysteries, with Andrew Sachs as the unassuming priest.  Ingenious and funny.  So I downloaded the complete collection.  I'd forgotten what a hilarious turn of phrase Chesterton has.  I find some of his religious mcguffin a bit heavy-handed, but his heart seemed to be in the right place.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 11 March, 2012, 09:56:38 pm
White Fang.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 11 March, 2012, 11:54:13 pm
The first chapter of "White Fang" is some of Jack London's best storytelling. The whole book is good, but the first chapter is really good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 12 March, 2012, 12:54:02 am
Bloody commie! ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 12 March, 2012, 09:46:00 am
The City & The City - China Miéville
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alexb on 16 March, 2012, 05:56:27 pm
I've just finished the Millenium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc...) spurred on by watching the film recently. I'd read the first book, but not bothered with the others. However, I was amazed at how gripping the story became.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. I really like his fiction and this was excellent. If you've never read it, the Wind Up Girl is superb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 16 March, 2012, 06:04:57 pm
Have just finished "Winter in Madrid", must admit to being a tad depressed at the fashion to have a f****d up ending with no good news or nobody but the bad guys winning, lets have the odd one where somebody lives with a future at the end  :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 16 March, 2012, 06:30:30 pm
Put Me Back on My Bike
Biography of Tom Simpson, by William Fotheringham.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 17 March, 2012, 11:29:28 pm
"A View from the Foothills", by Chris Mullin. It was recommended to me by Peli, of this parish, last heard of somewhere in Chile.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It's certainly very readable and has some strong recommendations as a political diary and quite a lot of it is entertaining. Mullin was appointed by Blair as a Junior Minister, firstly under Prescott at Environment, then Clare Short at International Development, and finally at the Foreign Office under Jack Straw.

This volume covers the period from 1999 to 2005: the last entry in the diary is after the 2005 election in which Blair sacks him from his job and puts someone else in his place. For someone touted as a left-winger, he seems remarkably sycophantic to Blair- but then I suppose in the early days most Labour MPs did. Although Mullin voted against the Iraq War, he still remains loyal to "The Man", as he calls Tony Blair. It's very interesting that he seems to be completely hostile to Gordon Brown throughout. The Decline and Fall (2005 - 2010) is the second volume, and I would think they might be a bit more interesting: I gain the impression from the volume I've read that perhaps Mullin is holding back in his descriptions of Tony Blair.

I'm going to order Decline & Fall now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: GruB on 18 March, 2012, 09:47:34 am
I still haven't finished David Millars book - it is quite dark at times.
I have a long train journey tomorrow, so last night I bought the complete Guide the Hitchhikers Galaxy  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 18 March, 2012, 11:26:22 am
Reading Super Cannes by Ballard atm. I recently read Cocaine Nights, and this is said to be a companion. It does feel like he's taken the same idea, and just changed the setting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 18 March, 2012, 04:28:36 pm
Reading Super Cannes by Ballard atm. I recently read Cocaine Nights, and this is said to be a companion. It does feel like he's taken the same idea, and just changed the setting.
Ditto. Cocaine Nights blew me away (DYSWIDT?!?), so Super Cannes was a real letdown.
Also to be avoided - his novella Running Wild. A plodding  "mystery".

I must read Crash some day - great film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 18 March, 2012, 11:38:24 pm
Having finished Cycling Home From Siberia by Rob Lilwall.

I’m working now on "Until Undeath do us Part” by Anthony Camber. “Like Shaun of the Dead, but gayer”. Anthony Camber is a pseudonym, the author is an ex colleague of mine. It’s set in Cambridge so many of the places described are familiar.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 21 March, 2012, 05:21:49 pm
Last night I read "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick
It kind of reminded me of some film starring Arnold Sandwichmaker set on Mars......

Now reading George Orwell's "Animal Farm"   

I wuv my kindle! :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 24 March, 2012, 09:11:00 pm
Inspired by R4, I've just read everything by J L Carr that Reading library has: The Harpole Report,
How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup, & (the best, by far) A Month in the Country.

I'm now making my first ever foray into Stendhal: The Charterhouse of Parma. Page 77, & OK so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 24 March, 2012, 09:17:59 pm
On the street where you live by Mary Higgins Clark, tis good  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 24 March, 2012, 09:25:53 pm
Quote
Inspired by R4, I've just read everything by J L Carr that Reading library

What was it on R4 that inspired you, Bledlow?
If you've come to like  JL Carr, the biography by Byron Rogers (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Englishman-Life-J-L-Carr/dp/1854108387/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332624249&sr=1-2) is a good read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 24 March, 2012, 09:30:49 pm
The Harpole Report. May still be available on iplayer. Broadcast Monday 12th to Friday 16th March, 11.45 & 19.45.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Arch on 24 March, 2012, 09:32:34 pm
I have been working my way through the Rev. W. Awdry's railway series.  On to book 39 when I get home, just read 38,  'Wilbert, The Forest Engine', before the weekend.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gaston Lagaffe on 24 March, 2012, 09:40:59 pm
Our Man In Havana again.  Which reminds me I must re read Scoop
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 March, 2012, 11:13:23 am
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Definitely worth reading, so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 25 March, 2012, 02:45:12 pm
The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst. I can't think of a single YACFer who wouldn't like it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 26 March, 2012, 07:06:22 pm
Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw's book on quantum mechanics. Trouble is, I can't stop reading it - in my mind - in an annoying "isn't the universe brilliant?" northern voice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 27 March, 2012, 06:05:55 pm
Just started Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer, first by him I have read, so far very good, I have been very lucky recently with three absorbing reads  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 27 March, 2012, 06:09:26 pm
The Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley. Interesting, but slightly tough going for a dummy like me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 March, 2012, 08:20:09 am
Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw's book on quantum mechanics. Trouble is, I can't stop reading it - in my mind - in an annoying "isn't the universe brilliant?" northern voice.

I've just finished Jon Ronson's Psychopath Test and had a similar problem - his voice comes through very clearly. Good book though. Funny and fascinating.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 28 March, 2012, 05:21:49 pm
I'm about a hundred pages into 'Under the Dome' by Stephen King. A weighty tome for sure but the start is encouraging.

That's lord of the flies Stephen King style that is. I enjoyed it.


Finished it now.

I lke King and I liked this with the exception of the way he ended the book, a bit meh, for me. Not dissapointed in how the book ended, just in how he got there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 28 March, 2012, 05:44:11 pm
Having finished Cycling Home From Siberia by Rob Lilwall.

I’m working now on "Until Undeath do us Part” by Anthony Camber. “Like Shaun of the Dead, but gayer”. Anthony Camber is a pseudonym, the author is an ex colleague of mine. It’s set in Cambridge so many of the places described are familiar.

Finished it. Only book I've read where the word 'fugly' is used in prose. :)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 29 March, 2012, 07:10:01 pm
Just finished Surface Detail by Iain M Banks. I was a bit wary after some of the slightly negative opinions on here about it being a bit slow to get going. However, I didn't think that at all: maybe it's because I'm used to his style.

I reckon it's by far his funniest Culture novel: the scenes involving Av. Demeisen/Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints are fantastic - particularly his appearance at the Board of Inquiry at the end  ;D

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 April, 2012, 03:46:08 pm
Death Comes To Pemberley - PD James's murder mystery sequel to Pride & Prejudice.

I love Pride & Prejudice but don't think I've read any PD James before. Based on what I've read so far, I don't think I'll be reading any more PD James in a hurry. So far, it's dull, prolix and humourless.

I'm going to continue with it to give it a chance to redeem itself but I think I'll need to re-read the original Austen afterwards to purge this from my system.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 02 April, 2012, 04:17:01 pm
I had to look up "prolix" as I haven't encountered the word before. It's a good word. I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Recently I've read Kim by Rudyard Kipling and Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Both books about India, and both very good. I expected not to enjoy Kim, as Kipling's association with Empire taints his reputation, but his love of the country shines through, and a lot of his observations and experiences still ring with truth. I found myself smiling at some of the descriptions of places and people, and I passed it on to a backpacker in Delhi. Midnight's Children was a similar experience, in that I enjoyed reading about places I'd been, or planned to visit, but it had more depth and humour. I enjoyed them both, and the different perspectives on India.

Right now, I'm reading the Troy trilogy by David Gemmell. Stupid re-telling of the Iliad with lots of blud, but good escapist stuff. Cheers, Tiermat, for sending them on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 02 April, 2012, 04:18:48 pm
I've read 'Kim'.  I was very disappointed.  She doesn't even appear once. :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 02 April, 2012, 04:30:09 pm
I know! Imagine my disappointment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 April, 2012, 05:48:02 pm
I had to look up "prolix" as I haven't encountered the word before. It's a good word.

It is a good word, though I always think it sounds like it should mean something different.

Quote
I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I generally shy away from sequels not by the original author and I'm not entirely sure why I picked up the PD James. So Pride & Prejudice & Zombies doesn't really appeal, tbh, though I imagine at least it might be a bit more amusing and a lot less pretentious than Death Comes To Pemberley.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 April, 2012, 12:15:10 pm
After having disposed of Jo Nesbo's Phantom (the latest featuring Harry Hole) in a single session yesterday, I am now on The Wood Cutter by Reginald Hill.  I'd never heard of him until he got on R4's Last Words recently, but it seems he invented Dalziel & PascoeThe Wood Cutter is jolly good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 April, 2012, 01:28:44 pm
Death Comes To Pemberley didn't improve as it went on. Awful book. Just bog standard fan fiction. I thought PD James was supposed to be a better writer than that.

Now reading Post Everything by Luke Haines - the memoirs of a B-list 90s indie pop star. It's very, very funny. All the more so for its extremely bitter tone - though you do get the feeling that he's actually a lovely bloke underneath it all, and most of his targets seem to deserve it. There's a particularly scathing description of a music journalist he encounters while promoting one of his records, which I especially enjoyed because said music journalist is now a colleague of mine - he wasn't named in the book but he's easily recognisable.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 06 April, 2012, 11:11:51 pm
I thought PD James was supposed to be a better writer than that.

PD James is a great writer.  Try 'Children of Men'.  It's good.

I'm reading Madame Bovary by someone French, and 'Becoming What I Am' by HA Williams, and 'The Other Side of the Sky' by AC Clarke.

I have a feeling it's not going to end well for Mme B.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 April, 2012, 05:34:53 pm
PD James is a great writer.

My dad says so too, and I trust his judgment on these matters. However, I would urge both you and my dad not to read Death Comes To Pemberley if you want to maintain your good opinion of her.

Quote
Try 'Children of Men'.  It's good.

It's on my list.  :thumbsup:

Quote
I'm reading Madame Bovary by someone French...
I have a feeling it's not going to end well for Mme B.

Now that French bloke sure knew how to write. It's a while since I read Madame Bovary so I can't remember exactly how it ends, but yeah, not exactly happily ever after. Must read it again some time.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 07 April, 2012, 07:43:44 pm
The French bloke who wrote The Charterhouse of Parma disappointed me. I quite liked the start, but it deteriorated into a dreary tale of self-centred parasites behaving irresponsibly, against a background of nasty parasites behaving maliciously.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 08 April, 2012, 12:34:41 pm
Have just had to abandon Eat Pray Love after 38 pages of trying trying trying to get something from it. I didn't. Good luck to Elizabeth Gilbert's ex-husband, I hope he got a lot of money in the divorce settlement.

Have I mentioned how pathetic this book really is??
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 09 April, 2012, 10:37:17 am
Got Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days out of the library last week & when I got it home realised it was a follow-up to River of Gods, which I haven't read  :facepalm:

Luckily I found River of Gods at the weekend so that's next up  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Clare on 09 April, 2012, 10:44:30 am
The Secret Life of Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 09 April, 2012, 10:08:25 pm
Have just had to abandon Eat Pray Love after 38 pages of trying trying trying to get something from it. I didn't. Good luck to Elizabeth Gilbert's ex-husband, I hope he got a lot of money in the divorce settlement.

Have I mentioned how pathetic this book really is??

Oh, dear.  I rather enjoyed it.  She is an annoying know-it-all though.  But crusty says that's because it takes one to know one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 10 April, 2012, 08:48:38 am
Death Comes To Pemberley didn't improve as it went on. Awful book. Just bog standard fan fiction. I thought PD James was supposed to be a better writer than that

d.

The good thing about Death comes to Pemberley is that the characters remain similar to how Austen developed them.  I have read some of the other sequels and in all those I have started reading and put down, Darcy becomes a love sick puppy and Elizabeth moons around the place after him.

Death Comes to Pemberley is ok as a sequel, the mystery is pretty guessable but there was little in the book that I read that generated a 'that would never have happened, Darcy/Elizabeth would never do that' reaction, which I think is the best that any sequel by another writer can hope for.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 April, 2012, 11:55:52 am
I was given Merckx: Half Man Half Bike by William Fotheringham as a belated birthday present on Thursday :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 10 April, 2012, 07:25:51 pm
Part of the way through The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly, very good,
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 April, 2012, 08:55:11 pm
The good thing about Death comes to Pemberley is that the characters remain similar to how Austen developed them.

For me, the characters in DCTP were lifeless imitations of the characters in P&P they were supposed to resemble, only recognisable as the same characters because PD James lifted lines of dialogue straight from P&P...

But, you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 10 April, 2012, 10:50:02 pm
Have just had to abandon Eat Pray Love after 38 pages of trying trying trying to get something from it. I didn't. Good luck to Elizabeth Gilbert's ex-husband, I hope he got a lot of money in the divorce settlement.

Have I mentioned how pathetic this book really is??

Oh, dear.  I rather enjoyed it.  She is an annoying know-it-all though.  But crusty says that's because it takes one to know one.

Sorry love, I did not get it, at all. I kept shrieking at her. Especially when she decides that she needs a guru. WTF?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 13 April, 2012, 12:42:04 pm
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. How can I not have read this before now? Fascinating - depressing but fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 13 April, 2012, 12:54:16 pm
Decided to get the 'Game Of Thrones' series for the Kindle-slab - I've heard enough about the TV series that it finally piqued my interest. Rather enjoying it in spite of the sometimes blatantly obvious Tolkien influence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 April, 2012, 01:03:17 pm
The Line Of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst

Slightly pretentious philsophical musings on art and music interspersed with explicitly described scenes of gay sex and politics in Thatcher's Britain. Started off very well but it's losing me a bit. Beautifully written though.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 13 April, 2012, 09:04:11 pm
Brother of the More Famous Jack, by Barbara Trapido. I may have read it in the 1980s.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 17 April, 2012, 12:13:08 am
Just finished 'The Gift of Rain' by Tan Twan Eng.
A very good read, and very moving in places. A great read if you are into swords and/or martial arts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 17 April, 2012, 05:12:59 pm
Just finished 'The Gift of Rain' by Tan Twan Eng.
A very good read, and very moving in places. A great read if you are into swords and/or martial arts.

I am not into that sort of thing but my husband is, so will procure that for him - thanks so much!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 17 April, 2012, 05:36:25 pm
I had to look up "prolix" as I haven't encountered the word before. It's a good word.

It is a good word, though I always think it sounds like it should mean something different.

Quote
I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I generally shy away from sequels not by the original author and I'm not entirely sure why I picked up the PD James. So Pride & Prejudice & Zombies doesn't really appeal, tbh, though I imagine at least it might be a bit more amusing and a lot less pretentious than Death Comes To Pemberley.

d.

I adored Pride and Prejudice so I'll avoid the PD James book. I read one of her novels years ago and didn't think much of it - tedious characters and a very slow plot. It resembled Midsomer Murders, in that she chucked in an extra corpse every hundred pages or so, presumably to wake up the readers.

On sequels not by the author, I generally avoid them as well, but I recently read the Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon, which is sort-of a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes stories (he's never mentioned by name, but I don't think I'm spoiling it for anybody) and it was wonderful. It really captured the Englishness of the setting and the strangeness of Holmes, the confidence and adventurousness of Empire, and the inevitable decline. I must read more of Chabon's stuff - that and the Yiddish Policeman's Union are the only books of his I've read, and both are excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 17 April, 2012, 08:38:04 pm
Brunelleschi's Dome, a history of the design and construction of the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. An excellent book, I'm reading it in preparation for a cycle tour through Italy (leaving in 5 days).
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 April, 2012, 11:12:56 pm
Similarly, I started reading Dubliners yesterday while I was in Dublin. Marvellous, though, er, not really much use as a tourist guide... ;D

I want to read Ulysses next and am already regretting not having read Joyce before.

d.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 April, 2012, 11:15:25 pm
On sequels not by the author, I generally avoid them as well, but I recently read the Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon...

Everything I've heard about Michael Chabon makes me think I'd like his stuff... <adds two more books to ever-expanding To Read list>

Edit: just realised I already have The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay on the list...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: 2_Flat_Erics on 21 April, 2012, 08:56:48 pm
Just finished "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. An excellent read. I'm not really an emotional person but even I found myself with a lump in my throat several times during this book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: 2_Flat_Erics on 21 April, 2012, 09:17:30 pm
Decided to get the 'Game Of Thrones' series for the Kindle-slab - I've heard enough about the TV series that it finally piqued my interest. Rather enjoying it in spite of the sometimes blatantly obvious Tolkien influence.

I read through the whole series of books a few months back. The first book "A Game of Thrones" was superb. A little slow at first but gathered pace and pulled me in with some unexpected twists. At the end of the book I was eager for more and wanted to know what was going to happen with some key characters that I had become attached to.

The next couple of books were also pretty good with a few unexpected twists.

Unfortunately by the time I got to book 5 "A Dance with Dragons" I felt that the author had rather lost his way with the story. The story does not really move on and all of the main characters just stagnate. There are still a couple of unexpected twists but even these don't move the story on much. By the end of book 5 I was rather loosing interest and was almost glad when I had finished it.

I still want to know what happens to some of the key characters like Deanarys, Bran and Especially Arya. It looks like there are two more books planned for the series and I will read them when they are published but I really hope that George R R Martin can re-find the passion that came through in the first few books.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: dasmoth on 23 April, 2012, 09:03:42 am
Finally made it through Reamde by Neal Stephenson.  It's a weighty tome, but worth the effort.

Some similar premises to Stross's Halting State, but a very, very, different novel.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 23 April, 2012, 01:49:58 pm
I'm reading 'Last Legion' by Valerio Massismo Manfredi. So far, it's been a good read, I'm quite enjoying it.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 24 April, 2012, 05:28:29 pm
Currently, Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

It is a really daft tale of high magick and irascible wizards and dragons and Dark Lords and stuff. However, for some reason the main protagonist is called Richard. Apparently there are nine books in this series, and I doubt I'll bother reading them all.

I'm cheering for the Dark Lord. I mean, it's not his fault - if you're named Darken Rahl, there aren't that many career paths open to you. Darken Rahl, Fresh Milk Daily? I don't think so.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 24 April, 2012, 06:17:29 pm

I'm cheering for the Dark Lord. I mean, it's not his fault - if you're named Darken Rahl, there aren't that many career paths open to you. Darken Rahl, Fresh Milk Daily? I don't think so.

In my youth I often went with my brothers to watch Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park (this is one of the reasons I still support Newcastle!).  On one of the street corners was a sign proclaiming "Wet Fish Daily".  Ever after, we turned left at "Wet Fish Daley's".  Bet you can't get much of a laugh on your way to the Riverside - or when you get there, even.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rockaperoon on 24 April, 2012, 06:45:30 pm
Round Ireland in Low Gear
by Eric Newby, Wanda Newby
a wee cracker of a book just started it
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 24 April, 2012, 08:36:58 pm
West Coast Jazz by Ted Gioia quite good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 26 April, 2012, 01:43:17 pm
Recently:

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins. Cracking yarn, part penny dreadful and all the better for it.

The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene. I've not read much enough GG: so impressed by his love of language, e.g. the graveyard angel  with "lichenous wings".

+ two Ians: Ian M. Banks and a Rebus: both Ok but lacking in excitement.

now: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark. Indisputably the crème de la crème.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 26 April, 2012, 01:48:04 pm
Catch 22. It's been a while since I last read it. Had forgotten how funny it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 26 April, 2012, 03:02:41 pm
Hesitation Kills: A female marine officer's combat experience in Iraq by Jane Blair (Lieutenant USMC. Retd.)

Quote
America fosters the idea that the ideal woman is the weak woman. Just look in any Vouge at the emaciated but often physically unfit women who are deemed beautiful. Meanwhile, in GQ, equally beautiful men are expected to maintain their physique through weightlifting and exercise. If women were held to that standard of physical fitness, we'd have much different expectations of them. Women would no longer be victims, portrayed as fragile creatures in need of men's care and protection. They would be thin and muscular, capable of any task that fell before them.

That quote from her gives a small insight into her attitude. It is a fascinating read, so very different to other similar books that I have read as she doesn't simply write her observations of what is happening, but also includes her feelings. Her writing is very engaging and draws you into her life, she has had me feeling nervous, frustrated, sad and excited.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nightrider on 28 April, 2012, 07:29:51 pm
Natural Navigator:Tristran Gooley.Its a book that's intended to teach people how to navigate,using natural clues.We all do this to a certain extent anyway.I don't know if this book will help me navigate or not,but what it is helping me with is understanding the countryside, I love so much.On a personal level I think cycling has helped trigger this of for me.Travelling through the countryside at about 15mph,experiencing the change of temperature etc,much more of a experience than looking at the world from within a car.All in all a good book written in a easy to understand text.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 28 April, 2012, 09:32:52 pm
Natural Navigator:Tristran Gooley.Its a book that's intended to teach people how to navigate,using natural clues.We all do this to a certain extent anyway.I don't know if this book will help me navigate or not,but what it is helping me with is understanding the countryside, I love so much.On a personal level I think cycling has helped trigger this of for me.Travelling through the countryside at about 15mph,experiencing the change of temperature etc,much more of a experience than looking at the world from within a car.All in all a good book written in a easy to understand text.

I might take a look at that one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 April, 2012, 09:39:53 pm
Round Ireland in Low Gear
by Eric Newby, Wanda Newby
a wee cracker of a book just started it

Eric Newby's 'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush' was cracking.

Just finished 'The Moment' by Douglas Kennedy. As good as 'The Reader' by Schlink. Will be ordering copies for my Reading Group ladies  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 02 May, 2012, 04:50:33 pm
Finally finished the Complete Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton.

Now onto something I downloaded a couple of weeks ago: Hope and Glory by Stuart Maconie.  I like his sense of humour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 03 May, 2012, 06:27:09 pm
Recently finished Andrew Greig's Preferred Lies: A Journey to the Heart of Scottish Golf.  It is to golf what At the Loch of the Green Corrie is to fly-fishing:  golf here is not so much the subject matter, but rather the occasion for wider reflection on relationships and life and death.  I couldn't really care less about either golf or fishing, but both books are thoughtful and  beautifully written; Greig's alter ego as a poet shows in in prose, and his deep interest in the wider outdoors lies close to the heart of the two books.  Highly recommended.

Also enjoyed over Easter Robert Penn's It's All About the Bike, with a vicarious extra interest having lunched with my parents in the pub where the first draft was apparently largely edited (the Crown at Pantygelli).

Plus Riddle of the Sands and Raffles and a 1980s Elmore Leonard that was new to me.

About to start Iain M Banks' Against a Dark Background
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 May, 2012, 11:57:53 am
About to start Iain M Banks' Against a Dark Background

I love that book :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 07 May, 2012, 02:36:11 pm
Currently reading 'Frank Sinatra has a cold' by Gay Talese. Different chapters about the various people (famous or not) that he has interviewed.  Very refreshing to read a different genre and a different writing style.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Biff on 07 May, 2012, 07:55:51 pm
(https://p.twimg.com/AsUF9AQCMAAOSY8.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 08 May, 2012, 01:13:28 pm
The Disappearing Spoon and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements, by Sam Kean.

Makes the periodic table make sense to me, like it never did when I was at school.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rhys W on 11 May, 2012, 11:05:17 pm
Just started re-reading V For Vendetta. Judging by the publishing date, I probably read it first in the mid-90s. Since the Occupy Movement and other rabble-rousers appropriated the Guy Fawkes mask I'd been wanting to read it again.

It's a little dated now (but in a good way), definitely enjoying it more second time around.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 13 May, 2012, 11:57:03 pm
Treated myself to a Kindlethingy as a birthday present to myself a few weeks ago and my sister serendipitously also gave me an Amazon voucher, so I've been loading it up with stuff:

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series - I'm just about to start the third instalment
Terry Pratchett's Discworld books - which I somehow managed to miss as a geeky teenager. Just about to start the second book
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar- I keep seeing references/mentions, so I decided to give it a try
and (not on the Kindle) Jack Kerouac, Wake Up - a biography of the Buddha, really interesting

That lot should keep me busy for a while...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 14 May, 2012, 01:23:57 pm
Pterry Pratchetts Small Gods.

I gave up on Witches Abroad. I didn't enjoy it this time round for some reason.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 14 May, 2012, 03:07:15 pm
Haruki Murakami's After The Quake.
I think one of the things I like about his books is that the characters are never 'normal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alexb on 15 May, 2012, 06:04:20 pm
Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy, pretty good. Definately Young Adult rather than mature science fiction.
also not long finished Ship Breaker by Paulo Baccigalupi, really, really good and a worth companion piece to the Wind Up Girl whose world it intersects, but does not significantly overlap with.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 16 May, 2012, 01:08:18 pm
I've also just finished the Hunger Games trilogy. I read a book a day over 3 days while I was ill. I really enjoyed these books.
I need to stop reading books now for a week or two so I can do some decorating!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 May, 2012, 01:13:10 pm
Finally finished the Complete Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton.

Now onto something I downloaded a couple of weeks ago: Hope and Glory by Stuart Maconie.  I like his sense of humour.

Brilliant.  A very discursive style, meandering around topics, places and times to weave a history of the Twentieth Century British people.  Amusing, informative, occasionally just wrong, opinionated, and desperately in need of a competent sub-editor and proofreader.

Strongly recommended.  Unless you think Ma Thatch was right in 1984.  And maybe even then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 16 May, 2012, 05:24:29 pm
Currently reading 'When God was a rabbit'. I think its as good as 'The curious incident of the dog in the night'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 May, 2012, 08:40:09 pm
I'm into The Life And Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne.  It really is laugh out loud funny, which is more than you can say of any other eighteenth century novel.  It's a real shame I never read it before, despite having been aware of it for a quarter of a century or more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 May, 2012, 12:38:36 pm
I'm into The Life And Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne.  It really is laugh out loud funny, which is more than you can say of any other eighteenth century novel.

I've not read it yet but I've downloaded it for my Kindle. Must get round to it soon.

I'm sure we've had this discussion before, but I can't recall the answer, so please humour me... have you read Tom Jones by Henry Fielding? That made me laugh out loud lots.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 17 May, 2012, 12:59:11 pm
Yes.  It's a while since I've read it though.  I like Fielding*.  Not laugh out loud for me, but plenty of amusement.  I must download it to read again.


* This statement does not work in the context of cricket
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 17 May, 2012, 05:46:31 pm
For anyone contemplating purchasing a copy of Tristram Shandy, you might like to consider the Visual Edition (http://www.visual-editions.com/our-books/tristram-shandy). VE are a small London publisher that specialise in interesting typographic and layout designs in book publications. Their approach seems well suited to Tristram Shandy.

On a similar theme, if you can hold of one, I'd recommend a hardback colour printing of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 18 May, 2012, 06:25:40 am
Sphere, Micheal Crichton.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 20 May, 2012, 11:34:42 pm
Just finished "Blue Remembered Earth" by Alistair Reynolds, the first in his new "Poseidons Children" trilogy.   Smaller scale than his Revelation Space stuff (so far), but well written & enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 24 May, 2012, 07:05:01 pm
Recently started Finch by Jeff Vandermeer - from the Guardian review:

"John Finch is a reluctant detective working for the gray caps, a humanoid-fungal lifeform which rules Ambergris. He's charged with investigating what may be a double murder: two bodies have been discovered in an apartment, one human, the other a gray cap. He has little to go on other than a scrap of paper found on the human and inscribed with the words "Never Lost. Bellum omnium contra omnes" and an arcane symbol. His investigations lead him on a surreal, dreamlike chase through time and space, confronting rebel spies, double agents and the one man who might hold the key to the city's salvation. All the while Finch lives in fear of the gray caps discovering his past identity as a runner for rebel forces. The gray caps can visually survey past events through the agency of microbial spores, and then mete out arbitrary punishment; only their preoccupation with building a pair of fungal towers in the heart of the city diverts them from properly surveying the lives of those they subjugate."

You can almost smell the decomposing city & it's inhabitants. Really good stuff so far.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 25 May, 2012, 03:20:42 pm
Reamde by Neil Stephenson

hmm. Possibly better than Cryptonomicon. A LOT better than Snow Crash, thankfully.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 25 May, 2012, 03:36:26 pm
Reamde by Neil Stephenson

hmm. Possibly better than Cryptonomicon. A LOT better than Snow Crash, thankfully.
Interesting.
I've had Reamde on my Kindle for ages but haven't got round to reading it yet. Personally, I loved Snow Crash but thought that Cryptonomicon was absolute trash, with The Diamond Age being 'meh' at best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 25 May, 2012, 04:26:55 pm
It's very definitely set in now-tech. A car-crash collision between the worlds of MMORPG, terrorism and virus-writers.

'twas reading it and contrasting the style with Gibson. Gibson never gives back-story for characters, leaving you to discover their personality and quirks as the story unfolds. Stephenson tells you *everything* about each character as they are introduced, then tells the story.

Different styles.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ferret on 25 May, 2012, 10:58:00 pm
I've just picked up Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell, the book was released in 2008 so not exactly hot off the press,
same fellow that writes the Sharpe stories, I didn't realise that until after I bought the book, I'm not very good with names :)

OK so finished this last week, not bad but very much in the same vein as the Sharpe stories, so if your not keen on those don't bother with this, It is well told and uses historical facts well, although it's about Agincourt, that part of the story is left right until the end and doesn't last long, most of the book is about how the main character gets to Agincourt,   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 27 May, 2012, 01:33:15 pm
Do You Speak English? (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/161397) by Wayne Parry. Aussie linguist visits a dozen countries with the aim of learning or improving his knowledge of the language in a different way each time, e.g. 'Korean through Film', 'German through Eating', 'Russian through Music'. It's light and readable with some good insights
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 31 May, 2012, 03:09:12 am
"The American Plague" by Molly Caldwell Crosby.

I will never, ever, ever not were midgey repellent again...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 June, 2012, 03:15:29 pm
The Sisters Brothers ~ Patrick de Witt.  Some kind of darkly-comical Western, apparently.  It's probably the first book I've ever read which has been nominated for the MAN Booker Prize :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 17 June, 2012, 07:31:34 am
unless, by Carol Shields.  It's been on the shelf a while - I think my sister bought it for me as part of a Christmas present a few years back.  Or I may have bought it, probably at a railway station when about to go in a journey somewhere, because I enjoyed Larry's Party by her, which my granny read and then gave me because she thought I'd also enjoy it.  I'm not sure.  I know that I tried to read it before, but didn't manage much more than about 50 pages... I've struggled a lot with concentrating enough to read the last few years.

I started it on the coach on the way south yesterday, and have just finished it with my breakfast coffee.  That's almost normal reading speed! 

Highly recommended, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 17 June, 2012, 10:02:17 am
Our man in Havana by Graham Greene, I have looked at this on the library shelves for years, now I wish I had read it ages ago, it is brilliant and parts will have you exclaiming aloud "no, really" etc, a brilliant read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 June, 2012, 02:07:24 pm
Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon series.  Quite fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 19 June, 2012, 03:14:37 pm
I had started Fatherland (Robert Harris) but having read Archangel recently I found it formulaic so have jumped on to The Confidential Agent by Graham Greene  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 20 June, 2012, 01:11:10 pm
I read pretty much all of Graham Greene before I was was 20.  Must revisit some of them. again [edit - oops]

I'm currently on the new Tudor Mantel piece.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 20 June, 2012, 01:31:07 pm
I read pretty much all of Graham Greene before I was was 20.  Must revisit some of them again.

I'm currently on the new Tudor Mantel piece.
          I am afraid a lot of things were curtailed around the age of sixteen when I fell in love with Castrol R and a particular BSA 650cc motor bike, even Wimmin took a distant second place, all books for a while were technical manuals

                                                                                                      ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 20 June, 2012, 02:12:48 pm
I read pretty much all of Graham Greene before I was was 20.  Must revisit some of them. again [edit - oops]

I'm currently on the new Tudor Mantel piece.

Nice one - Hilarious, in fact!  Mind you don't fall off!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nightrider on 29 June, 2012, 09:06:13 am
I am reading The Age of Miracles.A strange book about the World slowing down and its implications.Its told through the eyes of a eleven year old girl.Its the end of the world as we know it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mike on 29 June, 2012, 09:18:33 am
Pride and Prejudice. How have I not read this before? it's brilliant!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 June, 2012, 10:43:20 am
Pride and Prejudice. How have I not read this before? it's brilliant!

Yes! A lot of people, boys especially, dismiss Jane Austen as girly nonsense, all bonnets and balls, but she's one of the finest comic novelists this nation has ever produced. She's also unfortunately tarnished by some of her fans, especially the Americans, who seem to mainly like her for the bonnets and balls and not the incisive satire and biting wit. If you like P&P, give Emma a go.

I'm currently reading David Millar's Racing Through The Dark. It may lack the humour and the literary style of Jane Austen but it's a fascinating read, terrifying and sad in places. Strangely, it hasn't exactly improved my opinion of Millar as a person. There's a slightly whiny, weaselish note of self-justification... but I've only just reached the turning point in the story, the ban, so maybe it's a deliberate ploy to portray the pre-ban Millar as a horrible spoilt brat with a massive sense of entitlement in order to heighten the impact of his redemption...

Brailsford is coming out of it very well though.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 June, 2012, 10:55:25 am
I avoided most of the classics whilst at school, mainly because I was in a low set for English (not that you can tell now :) ).

Later in life I thought I should start catching up, Dickens left me cold, Austen I liked but my favourite, which hit me like mike with P&P, was Anna Karenina.

Back on topic, I am reading Bad Science, recommended for those that, like me, have a loathing for the advert claims for lotions and potions (i.e. 92% said they saw a improvement* (*sample size 15)).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 30 June, 2012, 07:02:53 pm
Just finished 'For Esme - with love and squalor' or 'Nine Stories' by J. D. Salinger. A series of vignettes/short stories it absolutely blew me away. Where has Salinger been all my life - he reminds me of a whole host of writers that I love, people like Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood.

Just started reading 'The Hunger Games' and so far, so good. Our next Reading Group selection is 'The Chemistry of Tears' by Peter Carey. Many think this will be on the long list for the Booker Prize, but we shall see come mid-July when they announce them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 01 July, 2012, 11:03:26 pm
I avoided most of the classics whilst at school, mainly because I was in a low set for English (not that you can tell now :) ).

Later in life I thought I should start catching up, Dickens left me cold, Austen I liked but my favourite, which hit me like mike with P&P, was Anna Karenina.

Back on topic, I am reading Bad Science, recommended for those that, like me, have a loathing for the advert claims for lotions and potions (i.e. 92% said they saw a improvement* (*sample size 15)).

Anna Kqrenina had a similar effect on me T.  Bad Science is also a good read.   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Marco Stefano on 03 July, 2012, 09:54:58 pm
Don Quixote de la Mancha.

Definitely not in original Spanish (I'll leave that to Juan & others otp), but a translation from 2000, bought for 50p in Combe Martin. It's rather amusing & I am enjoying it at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 04 July, 2012, 12:31:08 am
I have just finished Home by Toni Morrison, which was sent to me by a friend.  It is set in the Deep South in the wake of the Korean War.  It's short, a novella really, and she has such a light touch that the acts of violence are so much more shocking.  They are essential to the story and an understanding of the cesspit that was (and possibly still is) that part of America.  I've known her by reputation only until now (She is a Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winner) but I'll definitely be reading more.  I urge you to seek this one out.  In spite of what I've said, it is not a violent book (I tend to avoid those).  She never misses a stitch and is so poetic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: AndyK on 04 July, 2012, 08:27:52 am
Finally got round to reading Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. The film is an enduring classic that I absolutely love, the book knocks the film into a cocked hat.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 July, 2012, 08:50:47 am
Self Help by Edward Docx. Very much the model of the modern work of literary fiction. Shades of Martin Amis but much more likeable. I'm enjoying it very much so far.

Also reading the Reg Harris biography by Robert Dineen. A character I know very little about. Interesting story but written in quite a drab style.

d.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 July, 2012, 09:34:31 am
I have just finished Home by Toni Morrison, which was sent to me by a friend.  It is set in the Deep South in the wake of the Korean War.  It's short, a novella really, and she has such a light touch that the acts of violence are so much more shocking.  They are essential to the story and an understanding of the cesspit that was (and possibly still is) that part of America.  I've known her by reputation only until now (She is a Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winner) but I'll definitely be reading more.  I urge you to seek this one out.  In spite of what I've said, it is not a violent book (I tend to avoid those).  She never misses a stitch and is so poetic.

Oh thanks for this review Peter, am trying to persuade the library to order more copies of this in as I would like my Reading Group Ladies to read it.

Have started reading 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J D Salinger after really enjoying his 'Nine Stories'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 04 July, 2012, 09:41:13 am
Glad to be of service!  I read Salinger as a teenager and must do so again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ron-da-Valli on 04 July, 2012, 02:40:51 pm
Just finished "The Last Cavalier" by Alexandre Dumas, which was apparently only recently discovered in the Paris archives. Not quite as good as The Three Musketeers though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 04 July, 2012, 04:12:59 pm
Self Help by Edward Docx.

Version 10, eh?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 July, 2012, 06:39:38 pm
I don't get The Catcher In The Rye. Honestly, what a whinger.

I'm about to start Moab is my Washpot.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 July, 2012, 08:24:06 pm
Self Help by Edward Docx.

Version 10, eh?

I can't help thinking of him as Edward.docx

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 05 July, 2012, 09:43:37 am
The Women's Room - Marylin French.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Blodwyn Pig on 06 July, 2012, 09:49:53 am
'Johnny Gingers last ride' by Tom Freemantle, a true epic of a cycle blog from Swanbourne to Freemantle in Austrailia, (named after his great great.....relative Admiral Freemantle. He's just arived at Hong kong (1997) for the new year.  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 July, 2012, 11:52:00 am
Isle Of Dogs ~  Patricia Cornwell.  Squarely in the Land of Odd compared with her usual output :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 July, 2012, 12:12:33 pm
After all the hype, I thought I would attempt to read "50 Shades of Grey"

30 pages in I thought "well that's a part of my life that I will never get back"

What a total and utter piles of shite.  The author can't write for toffee (I am sure I could do better and I am the first to admit I can't write to save my life).

So I gave up on that and starting "Darwin Slept Here", much better, a funny look at Darwin's trip in South America, as seen from the eyes of a graduate who was bored with his job and decided to follow in Darwin's footsteps.
Title: Re: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 09 July, 2012, 01:03:58 pm
I don't get The Catcher In The Rye. Honestly, what a Whinger
I think you have to read it as an angst ridden self obsessed teen.
If I read it now I'd probably just want to tell him to grow the fuck up and get over himself.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 09 July, 2012, 02:09:47 pm
I don't get The Catcher In The Rye. Honestly, what a Whinger
I think you have to read it as an angst ridden self obsessed teen.
If I read it now I'd probably just want to tell him to grow the fuck up and get over himself.


I agree. I read a fair bit of Salinger's work as part of my high school curriculum, and it all looked a lot better to me as an adolescent than as an adult.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 09 July, 2012, 03:06:23 pm
I don't get The Catcher In The Rye. Honestly, what a Whinger
I think you have to read it as an angst ridden self obsessed teen.
If I read it now I'd probably just want to tell him to grow the fuck up and get over himself.


I read it a couple of years ago, and just thought he was an overprivileged brat lucky not to get his face stoved in.

But Caulfield isn't necessarily meant to be a sympathetic character.  He is a good example of the unreliable narrator.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 12 July, 2012, 11:45:12 am
Cien Años de Soledad – Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

And now I have declared that here I will have to finish it!

I read Love in the Time of Cholera in translation some years ago and GGM’s autobiography and a couple of shorter works in Spanish more recently but I am a little daunted by this. I have the commemorative Real Academia edition – a birthday present a few years ago; it has a family tree and a glossary of terms that will hopefully help. It also has a lot of doubtless worthy waffle from his mates that probably won’t.

10 pages in…so far so good.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 12 July, 2012, 08:38:56 pm
I'm reading Bradley Wiggins 2008 autobiography, since fairly recently discovering he's my kind of person  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 25 July, 2012, 04:23:07 pm
Reading an article about British authors in the on-line edition of El País yesterday I noted that David Nobbs’ The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin has been translated into Spanish. I cannot imagine how that is going to work…especially lines such as asking about the weather in Argentina…(Brazil. It’s like Brazil? No I was in Brazil. What’s the weather like in Brazil? Chile.)

Although it might have been Peru.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 July, 2012, 05:03:15 pm
Our next Reading Group selection is 'The Chemistry of Tears' by Peter Carey. Many think this will be on the long list for the Booker Prize, but we shall see come mid-July when they announce them.

Surprisingly not...

The Yips by Nicola Barker
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
Philida by André Brink
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Skios by Michael Frayn
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
Umbrella by Will Self
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
Communion Town by Sam Thompson

The only one of these I've even heard of is the Hilary Mantel, but there are a few I fancy - I liked Ned Beauman's first book, Boxer Beetle, so I'll definitely give his new one a go.

The Will Self one isn't even published yet. Hmph.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 25 July, 2012, 08:53:04 pm
11.22.63 by Stephen King. Enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 25 July, 2012, 09:11:00 pm
Having enjoyed Bradley's book last week, this week it was the turn of Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder by Dave Barter.
It was a very enjoyable and funny read.
Next up is The Hour by by Michael Hutchinson as recommended to me by Ms Weasel OTP.
I might have to read something non-cycling related next just to be different!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 26 July, 2012, 02:58:01 pm
"The Fall", Simon Mawer. (Finished reading recently, thought it perhaps the best I've ever read.)

No cycling at all. Obsessive behaviour in climbers [of three generations] instead, and all as the backdrop for large doses of real life/the human condition.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 26 July, 2012, 07:18:58 pm
Tony, I'm guessing you've read "The White Spider" by Heinrich Harrer?  Not much about "life" except for courage and recklessness!  Quite a lot about death, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 27 July, 2012, 05:57:25 pm

I did read it about 50? years ago, and a re-read might throw light on the long ago!

The Eiger gets attention in The Fall (within a few pages in fact), but it's only a supporting character.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 27 July, 2012, 06:11:25 pm
Scared the hell out of me (One flew over the cuckoos nest)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 27 July, 2012, 07:21:52 pm
Bleak House. I'd forgotten how dense Dickens' prose can get.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 28 July, 2012, 09:45:53 am
About 20 years after buying it, I finally got round to reading AS Byatt's Possession.  It's rather good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 28 July, 2012, 08:08:46 pm
Death in the Truffle Wood by Pierre Magnan, tis very good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 29 July, 2012, 04:23:20 pm
re-reading "Six Wives:The Queens of Henry VIII" by David Starkey
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 July, 2012, 08:07:40 pm
Robert Dineen's Reg Harris biog.

Disappointing. Plenty of good stuff about his racing career but interspersed with too much tittle-tattle about his private life, which far from finding shocking, I find it hard to care about. I came to the book knowing hardly anything about Harris and I come away from it feeling I might have been better off keeping it that way.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 05 August, 2012, 07:05:28 pm
I read Robert Harris' "The Fear Index" on holiday.  Unfortunately the plot is familiar to anyone who's seen the Terminator films, WarGames, 2001 or even Electric Dreams.  Not his best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 August, 2012, 09:16:51 pm
About 20 years after buying it, I finally got round to reading AS Byatt's Possession.  It's rather good.
Yes, I really like it. I like her short stories too, but the rest of her novels are a bit ponderous.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 August, 2012, 08:09:21 am
Just got back from holiday where I read several nooks the best of which was Kim Stanley Robinson's "2312". Beautifully written sociological SF.
Now I am about to embark on  Vasily Grossman's Soviet epic "Life and Fate".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 09 August, 2012, 09:57:27 pm
I'm getting through some 'borrowed' kindle books.
Recently I've read the Haruki Murakami books I hadn't bought already - the short stories and the running book.
This past couple of weeks I've been reading lots of Neil Gaiman. Had only read Good Omens & American Gods before. This week I've read Stardust, Coraline and am now on The Graveyard Book.

For me hollybobs I've bought IQ84. Looking forward to that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: dasmoth on 09 August, 2012, 10:00:19 pm
Existence, by David Brin.  It's taken me a while to get into it, but starting to enjoy it now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 09 August, 2012, 10:18:54 pm
Now on Pierre Magnan "Beyond the grave" totally different from "Death in the truffle wood" but as absorbing and compulsive a read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 13 August, 2012, 09:24:28 am
Because I've been laid up, I tried to download a book about a detective in a hospital bed - The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.  It's something I've known about for many years but never read.  Although my phone was misbehaving, I recalled that my mother had a copy, so I searched that out when I went to stay.  It's an excellent read, and packed with fascinating references.  The research that went into such a slim novel is quite phenomenal, and it cuts clearly through some utter absurdities of received historical 'knowledge'.

While looking for that, I stumbled across The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley.  I'd tried to read it as a kid, but found it a bit dull.  Coming back to it as an adult, I am impressed by the lightness of Kingsley's wit, and the way he manages to lampoon moralising, 'improving', tales while writing a clear Christian socialist morality into the novel itself.  He is unafraid to use pagan mythology and the emerging science of evolution and geology to develop the story, which I found surprising, given the date.  Stodgy in places, but I was laughing out loud in others.  It made me reassess my view of Kingsley.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 16 August, 2012, 11:43:18 pm
My latest library book. Which is by Stephen Baxter AND Terry Pratchett! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

It's called The Long Earth and is exactly as I expected it to be.   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 16 August, 2012, 11:45:31 pm
The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

And no, I'm not twelve years old - although I think this could be one of the best YA novels (albeit a little long) ever.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 17 August, 2012, 08:35:37 am
I have commenced Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. George has been summonsed to a country pile near Ascot and is learning about 'Something that seems to be going on in Furrin parts and around the Circus'.

I had to go to bed :(

50 odd pages in and I'm hooked :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 August, 2012, 09:07:00 am
Just finished Pigeon English, read The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks before that.

Now reading "Riding Rockets" by Mike Mullane, his story of how he got to be an astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 17 August, 2012, 10:03:14 am
The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

And no, I'm not twelve years old - although I think this could be one of the best YA novels (albeit a little long) ever.

I'm currently reading Little Women & Good Wives. I've never manage to get past the chapter in which Beth dies before now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 17 August, 2012, 10:03:55 am
Mary Queen of Scots by Anonia Fraser
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 17 August, 2012, 10:05:16 am
Want me to tell you how it ends?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 17 August, 2012, 10:09:41 am
no thanks,I prefer to wait to the end of the book to find out.

 ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 August, 2012, 10:35:13 am
While looking for that, I stumbled across The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley.  I'd tried to read it as a kid, but found it a bit dull.  Coming back to it as an adult, I am impressed by the lightness of Kingsley's wit, and the way he manages to lampoon moralising, 'improving', tales while writing a clear Christian socialist morality into the novel itself.  He is unafraid to use pagan mythology and the emerging science of evolution and geology to develop the story, which I found surprising, given the date.  Stodgy in places, but I was laughing out loud in others.  It made me reassess my view of Kingsley.

Interesting. I've always mentally bracketed Kingsley with CS Lewis - ie worthy and dull - but I may have to reconsider (IIRC you feel similarly to me about CS Lewis).

My only familiarity with the Water Babies is the peculiar part-live action/part-animated 70s British film starring Billie Whitelaw, James Mason and Bernard Cribbins, which was a childhood family favourite (to the point where several lines from the film have become part of our family idiolect). I've always suspected the film has taken a few liberties with the original narrative though - I can't imagine Kingsley went in for singalong routines featuring a drowned chimney sweep, a gruff Scottish lobster and a camp seahorse.

Anyway, I've now downloaded it to my Kindle - yet another book on the never-diminishing to-read pile...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 17 August, 2012, 01:51:09 pm
Now on Brighton Rock (Graham Greene), it is very good, I vaguely remember the film as being excellent, hope they never re make it, nobody could be that good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 August, 2012, 04:47:41 pm
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson. I love it. Bobb's reading one of his books about a man who bites other people's faces off for a living.

While looking for that, I stumbled across The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley.  I'd tried to read it as a kid, but found it a bit dull.  Coming back to it as an adult, I am impressed by the lightness of Kingsley's wit, and the way he manages to lampoon moralising, 'improving', tales while writing a clear Christian socialist morality into the novel itself.  He is unafraid to use pagan mythology and the emerging science of evolution and geology to develop the story, which I found surprising, given the date.  Stodgy in places, but I was laughing out loud in others.  It made me reassess my view of Kingsley.
I liked it when I was  kid but I haven't read it as an adult. I should.

When I was a child my parents had a set of classic children's books, each one in a different coloured hard cover. I can't remember all of them, but there was The Water Babies, Tom Sawyer, Heidi, Robinson Crusoe, Alice, a collection of Hans Christian Anderson stories, Treasure Island (the only one of the set I never got more than a few pages into) and others I can't remember. My dad's coming up next week; I will ask him to bring them for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 17 August, 2012, 04:56:51 pm
My god!  I wonder if the bloke who actually did that had read it?  Be afraid, or at least a little cautious!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 17 August, 2012, 05:01:53 pm
Now on Brighton Rock (Graham Greene), it is very good, I vaguely remember the film as being excellent, hope they never re make it, nobody could be that good
They have.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Rock_%282010_film%29 I didn't like it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 20 August, 2012, 08:39:32 am
I've just finished "Maggie - her fatal legacy" by John Sergeant. I started reading it when we were on holiday - it stood out like a beacon amongst the shelf full of mindless dross that one finds at B & Bs and self-catering establishments and I had finished only a couple of chapters when we had to come home. I was so gripped that I had to buy a second-hand copy from Amazon.

Irrespective of its historical accuracy (which I think is pretty good) it's a good exercise in Schadenfreude. It was just so jolly being able to relive those moments when the tories tore themselves limb from limb. The first two-thirds of the book were riveting, but, just like the subject matter, it seemed to decline into a rambling old age and towards the end you just kept on thinking that it would be more merciful just to kill it off rather than extend it by a few more chapters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 21 August, 2012, 11:35:57 pm
Holiday reading was 'The Garden of Evening Mists' by Tan Twan Eng. A second excellent read by this author IMO. This is the first of this years Booker prize long list I've read.

Next was 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. I enjoyed this book, and ended up feeling like a normal person myself which is a bit of a novelty.

Yesterday finished 'The Hour' by Michael Hutchinson. A very amusing cycling book. It left me wanting to fit a powertap wheel to my audax bike, and try riding in Obree's 'superman' position. I think I should probably not attempt this without tri bars though!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 24 August, 2012, 03:27:06 pm
Well, I finished Cien Años de Soledad on the train this morning. I did enjoy reading it and didn’t get as confused as I thought I would with the myriad of Arcadios and Aurelianos through the generations of the Buendías, the main protagonists of the story, or perhaps I did get confused but it didn’t matter. The glossary helped a good deal as there were a good few words that weren’t in my electronic dictionary.  I certainly enjoyed this more than Love in the time of Cholera that I read in translation, but how much that had to do with the translation I can’t say. I need to think about the story for a while but I can imagine myself reading it again in a few years time and I’m not able to say that about many books. Perhaps I should read a translation to compare. So, tentatively recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 24 August, 2012, 08:49:09 pm
Mary Queen of Scots by Anonia Fraser

Want me to tell you how it ends?

no thanks,I prefer to wait to the end of the book to find out.

 ;D

The butler didn't do it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 24 August, 2012, 09:06:03 pm
Nope, I think he'd have made a better job of it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 25 August, 2012, 07:25:53 am
Mary Tudor:The First Queen by Linda Porter.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikepacker on 05 September, 2012, 12:57:30 pm
I have just finished reading Mud Sweat and Gears about an E2E tour. IMO it is a boring load of twaddle. It is just full of historical facts about places the author passed obviously researched post tour from the internet. If I wanted to read page after page about Robbie Burns I would have got his biography. Contrast that to an excellent book I am starting to read for the second time, One Man and His Bike in which the author relates his people experiences on a round the coast of Britain tour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 06 September, 2012, 07:02:48 pm
I've just read my first Jack Reacher novel! I guess this is the blokey bloke's equivalent of 50 Shades.

They're by Lee Child, this one was "Bad Luck and Trouble" or something equally macho  ;D

Now, it's artistic ambitions may be limited, but it was a hell of a page-turner. Brilliant writing, if that's the sort of thing you're after. It's quite like Raymond Chandler writing for fans of Bravo Two Zero. Snappy dialogue; sparse prose that does the job; fast-moving plot with cliff-hangers and reveals at the end of every chapter  :P

(This also allows me to rubbish the comments about Tom Cruise playing Reacher in the forthcoming movie. Yeees, Cruise is about 60% of the size of Reacher - but this is 99% irrelevant to the story, and to Reacher's character. )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 06 September, 2012, 07:28:00 pm
David Millar 'Racing through the dark'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 September, 2012, 09:48:28 am
It's quite like Raymond Chandler writing for fans of Bravo Two Zero.

They should put that on the cover!

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 09 September, 2012, 06:03:43 pm
I've just read my first Jack Reacher novel! I guess this is the blokey bloke's equivalent of 50 Shades.

They're by Lee Child, this one was "Bad Luck and Trouble" or something equally macho  ;D

Now, it's artistic ambitions may be limited, but it was a hell of a page-turner. Brilliant writing, if that's the sort of thing you're after. It's quite like Raymond Chandler writing for fans of Bravo Two Zero. Snappy dialogue; sparse prose that does the job; fast-moving plot with cliff-hangers and reveals at the end of every chapter  :P

(This also allows me to rubbish the comments about Tom Cruise playing Reacher in the forthcoming movie. Yeees, Cruise is about 60% of the size of Reacher - but this is 99% irrelevant to the story, and to Reacher's character. )

This probably confirms I am a bit of a bloke because I like Lee Child's books too  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: alexb on 09 September, 2012, 11:32:09 pm
Reamde by Neil Stephenson

hmm. Possibly better than Cryptonomicon. A LOT better than Snow Crash, thankfully.
Interesting.
I've had Reamde on my Kindle for ages but haven't got round to reading it yet. Personally, I loved Snow Crash but thought that Cryptonomicon was absolute trash, with The Diamond Age being 'meh' at best.

Just finished it. Very good, but I did get the feeling I was reading a re-write of SnowCrash at times. There are very strong similarities in the plot and main characters.

However, if you liked it, check out "For the Win" by Cory Doctorow, it's available for nothing from his website.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 10 September, 2012, 07:18:35 am
"Restless", William Boyd.  Admired it. Liked the Le Carre "tribute" near the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 10 September, 2012, 11:12:10 am
David Millar 'Racing through the dark'

The boy Millar used to race BMX on a track built and run by a colleague.

he won his first road race aty the top of a hill that is on many of my regular routes.

There our similartity ends and I dissapear in the background choking on Millars dust ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 September, 2012, 11:23:15 am
Chris Brookmyre - Where The Bodies Are Buried

Just started it this morning. Never read any Brookmyre before, though I've heard good things about him. But I must say I'm not hugely impressed so far. It reads like the screenplay for an ITV1 Sunday evening detective drama.

Hmmm.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 10 September, 2012, 11:51:29 am
Chris Brookmyre - Where The Bodies Are Buried

Just started it this morning. Never read any Brookmyre before, though I've heard good things about him. But I must say I'm not hugely impressed so far.

Like Iain (M) Banks, there's Chris Brookmyre and Chistopher Brookmyre. He uses the latter for his 'comic crime fiction' stuff, which I think can be very funny, a little like a Scottish Carl Hiaasen mixing polemic with OTT characterisation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 September, 2012, 12:15:10 pm
Ah, thanks! That would explain the distinct lack of the laughs I'd been led to expect...  ;D

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 10 September, 2012, 01:11:32 pm
Reg Harris by Robert Dineen
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 September, 2012, 02:10:49 pm
Reg Harris by Robert Dineen

What do you reckon? Completely scandalised yet?

d.
 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 10 September, 2012, 05:14:51 pm
I'm only on page 82.First mention of the "bobby sox".


edited to correct  booby to bobby
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 10 September, 2012, 05:23:13 pm
OT I know but my first bike was a Macclesfield made reg harris
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 September, 2012, 02:05:38 pm
The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton

M'colleague received a copy in the post this morning, which he passed on to me. Started reading it over lunch. So far, it's an absorbing account of a wide-eyed, idealistic neo-pro's slide down the slippery slope into doping, very reminiscent of David Millar's story. Shame I had to put it down and go back to work, though - the next chapter opens with the line: "When I heard Lance was joining Postal for the 1998 season, I was excited and nervous..."

Oh boy!

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 11 September, 2012, 02:18:01 pm
... like a Scottish Carl Hiaasen mixing polemic with OTT characterisation.

 ;D

Though in all seriousness, can Scotland at its weirdest even compete with the Florida panhandle? I got the impression Hiaasen's characterisation wasn't that OTT, given what he had discovered of Miami in his work as an investigative journalist.   :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 11 September, 2012, 03:10:14 pm
Depends on how much of The Wasp Factory was factual.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 September, 2012, 03:33:55 pm
"Outlaw Platoon" by Sean Parnell.

The story of a young graduate's first tour of duty on the Afganistan/Pakistan border.  At age 21 he is leading men older than him into battle and trying to keep their moral up through the fire fights and internal politics that are rife when they return the the FOB.

It's surprisingly addictive.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 12 September, 2012, 06:55:46 pm
OT I know but my first bike was a Macclesfield made reg harris

maybe not ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 12 September, 2012, 07:04:20 pm
Reg Harris by Robert Dineen

What do you reckon? Completely scandalised yet?

d.

As I read a wide range of emotions were solicited.Suprise,fascination,disappointment, but overall...sadness.
I was not scandalised;perhaps due to my scepticism & low expectation of human nature.

I was massively interested & suprised to learn of RH's association with Macclesfield,Leek & the Swinnertons who I have known since my teens.

It was difficult to put the book down untill I finished reading it.The most engrossing book I've read for a long time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 September, 2012, 07:45:42 am
Finished Outlaw Platoon and have moved onto "Skagboys" by Irvine Welsh.  Got through the first few chapters, but it is hard going as it is all written in phonetic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 September, 2012, 09:17:48 am
It was difficult to put the book down untill I finished reading it.The most engrossing book I've read for a long time.

Good, glad you got that out of it - as I may have mentioned, I didn't get on with it so well, but I think that's largely because the name Reg Harris doesn't mean that much to me (he was long since retired by the time I got interested in cycling), so I struggled to care much about the personal stuff. I found the bits about his racing career interesting though.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mr magnolia on 16 September, 2012, 12:02:21 am
I'm trying to finish john j nivens 'cold hands' but I'm too scared.
Not a comfy book...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 16 September, 2012, 06:33:00 pm
Just read 'the secret race'. I have a feeling that because he was heavily involved in a team that was systematically doping, his perceptions are that everyone was doing it. There is some interesting insight into Ferrari (a very talented sports scientist) and Fuentes, and the representation of Lance as a texan mafia don. How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

And now I am reading the new Pratchett 'Dodger'. Entertaining so far.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 September, 2012, 06:43:01 pm
How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

Yup, same here. Certain details may or may not be entirely accurate but it generally has the ring of truth about it - especially the portrayal of Lance and Riis, and other riders like Landis, Ullrich and Hincapie. My feeling is that it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know in general terms but fleshes it out with names, dates and places. Coyle has said there was quite a lot of stuff left out because he couldn't corroborate it, which is reassuring. And it's quite well written, I thought.

As you say, lots of good stuff about Ferrari and especially about Fuentes. Celayo sounds like a very interesting character too.

Tbh, I found the most difficult bits to read were the bits about riding the Tour with a broken collarbone. Ouch!

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 16 September, 2012, 06:50:23 pm
Probably more suited to the Racing thread, but it does seem that doping was a) widespread, 2) not universal, 3) not desired by most, but thought of as 'cheating is breaking the 11th commandment' by some.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 17 September, 2012, 11:27:28 am
David Millar 'Racing through the dark'

The boy Millar used to race BMX on a track built and run by a colleague.

he won his first road race aty the top of a hill that is on many of my regular routes.

There our similartity ends and I dissapear in the background choking on Millars dust ;D

Finished now and a very good read it was too.

I think it is a good insight into how easy it can be for athletes to find themselves on the slippery slope.

Also a very damning overview of the actual action as opposed to the stance of the governing body.

Now on to Ned Boultings 'How I won the Yellow Jumper'. SFSG :thumbsup:
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 September, 2012, 08:40:57 am
The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell

This was one of the first books I bought for my kindle when I got it at the start of this year but I'm only just getting round to reading it. Wish I'd started it sooner. It's wonderful! One of those books that's a pure joy to read for the sake of reading alone, just to savour the words. But it's a cracking story so far too.

I don't know if, strictly speaking, it's possible to open a novel with a coup de théatre, but it's a book that certainly hits the ground running.

I've now added the rest of David Mitchell's oeuvre to my to-read list too.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 19 September, 2012, 03:26:27 pm
I've just finished Never Mind The Quantocks by Stuart Maconie, which is a compilation of his columns for Country Walking, with one longer article (presumably also in the same magazine) about his completion of the Wainwright peaks.  His enthusiasm really shines through, and I wonder if he manages the same tone as his radio shows by dictating the pieces rather than typing them (though he refers to use of an internet cafe in Northumbria at one point).

Now I'm revisiting a book I lightly skimmed many years ago - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  I've read a few of his other works, but I felt drawn back to this one.  It's at once a knowing and a brutally raw account, and you can see the way in which he tries hard to avoid really thinking about what he actually experienced in Dresden.

Just over one chapter into it, and it is the first book in a while to make me cry.

So it goes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 September, 2012, 12:44:54 pm
Now I'm revisiting a book I lightly skimmed many years ago - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  I've read a few of his other works, but I felt drawn back to this one.  It's at once a knowing and a brutally raw account, and you can see the way in which he tries hard to avoid really thinking about what he actually experienced in Dresden.

Just over one chapter into it, and it is the first book in a while to make me cry.

So it goes.

Amazing book. I read it about a year ago for the first time but I want to read it again and again (I will, but I have so many other books on my to-read list...). The idea of being "unstuck in time" seems almost whimsical at first but as the book goes on, you realise it's a profound reflection on the lasting psychological effects of the war. (Had PTSD been invented in those days?)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 20 September, 2012, 12:59:29 pm
Just read 'the secret race'. I have a feeling that because he was heavily involved in a team that was systematically doping, his perceptions are that everyone was doing it. There is some interesting insight into Ferrari (a very talented sports scientist) and Fuentes, and the representation of Lance as a texan mafia don. How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

And now I am reading the new Pratchett 'Dodger'. Entertaining so far.

      Thing is all we have to go on are doping results and personal denials, if we don't believe Armstrong and his results showed clean how can we believe Wiggins Cavendish etc, I believe Wiggins and Cav are clean so leaves a dilemma.
       Although a different sort of read for me I have just got The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt tis very understandable (although family and friends are asking when I get the anorack  :facepalm: )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 20 September, 2012, 01:22:54 pm
The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell

This was one of the first books I bought for my kindle when I got it at the start of this year but I'm only just getting round to reading it. Wish I'd started it sooner. It's wonderful! One of those books that's a pure joy to read for the sake of reading alone, just to savour the words. But it's a cracking story so far too.

I don't know if, strictly speaking, it's possible to open a novel with a coup de théatre, but it's a book that certainly hits the ground running.

I've now added the rest of David Mitchell's oeuvre to my to-read list too.

d.

What did you think of Cloud Atlas?

(this will influence whether I consider this book)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 September, 2012, 02:30:58 pm
What did you think of Cloud Atlas?

Haven't read it yet.

However, from what I've heard, they're very different books. Thousand Autumns is much more of a straightforward narrative than Cloud Atlas, albeit with some quirky stylistic tics. I do like the way he writes though.

I'm totally captivated by Thousand Autumns, not blind to its faults but very much enjoying being taken along for the ride. I can see why some people don't like it, find it irritating.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 20 September, 2012, 05:30:51 pm
I've not read many of Mitchell's works, but would recommend Black Swan Green (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/apr/16/fiction.davidmitchell). It sort of plays with the idea of the coming of age novel without being too clever for its own good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikepacker on 20 September, 2012, 08:28:04 pm
Has anyone read Bicycle Diaries: 40 Days Around the Coast of a Changing Ireland and if so is it worth buying?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 September, 2012, 11:48:12 am
I've not read many of Mitchell's works, but would recommend Black Swan Green (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/apr/16/fiction.davidmitchell). It sort of plays with the idea of the coming of age novel without being too clever for its own good.

I've added it to my to-read list, along with Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream and Ghostwritten...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 21 September, 2012, 12:54:29 pm
Gift Horse by Hildegard Knef.
My curiosity was aroused by her Wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_Knef which I came across following my search for  a German language version of Mack the Knife. The book was one of the sources that Antony Beevor used for his book 'Downfall' about the fall of Berlin in 1945. It's got a very flat and matter of fact style about some extraordinary events. Some of the tone of it can be inferred from Knef's interpretation of 'The Lady is a Tramp', which she wrote the German lyrics for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnmkHMFdoAk&feature=related
The plan was to give it to Heather's sister for her birthday, but I'm enjoying it, and it has rekindled my interest in German, which I've neglected for my French, although I'll end up with a Berlin accent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 22 September, 2012, 10:44:12 pm
I am reading Graeme Obree's 'The Obree Way'.
His training tips are legendary and not what I was expecting at all. Forget recovery drinks, just eat Mackerel on toast  :D
I now understand why despite my miles on the bike I am not fast. Not only do I not like pain, but I don't actually want to win anyway  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 22 September, 2012, 11:47:39 pm
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 23 September, 2012, 11:11:11 am
Inspired by seeing the dramatisation on TV and not quite remembering what happened in the book, I am re-reading Parades End.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 23 September, 2012, 12:36:56 pm
Currently reading 'The Harbour' by Francesca Brill. Her Mum is one of my Reading Group ladies  :)

And so onto this years 'Reading the Shortlist of the Booker Prize' Challenge.

It is a bad start. I have not begun reading any of them yet  :facepalm: It does not help that I have not even read 'Wolf Hall' as the follow-up to 'Bring up the Bodies' has also been nominated. Plus this year, the focus is on prose as to readability. Will Self's 'Umbrella' has no paragraphs or chapters  :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 26 September, 2012, 01:15:29 am
How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

Yup, same here. Certain details may or may not be entirely accurate but it generally has the ring of truth about it - especially the portrayal of Lance and Riis, and other riders like Landis, Ullrich and Hincapie. My feeling is that it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know in general terms but fleshes it out with names, dates and places. Coyle has said there was quite a lot of stuff left out because he couldn't corroborate it, which is reassuring. And it's quite well written, I thought.

As you say, lots of good stuff about Ferrari and especially about Fuentes. Celayo sounds like a very interesting character too.

Tbh, I found the most difficult bits to read were the bits about riding the Tour with a broken collarbone. Ouch!

d.

A quote from geneticist and evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane springs to mind:

Quote
I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

Having just finished reading The Secret Race myself, it's fair to say that the world of professional cycling is not only dirtier than we imagined, it is dirtier than we can imagine.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 26 September, 2012, 07:03:33 am
I think that it will be just as interesting to see what is happening in the peloton now, when the current racers start spilling their guts. Things haven't got much better, just more devious IMHO.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 September, 2012, 07:57:24 am
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

I have that on my e-reader, ready.  Saw the film, loved it, Mrs T won't watch it due to it "making me cry"!!!

I have finished Skagboys, very good, makes me want to re-watch Trainspotting.

Read "Swimming Home" in one sitting, it's ok, but not really my kind of thing, could spot what was going to happen from about page 20, the rest of it was just filling.

No reading "Hilarity Ensued" by Tucker Max.  I don't know if I feel sorry for the guy or sympathy for anyone who happens to share a bar with him, especially if they are female.  The guy, in a word, is a dick, he knows it and plays up to it.  He obviously makes a good living from being a dick.  Sort of a book version of Jackass.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 September, 2012, 08:29:39 am
Talking of Mrs T*, I'm now reading The Champion by Tim Binding. Both my parents liked it and it's been compared favourably to In The Line Of Beauty, which I loved, but I'm really not feeling it so far. Finding it quite irritating, in fact.

d.

*See what I did there?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 26 September, 2012, 10:52:17 am
Andy Wightman's The Poor Had No Lawyers (http://www.andywightman.com/?page_id=1079)

Good, if slightly depressing/angry-making stuff ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 26 September, 2012, 11:15:10 am
On Monday my freshly laundered pile of shortlisted Booker's arrived  :) Deadline - Tuesday 16th October.

I thought I would tackle Will Self's Umbrella and get it out of the way. I had been assured that I would get something profound from it.

Brief premise: The story mainly concentrates on the lives of two people: a Dr Busner, a psychiatrist at Fiern Hospital and his patient, a Miss Dearth, who has spent many decades in there. It is set across three timelines.

I prepared myself to loathe this book but by page 7 I had been sucked in. The non-stop ramble seems to take on a life and through the mist, an astonishing story takes place. It is imaginative, richly humane and brilliantly conceived. For a book that is entirely unsentimental, you do feel a range of emotions. I have never felt the inclination to read any of Will Self's books and the desire to hit him over the head with a big bat at the start of reading this was strong. However, I do think this book is the work of a genius.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 September, 2012, 11:17:28 am
On Monday my freshly laundered pile of shortlisted Booker's arrived  :) Deadline - Tuesday 16th October.

I thought I would tackle Will Self's Umbrella and get it out of the way. I had been assured that I would get something profound from it.

Brief premise: The story mainly concentrates on the lives of two people: a Dr Busner, a psychiatrist at Fiern Hospital and his patient, a Miss Dearth, who has spent many decades in there. It is set across three timelines.

I prepared myself to loathe this book but by page 7 I had been sucked in. The non-stop ramble seems to take on a life and through the mist, an astonishing story takes place. It is imaginative, richly humane and brilliantly conceived. For a book that is entirely unsentimental, you do feel a range of emotions. I have never felt the inclination to read any of Will Self's books and the desire to hit him over the head with a big bat at the start of reading this was strong. However, I do think this book is the work of a genius.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I started with "Swimming Home", and finished it in one night, it's only 141 pages...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 26 September, 2012, 03:18:19 pm
On Monday my freshly laundered pile of shortlisted Booker's arrived  :) Deadline - Tuesday 16th October.

I thought I would tackle Will Self's Umbrella and get it out of the way. I had been assured that I would get something profound from it.

Brief premise: The story mainly concentrates on the lives of two people: a Dr Busner, a psychiatrist at Fiern Hospital and his patient, a Miss Dearth, who has spent many decades in there. It is set across three timelines.

I prepared myself to loathe this book but by page 7 I had been sucked in. The non-stop ramble seems to take on a life and through the mist, an astonishing story takes place. It is imaginative, richly humane and brilliantly conceived. For a book that is entirely unsentimental, you do feel a range of emotions. I have never felt the inclination to read any of Will Self's books and the desire to hit him over the head with a big bat at the start of reading this was strong. However, I do think this book is the work of a genius.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I started with "Swimming Home", and finished it in one night, it's only 141 pages...

Cool - what did you think? What are you going to read next?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 September, 2012, 03:24:20 pm
h_w, I am thinking The Lighthouse next, going to try to keep what appears to be the heaviest (The Garden of Evening Mists) until last.

Shall report back, once done (I have a 3 hour train journey on Friday, that should see me get through a good chuck of The Lighthouse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 September, 2012, 03:53:10 pm
I prepared myself to loathe this book but by page 7 I had been sucked in. The non-stop ramble seems to take on a life and through the mist, an astonishing story takes place. It is imaginative, richly humane and brilliantly conceived. For a book that is entirely unsentimental, you do feel a range of emotions. I have never felt the inclination to read any of Will Self's books and the desire to hit him over the head with a big bat at the start of reading this was strong. However, I do think this book is the work of a genius.

Well, that's high praise indeed coming from someone who professes not to like Will Self!  ;D

I was going to hold off buying a copy for myself until it came out in paperback, but now thanks to your review, I'm itching to get into it asap.  :thumbsup:

I shall have to hold off until payday (next week) though.

I'm also very keen to read Ned Beauman's The Teleportation Accident, which was on the longlist but didn't make the shortlist. I enjoyed his debut novel, Boxer Beetle, very much indeed, and this new one sounds like more of the same.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 26 September, 2012, 04:51:10 pm
I prepared myself to loathe this book but by page 7 I had been sucked in. The non-stop ramble seems to take on a life and through the mist, an astonishing story takes place. It is imaginative, richly humane and brilliantly conceived. For a book that is entirely unsentimental, you do feel a range of emotions. I have never felt the inclination to read any of Will Self's books and the desire to hit him over the head with a big bat at the start of reading this was strong. However, I do think this book is the work of a genius.

Well, that's high praise indeed coming from someone who professes not to like Will Self!  ;D

I was going to hold off buying a copy for myself until it came out in paperback, but now thanks to your review, I'm itching to get into it asap.  :thumbsup:

I shall have to hold off until payday (next week) though.

I'm also very keen to read Ned Beauman's The Teleportation Accident, which was on the longlist but didn't make the shortlist. I enjoyed his debut novel, Boxer Beetle, very much indeed, and this new one sounds like more of the same.

d.

I saw Will Self at a cycling seminar and I thought he was brilliant, although Obree was also speaking so it was hard to tell who was better  ;D I never really got Self's 'Psychogeography' articles, so it put me off reading his books!

Have not come across Ned Beauman before, am always on the lookout for inspiration for my Reading Group, thanks!

Tiermat - looking forward to reading what you think about The Lighthouse. I think am going to read 'Narcopolis' next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 26 September, 2012, 04:56:28 pm
Today my world has changed. I've got a kindle. Why on EARTH have I not had one before?!?" I've been happily downloading away today :) It's hard to know where to start though..... so many books, not enough time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 26 September, 2012, 06:59:52 pm
Yeah, and so many rubbish books. I've spent the last two years downloading free books because I am a cheapskate. I'd say that 50% of them are completely hopeless and I give up, 40% are pretty mediocre but OK for free, 5% are quite good and 5% are very good.

I find iBooks cheaper than Kindle generally for the same book so use that if the book is available on it (I'm reading on an iPad) but iBooks doesn't have everything. Still, the ability to just pick up a book wherever you are is fab - particularly as the iPhone and iPad remember where you got to reading the book, irrespective of the device, which is really handy!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 September, 2012, 07:50:44 pm
The Lighthouse is another short one, I am 1/4 of the way through it already.  Thoughts so far are that is quite pedestrian, but has spent so far in the book just setting up the characters (the person going on a walking holiday to "find himself", the weird dutchman with a fractious relationship with his mother, the slutty, DV-victim hotel keeper's wife, and the hotel keeper himself).

Hope it picks up a bit soon otherwise I might just find myself nodding off whilst reading it.  I think after this will either be Narcopolis or "Bring Up The Bodies"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 September, 2012, 03:03:34 pm
Ignoring this year's Booker shortlist for a moment and going back to 2010, I've just downloaded The Finkler Question because the Kindle edition is currently going for just 99p.

Following a visit to Rye last weekend and a conversation with my wife, I've also downloaded the complete Mapp & Lucia novels for just 77p.

As if I don't already have quite enough on my to-read pile to keep me going for years...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 27 September, 2012, 03:09:02 pm
Half-way through Game of Thrones. Only 6 more books to go! I thank you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 27 September, 2012, 03:34:24 pm
Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy
I read the first part several years ago but never got around to buying the rest as they were published. Downloaded them all on Kindle and they are brilliant. A huge (each of the three volumes is over 1000 pages in paperback form) space opera with lots of parallel plots and excellent villains, space ships and aliens. I'm on the final quarter of the last book now. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 27 September, 2012, 03:43:08 pm
Half-way through Game of Thrones. Only 6 more books to go! I thank you.

It's worse than you think. Each one is longer than the previous. Book six is over 1000 pages. I've just finished working though all of them. As commented upon upthread, after a good start, it drifts somewhat into soap opera (if science fiction can have "space opera", perhaps this is "mace opera"). Still readable, but I found it increasingly difficult to care about characters last seen in a chapter 500 pages previously.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 27 September, 2012, 03:50:37 pm
Half-way through Game of Thrones. Only 6 more books to go! I thank you.

It's worse than you think. Each one is longer than the previous. Book six is over 1000 pages. I've just finished working though all of them. As commented upon upthread, after a good start, it drifts somewhat into soap opera (if science fiction can have "space opera", perhaps this is "mace opera"). Still readable, but I found it increasingly difficult to care about characters last seen in a chapter 500 pages previously.
Doesn't bode well at all for those struggling through it on audiobook.
Roy Dotrice isn't great either; why (o why) is Tyrion Welsh, but not Cersei, or Jamie, or Tywin??
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 27 September, 2012, 05:38:22 pm
Game of Thrones, once more.

My son said: "Go on Dad, you'll enjoy these."

Me: Maybe, I dunno. They're so long though, and there's … HOW MANY BOOKS!!!!

So I've started the first one. "Whassthehellgoingon!" I'm thinking, struggling through the first 50 pages. "Who the hell is that!" flicking to the back pages for reference.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 28 September, 2012, 12:19:47 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_History , 3rd book in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition trilogy.

Apparently I'm reading SF about designer denim jackets. But it's intriguing!

It took 200 pages for anything to actually happen. There is more technology in a single paragraph of Neuromancer. But it's great writing - there's something clever about modern culture on every page.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 28 September, 2012, 09:47:34 am
I'm getting a little confused now I have real books and ebooks on the go at once. It doesn't take much....

Reading the Tyler Hamilton one on the kindle to see what all this fuss is. Real book wise I'm reading Ken Follett's Fall of Giants. Great, but it's heavy. As in weights workout to hold it heavy. Should have downloaded that one. First one in the century trilogy, I like his books and not sure why I haven't got round to reading this before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 28 September, 2012, 09:58:21 am
Game of Thrones, once more.

My son said: "Go on Dad, you'll enjoy these."

Me: Maybe, I dunno. They're so long though, and there's … HOW MANY BOOKS!!!!

So I've started the first one. "Whassthehellgoingon!" I'm thinking, struggling through the first 50 pages. "Who the hell is that!" flicking to the back pages for reference.

The series known as "A Song of Ice and Fire" was originally intended to be a trilogy, but is now slated to finish at nine books, the final two clocking in at 1,500 pages each (which has led to speculation that the series may end up at ten books, assuming GRRM doesn't cark it first).

By way of a comparison, Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series started out at six books, and then doubled in length by the time Jordan died. The twelfth book was finished by Brendan Sanderson, who wrote another two to finish off the series at fourteen books! Though in fairness, they aren't doorsteps like the ASOIAF volumes, or anything by Peter Hamilton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 October, 2012, 05:43:04 pm
Ignoring this year's Booker shortlist for a moment and going back to 2010, I've just downloaded The Finkler Question because the Kindle edition is currently going for just 99p.

...and very good it is too. Funny, clever, poignant. Love it.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 02 October, 2012, 03:44:14 pm
By coincidence I read A Game of Thrones last month. It took me a while to get through it, so I decided to read some lighter/shorter stuff before starting on the next book.

Since then I've read:
Watch Over Me- Daniela Sacerdoti
Two Women- Martina Cole
The Obree Way- Graeme Obree
The Forgotten Garden- Kate Morton

All of them were good, particularly The Forgotten Garden which is very well written with great historical detail and kept me interested all the way through.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 02 October, 2012, 03:48:35 pm
The Severed Alliance by Jonny Rogan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 October, 2012, 04:05:30 pm
The Severed Alliance by Jonny Rogan.

I've been hearing rumours that suggest a new chapter might need to be added to that book.

I hope it doesn't happen though. No good can come of it.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 02 October, 2012, 10:59:48 pm
By coincidence I read A Game of Thrones last month. It took me a while to get through it, so I decided to read some lighter/shorter stuff before starting on the next book.

Since then I've read:
Watch Over Me- Daniela Sacerdoti
Two Women- Martina Cole
The Obree Way- Graeme Obree
The Forgotten Garden- Kate Morton

All of them were good, particularly The Forgotten Garden which is very well written with great historical detail and kept me interested all the way through.

I've just finished 'A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold'. Probably the slimmest of GRR Martin's books, and the most action I have read yet. Several times I was pumping my fist in the air and yelling 'Woot'  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 04 October, 2012, 02:53:34 pm
<hands over ears> "Don't tell me, don't tell me!!"

Just started the 2nd book in the series now … A Clash of Kings
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 04 October, 2012, 07:29:30 pm
<hands over ears> "Don't tell me, don't tell me!!"

Just started the 2nd book in the series now … A Clash of Kings

Hahaha - I promise not to reveal anymore, rip-roaring adventure abounds  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 04 October, 2012, 08:20:16 pm
<hands over ears> "Don't tell me, don't tell me!!"

Just started the 2nd book in the series now … A Clash of Kings

Hahaha - I promise not to reveal anymore, rip-roaring adventure abounds  ;D

Not to mention,

(Potential spoiler - but frankly, I doubt it)
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 04 October, 2012, 08:53:32 pm
Innocence by Pierre Magnan, tis good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 October, 2012, 10:50:20 am
Started reading Will Self's Umbrella this morning...

Wow.  :o

Wish I didn't have to come to work today. I just want to sit in a comfy corner and carry on reading it until I've finished.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 October, 2012, 11:11:36 am
I have departed from the Booker list, for now, as I realised I had no chance of reading the last three in 10 days or so, plus I got hold of a copy of Stephen Lawhead's The Spirit Well, book 3 of The Bright Empires series.  This is what I am reading now, it's good, very very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 05 October, 2012, 08:32:13 pm
Started reading Will Self's Umbrella this morning...

Wow.  :o

Wish I didn't have to come to work today. I just want to sit in a comfy corner and carry on reading it until I've finished.

d.

Told you!  ;) It is very affecting. Into Narcopolis and so far it is not bad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 October, 2012, 09:02:42 pm
I have departed from the Booker list, for now, as I realised I had no chance of reading the last three in 10 days or so, plus I got hold of a copy of Stephen Lawhead's The Spirit Well, book 3 of The Bright Empires series.  This is what I am reading now, it's good, very very good.

And just to confuse my poor little brain a bit more I had an Amazon delivery today, 2 books about Cultural and Social History of Catalonia and Bernard Cornwell's new book (1356).

Back to multitasking on the books, I think :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 07 October, 2012, 05:31:33 pm
Have finished another 2 books on my Booker Prize list.

Narcopolis - really its Trainspotting set in India, but with even more drugs! Set in the 1970's in a Bombay opium den, it explores 4 main characters over the next few decades. It has also lots of violence, gore and dirtiness but the beauty comes from the stories that all these characters have, from their past and their associations with people from long ago and with the rest of the cast. Most of this book is readable and it was very easy to get absorbed. However, by the end of the book I was getting a a little bored though.

Rating: 7/10

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - Oh. My. Lord. I thought that 'The Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes was good (it won last years) but this is one hell of a book. A man who is newly separated but middle-aged is taking a break and is embarking on a walking holiday in Germany. Whilst he looks back on his life, the woman who runs the B n'B is also contemplating her life and her marriage.

Yet again, the brilliance of this book is what is not written, the reader can pick up what is really going on. This ain't the happiest novel in the world but the two main characters are going to stay with me for a very long time. This book came from a small publishing company and kudos to Booker for shortlisting it. Stunningly brilliant.

Rating: 9.5/10
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 07 October, 2012, 05:45:53 pm
Runelight by Joanne Harris. I like all her stuff and this is no exception. Plus, it mentions Farnley Tyas.  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 08 October, 2012, 09:54:42 am
I am reading "The Surrogate" by Tania Carver (an apt surname).

It's a standard murder story, differentiated by the fact it's set in Colchester. My Mum read it and passed it on to me because of the Colchester link. It's gory (which I usually don't mind) but involves babies dying (which I do, really, and would rather not read about) so I'm skimming some bits but finding the descriptions of Colchester quite interesting. Apparently there are areas (New Town, for example) where people don't go at night and are a bit dodgy during the day. I've gotta say, I cycle through all these areas without a thought for that kinda thing, day or night. I wonder if it's emphasised for plot reasons or if I'm just ridiculously naïve.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 October, 2012, 11:11:04 am
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - Oh. My. Lord. I thought that 'The Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes was good (it won last years) but this is one hell of a book. A man who is newly separated but middle-aged is taking a break and is embarking on a walking holiday in Germany. Whilst he looks back on his life, the woman who runs the B n'B is also contemplating her life and her marriage.

Youve piqued my interest, so I downloaded a sample to my Kindle. Interesting. Promising start, makes me want to read more. Except...

It opens with a description of the main character standing on the deck of a boat, and apparently he's "looking up at the waxing moon".

Gah!

This really irritates me. For two reasons: a) the author obviously doesn't know the meaning of the word "waxing" (her editor should have caught this) - the moon may well have been waxing but this is information is neither useful nor relevant (nor interesting) in the context; and b) it shows that she's just grasping for an adjective because she feels she needs one there rather than because it adds anything (I'm reminded of Elmore Leonard's ten rules for writing, though it was adverbs rather than adjectives that he proscribed).

Lucky I was reading it on my Kindle, or I might have been tempted to throw the book across the room.  ;)

Anyway, if I can get over this minor outburst of petulance, I will definitely give the book a go.  :thumbsup:

Still need to finish Umbrella first - started well but it's a book that requires alertness and an absence of distractions and I've not had a suitable opportunity to give it my full attention. In the meantime, I've knocked off Grace Dent's How To Leave Twitter (an amusing piece of doggerel that gives a few good laughs but feels like a newspaper column padded out into a book) and in a bid to exorcise the Ghost of Bookers Past*, I'm currently ploughing through Life Of Pi, which has been sitting gathering dust on my bookshelf for some years, so it's about time I read it. The first third, about Pi's early life in India, was a bit of a chore, but the middle third when he's on the boat, is much more fun and readable.

It's no Jamrach's Menagerie though.

d.

*I've read about a quarter of the Booker winners. I'm sure I won't like all of them, but I feel I ought to have read more of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 08 October, 2012, 11:34:43 am
No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
By Mark Owen

I was waiting for this to become available, and as soon as it did, I snaffled it up... but then due to being engrossed in a six-part sci-fi series, I have only just read it.

It was well written, in an easy to digest way. The focus of the book is not the mission, but rather what led the author to be on the mission. I found it interesting to read about his life leading up to the mission and he, like many other ex-special forces authors I have read, doesn't paint himself as any kind of superman.

I was disappointed by the lack of detail, there was so little that I didn't learn anything about the US Navy SEAL DEVGRU that I didn't already know. Customised weapons, better NVGs and helmets, dedicated training areas etc. It is very apparent when reading that he is deliberately recounting pranks, experiences and BUD/S training to avoid talking about his time in DEVGRU.

He spoke eloquently of the odd kind of dislocation he and many others felt as they went out on the mission, having previously gone on two others to find Bin Laden which failed, then to return to the states in a kind of odd secret/politicians field day about the mission.

In summary, it was a fast, easy ready that was enjoyable and interesting, though lacking in depth. It was particularly interesting to learn that they killed Bin Laden without realising who it was until they were searching the house, and that it was then Plan B by default - as Plan A was capture him. Another point that struck me was the helicopter crash. The author was on the helo that lost power and crashed half onto the wall of the compound, instead of dropping the team onto the roof. This probably saved the lives of the team on board the crashed helo, because of the way that the building was defended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 08 October, 2012, 12:48:53 pm
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - Oh. My. Lord. I thought that 'The Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes was good (it won last years) but this is one hell of a book. A man who is newly separated but middle-aged is taking a break and is embarking on a walking holiday in Germany. Whilst he looks back on his life, the woman who runs the B n'B is also contemplating her life and her marriage.

Youve piqued my interest, so I downloaded a sample to my Kindle. Interesting. Promising start, makes me want to read more. Except...

It opens with a description of the main character standing on the deck of a boat, and apparently he's "looking up at the waxing moon".

Gah!

This really irritates me. For two reasons: a) the author obviously doesn't know the meaning of the word "waxing" (her editor should have caught this) - the moon may well have been waxing but this is information is neither useful nor relevant (nor interesting) in the context; and b) it shows that she's just grasping for an adjective because she feels she needs one there rather than because it adds anything (I'm reminded of Elmore Leonard's ten rules for writing, though it was adverbs rather than adjectives that he proscribed).


I'm 50 pages into it and it's shaping up nicely.  I bought it partly because it was mentioned here and partly because the blurb likened the writing to Magnus Mills'.  The "waxing" thing struck me too (though not quite with the same force!), especially as the writing is generally so spare.  On the other hand, most things so far which have seemed otherwise unnecessary have linked up directly or thematically to something in the 'flashbacks' (for want of a better word) so I think it must have was dropped in there deliberately.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 08 October, 2012, 01:08:30 pm
I have departed from the Booker list, for now, as I realised I had no chance of reading the last three in 10 days or so, plus I got hold of a copy of Stephen Lawhead's The Spirit Well, book 3 of The Bright Empires series.  This is what I am reading now, it's good, very very good.

And just to confuse my poor little brain a bit more I had an Amazon delivery today, 2 books about Cultural and Social History of Catalonia and Bernard Cornwell's new book (1356).

Back to multitasking on the books, I think :)

Catalonia: A Cultural History by Michael Eaude has made me realise I need to work on a cultural bike route for Catalonia (not for next April, though the route planned may be tweeked slightly to fit some sights in, but for another date), to fit in Tarragona, Ripoll and Montserrat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: padbeat on 08 October, 2012, 01:44:51 pm
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

Only 2 chapters into it with 3 very interesting characters already thoroughly introduced, with lots of potential for magically realistic strangeness downstream. I hope he wins the Nobel this year as he's the only one on the list I've ever read!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 12 October, 2012, 04:54:59 pm
I have acquired a copy of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 3 at a company 'Text Santa' sale. Goodness knows where it has come from! It is beautiful book, and the ink annotations of a previous owner only increase its appeal. Much of the content is, I fear, beyond me, but it's a classic I've known about since undergrad days and is wonderful to hold and leaf through
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 12 October, 2012, 05:18:47 pm
I had Tom Hollander reading JK Rowling's 'The Casual Vacancy' to me earlier this week.
I've missed Pagford since it finished.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 October, 2012, 05:44:17 pm
Iain Bank's latest Culture novel - The Hydrogen Sonata

So far its another goody. Lots of ships with silly names in this one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 12 October, 2012, 05:50:11 pm
After a run of  Christopher Moore  (http://www.chrismoore.com/books.html) books (Fool, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove & Bite Me: A Love Story) - all of which tickled my funny bone, I've started The Long Earth by Stephen Baxter & Terry Pratchett. Not bad so far.

Iain Bank's latest Culture novel - The Hydrogen Sonata

So far its another goody. Lots of ships with silly names in this one.

Yay!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 October, 2012, 06:24:29 pm
Iain Bank's latest Culture novel - The Hydrogen Sonata

So far its another goody. Lots of ships with silly names in this one.

Yay!

Best ones so far:

Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry - GSV
Outstanding Contribution to the Historical Process -  VFP ex Psychopath class warship.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 October, 2012, 08:26:24 pm
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

Only 2 chapters into it with 3 very interesting characters already thoroughly introduced, with lots of potential for magically realistic strangeness downstream. I hope he wins the Nobel this year as he's the only one on the list I've ever read!
I liked :-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 October, 2012, 09:20:35 pm
Me too. I still have to get the 3rd part.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: why1040 on 14 October, 2012, 10:14:42 am
I've just finished re-reading An Ungodly Child by Rachel Green.  The next instalment, Sons of Angels, has just been epublished and I wanted to revisit Laverstone before got into it as it's a couple of years since I read it the first time.

I'd forgotten how funny it is.  Not in a huge, punny way like Terry Pratchett or Piers Anthony, but with lots of little comments and links that made me laugh out loud.  It's fast-paced and light and an incredibly easy read!

I've also got the last of the Wallanders by Henning Mankell on audiobook for when I'm doing boring tasks like poo-picking, cleaning house, filing, etc.  It works surprisingly well and I've gone through the entire series like this.  In the original Swedish, or course.  It's been odd listening to them straight back to back but with different narrators!  Each one seems to put their own stamp on it in a way I hadn't appreciated before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 14 October, 2012, 09:17:17 pm
"The Book of Nature Myths" by Florence Holbrook



Very interesting book filled with myths about nature.  Why do magpies make such terrible nests?  The answer is explained!

Seems to be mainly native american folklore.  Very interesting reading!

And free on amazon!   :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 October, 2012, 08:37:23 pm
Have finished the Garden of the Evening Mists, the 4th book that I've read in the Booker Prize shortlist. Very beautiful it was and a good story but quite implausible in places.

I am 90 pages into Debeorah Levy's Swimming Home. Naked girl in swimming pool..blahblah...south of France....middle-class couples...blahblah. Perhaps I am missing something here but I am not getting it, a slightly more upmarket version of what some other non-descript author would do.

I am 300 pages into Wolf Hall, so have no chance of finishing it all by tomorrow night  :facepalm:

So my prediction to win: Umbrella by Will Self (Bookies favourite) but I would really like The Lighthouse to win. We shall see  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 15 October, 2012, 08:39:50 pm
Contemplating obtaining new copy of les Grande meaulnes. (Dont lend books to people) Only book he wrote. Has stayed with me for decades.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 15 October, 2012, 08:47:07 pm
Only novel he published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob on 16 October, 2012, 08:53:54 am
Just finished "The Right Stuff". Loved the subject matter, but the writing style almost stopped me from getting through the first couple of chapters.
Just started on Hamilton's "The Secret Race"..so far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 16 October, 2012, 10:13:50 am
Contemplating obtaining new copy of les Grande meaulnes. (Dont lend books to people) Only book he wrote. Has stayed with me for decades.

Le Grand Meaulnes was done as a play on BBC radio a few years ago, very well, too.  It's a tragedy that Alain-Fournier was killed in WW1, only a year after his book was published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 October, 2012, 10:19:49 am
I have started Private Games by James Patterson (and no, I can't get the "yes Mrs Patterson" out of my head :) )

OK so far, a bit gory but seems well written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 October, 2012, 10:26:32 am
Still reading Slaughterhouse Five.  Still making me cry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itinerant on 16 October, 2012, 10:33:16 am
Read The Secret Race last week (before all the USADA stuff came out) and just finishing 'A Life Too Short', a biog of the German goalkeeper, Robert Enke who walked in front of a train after suffering bouts depression. Real nice guy.  What a waste of a life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 16 October, 2012, 10:48:46 am
Just finished "The Right Stuff". Loved the subject matter, but the writing style almost stopped me from getting through the first couple of chapters.

I found the same with this book – I was really looking forward to reading it and couldn’t believe that TW had managed to make such an exciting and interesting subject so dull, quite an achievement I thought. After I found myself reading page 47 for the fifth time I gave up. I still haven’t read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 October, 2012, 12:05:31 pm
I am 300 pages into Wolf Hall, so have no chance of finishing it all by tomorrow night  :facepalm:

Well, you're doing much better than me - I'm still struggling with Umbrella, not because I don't like it but because I've got too much else on my mind and it's a book that requires full attention.

For a bit of light relief, I read Diary Of A Nobody over the weekend. Can't believe I've never read it before. Very funny. I never realised just how much Adrian Mole owes to Charles Pooter.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 16 October, 2012, 12:14:17 pm
A few years ago BBC 4 did an adaptation of Diary of a Nobody with Hugh Bonneville as Pooter.  It worked very well I remember.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 16 October, 2012, 12:55:24 pm
It's one of Salvatore's favourites.  I like Pooter's Cummings and Gowing joke, and their reaction to it.  I get a lot of that myself.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Salvatore on 16 October, 2012, 01:12:00 pm
It's one of Salvatore's favourites.  I like Pooter's Cummings and Gowing joke, and their reaction to it.  I get a lot of that myself.

It's a close-run thing between it and The Third Policeman for my favourite book of all time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 October, 2012, 02:16:10 pm
It's one of Salvatore's favourites.  I like Pooter's Cummings and Gowing joke, and their reaction to it.  I get a lot of that myself.

That was definitely one of my favourite bits. That and the dinner with Hardfur Huttle, the intellectual American.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 16 October, 2012, 03:30:39 pm
There have been two BBC radio adaptations broadcast recently.  There was an older one with Arthur Lowe (obv) reading as Pooter.  And a a semi-dramatized/semi-narrated one, with Johnny Vegas (yes, that Johnny Vegas) as Pooter, and Katherine Parkinson  as Mrs P, reading from her diary.  I know which one I preferred.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 16 October, 2012, 09:57:25 pm
Wow - big congratulations to Hilary Mantel who has won the Man Booker Prize for 'Bring up the Bodies'. Only woman to win it twice  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nmcgann on 16 October, 2012, 10:30:22 pm
Iain Bank's latest Culture novel - The Hydrogen Sonata

So far its another goody. Lots of ships with silly names in this one.
I'm struggling with this, very disappointing so far. (I'm a huge IMB fan too, so had high hopes)
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 October, 2012, 06:50:08 am
Wow - big congratulations to Hilary Mantel who has won the Man Booker Prize for 'Bring up the Bodies'. Only woman to win it twice  :)

I thought she might also be the only British writer to have won it twice but I was forgetting JG Farrell. Or is he regarded as Irish?

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 17 October, 2012, 07:10:06 am
First time two books in a series have won, too.

It'll be a terrible anticlimactic if the last book in the trilogy doesn't win too.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 October, 2012, 08:03:49 am
Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 17 October, 2012, 08:54:17 am
I don't know about the rest of the field that year off hand, but that was worthy of a prize.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 October, 2012, 10:33:52 am
I don't know about the rest of the field that year off hand, but that was worthy of a prize.

I've just checked and it was The Famished Road that won that year, which I've not read but I'm sure it's deserving. The only two on the shortlist that year that I've read are Roddy Doyle's The Van and Martin Amis's Time's Arrow. Meh.

Anyway, currently reading...

Queen Lucia, the first in EF Benson's Mapp & Lucia series. Loving it so far. Very funny - much more so than I was expecting. A good few proper LOL moments. Reminds me in some ways of Jane Austen, though perhaps EM Forster would be a closer comparison, with its scathing satire of the pretensions of the English middle classes in the 1920s - the characters, all hideous snobs, could all be extras from A Room With A View.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 24 October, 2012, 10:35:38 am
D, have you tried Barbara Pym?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 October, 2012, 10:51:28 am
D, have you tried Barbara Pym?

No... but a quick google suggests I ought to. She sounds right up my street. Thanks for the tip. As if I need more stuff to add to my already enormous to-read pile...

Here, by the way, is an interesting piece on EF Benson by Philip Hensher* that does a good job of explaining why Mapp & Lucia are so funny (although, dammit, I've got two more books to read after this one before their paths actually cross in my reading):
http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/shared/WebDisplay/0,,213732_1_0,00.html

d.

*Another author who figures prominently on my to-read pile...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 24 October, 2012, 11:06:16 am
Hi, D,

I think Philip Hensher may just have written a piece on hand-writing in The Observer.  I'll have to look at his books, now!

I can never remember all the Pym titles but my wife suggests you start with Excellent Women/i], then Jane and Prudence, Less Than Angels, A Glass Of Blessings.  That should keep you busy!

P.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 October, 2012, 11:08:57 am
 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 24 October, 2012, 01:10:08 pm
D, have you tried Barbara Pym?
No... but a quick google suggests I ought to. She sounds right up my street. Thanks for the tip. As if I need more stuff to add to my already enormous to-read pile...

I tried Barbara Pym's No Fond Return of Love, on the recommendation of a friend.  It's damn fine writing, but I didn't really find it interesting, y'know?  Maybe it just hasn't worn well.  You're welcome to it for your pile if you want it - just PM me your address if you do.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 24 October, 2012, 01:46:03 pm
Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.

d.

Bit of a long shot that perhaps...? "The Famished Road" was itself, surely, ground-breaking and utterly deserving, and then if Regeneration had won in 1991, would Ghost Road have won a few years later as well?

Anyway, had "Bring up the Bodies" for my birthday in August, (and read/enjoyed it) I was also given "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller, which is tremendous and which I'd recommend without reservation. The writing is vivid and the plotting brilliant.

I then went on to  re-read "Gatsby" after oh...plenty of years. Glad I did it...

Now reading Sarah Walters' "Fingersmith" not far into it, though....
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 24 October, 2012, 01:51:00 pm
Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.

d.

Pat Barker, surely?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 24 October, 2012, 02:05:24 pm
Yes.  That's the point.  And I looked to see why Regeneration didn't win.  I think it lost to Ben Okri's The Famished Road, which is an utter work of genius, so it is not shamed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 October, 2012, 02:10:28 pm
if Regeneration had won in 1991, would Ghost Road have won a few years later as well?

Maybe. I got the impression at the time that The Ghost Road got it on behalf of the whole trilogy, which is one of the reasons I was slightly surprised that Bring Up The Bodies won again this year.

I'll get round to The Famished Road one day...

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 24 October, 2012, 07:32:41 pm
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 24 October, 2012, 11:13:17 pm
I finally finished Will Self's Umbrella. It took me a while to read this one as it required concentration.
I am now moving on to 'The Lighthouse' by Alison Moore.
I only have 24 unread new books on my Kindle now  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 26 October, 2012, 10:54:28 am
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2012, 10:59:47 am
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin.

aka 50 Shades for people with a brain. ;)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 26 October, 2012, 11:05:24 am
I have Nelson DeMille's latest for this weekend away.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 26 October, 2012, 11:26:16 am
I have re-read Buchan’s John Macnab which is a great autumn read, especially after a commute via Richmond Park when the deer rut is on.

Now following it up with the bittersweet The Return of John Macnab by Andrew Greig.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 26 October, 2012, 11:32:39 am
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin.

aka 50 Shades for people with a brain. ;)

d.

See, I heard 'The Story of O' was the original 50 Shades.  'O' is a horrible book.  And I've no intention of reading '50 Shades'.  I can't bear that potboiler style of writing.  I'd rather read a cereal packet.  That way you at least get some cereal.

'Delta of Venus' is pure fantasy stuff, and really very funny if you choose to take it that way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2012, 11:52:07 am
'Delta of Venus' is pure fantasy stuff, and really very funny if you choose to take it that way.

Yes, hence the "with a brain" comment. It was meant to be a compliment on your superior choice of porn!  ;)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 26 October, 2012, 12:41:19 pm
'Delta of Venus' is pure fantasy stuff, and really very funny if you choose to take it that way.

Yes, hence the "with a brain" comment. It was meant to be a compliment on your superior choice of porn!  ;)

d.

Why, thank you citoyen!   ;)

If you don't mind, I prefer the term 'erotica'. 

I am a lady.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2012, 12:59:14 pm
 ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 28 October, 2012, 05:24:09 pm
Just finished Tyler Hamilton's book. Back to the Red Riding quartet - halfway through 1980, which I'm finding harder than the last two. Does feel pretty grueling doing them all in a row, hence the brief interlude with Hamilton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 28 October, 2012, 05:31:36 pm
Dan John's  "Never let go" about lifting weights and keeping focus in life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 28 October, 2012, 06:02:51 pm
I'm reading Sophie Hannah's novels at the moment. Started them in the wrong order, having picked a couple up at Tesco - A Room Swept White and Kind of Cruel - and now I have Little Face and The Other Half Lives. I'll probably get the rest at some point too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 28 October, 2012, 08:59:52 pm
I have re-read Buchan’s John Macnab which is a great autumn read, especially after a commute via Richmond Park when the deer rut is on.

Now following it up with the bittersweet The Return of John Macnab by Andrew Greig.

One of the very very few books (along with Touching the Void) I literally couldn't put down on my first reading.  I like Andrew Greig's novels and the memoirs/meditations on golf and fishing.

On a similarly mountaineering theme, I've started Wade Davis's Into The Silence:  the Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest.  Interesting, but I'm finding the National Geographic prose style and lack of hard editing slightly distracting at times.  It has the feel of a good book that's been produced too quickly - the plates are thrown together in what appears to be a completely random order, and some of the writing is sloppy and cliche'd, in ways that could easily have been tidied.  But so far it's an interesting take on the 1920s Everest expeditions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 28 October, 2012, 11:11:22 pm
I have re-read Buchan’s John Macnab which is a great autumn read, especially after a commute via Richmond Park when the deer rut is on.

Now following it up with the bittersweet The Return of John Macnab by Andrew Greig.

WW, I am agin huntin', shootin' and fishin' but I love Buchan's books.  Absolutely preposterous but full of colour and love of the outdoors.  Have you read about his life?  God knows how he foud time to write!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 29 October, 2012, 05:48:52 am
Just finished Peter F Hamilton's "Great North Road".  A mixture of Science Fiction, police procedural, and horror all in one novel. Plus he throws in some humor about Newcastle which will make anyone who knows the town smile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 29 October, 2012, 03:27:01 pm
Twilight of the Gods by Erik Wallin, editor Thorolf Hillblad.

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Twilight_of_the_Gods.html?id=OC_a6iLI_w8C&redir_esc=y

The book recounts the experience of Wallin, a Swedish Waffen-SS volunteer, serving as an officer in the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, 11th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland deployed on the Eastern Front.

The book is easy to read, technically, though emotionally it is hard work. It paints a heart rending picture of the despair felt by the troops as they were pushed back by Soviet forces and their increasing confusion at the Western Allies not stepping in to check the progress of the Red Army. The fight for Berlin was particularly tough to read, as I know the city quite well and it has a special place in my heart - I could easily recognise the places of battles along streets and I have even drunk in a large pub, which was converted to an aid station where Wallin was treated for a shrapnel injury, then back to a pub post-war.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 29 October, 2012, 05:03:24 pm
Next up, I'm going fictional.

http://www.bernardcornwell.net/1356book/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: gibbo on 30 October, 2012, 08:35:29 am
Lance Armstrong's It's Not About The Bike and Every Second Counts. Interesting read given that he's just been banned for doping - he spends a lot of time in both books denying that drug taking took place.
Gibbo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DrMekon on 30 October, 2012, 10:16:11 am
Finished 1980, and need a rest, so reading Ben Goldacre's Bad Pharma for light relief.

I've got some data that's somewhat pertinent to the "harms of screening" debate (not mammography, but another programme, and we show that participants don't have a clue about the benefits and harms). I'm currently on my 4th attempt to get it peer-reviewed because the journal editors keep refusing to send it for review, despite it being just a short report, and the data arising from what was the main article in BMJ a while back. I doubt it'll come up, but I do think it's a bit weird refusing to send stuff for review.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 30 October, 2012, 11:36:07 am
I'm reading Sophie Hannah's novels at the moment. Started them in the wrong order, having picked a couple up at Tesco - A Room Swept White and Kind of Cruel - and now I have Little Face and The Other Half Lives. I'll probably get the rest at some point too.
I'd never heard of her, so I don't know how/why I picked this in my (virtual) basket, but I really liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikepacker on 31 October, 2012, 12:01:39 pm
Just picked up a copy of Cyclings Greatest Misadventures in a charity shop. Hope none of you or I am not in there.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 31 October, 2012, 12:09:39 pm
I'm a bit of a "mainstream" reader these days, nothing too heavy (I did Cancer Ward in my teens!) so it's mainly crime fiction. Just finished the latest Kathy Reichs, and now on John Connolly's latest The Wrath of Angels.

Been overdoing the reservations at the library - I have 11 others at home now, 6 of which are different flavours of Nordic crime fiction. Just as well the nights are drawing in so I get some reading time!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 01 November, 2012, 10:42:43 am
Just picked up a copy of Cyclings Greatest Misadventures in a charity shop. Hope none of you or I am not in there.  ;D ;D
That was a free ebook on Kindle a month or so ago. I downloaded it but gave up halfway through - as you read it, you will probably discover why!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 01 November, 2012, 03:39:42 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_History , 3rd book in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition trilogy.

Apparently I'm reading SF about designer denim jackets. But it's intriguing!

It took 200 pages for anything to actually happen. There is more technology in a single paragraph of Neuromancer. But it's great writing - there's something clever about modern culture on every page.
Stuff did actually happen in the last 3rd, but at a very leisurely pace. (apart from some brief motorcycle courier action, that was less leisurely).

Really enjoyed this, and N has just declared similar. Despite the denim content.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 04 November, 2012, 07:19:36 pm
Just started Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and his Slaves by Henry Wiencek. Promises to be a very interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 November, 2012, 07:26:36 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_History , 3rd book in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition trilogy.

Apparently I'm reading SF about designer denim jackets. But it's intriguing!

It took 200 pages for anything to actually happen. There is more technology in a single paragraph of Neuromancer. But it's great writing - there's something clever about modern culture on every page.
Stuff did actually happen in the last 3rd, but at a very leisurely pace. (apart from some brief motorcycle courier action, that was less leisurely).

Really enjoyed this, and N has just declared similar. Despite the denim content.

I'm reading that, but had no idea that it was a trilogy. Happily, I read Pattern Recognition first but just happened to pick up Zero History on the kindle next. Oh well, I guess I'll find out the name of the 2nd one and read that once I've finished :)
Am quite enjoying it though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 November, 2012, 07:31:12 pm
Just started JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 November, 2012, 09:55:29 am
D-Day Antony Beevor's latest opus on crucial WWII campaigns. This one is as good as Stalingrad, mixes grand sweep with many small vignettes of individual actions. Its warts and all and doesn't fail to point out bad decisions and leadership on the allied as well as German side along with atrocities committed by both. It's very moving and has some facts that I had never come across before such as the high number of combat stress casualties amongst the allied troops and the fact that the German troop suffered very little from this even though they were the ones being pounded by huge shells form naval gun fire.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 November, 2012, 10:11:44 pm
currently reading...

Queen Lucia, the first in EF Benson's Mapp & Lucia series. Loving it so far.

Now finished the first four novels plus one short story. Still very much loving it. So funny. I mean proper crying with laughter stuff. Sheer joy to read.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Martin 14 on 09 November, 2012, 11:44:36 pm
Have just finished Stanley Karnow's 'Vietnam a History...................and about to read Anne Mustoe's A Bike Ride: 12,000 miles around the world.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 13 November, 2012, 09:09:03 pm
I have re-read Buchan’s John Macnab which is a great autumn read, especially after a commute via Richmond Park when the deer rut is on.

Now following it up with the bittersweet The Return of John Macnab by Andrew Greig.

One of the very very few books (along with Touching the Void) I literally couldn't put down on my first reading.  I like Andrew Greig's novels and the memoirs/meditations on golf and fishing.

On a similarly mountaineering theme, I've started Wade Davis's Into The Silence:  the Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest.  Interesting, but I'm finding the National Geographic prose style and lack of hard editing slightly distracting at times.  It has the feel of a good book that's been produced too quickly - the plates are thrown together in what appears to be a completely random order, and some of the writing is sloppy and clichéd, in ways that could easily have been tidied.  But so far it's an interesting take on the 1920s Everest expeditions.

Well, well.  The Everest book won a prize (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20298350).  I find that slightly depressing, because in the end I thought it was a pretty average book, which could have been a lot better had more attention been paid to detail and had Davis not pulled one or two of his punches.  There is an interesting book possibly still to be written that joins the dots between pre- and post-WWI heroic failures like the British Everest and Antarctic expeditions, and the apparent willingness of much of the British public to put up with the proxy slaughter of the war itself.  Roland Huntford points the way with his Scott & Amundsen book - but there's a longer story-arc here that resonates today slightly more than it really should.

 :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 15 November, 2012, 04:05:07 pm
I've just bought Bradley's new book for my Kindle  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: madcow on 22 November, 2012, 03:35:52 pm
Scorched Earth, Black Snow by AndrewSalmon.
Drawing on acounts given by those who were there, this book covers the first year of the Korean War. It is all about the British regiments (Middlesex, Argylls and RM 41 Commando ) and 3 Royal Australian regiment , who were thrown into the UN force  led by the Americans.
It takes place in the most hostile environment , with temperatures down to minus 28C and against brutal Korean and Chinese opposition. I found it an unputdownable book which was easy to read and follow.
Korea is a forgotten war , and anyone studying it would wonder why the USA continued to make the same mistakes of overeach and overambition  again in Vietnam and Iraq .
Clearly Harold Wilson learned the lesson and declined to involve Britain in Vietnam.
More British troops died in Korea (1087) than in all the minor wars since (approx 783) . This book gives an insight into how they showed the Americans that a smaller army isnt always an inferior army.
Recommended if you are a bit tired of WW2 biographies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 22 November, 2012, 03:41:43 pm
The last line of MadCow's previous post reminds me I haven't updated this in a bit (as I have nearly finished the WW2 book).

I have 2 books on the go at the moment
Double Cross by Ben McIntyre, about the double agents that managed to convince the Germans during the second world war that the invasion of France would be at Pas De Calais, not in Normandy.  A fantastic read, not at all dry, with some nice funny stories in it (including how they tried pigeon double agents, but the Germans didn't even notice they were there!).
Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell.  Another book about an Archer, this time Nicholas Hook, some 100 years after his previous series (Heretic, 1356 etc), but once again in France, with the French army still fearing the English archer.  Good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 November, 2012, 04:16:42 pm
Snowdrops by AD Miller.

The best thing I can say about it is that it's short. Which means it won't be too painful to see it through to the finish. But even so, I don't know if I can be bothered...

Supposedly a tense psychological thriller but it lacks any element of suspense, mainly because the outcome is so very predictable - this is largely because of its structure: the main character is telling the story in hindsight, in the form a letter to his fiancee (and I'm rather hoping she ditches him after reading it). Plus it's a hackneyed old potboiler of a story anyway. And the main character is a loathsome creep and a dullard, entirely unsympathetic.

Piss poor.

d.


d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 22 November, 2012, 04:26:23 pm
Just finishing The Transition Companion by Rob Hoskins.  Very insightful, fact packed, reasonably up to date and packed full of useful guides to building community resilience against the shocks of peak oil and climate change.  Tonnes of accompanying resources and free support through the Transition Network too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 22 November, 2012, 04:53:45 pm
Sounds interesting.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 November, 2012, 10:46:52 pm
Daniel Friebe's Eddy Merckx biog. Very good. Very good indeed.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: John Henry on 24 November, 2012, 06:47:35 pm
I gave up on Kate Morton's 'The Forgotten Garden', which I was hating, in order to start Andy Allsopp's 'Barring Mechanicals'. So far I regard this as one of my better decisions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 24 November, 2012, 09:12:03 pm
Barring Mechanicals is a great read.

And I get my name in the front too!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 November, 2012, 09:04:58 am
Have finished Double Cross, so now am moving on to "Two Wheels Over Catalonia", for the second time.

FWIW I tend to keep two books on the go, one on my ebook, for commuting purposes and one in dead tree format for bedtime/loo time reading, hence why I am usually reading two different books at the same time (and I need to make sure they are completely different subjects or I get them mixed up :) )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 27 November, 2012, 09:43:09 pm
Uncivilisation - The Dark Mountain Manifesto.

Hardly a book I accept. Not sure what to make of it really. A bunch of arty environmental types trying a bit hard to create some new artistic response to the failures of civilisation. I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 28 November, 2012, 01:13:32 am
To continue the outdoor theme from Buchan (after a quiet, shameful interlude re-reading the Belgariad. Don't judge me) I'm now on Brendon Chase by B.B. (aka Denys Watkins-Pitchford).  It was a recent birthday present from Ms Weasel - been trying to find a copy for years, she managed to find out it had had a recent reissue by Jane Nissen Books.

For anyone who hasn't read it, it's a story of three biys who go and hide out in the woods for months rather than going back to school, living the life of outlaws, hunting, shooting and fishing.

Haven't read it since I was about 15, it's still great to read (but interestingly different about 28 years later).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 November, 2012, 10:06:55 am
Daniel Friebe's Eddy Merckx biog. Very good. Very good indeed.

This is a brilliant book for those like me who were too young to have experienced Merckx first time round. Does a really good job of evoking the excitement of the races (currently being enthralled by the account of the 71 Merckx vs Ocaña TdF), even if you already know how they're going to turn out. An interesting psychological study of Merckx the man too.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 29 November, 2012, 10:09:01 am
Robert MacFarlane's Mountains of the Mind, which I'm thoroughly enjoying - a thoughtful, thought-provoking and well-written book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 November, 2012, 04:03:17 pm
May be of interest to Kindle owners: I was notified yesterday by eareaderiq.co.uk that the price of Emma Donoghue's The Sealed Letter has dropped to 89p, so because I liked Room so much, I thought I'd get it. (I understand it's very different to Room though, both in subject matter and writing style.)

That will probably be the next book I read.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 10 December, 2012, 08:11:21 pm
Just finished "Catching the Eagle" by Karen Charlton (a cheapo Kindle purchase, although it has gone up now I notice).
Good story, and reading on Amazon about it, she got the idea whilst researching her family tree and finding an ancestor who was accused of theft. It's set around 1809 in the England/ Scotland border country - the Charltons were well known Reivers (as were my own namesakes).
Apparently it's one in a series, so that's my reading sorted for a little while.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 10 December, 2012, 08:20:05 pm
After reading a couple of volumes of his diaries I'm now on the last chapters of Tony Peake's biography of Derek Jarman. Interesting stuff.  Once I've finished that I'll return to Hobsbawm's "Age of Revolution" on the Kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 December, 2012, 08:30:53 pm
Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe  - Norman Davies

A book about countries that no longer exist. I'm only part way in and it's a gem. The author studied under the great A. J. P. Taylor and taught Polish History at the University of London. The prose is lovely and I wish I had bought this as a real book instead of on Kindle as it has maps,
Very thought provoking on the mutability of national identity. In some cases people remain stationary and their national identity changes (the old northern British kingdoms for example) in others their identity remains the same but the geographic location shifts (the five, ten or fifteen depending on how you count them Burgundies).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 10 December, 2012, 10:15:34 pm
Ah.  That sounds like an interesting read  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 11 December, 2012, 12:49:37 am
Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe  - Norman Davies

A book about countries that no longer exist. I'm only part way in and it's a gem. The author studied under the great A. J. P. Taylor and taught Polish History at the University of London. The prose is lovely and I wish I had bought this as a real book instead of on Kindle as it has maps,
Very thought provoking on the mutability of national identity. In some cases people remain stationary and their national identity changes (the old northern British kingdoms for example) in others their identity remains the same but the geographic location shifts (the five, ten or fifteen depending on how you count them Burgundies).

It happens on a lower level, too:  I was born in St. Ockton-on-Tees, then in County Durham, since when it has mutated through Teesside to Cleveland.  I think the last change was at the behest of the Guardian who could never spell Teesside but imagined it to be the banks of the Tee (hee).

That does look like an interesting book, pc.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 11 December, 2012, 10:27:25 pm
Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, by Christopher Hayes. US-centered, but the description of how a supposedly democratic society where people advance by their own merits morphs into an oligarchy ruled by a self-perpetuating class of the ultra-wealthy applies just about anywhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 14 December, 2012, 02:01:38 pm
I have just finished reading La Fiesta del Chivo by Mario Vargas Lllosa. Set in the Dominican Republic at the end of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the early ‘60s. The story is told through a number of separate strands and depicts the corruption and paranoia associated with absolute power as the regime spirals into collapse when Trujillo is assassinated by a disaffected group of army and air force officers.

At 560 odd pages this is a sizeable book but at times it reads like a thriller, however some of the scenes where those involved in the assassination plot are tortured make quite grim reading. But that aside this is a terrific book. I have read a few of his novels and I enjoyed this one the most. Vargas Lllosa won the Nobel prize for literature in 2010 and as an introduction to his work or to Latin American literature generally I would highly recommend this. Available in translation as The Feast of the Goat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 December, 2012, 02:18:00 pm
Having finished both "Two Wheels Over Catalonia" and "Azincourt" I moved onto "Stay Close" by Harlon somebodyorother, standard detective lit.  I then read Private: London by James Patterson, ditto, followed by Home Front by Kristin Hannah.  This last one really hit me, it's the story of a woman who had a less than perfect childhood, her parents died a couple of months before her 18th birthday (father drunk crashed the car and killed both himself and his wife).  She went to college, joined the army, got married and joined the National Guard.  Just after her 41st birthday she gets sent to Afghanistan.  The main story is around her relationship with her spouse and her children.  There were many times I was in tears reading it, maybe realising that in some small way it mirrored things I had gone through (apart from the going to a war zone and coming home injured, of course).

After that I needed a light read so I am now reading "The Lost Cyclist" by David Herlihy, about a guy from the US who, in the late 1800's set off to tour the world on a safety bicycle.  He is last heard of in Turkey, and the story picks up with 2 cyclists setting off to find out what happened.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob on 16 December, 2012, 08:39:26 am
I've been on a bit of a aviation biography streak and ended up with "A  Lonely Kind of War, Forward Air Controller" by Marshall Harrison and it's easily the most engaging military/aviation book I've ever read.

This then lead to reading "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason, which is almost as good and almost made me want to learn to fly helicopters. (almost)

If you have any interest in aviation/military aviation, these two are a must read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 16 December, 2012, 09:07:45 am
I thought Chickenhawk was a terrific book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 17 December, 2012, 08:52:03 am
Chickenhawk is one of those books I can go back to time after time. A great piece of writing.

On Saturday I found that I had a copy of 'Snuff' by Pterry Pratchett on the shelf that I had forgotten about. I shall crack on with it tonight :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 29 December, 2012, 07:00:26 am
Money Sex and Power by Richard Foster. And dipping in to Love's Redeeming Work. Bad choices when you can't sleep. Both excellent. Gore could have been responding to a thread on POBI in this place yesterday. What a mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 29 December, 2012, 08:15:49 am
Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe  - Norman Davies

A book about countries that no longer exist. I'm only part way in and it's a gem. The author studied under the great A. J. P. Taylor and taught Polish History at the University of London. The prose is lovely and I wish I had bought this as a real book instead of on Kindle as it has maps,
Very thought provoking on the mutability of national identity. In some cases people remain stationary and their national identity changes (the old northern British kingdoms for example) in others their identity remains the same but the geographic location shifts (the five, ten or fifteen depending on how you count them Burgundies).

Got this book for Xmas, only a little way in, but it's very good. Just my sort of book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 29 December, 2012, 01:12:31 pm
Chris Hoy's autobiography.

Shadowmagic (cos it was free on Kindle) and 'Discovering Statistics Using R' which seems to contain many elements of a good fictional novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 29 December, 2012, 01:53:34 pm
Reading one of my Christmas books, when I picked this up I thought "why on earth buy me this ?" After washing up (on the big day) I picked it up and cannot put it down, The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng is so beautifully written, he is truly a word artist, even though the period/story line is a tad disturbing in places it makes me feel strangely calm, a brilliant book, shortlisted for the Man Booker prize I shall have to read the winning book to see if it really is better in some way or as so often happens in life the better talent is ignored.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikepacker on 29 December, 2012, 04:05:15 pm
Just picked up a copy of Cyclings Greatest Misadventures in a charity shop. Hope none of you or I am not in there.  ;D ;D
That was a free ebook on Kindle a month or so ago. I downloaded it but gave up halfway through - as you read it, you will probably discover why!

Managed to finish it but it was a depressing read.

Got Einstein and the Art of Mindful Cycling for Christmas. It is quite an interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 December, 2012, 03:26:26 pm
Just finished Emma Donoghue's The Sealed Letter. It's good but not as satisfying a read as Room. Interesting as a social history study of divorce and women's rights in Victorian England.

Next up is John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk, which I had to download for my Kindle after being completely grabbed by the first couple of pages. It's s historical novel concerning food, set around the time of the English Civil War. Doesn't look like an easy read but that's Lawrence Norfolk for you. I'm anticipating enjoying this one hugely.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 30 December, 2012, 03:31:48 pm
Boris Akunin: "Murder on the Leviathan" and it's jolly good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rideron on 30 December, 2012, 05:21:17 pm
It's all about the Bike by Robert Penn. Mainly a history read and one man's obsession with Reynolds steel tubing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 31 December, 2012, 11:25:02 am
Just finished Falling through The Earth by Danielle Trussoni.  I have no idea where it came from or how long I've owned it, and it's taken a couple of weeks to read, which is an unusual way for me to tackle a novel, but actually I enjoyed it....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hillbilly on 01 January, 2013, 05:55:33 pm
Hyperion by Dan Simmons.  Took me around 100 pages to get into this Canterbury Tales in space, but now thoroughly enjoying it.  In fact, I'm off to read another chapter  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 01 January, 2013, 09:41:00 pm
Mrs B is reading Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo. She says the English translation is so good that she keeps forgetting it's in English, not Japanese. So, if you see any Japanese books translated by Francis Mathy S.J., be prepared for a good translation.

Published by her old university, where the translator was teaching - but not her, & she didn't know him. Excellent book in her opinion, BTW. I hope so, because when I get a chance I intend to read it. That's why I borrowed it from the library, not for her.

I just checked my edition of Silence, & found that the same university published the first English edition of that. Ah! I see why. Endo worked there from 1956. And it's Catholic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 01 January, 2013, 09:55:26 pm
I bought bobb A Street Cat Named Bob for Christmas and we've both read it. He's an excellent cat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Afasoas on 01 January, 2013, 10:13:29 pm
Finally got my reading mojo on and not only have I read Tolkien's The Hobbit, but I have read over a third of LoTR. Always wanted to read this books since childhood and it is a nice feeling to finally get around to it.

It is quite striking how much is left out of the films. And what a good read it has been. Might get on and join a book club later this year. I will also be looking back over this thread for moooore suggestions I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 02 January, 2013, 09:32:34 am
For Chrimbo last year (2011) my Crumblies bought me Pterry Pratchetts Snuff (Discworld novel) which I put on the book shelf then forgot about. Just found it languishing in a forlorn fashion so started it. It is a Sam Vimes/ City Watch book so I'm hooked already.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 02 January, 2013, 09:40:39 am
Fuzzy, it is indeed a good book, and the other book mentioned in it has kept TLD busy all Xmas.

I am currently reading "The Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne (he of Talking Heads fame.

It is interesting, the cycling being a mear sideline in the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 02 January, 2013, 12:51:36 pm
Finally got my reading mojo on and not only have I read Tolkien's The Hobbit, but I have read over a third of LoTR. Always wanted to read this books since childhood and it is a nice feeling to finally get around to it

       Highly recommend Embers by Sandor Marai different from the above but excellent
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 02 January, 2013, 01:18:27 pm
Finally got my reading mojo on and not only have I read Tolkien's The Hobbit, but I have read over a third of LoTR. Always wanted to read this books since childhood and it is a nice feeling to finally get around to it.

It is quite striking how much is left out of the films. And what a good read it has been. Might get on and join a book club later this year. I will also be looking back over this thread for more suggestions I think.

I read The Hobbit for the first time at age 10 (1967), and I've read The Hobbit and LOTR several times each since then. Some of his other work is still available if you dig around a little. Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham and Tree & Leaf are all excellent. I've gotten well into The Silmarillion a few times, but never quite finished.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 02 January, 2013, 07:35:42 pm
General George S. Patton's "War As I Knew It".  Contains gems such as

Quote
On the twenty-second,  I decorated a number of nurses with Bronze Stars and also Lieutenant James H. Fields of the 4th Armored Division with the Medal of Honor.  I told Gaffey I did not want Lieutenant Fields sent to the front any more, because it has been my unfortunate observation that whenever a man gets the Medal of Honor or even the Distinguished Service Cross, he usually attempts to outdo himself and gets killed, whereas, in order to produce a virile race, such men should be kept alive.

and

Quote
It is interesting to remember that the average Maltese has never seen a mountain, a river, a lake, a forest or a railway train, and, according to my friends, he has no desire to meet any of them.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 January, 2013, 12:24:49 pm
A Room With A View

Read it once many years ago, though I'm not sure I finished it then. Enjoying it hugely. It's striking how faithful the Merchant-Ivory film is to the book and I wonder how much that is affecting my feelings towards it. (I adore the film, of course.)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 06 January, 2013, 02:20:37 pm
A Room With A View

Read it once many years ago, though I'm not sure I finished it then. Enjoying it hugely. It's striking how faithful the Merchant-Ivory film is to the book and I wonder how much that is affecting my feelings towards it. (I adore the film, of course.)

d.

Me too.

Does the book have Julian Sands inna field innit?  Sigh ...
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 January, 2013, 04:56:15 pm
Does the book have Julian Sands inna field innit?  Sigh ...

I've always thought Julian Sands a bit wooden in the film but that aspect of his performance seems to be true to the book - George Emerson is a bit of a plank.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 06 January, 2013, 05:02:36 pm
JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

No, I'm not twelve... but after taking the piss out of them for so long, I decided that I really should give JK Rowling half a chance and at least try one of the Harry Potter books. It's only fair, and I figured if I hated it then at least I'd have a reason to carry on taking the piss.

Y'know, it's really not that bad. Sure, it's not Shakespeare, but it's a decently entertaining read. I feel a bit bad for ripping into it so much in the past.

My only criticism so far isn't the book, but the cult it's spawned. You can't buy the Kindle ebook from Amazon UK, oh no. That'd be too simple. Instead, Amazon diverts you to "Pottermore", JK Rowling's own online store, and you have to buy it from there and then have it zapped to your Kindle (or other ebook reader of choice - they support a bunch of them). I wouldn't mind, but I had Amazon gift card credit to spend and instead I had to pay proper money.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 January, 2013, 11:39:55 am
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared ~ Jonas Jonasson.

Swedish oddness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 January, 2013, 10:34:33 am
Ned Beauman (http://www.nedbeauman.co.uk/) - The Teleportation Accident

I mentioned this a while ago as one I fancied (because I loved his first book, Boxer Beetle) and now I've got round to starting it, and it's turning out to be everything I hoped for. I'm always reluctant to describe a writer as original because as soon as you do, someone will come along and tell you where he lifted his ideas from, but as far as I can tell, Ned Beauman is one of the most original writers around at the moment. I love his style. Dazzlingly self-confident, brimming with ideas and oozing panache. He has a way with metaphor. And is very, very funny.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 08 January, 2013, 10:38:06 am
JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

No, I'm not twelve... but after taking the piss out of them for so long, I decided that I really should give JK Rowling half a chance and at least try one of the Harry Potter books. It's only fair, and I figured if I hated it then at least I'd have a reason to carry on taking the piss.

Y'know, it's really not that bad. Sure, it's not Shakespeare, but it's a decently entertaining read. I feel a bit bad for ripping into it so much in the past.

My only criticism so far isn't the book, but the cult it's spawned. You can't buy the Kindle ebook from Amazon UK, oh no. That'd be too simple. Instead, Amazon diverts you to "Pottermore", JK Rowling's own online store, and you have to buy it from there and then have it zapped to your Kindle (or other ebook reader of choice - they support a bunch of them). I wouldn't mind, but I had Amazon gift card credit to spend and instead I had to pay proper money.

I understand your frustration about the gift-card but I think it's great that a creative person seems to have retained control of their own work like this!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 08 January, 2013, 11:17:45 am
Blue Remembered Earth. I do try (and often fail) to like sci-fi, mostly due to sprawl. I'm pretty sure that there is a cabal of sci-fi authors and they have a competition to write as many words as possible. I mock your puny three 400k word volumes! This one does OK with a vivid near-future, but now I'm half-way through, it's just words. Lots of them. There's really no suspense or pace. I must have read about two hundred pages and all that's happened is someone found a glove and some pages ripped from a book (you know, if I was reading something like Slaughterhouse 5, I'd be finished now). OK, there's a nice core mystery there, something that ought to carry the plot forward, but there's really no momentum. Maybe it will pick up, but really, what I've read so far could have been squeezed into a single chapter and not lost anything.

(I do, for the record, think sci-fi books can be big, after all describing an entirely new universe or future can be worthy of lots of words, but those words do need to advance a story. Otherwise I'm reading a literal description of what might as well be a really big garden.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 08 January, 2013, 11:27:44 am
(I do, for the record, think sci-fi books can be big, after all describing an entirely new universe or future can be worthy of lots of words, but those words do need to advance a story. Otherwise I'm reading a literal description of what might as well be a really big garden.)

Along the lines of-

We landed on the planet, lets call it Nasty. Imagine the Amazon Jungle- well Nasty was like the Amazon Jungle but, not only did the Fauna all try to eat you, all the Flora did too. We were, to coin a phrase, up Shit Creek, without a paddle?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 08 January, 2013, 11:39:10 am
Just finished Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series and started on the Saxon series...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 08 January, 2013, 03:49:21 pm
The adventures of Tom Sawyer.

With such a lovely vivid description of a fly cleaning itself:

Quote
In the midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew in front of him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together, embracing its head with its arms, and polishing it so vigorously that it seemed to almost part company with the body, and the slender thread of a neck was exposed to view; scraping its wings with its hind legs and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat-tails; going through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly safe.
   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 January, 2013, 09:58:34 am
"Our Lady of the Sewers and Other Adventures in Deep Spain" by Paul Richardson.

Mentioned in a Catalan social history book I was reading, so I thought I would hunt out a copy.  Found one on Amazon (from Awesome Books in Wallingford, Oxon) for 1p +£2.80 delivery.  I picked up two of his other books at the same time "A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain" and "Indulgence: Around the World in Search of Chocolate" at the same price.  A quick recommendation for Awesome books, they sell on Library books that have been taken off the shelves (these three came from libraries in Scotland) and, I think, they understate the condition.  All three of these were listed as Good and they are near as dammit new (barring the library stamp sheet and Dewey codes on the spine).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 09 January, 2013, 02:06:57 pm
Just finished Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series and started on the Saxon series...
I enjoyed the grail series, but it'll be a few years before I can read any more of the sword wielding ones. They start to blur.

He's a very good formulaic writer, but I can only take so much formulaic writing. It's like Terry Pratchett, or eating chocolate. Very enjoyable, but one can have too much in one go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 January, 2013, 03:12:36 pm
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared ~ Jonas Jonasson.

This is currently 20p for Kindle so I've downloaded it.

Quote
Swedish oddness.

Tautology?

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 09 January, 2013, 04:27:37 pm
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared ~ Jonas Jonasson.

This is currently 20p for Kindle so I've downloaded it.


+1. Seems rude not to, at that price :)

I am currently reading the Horologicon, by the same bloke (Mark Forsyth) who wrote The Etymologicon. Was also cheap for Kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 09 January, 2013, 04:54:37 pm
Well, it seems to have transformed your syntax and grammar in 5 minutes flat ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 09 January, 2013, 07:11:07 pm
Man walks into a pub by Pete Brown, quite good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 09 January, 2013, 07:14:54 pm
Saw a man reading David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries on the plane this morning, which reminded me that there's a copy hiding under Pingu's side of the bed waiting for me to read...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 January, 2013, 10:09:36 am
Just started Jo Nesbo's latest, Phantom.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 10 January, 2013, 10:11:11 am
Just started Jo Nesbo's latest, Phantom.

Saw someone reading that on the train the other day, but having read, most recently, The Bat, I find his books a bit formulaic now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 10 January, 2013, 07:42:22 pm
Having read Wonderful Fool, which I got from the library, then dug Silence from the bookshelves where it's been sitting since before she moved in & read it, Mrs B has got the Shusaku Endo bug. Three of his books arrived in the post today, & last night she bought a second hand copy of another one online, since no new copies were available.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 12 January, 2013, 04:43:31 pm
Rpderick Random, by Tobias Smollett.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 12 January, 2013, 07:57:30 pm
round the world on a bicycle part 1 by tomas stevens . he rode a 50" ordinary cycle. free from amazon kindle  . intresting reading  :).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 January, 2013, 08:01:13 pm
round the world on a bicycle part 1 by tomas stevens . he rode a 50" ordinary cycle. free from amazon kindle  . intresting reading  :).

I started reading that a couple of years ago, online. Now have audiobook version on my tablet to listen to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 January, 2013, 10:55:10 am
"Brief Encouters with Che Guvare", a collection of short stories, very good they are too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 January, 2013, 11:03:42 am
Stonemouth ~ Iain Banks.  Not far into it yet but it seems promising.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 16 January, 2013, 12:23:40 pm
I don't like Roderick Random. He's arrogant, quarrelsome, violent & reckless. He has incredible good luck, which he persistently squanders. His only good quality that I can see is his generosity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 21 January, 2013, 11:48:30 am
Rule 34 by Charles Stross

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 21 January, 2013, 11:49:39 am
"The Food of Spain" by Claudia Roden.

Brilliant, it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 January, 2013, 12:22:50 pm
"The Food of Spain" by Claudia Roden.

Brilliant, it is.

Claudia Roden is my favourite food writer, and her Book Of Jewish Food is my favourite cookbook - partly because it's so much more than just a cookbook, it's a scholarly yet eminently readable guide to a whole culture. Magnificent. I don't know The Food Of Spain but I'd be willing to bet it deserves the "brilliant" rating.

Staying on the foodie theme (kind of), I'm currently reading John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk. Very good. Very "literary" (in an eating a block of butter with a spoon (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=67650.msg1402851#msg1402851) kind of way) but probably more accessible than is typical for Lawrence Norfolk.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: numbnuts on 21 January, 2013, 12:29:06 pm
I'm reading the Bible I’ve been a Catholic all my life and have read parts of it at school and in church, but have never read it from cover to cover and the other day I came across an apps for my tablet so reading it on that as you can tell the tablet is a bit of a novelty as I've only had it a week.  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 21 January, 2013, 07:27:49 pm
i have just finished records of a family of engineers
stevenson , robert louis,1850-1894

free on kindle store
interesting accoun :)e building of the bell rock lighthouse
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 January, 2013, 10:56:27 am
Halfhead ~ Stuart B. MacBride.

Loads o' killin's :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 January, 2013, 09:22:53 pm
Anathem - Neil Stephenson

Another brick of a novel. Starts very slowly but builds. Full of ideas and discussions on logic, cosmology and metaphysics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 23 January, 2013, 10:59:01 pm
I've just finished re-reading An Ungodly Child by Rachel Green.  The next instalment, Sons of Angels, has just been epublished and I wanted to revisit Laverstone before got into it as it's a couple of years since I read it the first time.

I'd forgotten how funny it is.  Not in a huge, punny way like Terry Pratchett or Piers Anthony, but with lots of little comments and links that made me laugh out loud.  It's fast-paced and light and an incredibly easy read!

Prompted by this, I bought An Ungodly Child back last year.  Just read and enjoyed it, so just about to start on Sons of Angels.

Struggled through to the end of Ned Beauman's Teleportation Accident.  I don't like not finishing books, but maybe I shouldn't have bothered with this one.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 25 January, 2013, 11:12:53 am
Just finished Ben Elton, Two Brothers. I should say first that I have enjoyed all Ben Elton's writing but I would observe I hope objecively that the quality of his writing has improved over the years, this book is possibly his best yet.

Weaving biographical and historical detail into a story focused around the personal lives of those in Germany growing up through the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, it made me realise how little I knew of the internal aspects of Nazi Germany. I would have considered myself fairly well versed in the external factors and the historical context, but beyond asking the obvious question of how could a nation have done what Germany did, I knew little hard fact and did little to acquire it.

The small detail of this book, evidently researched and fact based, has spurred me on to read and investigate. I think now I begin to understand the situation a lot better, for example I had never seriously considered the impact and meaning of Socialist in the National Socialist, I didn't even realise that word Nazi was derived from the German for National. The spectre of people comparing everything extreme to the Nazis has obfuscated the facts and stands in the way not only of our understanding but also of our ability to resist the forces that would make that darkness happen again.

Surprisingly for Ben Elton, this book has a complete absence of polemic, but then the historical facts and the fictional people's real emotions speak loud enough for themselves. The story is a good one: two brothers brought up from birth in 1920 as twins by a jewish family, one an adopted non-jew, grow up through the rise of Hitler, living and loving as normal people an in extraordinary situation. Doing what must be done to survive, observing those who do not. The background mystery that unravels through the book provides a subtext that draws the story to the modern day. However incredible it may seem at times, each step is credible and - as the biographical note at the end confirms - much has been extracted from Ben Elton's own life (his father was called Ehrenberg, originally).

I would thoroughly recommend this book to all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 25 January, 2013, 11:22:22 am
Thank you.

I shall definitely read that.  I think Elton is a fine writer. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 January, 2013, 11:38:33 am
I had never seriously considered the impact and meaning of Socialist in the National Socialist, I didn't even realise that word Nazi was derived from the German for National.

I don't know if this is entirely true, but according to Ned Beauman in his latest novel, the term Nazi wasn't used by the Nazis themselves - it had a prior meaning as a derogatory term. I've had a quick search of the book but alas can't find the relevant passage.

AIUI, the German Workers' Party prefixed the words "National" and "Socialist" to their name purely as an expedient means to attract voters.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 25 January, 2013, 12:01:48 pm


AIUI, the German Workers' Party prefixed the words "National" and "Socialist" to their name purely as an expedient means to attract voters.


That was what I thought, too, but I had no basis for thinking that apart from acquired "wisdom".

Starting from Wikipedia (caveated more even than normal, as might be expected the talk pages are more turgid and dense than can be imagined, but the citations look sound) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism you find that actually, the sociallistic aspects are quite strong

Quote
A majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics. Far right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but syncretic. Hitler in Mein Kampf directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany, saying:
Quote
Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from the disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors [...] But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms.

See what I mean about what you find out when you look? For more socialistic leanings, look at the SA the initial powerbase of the Nazis.

edit: this may be better off inits own thread, but another useful quote:
Quote
The radical Nazi Joseph Goebbels, hated capitalism, viewing it as having Jews at its core
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 27 January, 2013, 02:01:09 pm
That'd be why the left welcomed the Nazis with open arms, and weren't at all the first to ne sent to concentration camps, I guess.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 January, 2013, 10:32:12 am
Re-reading "The Blackhouse" by Peter May prior to starting on the rest of the Lewis Trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 January, 2013, 11:25:13 am
Staying slightly off topic for a minute... I found the reference to the origin of the term Nazi - it wasn't in the Ned Beauman book, it was in Mark Forsyth's Etymologicon, and it goes something like this: long before the NSDAP came to power, the name Nazi was used in Bavaria to mean a simpleton (a diminutive form of the name Ignatz, cf Paddy in Irish jokes). The fact that it also worked as a diminutive of National Socialist was happy coincidence. Hence it was initially used as a derogatory term by those who opposed the NSDAP and Hitler hated it (the NSDAP themselves preferred the diminutive form NaSo, apparently).

At least, that's how Forsyth tells it. I don't know if any of that is actually true, and there were a number of other "facts" in the Etymologicon that I thought were rather questionable. The general level of research in the book is "stuff I found on the internet" - that's not my opinion, Forsyth admits as much in his notes at the end of the book. It's an amusing theory though.

The reason for my confusion is that Ned Beauman does have plenty of other stuff to say about the Nazis (the first part of The Teleportation Accident is set in 1930s Berlin). Here's a quote I deemed worthy of highlighting on my Kindle (note: the main love interest is called Adele Hitler, no relation):

Quote
The Nazis, he had written in his latest, are wedded to a sort of aesthetico-moral fallacy, which is that if a man has blond hair, blue eyes and strong features, then he will also be brave, loyal, intelligent and so on. They truly believe that goodness has some causal relationship with beauty. Which is idiotic, yes, but no more idiotic than you are, Egon. When you see a girl like Adele Hitler with an innocent, pretty face, can you honestly tell me you don't assume she must be an angelic person? Even though it makes about as much sense as astrology.

It's a fantastic read, completely off the wall and very clever. It's not so much a historical novel as an anti-historical novel - the main character blunders along almost entirely oblivious to what's going on around him. Highly recommended. The final line is one of the best I've ever read too - a proper "Ha!" moment.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 28 January, 2013, 11:52:12 am
Staying slightly off topic for a minute... I found the reference to the origin of the term Nazi - it wasn't in the Ned Beauman book, it was in Mark Forsyth's Etymologicon, and it goes something like this: long before the NSDAP came to power, the name Nazi was used in Bavaria to mean a simpleton (a diminutive form of the name Ignatz, cf Paddy in Irish jokes). The fact that it also worked as a diminutive of National Socialist was happy coincidence. Hence it was initially used as a derogatory term by those who opposed the NSDAP and Hitler hated it (the NSDAP themselves preferred the diminutive form NaSo, apparently).

At least, that's how Forsyth tells it. I don't know if any of that is actually true, and there were a number of other "facts" in the Etymologicon that I thought were rather questionable. The general level of research in the book is "stuff I found on the internet" - that's not my opinion, Forsyth admits as much in his notes at the end of the book. It's an amusing theory though.


Amusing, yes. Plausible? No. Sounds to me that if there was any basis in it, that would have become common parlance and understanding at the time.

As is my wont I normally have a look at the books people recommend, after the quality of your recommendation I looked at Etymologicon and decided it wasn't for me. Then I realised you were talking about The Teleportation Accident which looks much more interesting (don't mind me I'm having a very confudes day). However with a Kindle version costing more than paperback+vat? no thank you, that's cheeky.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 January, 2013, 12:07:05 pm
Amusing, yes. Plausible? No. Sounds to me that if there was any basis in it, that would have become common parlance and understanding at the time.

Yes, you'd think it would be wider known. I found the Etymologicon rather irritating, tbh. I've seen a lot of positive reviews of it but it reminded me of watching an episode of QI - entirely superficial, glib and not as funny as it thinks it is. It's not a book for anyone with a genuine, serious interest in language.

Quote
Then I realised you were talking about The Teleportation Accident which looks much more interesting (don't mind me I'm having a very confudes day). However with a Kindle version costing more than paperback+vat? no thank you, that's cheeky.

The paperback isn't actually out until April though. I presume the Kindle price will drop then.

It's very rare that I pay full price for Kindle books but this was one I was particularly keen to read because I enjoyed his first novel so much, so I couldn't wait. Likewise the new Lawrence Norfolk, which I'm reading at the moment - not out in paperback until May, but so very very good that I'm glad I didn't wait (even though I have plenty of other books I could have been getting on with while waiting for it to become more affordable).

Hang on... I've just noticed that the Kindle price on both those books has actually gone up since I bought them.  ???

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 28 January, 2013, 12:26:39 pm
Staying slightly off topic for a minute... I found the reference to the origin of the term Nazi - it wasn't in the Ned Beauman book, it was in Mark Forsyth's Etymologicon, and it goes something like this: long before the NSDAP came to power, the name Nazi was used in Bavaria to mean a simpleton (a diminutive form of the name Ignatz, cf Paddy in Irish jokes). The fact that it also worked as a diminutive of National Socialist was happy coincidence. Hence it was initially used as a derogatory term by those who opposed the NSDAP and Hitler hated it (the NSDAP themselves preferred the diminutive form NaSo, apparently).

At least, that's how Forsyth tells it. I don't know if any of that is actually true, and there were a number of other "facts" in the Etymologicon that I thought were rather questionable. The general level of research in the book is "stuff I found on the internet" - that's not my opinion, Forsyth admits as much in his notes at the end of the book. It's an amusing theory though...

One of my German colleagues makes the same claim about 'Nazi' – though she says it has be pronounced in a particular way.

That said, she was mostly schooled in good old democratic East Germany, where she picked up this historical nugget (or so she thinks), so accuracy might not be assured.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 28 January, 2013, 12:33:36 pm
Here's a bit of etymology for you:

From http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Nazi

Quote
Nazi
1930, noun and adjective, from German Nazi, abbreviation of German pronunciation of Nationalsozialist (based on earlier German sozi, popular abbreviation of "socialist"), from Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "National Socialist German Workers' Party," led by Hitler from 1920.

The 24th edition of Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (2002) says the word Nazi was favored in southern Germany (supposedly from c.1924) among opponents of National Socialism because the nickname Nazi, Naczi (from the masc. proper name Ignatz, German form of Ignatius) was used colloquially to mean "a foolish person, clumsy or awkward person." Ignatz was a popular name in Catholic Austria, and according to one source in World War I Nazi was a generic name in the German Empire for the soldiers of Austria-Hungary.

An older use of Nazi for national-sozial is attested in German from 1903, but EWdS does not think it contributed to the word as applied to Hitler and his followers. The NSDAP for a time attempted to adopt the Nazi designation as what the Germans call a "despite-word," but they gave this up, and the NSDAP is said to have generally avoided the term. Before 1930, party members had been called in English National Socialists, which dates from 1923. The use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, etc., was popularized by German exiles abroad. From them, it spread into other languages, and eventually was brought back to Germany, after the war. In the USSR, the terms national socialist and Nazi were said to have been forbidden after 1932, presumably to avoid any taint to the good word socialist. Soviet literature refers to fascists.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 30 January, 2013, 04:05:05 pm
Just finished "Behind The Beautiful Forevers" a true story of life in a Mumbai slum.

Moved onto "Packing for Mars" a sideways look at what astronauts go through to get into space.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 30 January, 2013, 06:25:59 pm
Janapar.

The book of the film of the book, I do wonder whether Tom realises how much of himself he's giving away in this book.  He probably doesn't care.

I might like him a bit more by the end of the book, and I must say our real-life interactions have shown him to be far more pleasant than he comes across here.

I do like the way he concentrates on his own experience of places.  Descriptions of the Harwich Ferry I can get online.  It's the internal monologue that interests me, which is why I find this style of writing so much more absorbing than, say, Anne Mustoe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 30 January, 2013, 06:27:21 pm
The Terror by Dan Simmons: a fictionalised account of the ill-feted expedition by Captain Sir John Franklin to discover the Northwest Passage. With starving, scurvy-addled seamen; a monster/uber-polar bear killing the sailors at will; mysterious esquimaux (I rather like this version of eskimo) and (still to be read) mutiny & cannibalism.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 February, 2013, 10:21:37 pm
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

A psychological thriller. Not the kind of thing I normally read but a colleague insisted it was brilliant and I thought what the heck. She was the one who recommended Room to me, after all.

So far, I hate the two main characters, a thirtysomething couple. The wife has gone missing and the husband is a suspect. To be honest, I wouldn't blame him if he'd stoved her head in and thrown the body in the Mississippi. And then thrown himself in after her.

It reads almost as a screenplay. I'm trying to think who they'd cast in the lead roles. The wife is obviously written for Gwyneth Paltrow but I'm not sure about the husband. Hang on...

I've just looked it up on imdb. Of course it's already in production! David Fincher is directing, apparently. Pfft.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: loadsabikes on 02 February, 2013, 10:41:11 pm
Janapar by Tom Allen arrived today.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 February, 2013, 08:01:46 am
Hmmm. Gone Girl started badly, got much better in the middle, transforming from a standard schlocky thriller into an interesting study of a dysfunctional relationship, but then undermined itself by completely losing its grip towards the end. You know, an author doesn't do herself any favours if she puts some good points into the mouth of someone who turns out to be a sociopath. Utterly preposterous. And the cringingly smug writing doesn't help.

Now reading The Sisters Brothers, which is an altogether different kind of silliness. I'm enjoying the dissonance of tone and action. 

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 07 February, 2013, 07:44:16 pm
Just finished Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe, by Mark Mazower. Interesting, but certainly not entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 11 February, 2013, 10:44:44 pm
I'm *not* reading Railsea by China Mieville, gave up after 9%. Dreadful pish!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 February, 2013, 11:41:02 pm
I've started Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, though I fear it slightly exceeds my current mental capacity...

Modernists, eh?  ::-)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 12 February, 2013, 01:48:41 pm
Popped into my local "The Works" yesterday and bought a History of England in 100 Places. Does what it says, very interesting reading about all sorts of eclectic places. Will give me several ideas for planning tours.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 12 February, 2013, 10:27:10 pm
Reading 'Bedlam', the new Brookmyre.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 February, 2013, 09:26:34 am
Reading 'Bedlam', the new Brookmyre.

Chris or Christopher?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 13 February, 2013, 07:39:46 pm
Reading 'Bedlam', the new Brookmyre.

Chris or Christopher?

Christopher Brookmyre this time.  Heavily game related, there is apparently a First Person Shooter (FPS) game being produced that ties in somehow - I'm currently at work so I'm unable to google anything remotely related to computer games from here, although if you google RedBedlam and Brookmyre you should get some useful links.  Personally RedBedlam are not a company that I would have been expecting great things from but I'll be very happy to be wrong.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 February, 2013, 08:08:42 pm
Interesting. I've only read one of his and it was a "Chris" - wasn't all that impressed but I think the "Christophers" would be much more up my street.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 13 February, 2013, 08:19:44 pm
Interesting. I've only read one of his and it was a "Chris" - wasn't all that impressed but I think the "Christophers" would be much more up my street.

d.

I thought the first of the 'Chris' ones was alright but didn't enjoy the second one as much.

I get the strong impression that he is looking for a new voice but hasn't quite found it yet.  Personally I think he writes teenagers really, really well, especially in 'A Tale Etched in Blood & Hard Black Pencil' which is my favourite Brookmyre.  I think there's a lot more he could write around teenagers, with or without the crime element.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 13 February, 2013, 09:39:36 pm
Just re-read Hardy's "A Pair Of Blue Eyes" (one of his so-called minor works) for the first time in years.  It's a kind of prototype for both "The Return Of The Native" and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" but the final three chapters are absolute genius.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 February, 2013, 12:49:27 pm
I've started Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, though I fear it slightly exceeds my current mental capacity...

General tiredness and other mental deficiencies mean it's taken me a while to get going with Parade's End. This is not an easy read. Wildly non-linear narrative, turbulent streams of consciousness, statements presented as fact from one point of view directly contradicted a few pages later from another... But now I've hit my stride, I'm finding it very hard to put down. It is utterly mesmerising. Even when I'm not reading it, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about it.

I'm reading the three volume edition on Kindle (as edited by Graham Greeene, omitting the fourth volume) and I'm 18% through so far. In print, it runs to something like 900 pages of dense type. It's going to keep me busy for a while longer yet.

I loved last year's BBC adaptation but there is soooo much more in the book that didn't make it to the screen. (Though having seen the TV version is making the book a little easier to follow.)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 February, 2013, 03:11:09 pm
Hmm, I'd never noticed there was a Brookmyre dichotomy. That's what I get for sitting at the back of the class and paying no attention.

I did finish Blue Remembered Earth and forgot to do my book report. It wasn't bad, but expect to feel short changed that you've read effectively a 500 word prologue. It also read awkwardly, since the protagonists were African, but probably could have equally come from Haverfordwest. Every now and then you're told that the announcements are in Swahili, just in case the reader forgets they're African. A bit of a conceit which brought nothing to the to story. Also the lead character had a sudden turn from whiny doofus to dynamic go-getter mid-book, that you felt had more to do with an editor saying 'you know, he's a bit annoying' than plot. A small flurry of decent ideas but the pacing was glacial, and you could almost feel the author treading water until the next volume.

Now sampling John Dies at the End which, on the basis that I never like things that people tell me I'll like, I didn't expect to like. But the first couple of pages have been quite amusing. Apparently, already a movie, so again I'm not paying attention at the back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 February, 2013, 03:43:44 pm
Hmm, I'd never noticed there was a Brookmyre dichotomy. That's what I get for sitting at the back of the class and paying no attention.

You can probably be excused because it seems to be a fairly recent development in his career and, afaict, not as pronounced as the Iain [M] Banks dichotomy - I believe Where The Bodies Are Buried is the first "Chris" and that only came out in paperback six months or so ago.

As an aside, in trying to verify this information via the medium of Wikipedia, I discovered that Brookmyre has a recurring hero, Jack Parlabane. I wonder where he got the name from - one of my all-time favourite novels, The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies, has an anti-hero called Parlabane. Not exactly a common name... If Brookmyre counts Robertson Davies as an influence, that definitely makes me want to read more of his work.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 February, 2013, 04:26:23 pm
Ah, the insatiable crime thriller market. Claims them all in the end. I can't blame them, it feeds the kids. I quite enjoy Michael Marshall's turn in that arena, but his books come off a bit creepier than most.

Reminds me that I did read the first Jack Reacher novel to see what that was all about. Hmm, didn't entirely live up the hype. Maybe the later ones in the series are better. Too much coincidence and Jack Reacher can probably simultaneously kill ten men by merely blinking at them (now I do believe Tom Cruise can do this, because he harbours the spirits of empathic aliens).

As a worrying nod to culture, I've read every Robertson Davies novel, and not solely as an attempt to persuade an attractive Canadian girl to sleep with me.

Before you worry, I've already got my tickets to Die Hard V.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 February, 2013, 04:43:21 pm
Jack Reacher can probably simultaneously kill ten men by merely blinking at them

I've never got beyond reading the Wikipedia page about Jack Reacher, which is hilarious. Probably unintentionally. (Mainly the bit under the heading "Skills".)

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Littlesox on 20 February, 2013, 06:31:26 pm
Bit behind the times I'm afraid (well, there are only so many hours in a day).

Half-way through The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo.

Need to get it finished so I can then watch both versions of the film for comparison.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 23 February, 2013, 01:46:17 pm
Just finished "The Hundred Year Old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson. It's funny book, the main character is a bit like Forrest Gump in that he ends up meeting world leaders, for the first three quarters of the book it had me laughing, but it got a little contrived towards the end. I'd still recommend it though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 23 February, 2013, 05:01:57 pm
Photography by Eric de Mare.  I had forgotten how influenced I was by this book.  It has the most wonderful set of plates in the middle, including shots by HC-B, Adolf Morath, Moholy-Nagy, Newman, Brandt and many others.  Beautiful.

Sadly, it was written a bit early to give me advice on taking incident light readings with an Invercone, which was why I picked it off the shelf initially.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 24 February, 2013, 12:56:28 pm
Just finished "The Hundred Year Old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson. It's funny book, the main character is a bit like Forrest Gump in that he ends up meeting world leaders, for the first three quarters of the book it had me laughing, but it got a little contrived towards the end. I'd still recommend it though.
I'm reading that just now, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 February, 2013, 02:55:48 pm
Of Mice And Men.

Read it when I was at school more years ago than I care to remember. Now my son is reading it for his GCSE coursework, so I thought I'd read it again in order to be able to discuss it with him & help him with his homework...

Bloody hell, I'd forgotten quite how harrowing a read it is. Brilliant, but harrowing.  :'(

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 February, 2013, 03:27:41 pm
...and following that with:

The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach.

Supposedly the new Next Big Thing in American literature. Not greatly impressed so far. It feels over-polished and boringly conventional, like it's self-consciously ticking all the Great American Novel boxes. And it's about baseball. Even the author's name sounds like something a marketing department came up with to fill a "Great American Novelist" brief. He's no Jonathan Franzen though.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 25 February, 2013, 03:35:56 pm
I've just finished Flaubert's Parrot.  Deano should be proud of me for finally reading a Julian Barnes book - I once asked him "Who's Julian Barnes?"

It was good and I genuinely enjoyed it, but I think I'd have appreciated it more had I read any Flaubert first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 February, 2013, 03:53:25 pm
I *love* Flaubert's Parrot! I had read Madame Bovary before I read it but I'm not sure it really did add to my enjoyment or was in any way necessary. As long as you have a general idea of who Flaubert was and know that he wrote Madame Bovary, that's probably enough.

It's a while since I read either, though. I should read both again.

Edit: just googled a bit to remind myself of some detail of Flaubert's Parrot and it probably does help to know that the narrator's life story does in some respects mirror Monsieur Bovary's... Tbh, it's such a long time since I read it that I don't remember much about it - I mainly remember the brilliant bit about Madame Bovary's eyes changing colour. Damn, you've made me really want to read it again now.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 March, 2013, 03:51:33 pm
Island Of Wings by Karin Altenberg

The first half of this novel failed to grip me but I'm glad I gave it a chance because it picks up in the second half. This is the third book I've read recently that was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the others being Emma Donoghue's Room and Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie. I know the Orange Prize has come in for criticism, mainly from stupid people, but this is the kind of book that to me justifies its existence because it's very much about being a woman, and if our society were not such that it makes that a fitting theme for a novel, this book would not have needed to be written. Anyway, more importantly than what awards it may or may not have won, it's a good read.

Fuller review...

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 March, 2013, 03:59:12 pm
Finished The Vanishing Point by Val McDermid this morning.  I didn't see that ending coming...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 01 March, 2013, 04:50:16 pm
Just finished Silver Linings Playbook [as in the Oscar-feted film].

Good, but quite a tough read - you really feel for the guy, but he's so deluded that you can't see how he's ever going to improve his life.

The film sounds like a much happier/funnier spin. But I'm also left thinking that a lot of scenes were intended to be funny, but due to the deadpan writing style just came across as rather sad.(To this reader.)

There were some genuinely uplifting moments in there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 March, 2013, 07:54:32 pm
Hmm, I'd never noticed there was a Brookmyre dichotomy. That's what I get for sitting at the back of the class and paying no attention.

You can probably be excused because it seems to be a fairly recent development in his career and, afaict, not as pronounced as the Iain [M] Banks dichotomy - I believe Where The Bodies Are Buried is the first "Chris" and that only came out in paperback six months or so ago.

As an aside, in trying to verify this information via the medium of Wikipedia, I discovered that Brookmyre has a recurring hero, Jack Parlabane. I wonder where he got the name from - one of my all-time favourite novels, The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies, has an anti-hero called Parlabane. Not exactly a common name... If Brookmyre counts Robertson Davies as an influence, that definitely makes me want to read more of his work.

d.

Just caught that - I, too, list Roberston Davies as one of my all time favourite authors (and one of my most  prized posesions is a brief correspondence I had with him in the 80's/early 90's - his handwriting and style is is everything you would expect)

Do let me know if there is ANY similarity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Biff on 02 March, 2013, 12:00:04 am
Just found this in a charity shop. Invaluable.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MuYqJX5EJ-M/UQ_KHZbFUYI/AAAAAAAAA7M/1uFovICBDW8/s640/Foreigners+and+how+to+spot+them.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 02 March, 2013, 10:40:58 am
Wonder why they used a picture of Noel Coward to illustrate the Chinese?  Probably for the same reason that they used all the others!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 03 March, 2013, 07:57:38 pm
They used him for the Japanese, too

(http://www.britmovie.co.uk/wp-content/images/people/39-Noel-Coward.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 March, 2013, 11:19:48 am
Just started on the slightly inaccurately-named Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves, not to be confused with Hal 8's equine consort Anne of Cleves.  Apparently one of said quartet is to appear on the anbaric television later this month, starring Dougie Henshall.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 04 March, 2013, 11:23:18 am
Dividing The Great by John Metcalfe.
Yet another account of the GDMBR and more research material for next year's Silly Bike Adventure - there seems to be a large number of detailed descriptions of bodily functions performed under duress, which is probably a sure sign that it was written by a Brit.

A bit light on detail, but quite funny nonetheless. No photos, though  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 March, 2013, 10:31:55 am
Just started on the slightly inaccurately-named Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves, not to be confused with Hal 8's equine consort Anne of Cleves.  Apparently one of said quartet is to appear on the anbaric television later this month, starring Dougie Henshall.

I'm now halfway through Red Bones, the bok on which Shetland was based.  I don't think watching the thing has detracted in any way from my enjoyment of the book.  Why TF do TV adaptions take such liberties with the story ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 13 March, 2013, 11:37:49 am
Just found this in a charity shop. Invaluable.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MuYqJX5EJ-M/UQ_KHZbFUYI/AAAAAAAAA7M/1uFovICBDW8/s640/Foreigners+and+how+to+spot+them.jpg)


That one looks an absolute hoot! Any interesting and informative musings from within the book that can be passed on Mr Chumley-Walker? Er, Biffers? You lucky devil.

Actually Biffers, having slipped unknownst onto a certain Scarfolk blog website, I realise I've been 'sucked in', if one may use that term without certain members (there I go again) fanarr-fanarr-ing behind their hands. Duped. But … enjoyably duped. Well done.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PaulR on 13 March, 2013, 11:57:40 am
strornery indeed, that book!

Anyway, I''ve just finished "The Finkler Question" (didn't really get much out of it) and "Barring Mechanicals" (a real joy to read) and am now in the middle of Terry Eagleton's "Why Marx was right" and Ian Sinclair's "London Orbital".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 March, 2013, 09:40:08 am
I am now reading "The Silver Linings Playbook", having given up on Narcopolis and Umbrella, both of which are too fragment for a bear of little brains.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 14 March, 2013, 10:12:51 am
I am now reading "The Silver Linings Playbook", having given up on Narcopolis and Umbrella, both of which are too fragment for a bear of little brains.

Ooh, have you seen the fillum?  It was really quite good  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mmmmartin on 14 March, 2013, 10:26:10 am
Dark Waters by Jason Lewis.

In a nutshell: set off round the world on the first human-powered circumnavigation. Thought it would take three years. It took 13. Cycled to Portugal, pedalled a boat across the Atlantic, roller-bladed across the US. Was hit by a drunk driver, broke both legs and was left for dead. Took three years recovering. Returned to the place of the accident, started again. Pedalled from San Francisco to Hawaii. His mate left him. He pedalled with others to Asia, rode and walked across India, pedalled across to Africa, rode home. This is the first of a trilogy.
There is this, which sort of sums up a lot of the trip, and our celebrity culture:

http://bit.ly/WeqUV4
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 March, 2013, 10:27:06 am
I am now reading "The Silver Linings Playbook", having given up on Narcopolis and Umbrella, both of which are too fragment for a bear of little brains.

Ooh, have you seen the fillum?  It was really quite good  :)

Not yet, no, book first, then film, the way I always like to do it (otherwise I start reading the book and think "I know what happens")
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 14 March, 2013, 12:01:50 pm
Dark Waters by Jason Lewis.

In a nutshell: set off round the world on the first human-powered circumnavigation. Thought it would take three years. It took 13. Cycled to Portugal, pedalled a boat across the Atlantic, roller-bladed across the US. Was hit by a drunk driver, broke both legs and was left for dead. Took three years recovering. Returned to the place of the accident, started again. Pedalled from San Francisco to Hawaii. His mate left him. He pedalled with others to Asia, rode and walked across India, pedalled across to Africa, rode home. This is the first of a trilogy.
There is this, which sort of sums up a lot of the trip, and our celebrity culture:

http://bit.ly/WeqUV4


Just had a quick look on Amazon, and dipped into the section Look inside. Looks jolly interesting. A trip of a lifetime. Sadly, I can't justify forking out £18.00 for a book, and a paperback as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 16 March, 2013, 10:30:16 pm
Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe  - Norman Davies

A book about countries that no longer exist. I'm only part way in and it's a gem. The author studied under the great A. J. P. Taylor and taught Polish History at the University of London. The prose is lovely and I wish I had bought this as a real book instead of on Kindle as it has maps,
Very thought provoking on the mutability of national identity. In some cases people remain stationary and their national identity changes (the old northern British kingdoms for example) in others their identity remains the same but the geographic location shifts (the five, ten or fifteen depending on how you count them Burgundies).

I'm working my way rather slowly through this - slowly, because it's so well-written I can't really leave chapters unfinished, and I don't often have time to read a whole chapter.  Davies strikes me as a very human and humane historian, which IMO is a good thing.

As pcolbeck says, it's not only entertaining, but also thought-provoking.  I'd add a level of complexity, which is that of the (political) state, on top of that of "people" and "nation".  Well worth the effort, even if non-fiction or history are not your thing(s).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 March, 2013, 10:34:38 am
I forced myself to finish The Art Of Fielding. God, it's awful. Tawdry, pretentious, pseudo-literary twaddle. Dull clichéd prose, dull predictable plot, dull one-dimensional characters. The universally positive reviews in the highbrow press are a clear case of Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome.

Vanished Kingdoms sounds good. I've added it to my to-read list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 March, 2013, 10:44:26 am
I, too, list Roberston Davies as one of my all time favourite authors (and one of my most  prized posesions is a brief correspondence I had with him in the 80's/early 90's - his handwriting and style is is everything you would expect)

Cor! I think that trumps the letter I got from Christopher Fry when I was directing a student production of The Lady's Not For Burning.

d.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 March, 2013, 01:00:50 pm
Just started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Went to see her reading from the book and doing a question & answer session on Saturday, and got her to sign my copy. My colleague was disgruntled when she realised you can't get an author to sign a Kindle copy!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 18 March, 2013, 01:08:21 pm
Just started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Went to see her reading from the book and doing a question & answer session on Saturday, and got her to sign my copy. My colleague was disgruntled when she realised you can't get an author to sign a Kindle copy!

 ;D Cool! She was on Radio 4's Open Book yesterday with Mariella Frostrup, it sounds intriguing. Going to order these for my Reading Group!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 March, 2013, 01:23:12 pm

Now sampling John Dies at the End which, on the basis that I never like things that people tell me I'll like, I didn't expect to like. But the first couple of pages have been quite amusing. Apparently, already a movie, so again I'm not paying attention at the back.

Hmm, this petered out pretty quickly (soon after I'd ponied up the cash). After a while the jokes, whilst funny in a short format, became tiring and didn't make up for a lack of plot or narrative when stretched to novel length. A bit of a trudge in the end.

Currently reading 'Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History' by S. C. Gwynne. A well-told narrative about the frontier clash between two very different civilisations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 22 March, 2013, 08:10:49 am
Anyone read any Dale Maharidge? 

A US author who seems follow in the wake of Steinbeck except as a journalist.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Maharidge
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 23 March, 2013, 10:47:57 am
No? 

Oh well, I have ordered 'Homeland' (£6, mostly postage, from the USA).

Amazon says: "This exceptional collection shows Gifford at the height of his powers, navigating with ease the new, more fragmented imaginative landscape of post-9/11 America. Gifford seems to have anticipated themes that suddenly are recognisable everywhere: the fragility of identity; the power of coincidence; the illusion of a secure future. In contrast to his often nightmarish novels of the 1990s, Wild At Heart, Perdita Duranga, and Night People, this is a gentle overture, a submission of grace and beauty at a time when cultural discourse has moved in the opposite direction."   (Which is strange because the book is by Maharidge)

A UK reviewer says:

"..an excellent introduction to the nationalist psychopathologies that haunt the American heartland and came dramatically and dangerously to the surface after 9/11. Maharidge is an excellent journalist who concentrates on individual and atypical Americans but at the same time never loses sight of the bigger picture behind the emergence of a more aggressive and intolerant America and that picture is economic decline."

A US reviewer says:

"Maharidge makes no secret of his left-wing perspective, but that doesn't mean this book is a political tract. On the contrary, he bends over backwards to be fair and non-judgmental toward the people he interviews, even when he's talking with white supremacists and other unsavory characters. Maharidge has his own opinion, but thankfully, he also has a genuine desire to understand events from the perspective of those who differ from him politically."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 March, 2013, 12:26:07 pm
Never heard of him. Sounds interesting though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 March, 2013, 09:52:03 am
'The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks', by Jeanne Theoharris. For those who don't remember, Rosa Parks was the political activist/seamstress who started the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s in the US when she refused to comply with Alabama's segregation laws while riding a public bus. Turns out that she was a much more complex character than the one I learned about in school.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 26 March, 2013, 11:21:50 am
'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline - so much fun I got public transport to work today rather than cycled so I could continue reading it.

Almost as much fun as 'Snow Crash' was the first time round.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 March, 2013, 11:34:25 am
Communion Town by Sam Thompson

A collection of ten short stories, all set in a fictional city that seems to be a blend of various elements of London and New York. It's a bit of an exercise in literary showboating. Technically accomplished writing but slightly pretentious and wilfully oblique, attempting to create a sense of mystery by hinting at underlying threads that tie the stories together. The story I've just finished is a neat pastiche of Chandler. Meh. Chandler pastiches are so old hat, however well they're done. I'm mostly enjoying it so far though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 29 March, 2013, 09:33:20 pm
Sexually, I'm more of a Switzerland.

A selection of personal ads from the London Review of Books.  Absobloodylutely hilarious.  Quite superb.  We on this forum are but Northern Conference League amateurs, compared to this lot, when it comes to self-deprecating erudite smut.  Mods, can we have a lonely hearts board???

Quote
Man, 46.  Animal in bed.  Probably a gnu.  Box no. 1910

Quote
My hobbies include crying and hating men.  F, 29.  Box no 8620

Quote
Think of every sexual partner you've ever had.  I'm nothing like them.  Unless you've ever slept with a bulimic German cellist called Elsa.  Elsa: bulimic German cellist (F, 37).  Box no. 6327

Quote
I celebrated my fortieth birthday last week by cataloguing my collection of bird feeders.  Next year I'm hoping for sexual intercourse.  And a cake.  Box no. 6831

Quote
Amyl nitrate.  Apparently it's not a common rose-fertilizing compound.  Write now to box no. 3012 for more ill-judged assumptions made by F, 48, spending weekends going through her ex-husband's 'gardening' drawer.  Ben Wa is not a modern-day Percy Thrower.

And the wonderfully forumly
Quote
Like the previous advertiser, but +1.  Box no. 2850

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 March, 2013, 04:13:12 pm
Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky by Patrick Hamilton

Wonderful. Just wonderful. Beautifully readable. But bleak. Oh so very bleak... I remember watching the TV miniseries a few years ago but I've forgotten most of what happens. Although there's a painful predictability about it all anyway. Human nature, eh? You just want to grab Bob by the lapels, slap him about the face a few times and ask him what the bloody hell he thinks he's playing at, though you know there's nothing you can do to prevent the inevitable unhappy ending.

I couldn't even remember who was the actress who plays Jenny in the TV series, so I looked it up - it's Zoe Tapper, who has recently been on telly again as Ellen Love in Mr Selfridge - a strangely similar kind of character. Maybe I do remember her subconsciously because I read her lines with Zoe Tapper's voice. Or maybe it's just that she's ideally suited to the role.

Sexually, I'm more of a Switzerland.

<adds to To-Read list>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 03 April, 2013, 02:05:40 pm
Quote
Remember when all this was open fields, and you could go out and leave your door unlocked? Woman, 24. Inherited her mother's unreasonable and utterly unfounded nostalgia (and her father's hirsute back). WLTM barber with fondness for Sherbet Dib-Dabs and Parma Violets. Box no. 8486.

Quote
OMG! This magazine is the shizz. Seriously, dudes. Awesome! LOL! Classics lecturer (M, 48). Possibly out of his depth with today's youth. KTHX! Box no. 2680.

Quote
This advert is about as close as I come to meaningful interaction with other adults.  Woman, 51.  Not good at parties, but tremendous breasts.  Box no. 5436.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 09 April, 2013, 05:46:24 pm
The World According to Garp. By John Irving.

This book is so good I hardly know where to put myself. It's very, very good indeed.

One of the best books I have ever read.

Reading some books is a life experience in itself, and only people who have had a similar experience have a chance of understanding it. This book is like that.

Or maybe I've met this book, the way you meet some people - at exactly the moment you are supposed to meet them.

Anyway. It's a great book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 09 April, 2013, 06:36:20 pm
It's not as good (IMO) as A Prayer For Owen Meaney or A Widow For One Year. So you can read those next.

It's pretty good though. Just that I liked those others of his better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 April, 2013, 07:11:12 pm
Funnily enough, I only recently put all three of those books on my Kindle wishlist. Can't remember what made me do it but it was something that reminded me that Irving is a bit of a gap in my reading.

Currently reading Capital by John Lanchester, which I only bought because it was a Kindle 20p offer a few weeks ago. Can't stand it. It's readable enough but the writing is irritatingly glib, characterised by too much superficial detail and absolutely no depth. It's like he's done an awful lot of research but has nothing to say, so the characters feel like cardboard cutouts, little more than an exhaustive enumeration of superficial traits. Don't care about any of them or what happens to them. My self-imposed rule requires me to finish it but unfortunately, I'm slightly less than halfway through and it's 600 pages long...

I shall treat myself to some PG Wodehouse next as an antidote.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 09 April, 2013, 08:52:49 pm
Sexually, I'm more of a Switzerland.

A selection of personal ads from the London Review of Books.  Absobloodylutely hilarious.  Quite superb.  We on this forum are but Northern Conference League amateurs, compared to this lot, when it comes to self-deprecating erudite smut.  Mods, can we have a lonely hearts board???

I used to subscribe to the London Review of Books. The personal adds were a particular treat, often causing laugh out loud moments.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 09 April, 2013, 08:57:21 pm
Cunt, by Inga Muscio. I read it on the bus.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 09 April, 2013, 08:58:01 pm
It's not as good (IMO) as A Prayer For Owen Meaney or A Widow For One Year. So you can read those next.

It's pretty good though. Just that I liked those others of his better.

I adored A Widow For One Year. Did you see the film with Kim Basinger? Best things she's ever done that I've seen.

I haven't read Owen Meanie though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 09 April, 2013, 09:00:57 pm
Sexually, I'm more of a Switzerland.

A selection of personal ads from the London Review of Books.  Absobloodylutely hilarious.  Quite superb.  We on this forum are but Northern Conference League amateurs, compared to this lot, when it comes to self-deprecating erudite smut.  Mods, can we have a lonely hearts board???

I used to subscribe to the London Review of Books. The personal adds were a particular treat, often causing laugh out loud moments.

Just resubscribed. Cant remember why I let my subscription lapse now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 09 April, 2013, 09:27:47 pm
Funnily enough, I only recently put all three of those books on my Kindle wishlist. Can't remember what made me do it but it was something that reminded me that Irving is a bit of a gap in my reading.
Fill that gap with a Garp, or a Hotel New Hampshire, or an Owen Meany, but not with a Last Night in Twisted River. And I appear to be in a minority, but I wouldn't fill it with the Widow For One Year - it just didn't move me like the others.  He's a very good story-teller.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 10 April, 2013, 10:41:23 pm
I seem to have accumulated a small stack of Jim Perrin's books next to my bed.  Currently really enjoying The Climbing Essays
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Greenbank on 11 April, 2013, 09:12:53 am
Just finished Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.

I think it made me snigger just once, I just didn't get into the humour at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 April, 2013, 09:38:08 am
The Drowning ~ Camilla Lackberg.  Almost every female character is heavily pregnant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 April, 2013, 09:40:25 am
Just finished Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.

I think it made me snigger just once, I just didn't get into the humour at all.

I had a similar experience when I read the Sword of Honour trilogy, which my dad had told me was hilarious. Put me off reading any more Waugh for years...

Scoop is much, much funnier.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 April, 2013, 01:54:23 pm
As is "The Loved One".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 11 April, 2013, 02:17:08 pm
Waugh? Huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 April, 2013, 02:59:05 pm
As is "The Loved One".

Oh yes, The Loved One is extremely funny.

I found both Decline & Fall and Vile Bodies amusing too, if rather dated. It helps if you like your humour blacker than treacle on a moonless night. A Handful Of Dust is also funny but incredibly bleak.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 April, 2013, 03:09:47 pm
As is "The Loved One".

Oh yes, The Loved One is extremely funny..

My copy was borrowed from the skool library in 1980 and somehow never found its way back.  Perhaps I should return it (plus a few others I have lying around the place) when helping out at the Pocklington control on LEL  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: RJ on 11 April, 2013, 08:41:27 pm
Waugh? Huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!

(Say it again ...)

 ;D

(To the tumbrills with all those floppy-haired, cricket-sweatered Brideshead wannabes  ;))
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 11 April, 2013, 09:11:57 pm
Just about to start Crimea: the Last Crusade, by Orlando Figes. Well-reviewed, & the last of his books I read was excellent (A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924), so I have high hopes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 April, 2013, 10:28:01 am
Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil. Loving it so far. "Trainspotting in India" seems about right. Hilarious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 April, 2013, 10:40:59 am
Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil. Loving it so far. "Trainspotting in India" seems about right. Hilarious.

I must have approached it the wrong way, then, I didn't get much out of it.  Maybe I should re-try with that mindset?

Over the last week or so I have tried to read a few books, among them:
Bloodline by James Rollins, a FEEBLE attempt at a Knights Templar story in the modern day.  It is obvious that the author has never left the US.  One of the funniest bits, to me, was he describes a person from the UK who was "raised in an aristocratic family, in Leeds".  You see lots and lots of them in Leeds, don't you?  Anyways I gave up on it as it's just too shite to continue with.
I read one Louise Penny book all the way through, then started on the second one and realised it was just the same story, moved around a bit!
Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young.  Don't get me wrong, I like Neil Young's music, love his radio show, BUT he can't write to save his life.  This book feels like I am reading one of TLD's assignments.  The narrative goes all over the place, with no real explanation of why.  Another one assigned to the "Only read if you run out of everything else to read"
Don't Know Much About the Bible by Kenneth Davies.  One of a series of "Don't Know Much About" and very good, but one I want to return to later.  Good for debunking passages from the Bible (a favourite pastime of mine :) ) and for getting background and history of the book.

So the one I am sticking with, for the moment is "Safe Haven" by Nicholas Sparks.  A weepy story (yes, I can be an old softy when I want to be :) ) about a woman in an abusive relationship who runs away to a small town in the South of the US.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 12 April, 2013, 10:56:33 am
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.

Anyone who has ever fallen in love knows what a ruinous experience it is. Throw shame, guilt and cowardice into the mix and set the whole thing in the sordid Paris milieu. Then watch the suffering unfold. This is a finely written, sensitive book that has the smell of truth in it. It's wonderful, and horrible.

A story of men in love.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 12 April, 2013, 11:09:20 am
A wonderful and poignant book about things falling apart.  I was annoyed when I first read it because the cliche of the 'tragic homosexual' was everywhere in the 80s.  But I cut him some slack because he was such a wonderful writer.

A couple of years later, I worked on a fantastic production of Blues For Mr Charlie at the Crucible in Sheffield, featuring, inter alia, Clarke Peters, Ray Shell, and (I think) Clive Rowe.  A very powerful and moving production with an amazing set design. 

I love Baldwin's combination of fiery radicalism, poetically descriptive yet economical prose, and the depth of feeling he conveys.  I like The Fire Next Time so much I found at one point I had three copies. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 April, 2013, 11:16:53 am
Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil. Loving it so far. "Trainspotting in India" seems about right. Hilarious.

I must have approached it the wrong way, then, I didn't get much out of it.  Maybe I should re-try with that mindset?

I started it on the train this morning and haven't got very far yet, so maybe I'm being too quick to decide. I suspect it's one of those books you have to be in the right mood for. And you probably need a high tolerance of books with no discernible story or point - it seems to be little more than a collection of scenes seen through an opium haze. I just like the writing - it's fresh and vibrant, and a joy to read after the glib smugness of Capital. And one scene made me laugh out loud (always good on a crowded commuter train) - where the narrator attends a talk given by an enfant terrible artist and then ends up taking him back to his regular opium den haunt. Not sure quite where it's all going though, or if it will prove to have enough substance to sustain it for a whole book, but at least it is reasonably short...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 April, 2013, 11:19:44 am
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Great. That's another one added to the never-diminishing to-read list...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 12 April, 2013, 11:21:21 am
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Great. That's another one added to the never-diminishing to-read list...

It's waffer-thin! ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 16 April, 2013, 07:49:11 pm
I read that when I was in my late teens, which I think must have been before it was written!  Have you also read Go Tell It On The Mountain?  Different theme but same wonderful writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 18 April, 2013, 04:55:01 am
Ho Chi Minh: A Life, by William Duiker. The author served in the US Embassy in Saigon for quite a few years during the war.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 April, 2013, 03:44:36 pm
"Black Rain" by Masuji Ibuse, a re-read after many years.  Another I intend to revisit soon is "Andersonville" by McKinley Kantor. Both originally read in my late teens, when I had a wider ranging taste.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 April, 2013, 07:27:20 pm
The Poisonwood Bible by somebody Kingsolver. It was recommended to me on a feminist site and so far, it's great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 18 April, 2013, 07:54:31 pm
Barbara, I think
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 18 April, 2013, 09:24:00 pm
The Poisonwood Bible by somebody Kingsolver. It was recommended to me on a feminist site and so far, it's great.

        (My) Barbara once asked by one of our male friends in a pub about equality for women replied "equality ? why should I take a step down" stopped him in his tracks  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: onb on 20 April, 2013, 06:21:57 pm
Shantaram . Its a great read . :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Morrisette on 23 April, 2013, 02:23:05 pm
I've just read Poisonwood Bible. I liked it. Made me realise I know nothing about recent history in Africa.

Obviously that was too much literature for me as I then read 'The Long Walk', Stephen King's earliest 'Bachman' book. It's like an extreme vision of LEL. I reckon he must have read some back issues of Arrivee before writing it. Great descriptions of the thousand-yard stares, the way no one can eat at 3am, the horrible things that happen to your leg muscles, weird hallucinations...the only thing they don't do is sleep in bus shelters because they're not allowed to stop.....I'd read it before, but didn't remember much of it apart from the basic premise. It was years ago, before I had heard of audax...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 23 April, 2013, 02:34:30 pm
I've just read Poisonwood Bible. I liked it. Made me realise I know nothing about recent history in Africa.

Obviously that was too much literature for me as I then read 'The Long Walk', Stephen King's earliest 'Bachman' book. It's like an extreme vision of LEL. I reckon he must have read some back issues of Arrivee before writing it. Great descriptions of the thousand-yard stares, the way no one can eat at 3am, the horrible things that happen to your leg muscles, weird hallucinations...the only thing they don't do is sleep in bus shelters because they're not allowed to stop.....I'd read it before, but didn't remember much of it apart from the basic premise. It was years ago, before I had heard of audax...

The Long Walk and Running Man are great reads IMHO

Thinner wasn't to my taste.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 April, 2013, 02:54:20 pm
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

Another who has slipped through my net until now - never read any of her stuff before, but following a discussion elsewhere, decided I ought to rectify that... but where to start with such a prolific writer? Decided to go for the one that one the Booker... I'm enjoying it so far, though it's very much of that self-consciously literary style so loved by Booker judges, so hated by many others. Some really lovely passages though:-

Quote
I told her that the affair was temporary, that my love for her was temporary, and doubtless her love for me was temporary. I spoke of mortality and the fragile and shadowy nature of human arrangements and the jumbled unreality of human minds, while her large light brown eyes spoke to me of the eternal.

I think that quote also gives a pretty good idea of what a piece of shit the narrator is. I really don't like him - but then I get the feeling I'm not supposed to.

Some interesting points of comparison with books I've already read that were written later - eg it's similar in some ways to a more recent Booker winner, Julian Barnes's Sense Of An Ending, in that it's about an old man reflecting on his life and not being wholly honest (or self-aware) in his portrayal of himself. Likewise its near namesake, John Banville's The Sea - also a Booker winner, funnily enough. Possibly not as compelling as either of those books though.

There are also some brilliantly daft descriptions of food that remind me of American Psycho in the way they serve to highlight the narrator's pretentions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 April, 2013, 10:16:45 am
A History Of The World In Twelve Maps ~ Jerry Brotton.  Only just started it in spite of it having been a Christmas present :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 24 April, 2013, 10:44:50 am
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

Another who has slipped through my net until now - never read any of her stuff before

Try "Under The Net" then!  Quite an early one, I think.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 April, 2013, 11:27:20 am
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

Another who has slipped through my net until now - never read any of her stuff before

Try "Under The Net" then!  Quite an early one, I think.

Arf!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 01 May, 2013, 08:31:41 am
Dark Waters by Jason Lewis.

In a nutshell: set off round the world on the first human-powered circumnavigation. Thought it would take three years. It took 13. Cycled to Portugal, pedalled a boat across the Atlantic, roller-bladed across the US. Was hit by a drunk driver, broke both legs and was left for dead. Took three years recovering. Returned to the place of the accident, started again. Pedalled from San Francisco to Hawaii. His mate left him. He pedalled with others to Asia, rode and walked across India, pedalled across to Africa, rode home. This is the first of a trilogy.
There is this, which sort of sums up a lot of the trip, and our celebrity culture:

http://bit.ly/WeqUV4


He's on Midweek at 9am this morning with Libby Purvis
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 May, 2013, 09:20:49 am
Didn't take my ebook to Spain (to save weight, a big mistake), so am now catching up on reading.

I started reading "How to be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran.  funny in places, but soon gets very repetitive (there are only so many amusing anecdotes you can have about fannies) so I gave up and am now reading "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne.

I also need to go through and re-organise all my books on my reader into collections (Sonys don't use folders, per se, they use collections to organise things)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 May, 2013, 11:58:34 am
Didn't take my ebook to Spain (to save weight, a big mistake), so am now catching up on reading.


I did, it killed it. Big mistake. ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 01 May, 2013, 12:50:37 pm
The Blackhouse - first book in the 'Lewis' trilogy by Peter May. Murder on the Isle of Lewis? I bet it was a white settler that dunit  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 01 May, 2013, 04:17:26 pm
Gardisil by Adam Roberts. I'm only finishing it 'cos I started it. I wish I would hurry up about it. It isn't very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 May, 2013, 04:46:11 pm
In between numerous telephone interviews today (3 for the SAME company) I have read more of "Empire of the Summer Moon".

Although very good, I don't think my head is in the right place for such a tome at the moment, so it's going on the back burner.

Instead I am reading "The Courier's New Bicycle" by Kim Westwood, a sort of post-apocolyptic tail set in Melbourne.  Good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 May, 2013, 09:39:33 pm

Instead I am reading "The Courier's New Bicycle" by Kim Westwood, a sort of post-apocolyptic tail set in Melbourne.  Good so far.

Is he a bit of a wag ?  :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 May, 2013, 10:51:12 am
Them by Jon Ronson.

Hilarious. I enjoyed The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare At Goats and this is more of the same, ie if you like Jon Ronson, you'll like it; if you don't like Jon Ronson, you'll hate it. (See also: David Sedaris, Cory Doctorow.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 02 May, 2013, 03:50:54 pm
I really liked Them (I'm a Ronson fan), though seem to have mislaid my copy, or not had it returned by someone I lent it to.  So I can't check whether my memory is correct about the book ending with JR interviewing Dennis Healey about the Bilderburg Group, and DH finishing the interview by telling JR to F off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 May, 2013, 04:52:32 pm
I haven't got that far yet, but I think I've heard that story before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Flynn on 06 May, 2013, 07:52:33 am


The Long Walk and Running Man are great reads IMHO

Thinner wasn't to my taste.

Much of King's earlier writing is good. Then he got in the habit of thinking a thicker book is a better book, writing fifteen chapters of character background and four chapters of actual story per book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 May, 2013, 08:58:54 am
Fahrenheit 451. Hmmm. Good but not as good as 1984. Not sure the execution lives up to the ideas.

By the way, yes, Denis Healy did tell Jon Ronson to eff off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 May, 2013, 10:54:34 am
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Had A Whimsical And Highly Improbable Adventure Like Some Kind Of Psychopathic Swedish Forrest Gump.

Complete and utter tripe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 08 May, 2013, 12:35:52 pm
The Universe Versus Alex Woods (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/universe-versus-alex-woods-gavin-extence).

(Sneaky graun linky there)

This entertained me most of the weekend. There were lots of laughs. And somewhere around Steeple Claydon a few sobs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 08 May, 2013, 01:58:10 pm
The Universe Versus Alex Woods (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/universe-versus-alex-woods-gavin-extence).

(Sneaky graun linky there)

This entertained me most of the weekend. There were lots of laughs. And somewhere around Steeple Claydon a few sobs.

I thought you were just crying at the state of that road.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 13 May, 2013, 08:42:21 pm
Jude the Obscure, for the first time in years.  God, it's depressing.  I really want to give Sue Bridehead a slap and tell her to HTFU.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 May, 2013, 09:42:36 pm
I've returned to Will Self's Umbrella, which I started last October but put to one side because it was too taxing for me with everything else I had going on in my life at that moment. Getting on much better with it now my head is clear enough to get into its rhythms and cadences. Beautiful-sad-poignant-fascinating book. Some of the most incredibly vivid writing I've come across for a long time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 14 May, 2013, 08:11:54 am
So what did you think of Them, citoyen?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 14 May, 2013, 08:26:45 am
So what did you think of Them, citoyen?

Loved it. Very funny. Ronson does a good job of drawing you in until you're almost siding with "them"... and then shoots them down by exposing their stupidity and/or racism.

It's pretty clear that there is a global conspiracy by the super-rich to run the world. It's just that they aren't necessarily lizards/Jewish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 14 May, 2013, 01:39:04 pm
Terra, advance proof copy of a new SF book by comedian Mitch Benn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 14 May, 2013, 06:33:56 pm
David Gaffney, The Half-Life of Songs.  First came across him cos he's a Cumbrian author (and there aren't many of those for a start), my age and brought up in the next town to the one I was.  So, obviously, if we'd met back then we'd have had to fight.  Anyway...  he writes short stories.  Micro-stories, in fact, ordinary and weird at the same time, which pack more into half a page than some folk get into an entire book.

At the risk of copyright infringement, here's one I liked:  You Would Have.

"I was at a fancy schmancy media party and I asked this girl what she did and she said she worked for the Gas Board.
'Oh yes', I said, 'what do they do?' thinking the Gas Board was some Hoxton Square design agency.
She looked at me for a long time, then said, 'They deliver gas to people's homes.  For heating and cooking.'
'Oh yes', I said, 'I've heard of them.'
'You would have', she said.
You would have.  I thought that was very funny of her.  I thought that was a very funny thing to say."



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 18 May, 2013, 01:26:24 am
David Gaffney, The Half-Life of Songs.  First came across him cos he's a Cumbrian author (and there aren't many of those for a start), my age and brought up in the next town to the one I was.  So, obviously, if we'd met back then we'd have had to fight.  Anyway...  he writes short stories.  Micro-stories, in fact, ordinary and weird at the same time, which pack more into half a page than some folk get into an entire book.

At the risk of copyright infringement, here's one I liked:  You Would Have.

"I was at a fancy schmancy media party and I asked this girl what she did and she said she worked for the Gas Board.
'Oh yes', I said, 'what do they do?' thinking the Gas Board was some Hoxton Square design agency.
She looked at me for a long time, then said, 'They deliver gas to people's homes.  For heating and cooking.'
'Oh yes', I said, 'I've heard of them.'
'You would have', she said.
You would have.  I thought that was very funny of her.  I thought that was a very funny thing to say."

An understandable confusion:  when I was at university, there was a beat combo there called The Gas Board, featuring a bloke called Bryan Ferry.  Don't think they supplied combustibles to anyone, well, not officially, anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andygates on 19 May, 2013, 12:34:11 am
Blood Meridian.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 19 May, 2013, 06:32:11 am
I had Lindsay Duncan reading Pride and Prejudice for me yesterday. Was quite irritated to finish the ride with about 20 minutes left. Not irritated enough to go for another ride though. I know how it finishes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 19 May, 2013, 09:53:28 am
The Blackhouse - first book in the 'Lewis' trilogy by Peter May. Murder on the Isle of Lewis? I bet it was a white settler that dunit  ;D

Now on the second book - 'Lewis Man'.

Mr May has done a good job at capturing the character of islanders.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 May, 2013, 06:08:05 pm
The Blackhouse - first book in the 'Lewis' trilogy by Peter May. Murder on the Isle of Lewis? I bet it was a white settler that dunit  ;D

Now on the second book - 'Lewis Man'.

Mr May has done a good job at capturing the character of islanders.

I wouldn't know about that, but he's up there with the rude boys of Tartan Noir as far as I'm concerned :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 May, 2013, 07:52:36 pm
Books read so far this tour.

Finally finished "The Baroque Cycle" by Neal Stephenson. Gods, that was heavy going!

"The Exiled Blade", final volume in Jon Courtenay Grinwoods "Assassini"trilogy. Enjoyable alternate history/fantasy.

"The Fractal Prince" by Hannu Rajaniemi. A sequel to his earlier "Quantum Thief"
Superior post human SF.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 19 May, 2013, 09:59:35 pm
The Blackhouse - first book in the 'Lewis' trilogy by Peter May. Murder on the Isle of Lewis? I bet it was a white settler that dunit  ;D

Now on the second book - 'Lewis Man'.

Mr May has done a good job at capturing the character of islanders.

I wouldn't know about that, but he's up there with the rude boys of Tartan Noir as far as I'm concerned :thumbsup:

I see different 'locals' and wonder if he followed them to develop the characters for the book.

The Stornoway Way - Kevin MacNeil is a great insight into island life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 19 May, 2013, 10:18:57 pm
Just finished "Eagle of the Ninth" by Rosemary Sutcliff, how did I miss this when I was a kid ? It's very good. Have been reading a lot of Roman stuff recently both factual and historical. Now starting in on "Cicero -Selected Works". I have been fascinated by old Marcus Tullius for many years. There aren't many people who lived two thousand years ago that we know so much about and have so much of their personal correspondence and speeches so that we can see them as a fully rounded human being even after all this time. He was a major influence on so much western thought and philosophy as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 20 May, 2013, 01:22:53 am
pc, I loved Rosemary Sutcliffe books, too.  I can't remember the title of the one in which a boy has to "slay his wolf", but it was very gripping, though now I guess i'd consider it a bit "wolfist"!  RS was an amazingly strong-willed woman who fought through great physical disability.

Have you tried Marcus Aurelius for bon mots?  I've only dipped in but I like his philosophical musings as Emperor.  He's lop off a few heads and then jot down how we shouldn't dislike each other.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 20 May, 2013, 01:44:33 am
Yes I've got the "Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius" - he wasn't a bundle of laughs was he ?
I have an old copy of Gibbons I keep meaning to read as a contrast to modern histories of Rome.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 20 May, 2013, 12:38:02 pm
Just finished "Eagle of the Ninth" by Rosemary Sutcliff, how did I miss this when I was a kid ? It's very good. Have been reading a lot of Roman stuff recently both factual and historical. ...
If you encounter the 'historical' novels of Ross Leckie, be warned - he plays fast & loose with timelines, & invents freely, disregarding recorded history. It's not ignorance. He knows the history, but chooses to ignore it in the interests of what he thinks is a better story.

I am working my way through Mrs B's recently acquired collection of Murakamis, both Haruki & Ryu. Just read 'In the Miso Soup' (strange & horrific), & am now on "After Dark', by the other one. I may move on to Osamu Nazai, none of whose works I've read. She also has at least one Shusaku Endo I haven't read yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 21 May, 2013, 11:49:33 am
The Ross Leckie books about Hannibal I found very good.

Even better was the trilogy about Alexander the Great by Valerio Massimo Manfredi.

Both play a little with history for a better story, but none the worse for that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 22 May, 2013, 02:09:31 pm
Leckie doesn't so much play with history as invent an alternative history. He doesn't pretend otherwise. I wasn't criticising him for changing history, only issuing a warning that his books should not be taken as historical even in the background events. I'm not sure they should be filed under historical fiction, as they usually are in libraries.

Manfredi - perhaps it's the translation, but when I had a look at one of his books I found it unreadable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 23 May, 2013, 03:02:25 pm
MERCKX - Half man half bike.

It's brill :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 May, 2013, 06:27:06 pm
Finally finished "Not Me" by historian / journalist / newspaper publisher Joachim Fest.  Now on Daniel Kehlmann's "Measuring The World", an entertaining fictionalisation of the lives and works of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss.  No, wait!  Come back!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 27 May, 2013, 06:35:58 pm
Peakland Roads & Trackways by A.E.Dodd & E.M.Dodd

If you are at all interested in Roman history in Britain or cartography it's well worth a butcher's.

This book confirms my long held belief that we live on the route of a Roman road
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 May, 2013, 08:55:59 am
The Nether World by George Gissing. Like Dickens without the sentimentality. A blend of great storytelling and social commentary. And surprisingly modern in style, especially compared to the likes of Dickens.

And to follow that, I've just downloaded The Likes Of Us - a collection of the short stories of Stan Barstow, today's 99p Kindle bargain of the day. I don't think I've read any of his stuff since I was at school but I loved it then so I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself with it. I'll try to get my son to read them too - he's the same age I was when I discovered Stan Barstow.

(Two good Yorkshiremen there, you'll note.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 May, 2013, 11:44:17 am
I've also just downloaded The City & The City by China Miéville - currently £1.19 for Kindle. Never read any of his stuff before and I'm not entirely sure it sounds like my kind of thing but well worth a punt at that price and I'm looking forward to giving it a go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 May, 2013, 12:34:06 pm
I've also just downloaded The City & The City by China Miéville - currently £1.19 for Kindle. Never read any of his stuff before and I'm not entirely sure it sounds like my kind of thing but well worth a punt at that price and I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

I read one of his short stories in the breeze-block sized compendium "The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories" recently.  Really rather good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 30 May, 2013, 02:50:40 am
pc, I loved Rosemary Sutcliffe books, too.  I can't remember the title of the one in which a boy has to "slay his wolf", but it was very gripping, though now I guess i'd consider it a bit "wolfist"!

That one is 'Frontier Wolf', another favourite of mine too.  It's one of the loosely connected series of books that goes through from the Roman Period to the late Dark Ages - the connected feature being the dolphin ring worn by the Aquila family and descendants.

I did think what great films they would make until somebody did.  I still somehwere have part of a spec script I started writing for Frontier Wolf...

Another great Sutcliffe book set in the same Roman British period but from the POV of the Dalriads is Mark of the Horse Lord, possibly my favourite book by her.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 May, 2013, 08:27:27 am
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco.
My word what a ramble it is! He seems to have forgotten what full stops are for as well. Still, it's helping me get to sleep at night, not that I actually need any help in that regard. 25% in and I suspect I may not make it to 50%.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 May, 2013, 12:05:38 pm
"The Sentinel" by Mark Oldfield.  Set between the operations of the Brigada Especiale in post Spanish civil war 1953 Madrid and a modern day attempt to track down the fate of the main protaganist Leopold Guzman.  Interesting to me in giving some insight into the Spanish civil war and it's aftermath. The first in a projected trilogy "The vengeance of memory" series. It's not surpising the Spanish want to forget the war - and as evidence there is the "pact of oblivion" - a general amnesty after Franco's death, intended to draw a veil over the recent past.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 31 May, 2013, 12:46:22 am
pc, I loved Rosemary Sutcliffe books, too.  I can't remember the title of the one in which a boy has to "slay his wolf", but it was very gripping, though now I guess i'd consider it a bit "wolfist"!

That one is 'Frontier Wolf', another favourite of mine too.  It's one of the loosely connected series of books that goes through from the Roman Period to the late Darg Ages - the connected feature being the dolphin ring worn by the Aquila family and descendents.

I did think what great films they would make until somebody did.  I still somehwere have part of a spec script I started writing for Frontier Wolf.

Another great book set in the same Roman British period but from the POV of the Dalriads is Mark of the Horse Lord, possibly my favourite book by her.

Thanks for that WW.  I'll look into your recommendations.  When I was in what is now Zimbabwe, doing VSO, I once sat with some pupils under a tree in the bush and told them the basic story of "Frontier Wolf".  They were spell-bound, which was very gratifying as the Shona have a strong oral tradition.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 June, 2013, 05:03:10 pm
Whilst on holiday I read (in no read order):
Damaged by Cathy Glass - one of those f***ked childhood stories that did the rounds a couple of years ago.  Read all a bit too made up for my liking.
The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and some other geezer - I liked this, no holds barred, he doesn't come out of it very likeable, but then Lance certainly doesn't, either.
The Big Sea by some academic or other - a history of the Med, meh.
The Phantom by Jo Nesbo - Is that really Harry's last story? I don't believe he is dead, after all the rat can't chew through his chest...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 June, 2013, 10:19:43 pm
Just started Rod Stewart's autobiography. There's a whole chapter about his hair.  ;D I can't believe I never noticed before that he did backing vocals for Jeff Beck on Hi Ho Silver Lining - but once you know and then you hear it again, it's obvious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 07 June, 2013, 12:48:58 am
Just started Rod Stewart's autobiography. There's a whole chapter about his hair.  ;D I can't believe I never noticed before that he did backing vocals for Jeff Beck on Hi Ho Silver Lining - but once you know and then you hear it again, it's obvious.

Intentional quote from the lyric?  If so, pretty good!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 June, 2013, 08:56:10 am
The Likes Of Us - a collection of the short stories of Stan Barstow, today's 99p Kindle bargain of the day. I don't think I've read any of his stuff since I was at school but I loved it then so I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself with it.

I'm pleased to report that he's an even better writer than I remembered. Marvellous.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 13 June, 2013, 01:21:27 pm
Dervla Murphy's book on the balkans 'Through the embers of chaos'

I normally fly through books. This one is incredibly dense with information. For every village she visits she recounts it's history. Then meets locals of all types and reports what they say, describes the place, the feeling in the air, the landscape. She is amazing and this is a truly incredible book about the region. She visited 3 times to write the book (before and after the war).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 June, 2013, 02:23:00 pm
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

Winner of the 2008 Booker. Meh. I get it, but it hasn't really grabbed me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 19 June, 2013, 02:41:16 pm
This morning, I read 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' (yes, I'm still trudging through it, and it's still good) on the tube, and 'Vet In A Spin' while I was brewing coffee ;D

I just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is wonderful. Why does John Irving have the knack of touching you so intimately with his writing? I cried like a baby at the end. What a gift it must be to write like that.

(sigh).

I regret the fact that I will only read this book for the first time, once in my life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 19 June, 2013, 03:24:21 pm
You need a very poor memory.  I've read it twice.  Coincidentally, I  had something in my eye at the end both times.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 20 June, 2013, 03:35:35 pm
This morning, I read 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' (yes, I'm still trudging through it, and it's still good) on the tube, and 'Vet In A Spin' while I was brewing coffee ;D

I just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is wonderful. Why does John Irving have the knack of touching you so intimately with his writing? I cried like a baby at the end. What a gift it must be to write like that.

(sigh).

I regret the fact that I will only read this book for the first time, once in my life.

Told you.
It's not as good (IMO) as A Prayer For Owen Meaney or A Widow For One Year. So you can read those next.

It's pretty good though. Just that I liked those others of his better.

(Polite people don't say 'I told you so', apparently. Ooops.)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 20 June, 2013, 04:19:33 pm
I am still trying to read How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog. I don't think I'm going to fully understand it when I'm finished but I will finish it. Eventually.
At the rate of a page or 2 before I fall asleep it might be a while.

I shall probably need something else to keep me amused while it's raining in Tain while Pingu is 300'd-ing, so I may well crack open the last Iain M Banks novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 20 June, 2013, 04:34:22 pm
This morning, I read 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' (yes, I'm still trudging through it, and it's still good) on the tube, and 'Vet In A Spin' while I was brewing coffee ;D

I just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is wonderful. Why does John Irving have the knack of touching you so intimately with his writing? I cried like a baby at the end. What a gift it must be to write like that.

(sigh).

I regret the fact that I will only read this book for the first time, once in my life.

Told you.
It's not as good (IMO) as A Prayer For Owen Meaney or A Widow For One Year. So you can read those next.

It's pretty good though. Just that I liked those others of his better.

(Polite people don't say 'I told you so', apparently. Ooops.)

Oh I could never pass up an opportunity to say 'I told you so.'

Besides, you were right.  :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 June, 2013, 08:30:31 pm
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Read it many years ago, fancied reading it again. Don't know why but glad I did. Le Carré could turn out a pretty decent spy thriller back in the day, couldn't he.

Haven't read anything he's written since the late 80s though. Might need to do a bit of catching up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 21 June, 2013, 08:59:22 pm
My Time .......Bradley Wiggins
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 21 June, 2013, 10:00:47 pm
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Read it many years ago, fancied reading it again. Don't know why but glad I did. Le Carré could turn out a pretty decent spy thriller back in the day, couldn't he.

Haven't read anything he's written since the late 80s though. Might need to do a bit of catching up.

Most of what he's written since is worth reading (if a bit polemical & anti American).   He's becoming more anti-establishment with each book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 22 June, 2013, 01:14:11 am
The Nether World by George Gissing. Like Dickens without the sentimentality. A blend of great storytelling and social commentary. And surprisingly modern in style, especially compared to the likes of Dickens....

(Two good Yorkshiremen there, you'll note.)
I've only read New Grub Street. Got a bit annoyed with Reardon, I'm afraid - as with his modern R4 incarnation.

I feel I should point out that Gissing spent almost 3/4 of his life outside Yorkshire, leaving it when he was 12 & never going back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 22 June, 2013, 05:09:53 pm
John le Carre's 'Smileys People'

and

'Cape of Storms: Trawling off the Coast of North Russia' by Hugh Popham. 

Very good character portraits so far, they haven't actually sailed yet.  The trawler is based in Hull and crews did 21 days away every 23 days.  The author describes an event where, after a voyage extended by weather a vessel reaches Hull only to be shut out at the last minute by the tide.  One crew member leaps over the side to swim ashore never to be seen again.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 22 June, 2013, 11:03:07 pm
I just finished Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory. Thought is was pretty good really, and will definitely read some more of his  :thumbsup:

I've pre-ordered the next book in the 'Wool' trilogy now too, looking forward to it being published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 24 June, 2013, 12:53:07 pm
Finally finished my umpteenth reading of Chickenhawk- took me a long time this time round, due to other stuffs getting in the way. Each time I remember what a cracking book this is.

About to commence The Land of Painted Caves, book 6 in the Jean M Auel Earths Children series.

I hadn't realised this book was out- 12 years between the release of books 5 and 6. I stumbled across it whilst trawling a charity shop book shelf.

I will need to read a Wiki synopsis of The Shelters of Stone to remind me what was going on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 June, 2013, 01:03:55 pm
Reading "Unorthodox", one woman's rejection of her Hasidic roots.

Listening to the Librevox rendering of "History of the Inquisition of Spain" by Henry Charles Lea.  Boy is it heavy going...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 June, 2013, 03:58:38 am
"The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam. A description of how John F. Kennedy's supposedly elite group of advisors dragged the US into Vietnam.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 25 June, 2013, 07:46:27 pm
There's a Kate Atkinson book called Emotionally Weird in which the main character is doing a degree in English and she and her classmates have to write stories of their own. She describes one of the characters as writing a fantasy epic, the plot of which can best be described as And the Murk will fall upon the land. And the beast Griddlebart will roam the land and the dragons will flee.

I was powerfully reminded of this yesterday when I began reading Game of Thrones book 1.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 27 June, 2013, 09:22:53 am
Finished "Unorthodox" and now have moved onto "The Witches Daughter".  This is the story of a girl who is saved from the plague in the 1600's by her mum's deal with the devil.  Having already lost the rest of her family she didn't want to lose her last surviving child.  It switches between the 1600s and the modern day.  It's quite good in a pulp fiction type of way ("Penny Dreadful" as my mum would call them), but I dearly wish that authors would a) fact check (there are a number of historical inaccuracies) and b) only write about what they know about (it is obvious that the author is American, but the book is set in the UK)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 July, 2013, 07:58:39 pm
Just finished the Long War, the new Terry Pratchett/Steve Baxter collaboration.

Confession: I am a Pratchett fanboi, and I also thought Good Omens - his collaboration with Neil Gaiman was one of his best books.

When it plopped through the door, I suddenly realised I had missed The Long Earth, the precursor. Only one thing for it, whip out the Kindle. This does make it the only Pratchett I don't (yet) have in print. No spoilers follow.

The two were not overly dissimilar, as you might have expected. Both felt as if they were constructed to be a series as is often the case with SF world books. You can feel Pratchett's hand quite strongly in the construction of the characters and the humour, but the two write quite well together. I romped through the Long Earth, but the Long War could (in my view) have benefitted from stronger editing. There is a much better sense of narrative in LE as well, LW is a little confused - too many characters, too self consciously woven together, too much chopping and changing from chapter to chapter. The LW has a better.

All in all, an interesting combination of fantasy & SF, with enough science plausibility within the confined of the imagined world to be reasonably SF satisfying, combined with the anarchic humour if somewhat cardboard cut-out characters that are intrinsic to Pratchett. Reading reviews on Amazon, there are fans of both Pratchett and Baxter who dislike the result, it has more to do with their broadness of vision than the quality of writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 02 July, 2013, 12:19:50 pm
My only problem with The Long Earth was the fact that you could pretty much see the joins between the writers' work.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 02 July, 2013, 12:48:34 pm
Domestique by Charlie Wegelius (and Tom Southam).  His account of his life as a pro cyclist.  He's an interesting chap. All he ever wanted to be when he was growing up was a pro, then when he became one - with Quickstep of all teams - all he ever wanted to do was to be the best domestique he could be.  And he was probably the last decent British rider to do it the old way rather than under the wings of UK Cycling.

He doesn't meet the doping issue head on but nor does he shy away from it entirely.  The incident of the over-50% haematocrit 'failed' test hit him hard.  Although having informed the UCI and provided evidence that he had an unnaturally high level - he used to use the same methods to bring it down to an acceptable level as the EPO dopers - it didn't count for anything when he was 'caught'.

And he gets a bit tied up in knots when acknowledging that he (and Tom Southam) did the wrong thing when riding for GB (or, not riding for GB) in the 2005 World Championship road race, and then trying to justify his actions.

Nevertheless, a fascinating read.  I look forward to when he writes about his experience as a DS.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 02 July, 2013, 12:59:11 pm
OOh I'll have to get that. I know his mum (she lives in the same small village as me) and have met Charlie a few times.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LindaG on 03 July, 2013, 09:34:40 am
Fifty Shades of Grey, to see what everyone's going on about, and because it was free.

My word it's awful. One of the least erotic things I have ever read. I had to go and get a Haynes Fiat Punto manual and read that so I could get a bit more aroused.

Now, being hit during sex is not, and never will be, my thing. You slap my arse, you lose an eye. There's your hard limits right there, Mr Grey. Sir. But the really bewildering thing is  - the huge popularity of this potboiling, talentless trash. Okay I am not the target market. But are there really so very many women with such impoverished inner lives that this terrible book was a revelation to them?

That really is tragic.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 04 July, 2013, 08:28:28 am
Last night, after getting fed up with messing about achieving Not Very Much At All I decided to sit down and re-read "Where's My Cow?"

What a splendid book that is. :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 July, 2013, 08:37:33 am
Last night, after getting fed up with messing about achieving Not Very Much At All I decided to sit down and re-read "Where's My Cow?"

What a splendid book that is. :D

Is that my cow?
*cough* *cough* *PTUI*
No, it's Foul Old Ron.

A brilliant book, for all ages.

When (if) you get bored of that, get "The Book of Poo"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 04 July, 2013, 08:57:56 am
I've read The Book Of Poo.  I got it for my Mum for her birthday last year ;D

She thinks it's good too :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 July, 2013, 10:13:44 pm
The book of poo actually is a real thing??
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 July, 2013, 10:15:44 pm
Fifty Shades of Grey, to see what everyone's going on about, and because it was free.

My word it's awful. One of the least erotic things I have ever read. I had to go and get a Haynes Fiat Punto manual and read that so I could get a bit more aroused.

Now, being hit during sex is not, and never will be, my thing. You slap my arse, you lose an eye. There's your hard limits right there, Mr Grey. Sir. But the really bewildering thing is  - the huge popularity of this potboiling, talentless trash. Okay I am not the target market. But are there really so very many women with such impoverished inner lives that this terrible book was a revelation to them?

That really is tragic.



I suggest the Guardian digested read version instead - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/29/fifty-shades-grey-digested-read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 July, 2013, 10:18:11 pm
Got the sample version of the first Jo Nesbo Harry Hole book last night to try.
Glad I didn't pay for it, the writing seems a bit wooden.... do they get better?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 July, 2013, 08:34:52 am
Mrs P, it depends...

The last one is much better than any of the others, but they are most definately in the populist style of detective novels.

I have red much, much worse (and, obviously, much better) ones.  The Phantom and The Snowman are better than The Bat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 11 July, 2013, 08:59:01 am
Mrs P, it depends...

The last one is much better than any of the others, but they are most definately in the populist style of detective novels.

I have red much, much worse (and, obviously, much better) ones.  The Phantom and The Snowman are better than The Bat.

I'd love to say it blue me away, but he oranges the plots in a very predictable manner, the hero is always all white at the end and as I remember there's not much humour to let you green at the jokes. Some purple say he is the next  ‎Stieg Larsson - he is Scandinavian but his books are basically black to basics, the sort where you know if he absolutely must drive his car he won't find the khaki.  I struggled through one, I tried to like it but his books leave me gold.

 :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 11 July, 2013, 08:49:45 pm
Not impressed thus far, it's a bit like Ian's 'an apology ' thread..... I need to find something new to read. I got fed up with the Umberto Eco one, needed a rest from Quantum Physics to Your Dog and I'm saving The Hydrogen Sonata for my hollybobs. What to try next...?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feline on 11 July, 2013, 08:56:32 pm
I've just finished Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, and then The Crow Roads. They were very different but both really good reads. Simon insisted I should read them, and some of the places they are set in are very familiar  :D

I'm now reading World War Z, a book about the Zombapocalypse. Unsure how good it is at yet, but it does have me despairing at the human race given some bits seem all too believable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 12 July, 2013, 09:24:06 am
I read the 50 shades trilogy last year too just to see what the fuss is about. I'm a sucker for peer pressure. I actually thought the first was just about ok- it was readable. 2nd was pretty crap, 3rd was awful, and it just stopped, like she'd just run out of story!

So. I'm off work for the next month. I'd like recommendations on things to download to my kindle...... nothing that requires too much concentration- I'm up to the eyeballs with morphine and fall asleep quickly so have the attention span of half a flea. Pretty much anything but sci-fi/fantasy, which I hate. Simple things are fine- hell, I even read the kids Hunger Games trilogy the other week!

My favourite book is Pillars of the Earth/World without End- anything similar would be great. And I'm quite happy to read chick lit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 12 July, 2013, 12:44:36 pm
Your favourite book is about building cathedrals?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 12 July, 2013, 12:54:55 pm
Correct. I got so immersed in the building of them I couldn't differentiate between the book and real life whilst I was reading it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 July, 2013, 03:06:27 pm
I've just had a bit of a Kindle binge and bought:

Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
An Unsuitable Attachment and Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym

I wasn't planning to go mad like that but the Hilary Mantel and Rachel Joyce ones are available for knock-down prices at the moment, and Peter reminded me of Barbara Pym after mentioning her in another thread, so I had a look at what stuff of hers was available on Kindle and those two were just £2.39 each, so well worth a punt.

Peter - I can tell I'm going to enjoy An Unsuitable Attachment just from the description of the Vicar and his wife...

Quote
Set in St Basil’s, an undistinguished North London parish, An Unsuitable Attachment is indeed full of the high comedy for which Barbara Pym is famed. There is Mark Ainger, the vicar, who introduces his sermons with remarks like ‘Those of you who are familiar with the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.’ His wife Sophia with her cat, ‘I feel sometimes that I can’t reach Faustina as I’ve reached other cats.’ Rupert Stonebird, anthropologist and eligible bachelor. The well-bred Ianthe Broome who works at the library and forms an unsuitable attachment with a young man there. The sharp-tongue Mervyn Cantrell, chief librarian, who complains that ‘when books have things spilt on them it is always bottled sauce or gravy of the thickest and most repellent kind rather than something utterly exquisite and delicious.’ There is also Daisy Pettigrew, the vet’s sister, another obsessional cat person, and Sister Dew who bears a strong resemblance to Sister Blatt in Excellent Women.

 ;D  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 July, 2013, 03:09:53 pm
I read the Hilary Mantel ones last month and thought they were very enjoyable and I don't normally do historical fiction. Now looking forward to the next one...... I wonder how she'll end it .....  ;-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 12 July, 2013, 06:19:22 pm
I couldn't finish the Hilary Mantel books. As I (still! ) can't read, and have to have my books read to me, it could just be the narrator (Simon Vance) not really holding my attention.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 12 July, 2013, 08:42:57 pm
I've just had a bit of a Kindle binge and bought:

Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
An Unsuitable Attachment and Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym

I wasn't planning to go mad like that but the Hilary Mantel and Rachel Joyce ones are available for knock-down prices at the moment, and Peter reminded me of Barbara Pym after mentioning her in another thread, so I had a look at what stuff of hers was available on Kindle and those two were just £2.39 each, so well worth a punt.

Peter - I can tell I'm going to enjoy An Unsuitable Attachment just from the description of the Vicar and his wife...

Quote
Set in St Basil’s, an undistinguished North London parish, An Unsuitable Attachment is indeed full of the high comedy for which Barbara Pym is famed. There is Mark Ainger, the vicar, who introduces his sermons with remarks like ‘Those of you who are familiar with the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.’ His wife Sophia with her cat, ‘I feel sometimes that I can’t reach Faustina as I’ve reached other cats.’ Rupert Stonebird, anthropologist and eligible bachelor. The well-bred Ianthe Broome who works at the library and forms an unsuitable attachment with a young man there. The sharp-tongue Mervyn Cantrell, chief librarian, who complains that ‘when books have things spilt on them it is always bottled sauce or gravy of the thickest and most repellent kind rather than something utterly exquisite and delicious.’ There is also Daisy Pettigrew, the vet’s sister, another obsessional cat person, and Sister Dew who bears a strong resemblance to Sister Blatt in Excellent Women.

 ;D  :thumbsup:

Great stuff!  Aren't the names great?  In ExcellentWomen  features an anthropologist called Everard Bone - I'm not altogether convinced Barbara Pym is completely innocent in this case!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 16 July, 2013, 10:35:43 am
Having just finished Nick Pope's "The Uninvited" I'm trying to work out whether Pope is a starey-eyed credulous whacko or a subtle author of dry SF humour :-\

Either way, some bits of the book had me in stitches :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 16 July, 2013, 11:52:24 pm
Anyone (with a Kindle) on the lookout for holiday reading could do worse than search for  Megapack

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=megapack

Some great stuff, mostly for less than 50p. A lot of SF/Fantasy/Horror, but some other stuff too
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 July, 2013, 09:05:29 am
A bunch of Kurt Vonnegut books are currently down to 99p for Kindle. That'll be a good reason to break my self-imposed purchasing ban then (imposed until I clear the backlog on the to-read pile...)

Edit: while browsing, also came across We by Yevgeny Zamyatin for 99p and couldn't resist...

Also bought Sutler, the first part of the Booker-longlisted The Kills by Richard House, which sounds fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 July, 2013, 11:06:55 am
Anyone (with a Kindle) on the lookout for holiday reading could do worse than search for  Megapack

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=megapack

Some great stuff, mostly for less than 50p. A lot of SF/Fantasy/Horror, but some other stuff too

Hell's teeth! Are you trying to bankrupt me? Only 34p a time is too tempting but they soon add up...  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 26 July, 2013, 01:30:34 pm
Anyone (with a Kindle) on the lookout for holiday reading could do worse than search for  Megapack

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=megapack

Some great stuff, mostly for less than 50p. A lot of SF/Fantasy/Horror, but some other stuff too

Hell's teeth! Are you trying to bankrupt me? Only 34p a time is too tempting but they soon add up...  ;D

That's dangerous stuff !   There's authors in those SF collections I've not read since I was a teenager haunting my local library!   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 July, 2013, 01:12:52 pm
Peter (and anyone else who's interested) - Barbara Pym came up for discussion on yesterday's edition of Open Book on Radio 4. Well worth a listen for anyone not acquainted with her work.

They also discussed The Professor Of Poetry by Grace McCleen and The Trip To Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink by Olivia Laing - both of which sound very interesting indeed and are now on my to-read list.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037gnxt
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 July, 2013, 11:09:33 pm
Currently half way through Neptunes Brood (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/book-review-neptunes-brood-charles-stross) by Charles Stross.

Have just ordered Meet Me In Gaza (http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/book-review-meet-me-in-gaza-by-louise-b-waugh-1-2968597) by Louisa Waugh.  I remember reading & enjoying the regular articles she wrote for New Internationalist (http://newint.org/contributors/louisa-waugh/) when she was working there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 31 July, 2013, 01:04:08 am
Mr Stross is also the author of "Rule 34", which says a lot about his interests.

For those who are unfamiliar with his work, can I really, really recommend his "Laundry" books? His novella "A Colder War" was based on the idea that Lovecraft's work was factual. The Laundry books extend this idea...

"We're here..."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pingu on 31 July, 2013, 10:28:13 pm
(http://static.eyrolles.com/img/2/9/0/3/9/6/8/3/9782903968304_h430.jpg)

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 31 July, 2013, 10:41:51 pm
Just finished Christopher Brookmyer's Bedlam. It's his first foray into SF and reminds me of Iain M Banks' Surface Detail with a touch of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror series. It's an easy, page-turning read and will appeal to anyone who misspent their youth playing computer games in the 80s and 90s. It touches on some classic SF themes as well as a few contemporary satirical digs (there's a great setup for an extended gag at Daily Mail readers' expense). Perhaps not quite as clever as it promises, but a fun and thought provoking read nonetheless.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 01 August, 2013, 12:49:28 pm
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert JK Rowling Galbraith. I was just finishing the second Game of Thrones book when the library emailed to say my reservation for The Cuckoo's Calling was ready for collection, so I'm taking a break from swords and incest. I started it last night, read three chapters, so far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 01 August, 2013, 11:06:46 pm
Just finished Wages of Destruction. Uncomfortable reading in places, but a good piece of historical writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 August, 2013, 11:33:32 pm
Mr Stross is also the author of "Rule 34", which says a lot about his interests.

For those who are unfamiliar with his work, can I really, really recommend his "Laundry" books? His novella "A Colder War" was based on the idea that Lovecraft's work was factual. The Laundry books extend this idea...

"We're here..."

Rule 34 (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/07/crib-sheet-419rule-34.html) was excellent, as was it's predecessor Halting State (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/06/crib-sheet-halting-state.html)  High quality, near future SF/Policiers

I second Steph's recommendation for the "Laundry" series.  Excellent stuff, a nice balance of spy story & pure horror.....in one of them the protagonist expounds the reasons he & his partner are childless .. "Could you have children, if you knew you might have to cut their throats, to save them from the nightmare to come...."   

Charlie has an excellent blog at http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/ (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/) in which he frequently bounces ideas off his readers,  some of which may even make it onto the printed page...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 02 August, 2013, 09:26:46 am
Hadn't heard of this author before, and not reading yet, but intrigued enough to possibly 'get', is Richard Kadrey.

Taken this description from Cory Doctorow on boingboing.net:

Kill City Blues is the latest in Richard Kadrey's amazing hard-boiled supernatural thriller series Sandman Slim. I've been a Kadrey fan since his landmark debut novel Metrophage, and have read and enjoyed all his work since, but Sandman Slim are the novels Kadrey was born to write.

Sandman Slim is a "Sub Rosa," part of the hidden world of magical people and beings who live beneath our noses. A precocious and gifted magician, he inspired jealousy in his coven, who conspired to send him to Hell while he was still alive. He was a novelty in the Underworld, and was sent to fight in a gladitorial pit, and eventually trained to be an assassin. After a daring escape from Hell, he returned to Los Angeles to reap a horrific revenge on the former friends who'd doomed him.

That was several books ago. Now, in book five, Sandman Slim has been around the block a few times, experienced several dramatic turns in his life, fought off zombies and vampires and creatures from beyond the universe, discovered the true identity of God and Lucifer, and stumbled upon the universe's impending unwinding.

Kill City Blues is the story of that impending universal destruction, and it revolves around the hunt for an artifact that may be our plane's only defense against the elder gods who are seeking to break in and reclaim the reality that was stolen from them. And of course, Sandman Slim isn't the only one hunting for it. His quest leads him -- and his competitors -- to Kill City, a dead Santa Monica megamall where the roof caved in and killed hundreds. Now it is haunted, and squatted by feral sub-rosa and "lurkers" and worse things. The quest through Kill City's demon-haunted, blood-drenched halls and towers and deeps is one of the great horror setups of all time, and delves into situations that would turn Clive Barker's stomach, the likes of which haven't been seen since the heyday of splatterpunk.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 August, 2013, 09:44:50 am
"Domestique" by Charly Wegelius.  Makes a change from my usual run of crime / thrillers / police procedurals.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 August, 2013, 10:10:25 am
"The Great Gatsby" by some American dude called Gerald Scott-something-or-other. I think it's based on a film...

(Not read it for years but it's a perennial favourite, always worth a re-read. Still utterly brilliant.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 05 August, 2013, 08:26:39 pm
I read An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym based on Tiermat's review. It was OK, not enough cats. Rather abrupt ending though.
I have just finished The Ocean at the end of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Typical Gaiman fair, a good page turner, I enjoyed it.

No idea what to read now, I want to save The Hydrogen Sonata for my holidays so I could do with a couple of recommendations to keep me going then....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 August, 2013, 08:28:40 pm
I finished The Cuckoo's Calling, didn't work out who did the whodunnit, then once it was revealed realised there's a glaringly obvious clue on every page. I enjoyed the book and I'd definitely read the next one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 05 August, 2013, 08:34:03 pm
Anyone read any Banana Yoshimoto?

I've signed up to Goodreads but thus far I'm not that impressed with the recommendations....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 August, 2013, 08:20:33 am
I read An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym based on Tiermat's review. It was OK, not enough cats. Rather abrupt ending though.

I know what you mean about the ending. I agree with Philip Larkin about Ianthe, and with Pym herself about John, who seems a somewhat underdeveloped character:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Unsuitable_Attachment

Maybe it wasn't the best one to choose for an introduction to Barbara Pym but that was a decision based on price... Anyway, I found it very funny and certainly enjoyable enough to make me want to read more of her stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 August, 2013, 11:55:07 am
I'm sorry, I wrote Tiermat instead of citoyen, my bad :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Squarewheels on 07 August, 2013, 10:07:10 pm
Currently reading Ice Cold in Alex by Christopher Landon.

Previously been reading The Blue Max by Jack D. Hunter, The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill and The Colditz Story by Pat Reid.

Anyone spot a theme...? ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 08 August, 2013, 12:27:12 pm
I am at present reading an entertaining little bit of fluff found by serendipity on Amazon. At the start of the fifties, a bored and incompetent civil servant marks some surplus equipment down "for storage" and accidentally sends it to the back of beyond, where it is actually looked after rather well as a labour of love, in a mechanic's garage.
Then something goes nasty in international politics, and the three Sherman Firefly tanks with their stack of seriously powerful armour-piercing ammunition are finally remembered.
In their little garage in Port Stanley, in 1982.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00COBGLLA#_
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 August, 2013, 01:45:42 pm
I'm sorry, I wrote Tiermat instead of citoyen, my bad :(

Don't worry, I'll take it as a compliment. ;)

I've finally got round to starting Wolf Hall. Oh boy, this is good. Was slightly sceptical it could live up to the hype but I love it. Simply gorgeous writing of the kind you want to wallow in and forget everything else. Why on earth have I left it so long to get around to it?

Also really interesting to read a version of events with Cromwell as the good guy and More as the baddie, although perhaps one of the best features of the book is that the characters are a lot more complex and rounded than that. I just wish I didn't already know that they're all* going to end with their heads chopped off.


*well, quite a few of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 August, 2013, 01:47:09 pm
I am at present reading an entertaining little bit of fluff found by serendipity on Amazon.

Must say that sounds rather appealing. :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Biff on 14 August, 2013, 11:48:37 pm
Splendid news:

http://tinyurl.com/l9bjdkb
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 21 August, 2013, 02:25:00 pm
Splendid news:

http://tinyurl.com/l9bjdkb

Well, 13 years dead she doesn't look any worse
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 21 August, 2013, 02:25:47 pm
Anyone (with a Kindle) on the lookout for holiday reading could do worse than search for  Megapack

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=megapack

Some great stuff, mostly for less than 50p. A lot of SF/Fantasy/Horror, but some other stuff too

Hell's teeth! Are you trying to bankrupt me? Only 34p a time is too tempting but they soon add up...  ;D

That's dangerous stuff !   There's authors in those SF collections I've not read since I was a teenager haunting my local library!


Sorry bout that folks  ;D

I thoroughly enjoyed them on my hols
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 22 August, 2013, 08:31:49 pm
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert JK Rowling Galbraith. I was just finishing the second Game of Thrones book when the library emailed to say my reservation for The Cuckoo's Calling was ready for collection, so I'm taking a break from swords and incest. I started it last night, read three chapters, so far, so good.
It saw me round our route check 300 this week: 14 annabit hours for each of them. I liked it, apart from the extended reveal at the end, I found that a bit unconvincingly 1930s/Agatha Christie. Good narrator, which is important for those of us who can't DIY.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SandyV on 24 August, 2013, 10:07:35 am
Got the sample version of the first Jo Nesbo Harry Hole book last night to try.
Glad I didn't pay for it, the writing seems a bit wooden.... do they get better?

I picked this up on sale while I was on holidays.  I thought it was dreadful and didn't finish it (very rare for me).  I have, however, passed it on to VeloYellow who is perservering with it and will let me know if it improves.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 25 August, 2013, 10:00:51 pm
I am at present reading an entertaining little bit of fluff found by serendipity on Amazon. At the start of the fifties, a bored and incompetent civil servant marks some surplus equipment down "for storage" and accidentally sends it to the back of beyond, where it is actually looked after rather well as a labour of love, in a mechanic's garage.
Then something goes nasty in international politics, and the three Sherman Firefly tanks with their stack of seriously powerful armour-piercing ammunition are finally remembered.
In their little garage in Port Stanley, in 1982.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00COBGLLA#_
I'm just trying to imagine the effect of 17-pdr APCBC on LVTP-7s. I think I'd feel rather sorry for the occupants.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 August, 2013, 11:52:02 am
The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford

Brilliant in every detail. Exquisite writing. Much easier to read than Parade's End (and a fraction of the length). I'd recommend it to anyone who likes F Scott Fitzgerald - it's easily as good as The Great Gatsby, only more English.

Not that it's a particularly likeable read - the four main protagonists appear not to have a single redeeming feature between them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 26 August, 2013, 12:21:21 pm
I am at present reading an entertaining little bit of fluff found by serendipity on Amazon. At the start of the fifties, a bored and incompetent civil servant marks some surplus equipment down "for storage" and accidentally sends it to the back of beyond, where it is actually looked after rather well as a labour of love, in a mechanic's garage.
Then something goes nasty in international politics, and the three Sherman Firefly tanks with their stack of seriously powerful armour-piercing ammunition are finally remembered.
In their little garage in Port Stanley, in 1982.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00COBGLLA#_

Thanks for the recommendation Steph. I enjoyed reading that.
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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 30 August, 2013, 05:34:52 pm
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

Finished "Born to Run" a couple of days ago.  On the one hand, I read it in under 3 days and it would have been 1 only I kept finishing a chapter and then going for a run, or doing something else active, from the sheer inspiration it provided.  On the other hand, it's a melodramatic and sentimental piece of gonzo hackwork with such a cavalier attitude to scientific method and so lacking in intellectual rigour that any copy would, I'm sure, burst into flames as soon as Ben Goldacre tried to pick it up.

None of which will dissuade me from running barefoot.

I've just finished this.

Charlotte's post (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=74055.msg1523860#msg1523860) led me to The Oatmeal's rather beautiful comic, which led me to want to read this book.

So I was at Gate 46 at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, delayed by 40 minutes, and the guy sitting next to me was within ten pages of the end of this book.  So I said to him, "'Scuse me, but I've been wanting to read that book for ages, and I can see you've nearly finished it, so if you get through it before we board, please can I have it?"

Canadians are so polite.  I don't think they know how to refuse.  They say 'sorry' even more than the British.  So he speed-read the end of his book and gave it to me.

It's great, and it is inspiring, and it kind of explained to me why, when I run, I go into a kind of meditative trance.  In common with many people, my relationship with my body is often difficult.  Running, almost as much as cycling, allows me to take ownership of my body, and to like it.  Physical activity is a healing thing, mentally and spiritually, and if you take McDougall's hypothesis that the human body is meant to do endurance sport, it makes sense that this should be so.

My body likes running.  I feel really free when I'm running.


I recommend this book.

It made me think of the disparity in the take-up of endurance sports between men and women, and how sad it is that even more women than men have no access to something that would make them more whole. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 30 August, 2013, 05:57:57 pm
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. Haven't read it before. Nearly cried on the bus when
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 30 August, 2013, 08:40:32 pm
It made me think of the disparity in the take-up of endurance sports between men and women, and how sad it is that even more women than men have no access to something that would make them more whole.
I'm not sure that's true-for sure endurance cycling is overwhelmingly a man thing, but that's not true of running. Lady Cav will confirm but I'm pretty sure that running, right up to stupid distances, is much closer to 50:50.

Anyway, I've downloaded the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 30 August, 2013, 08:44:49 pm
It made me think of the disparity in the take-up of endurance sports between men and women, and how sad it is that even more women than men have no access to something that would make them more whole.
I'm not sure that's true-for sure endurance cycling is overwhelmingly a man thing, but that's not true of running. Lady Cav will confirm but I'm pretty sure that running, right up to stupid distances, is much closer to 50:50.

Anyway, I've downloaded the book.

Really?  I didn't know that.  It's good news.  Thanks fboab.  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 31 August, 2013, 01:14:09 am
It made me think of the disparity in the take-up of endurance sports between men and women, and how sad it is that even more women than men have no access to something that would make them more whole.
I'm not sure that's true-for sure endurance cycling is overwhelmingly a man thing, but that's not true of running. Lady Cav will confirm but I'm pretty sure that running, right up to stupid distances, is much closer to 50:50.

Anyway, I've downloaded the book.

One of the overwhelming impressions in long-distance cycling, particularly at a steady cadence, is what Gordy and myself have agreed leads to the "Zen Road", where you don't realise how tired your legs are till you stop. It allows you to drift off into all sorts of meditative states, and that is why I have used the idea in a couple of my books, as I see it as gender-neutral. One character in particular, Sarah Powell, alternates that sort of cycling, used to let her clear her mind, with track days at Lydden Circuit on a 600cc Kwak, where she gets to dispose of some of her anger.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 31 August, 2013, 01:16:51 am
I am at present reading an entertaining little bit of fluff found by serendipity on Amazon. At the start of the fifties, a bored and incompetent civil servant marks some surplus equipment down "for storage" and accidentally sends it to the back of beyond, where it is actually looked after rather well as a labour of love, in a mechanic's garage.
Then something goes nasty in international politics, and the three Sherman Firefly tanks with their stack of seriously powerful armour-piercing ammunition are finally remembered.
In their little garage in Port Stanley, in 1982.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00COBGLLA#_
I'm just trying to imagine the effect of 17-pdr APCBC on LVTP-7s. I think I'd feel rather sorry for the occupants.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 September, 2013, 05:29:18 pm
Bring Up The Bodies.

Not enjoying it quite as much as Wolf Hall, tbh - it's been a bit slow to get going. But now, about two thirds of the way through, it's all about to kick off...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 02 September, 2013, 06:02:39 pm
I had Hugh Howey's Wool, on yesterday's ride.

Liked it.

Stories to ride to is a tough ask, sometimes. This one worked. Sometimes they require far too much attention.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 02 September, 2013, 07:40:11 pm
Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham.  Published in 1936 - set in the 1980s when British inventors would build rocket ships to travel to Mars!   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2013, 08:24:22 am

Bring Up The Bodies.

Not enjoying it quite as much as Wolf Hall, tbh - it's been a bit slow to get going. But now, about two thirds of the way through, it's all about to kick off...

...and I'm pleased to report that the final third is simply breathtaking. After spending the first two thirds of the book mostly observing the behaviour of others, getting a feel for which way the wind is blowing, deciding which set of schemers to ally himself to, Cromwell in the final third becomes a man of action. And being Cromwell, his actions are swift, terrifying and decisive...

To say much more would risk spoilers - which seems a slightly odd thing to say about a historical novel where the fate of the main characters is preordained, but that's part of Hilary Mantel's genius as a writer, to make this well-worn material so fresh and alive with a sense of immediacy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 04 September, 2013, 09:05:14 am
Victoria Hislop's collection of short stories about Greece. Utter rubbish, lazy pointless stories badly told for cash from gullible tourists like me, didn't even finish it, gave it to the receptionist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LEE on 04 September, 2013, 09:07:27 am
Killing Floor by Lee Childs (1st Jack Reacher novel)

Only just started it and I'm hooked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 04 September, 2013, 09:17:55 am
Oh dear!

There are lots of Reacher books.

They are all the same, but the adiction has set in and you will read and enjoy them all. Once you have finished them you will crave the release of the next one.

DAHIKT
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 04 September, 2013, 09:56:34 am
Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq by Kirsten Holmstedt

The author has gathered the stories of a number of women, who were in direct combat, during the Iraq War. Each woman is described in a short biography which includes a couple of their defining moments.

The writing style is very biographical, focussed on describing the woman and her experience rather than a blow-by-blow account of what happened. Holmstedt has interviewed officers and enlisted personnel from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps; she also tends to include a quote from each subject's closest comrade.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 04 September, 2013, 10:08:57 am
Oh dear!

There are lots of Reacher books.

They are all the same, but the adiction has set in and you will read and enjoy them all. Once you have finished them you will crave the release of the next one.

DAHIKT


Not necessarily if the initial one was the Kindle freebie and you have a virtual shelf full of other stuff..........


I'm quite good at resisting full price books, although the other night I decided I just couldn't live one minute longer without some Annie Proulx on the Kindle (no matter that I have them all in ancient parchment format. Alcohol may have been implicated.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2013, 10:35:46 am
I'm quite good at resisting full price books, although the other night I decided I just couldn't live one minute longer without some Annie Proulx on the Kindle (no matter that I have them all in ancient parchment format. Alcohol may have been implicated.

Same here - I currently have about 400 books on my Amazon wishlist, all books that I'd quite like to read but I've already got enough on my kindle to keep me going for a couple of years, so I don't need to ever buy a book at full price unless it's something I really, really want.

And because my wishlist is being tracked by ereaderiq, I got an email this morning informing me that The Damned Utd is currently available for 99p. :thumbsup:

I have a few Annie Proulx on my wishlist but I can live without them for the time being. And I have a policy of staying away from Amazon and iTunes after drinking...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 04 September, 2013, 01:32:58 pm
"The Song Before It Is Sung" by Justin Cartwright. I've read two of his other novels and like all three
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 04 September, 2013, 01:56:01 pm
I'm quite good at resisting full price books, although the other night I decided I just couldn't live one minute longer without some Annie Proulx on the Kindle (no matter that I have them all in ancient parchment format. Alcohol may have been implicated.

Same here - I currently have about 400 books on my Amazon wishlist, all books that I'd quite like to read but I've already got enough on my kindle to keep me going for a couple of years, so I don't need to ever buy a book at full price unless it's something I really, really want.

And because my wishlist is being tracked by ereaderiq, I got an email this morning informing me that The Damned Utd is currently available for 99p. :thumbsup:

I have a few Annie Proulx on my wishlist but I can live without them for the time being. And I have a policy of staying away from Amazon and iTunes after drinking...

YOU BASTARD. You knew there was a Lee Child for 99p as well didn't you? No? Hah! got my own back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2013, 02:38:18 pm
Lee Child isn't on my wishlist.

I'm sure his books are as good as everyone says they are, but I remain untempted. My loss.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 04 September, 2013, 03:49:14 pm
If I had been taking more careful notice instead of paying half my attention to the conference call I was on I would have noticed that Lee Metcalfe had morphed into you, my apologies. Carry on.

ETA: I think I have to leave that Paul/ Lee Child / Metcalfe boo-boo in place for posterity
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2013, 03:55:24 pm
I shall take it as a compliment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LEE on 04 September, 2013, 04:47:12 pm
Lee Child isn't on my wishlist.

I'm sure his books are as good as everyone says they are, but I remain untempted. My loss.

I started this Reacher novel after finishing "The Bourne Identity" by Ludlum.  I have no idea who read "Bourne" and thought it was worth making a film of it because it's a terrible read.  Kudos to the director for making such an exciting film out of such a tedious tome.

The opposite seems true of the Tom Cruise film of Reacher and I'm already thinking "who thought Tom Cruise was ideal for this?".

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 September, 2013, 05:23:26 pm
The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's basically a so-so crime story set against a background of musical theory and creative physics. Only just not boring.

Best reads this year were Simon Raven' Alms for Oblivion series and Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End. Both monumental.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2013, 10:50:13 pm

Best reads this year were Simon Raven' Alms for Oblivion series and Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End. Both monumental.

My dad has been trying to get me to read Alms For Oblivion for ages. As per previous post, they're on my wishlist pending price drops.

Parade's End is just magnificent. Also one of my top reads this year. Would be one of my top reads of any year, tbh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 September, 2013, 08:52:42 am
God Bless You, Mr Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut

I am mostly crying with laughter at lines like:
"Eliot took a drink of Southern Comfort, was uncomforted."

Also slightly shocked that a book written in 1965 could so easily pass for a book written in and about 2013.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 05 September, 2013, 08:54:50 am
Thanks citoyen. You have reminded me to revisit KVJ - something I've been meaning to do for a while  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 05 September, 2013, 09:28:31 am
The Radleys, quite a funny novel about suburban vampires.

Woman in Berlin, harrowing, anonymous, true, about the fall and arrival of the Russians.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 September, 2013, 09:31:32 am
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.

Only started this the other night, and so far it's the bog standard "I was in Iraq/Afganistan/wherever and you don't understand what it is was like, but I was proud to server my country and my president" kind of book which seem to be 10 a penny at the moment.

It's very lightweight, there are better out there, I may end up abandoning it and switching to "The History of Spain"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 05 September, 2013, 10:23:25 am
God Bless You, Mr Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut

I am mostly crying with laughter at lines like:
"Eliot took a drink of Southern Comfort, was uncomforted."

Also slightly shocked that a book written in 1965 could so easily pass for a book written in and about 2013.
Thanks citoyen. You have reminded me to revisit KVJ - something I've been meaning to do for a while  :)
Earlier this year I read listened to The Universe Versus Alex Woods (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg1478161#msg1478161), in which the hero is an admirer, and sets up a Kurt Vonnegut Book Club. I've been meaning to add them to my wishlist, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 September, 2013, 10:25:16 am
To my shame, I'm a latecomer to Vonnegut's genius. I only read Slaughterhouse-Five for the first time last year, so I'm playing catch-up. I think I always had a vague misconception that I wouldn't like his stuff. How much more wrong could I be!

The Universe vs Alex Woods sounds fun. Another one added to the never-diminishing wishlist...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 05 September, 2013, 11:42:04 am
Odd, that.  I always enjoy Vonnegut's writing more than I expect to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 05 September, 2013, 12:38:42 pm
First book (out of eleven*) to do with wizards 'n' magic 'n' stuff that my son suggested I read, by somebody Goodwood (or something). "Wizard's first rule." I've remembered the title at least!

Tempted to say: "What's the first rule of Wizard's Club?"

*I think they're all of the 'doorstop'-type thickness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 05 September, 2013, 04:28:19 pm
All the Narnia books. In one volume, nicked off the kids' bookshelf.

Most enjoyable and comforting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: microphonie on 05 September, 2013, 06:01:12 pm
Just finished Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow & have just started Exiles, the second Uplift trilogy by David Brin (which is such a breezeblock it's making an e-reader very tempting...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 06 September, 2013, 11:10:57 am
Let The Right One In.

The film was pretty faithful, there's more back-story in the book, some of it stomach-churning.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 September, 2013, 03:04:13 pm
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

Dear god... someone please tell me it improves because, after 12% read, I fear I might puke if I have to read much more of this tripe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 September, 2013, 04:51:10 pm
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

Dear god... someone please tell me it improves because, after 12% read, I fear I might puke if I have to read much more of this tripe.

I read the first few pages on Amazon. Reminds me of The Missing Postman, but that was great and had a bike in it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 06 September, 2013, 04:55:20 pm
I didn't mind it, it started as a Radio 4 play with Anna Massey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 06 September, 2013, 04:55:40 pm
Earlier this year I read listened to The Universe Versus Alex Woods (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg1478161#msg1478161), in which the hero is an admirer, and sets up a Kurt Vonnegut Book Club. I've been meaning to add them to my wishlist, too.
I've read the Amazon preview and purchased. Thx.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 September, 2013, 07:02:33 pm

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

Dear god... someone please tell me it improves because, after 12% read, I fear I might puke if I have to read much more of this tripe.

I read the first few pages on Amazon. Reminds me of The Missing Postman, but that was great and had a bike in it.

It reminds me of several other things... but not in a good way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 September, 2013, 07:55:04 pm
Iain M. Banks - The Hydrogen Sonata.
It feels like coming home, all the chat between Minds and such. I shall miss him.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 September, 2013, 09:34:11 pm

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

Dear god... someone please tell me it improves because, after 12% read, I fear I might puke if I have to read much more of this tripe.

Well, it kind of grew on me and I found the second half compelling, though it is rather formulaic. And cloyingly sentimental.

You can tell the author has previously made a living writing afternoon radio plays. It has that "professional writing" feel about it.

Can I invent the term "griefxploitation"? I can think of a few books that deserve the label, and this is most definitely among them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 September, 2013, 09:42:00 pm
Funny, that. The Memory of Whiteness kinda grew on me as well. Enjoying it now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 September, 2013, 02:39:42 pm
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier - historical novel based on the lives of the fossil hunters Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. Interesting but potentially could have been a lot more interesting. She's basically taken the few known facts and made up a load of nonsense to fill in the gaps. Worst bit is a cringeworthy sex scene.

The Racketeer by John Grisham - haven't read a Grisham book for many years, and based on this showing, it'll be many years before I read another. Utterly ridiculous. Thoroughly unsympathetic characters, hackneyed stock thriller plot, and the ending is telegraphed from very early on. The best that can be said about this book is that it doesn't take very long to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 19 September, 2013, 02:47:12 pm
Design of Concrete Structures by the Canadian Standards Association. Heavy going...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 19 September, 2013, 03:32:45 pm
 :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 19 September, 2013, 03:34:38 pm
A solid read, though?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 September, 2013, 03:38:16 pm
You would have to steel yourself for such a tome.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 20 September, 2013, 07:24:39 pm
It is a well-consolidated read, building up the tension of previous books from the same author.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 20 September, 2013, 08:46:02 pm
I suppose a Readers' Digest version would deal with compression only?  Does Castigliano still get a mention?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 September, 2013, 07:07:41 pm
Slaves Of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.

After the Grisham aberration, this is much more like it. The title - and prior experience of Hamilton - didn't lead me to expect to laugh as much or as heartily as I have done so far. Which is not to say it's a comedy - far from it. The underlying mood is unremittingly bleak and miserable. It's just brilliant, brilliant writing. Somewhere between Georges Gissing and Orwell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 21 September, 2013, 07:19:40 pm
Right, its that time of the year again, the Booker Prize Shortlist has just come out and as usual a diverse spread of nationalities represented:

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-shortlist-2013

The challenge is to read 6 books before 15 October.

Decided to tackle the shortest one first, Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary. Set over 103 pages, its the POV of Mary, mother of Jesus and her 'take' on her life with her son, events leading up to the crucifixion and afterwards. It starts with a stream of conscious thought (rather like Will Self's Umbrella) and then takes the shape of a sequence of events and the remainder of her life. It is very pared down writing, beautiful and humbling. Its hard reading in places, but well worth it.

Am now on the second book which is We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. 100 pages in and so far a fantastic read  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 September, 2013, 10:40:06 am

Am now on the second book which is We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. 100 pages in and so far a fantastic read  :thumbsup:

That and the Jim Crace are the ones that most appeal to me. I shall, as ever, be following your progress with interest!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 22 September, 2013, 11:49:55 am
I've just ordered the Eleanor Catton one- sounds just the kind of thing I like. And it's set in Hokitika.  :thumbsup:

Possibly a complete waste of money, as it's only available as a book, and I still struggle with reading anything longer than a couple of paragraphs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 22 September, 2013, 12:38:55 pm

Am now on the second book which is We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. 100 pages in and so far a fantastic read  :thumbsup:

That and the Jim Crace are the ones that most appeal to me. I shall, as ever, be following your progress with interest!

I am reading the Jim Crace novel next!

Just finished reading 'We Need New Names'. Set in Zimbabwe, its about a girl called Darling and her group of friends who live in a tin-town called Paradise, with their frequent forays into 'Budapest' to steal guavas. This book is a cross between Pigeon English and The Sisters Brothers, moving and hilarious in parts. What lets the book down is when Darling moves to the States, its still good but Bulawayo's strengths are when she writes about her native 'Zim' and the language just flows.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 22 September, 2013, 01:17:55 pm
I've almost finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's 'The Shadow of the Wind'.  Next up is Umberto Eco's 'The Prague Cemetery'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 22 September, 2013, 07:39:33 pm
I've almost finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's 'The Shadow of the Wind'.  Next up is Umberto Eco's 'The Prague Cemetery'.
Hope you get on with the Eco one better than I have...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 23 September, 2013, 08:34:34 am
"The Dirty Streets of Heaven - Bobby Dollar book 1" by Tad Williams.

Why I am reading this, I don't know, I have read two of his series of books so far, thos being "Sorrow, Memory and Thorn" and "Neverworld".  He has a slightly irritating style of repeating information across the books (I read them in series, from start to finish, I don't need reminding that X is related to Y, Z killed A etc etc), but his books are, actually, very readable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Thing2 on 24 September, 2013, 06:15:33 pm
I finally got around to joining the local library. Having disposed of the vast majority of my book collection when we moved, I've been carefully not buying too many, and therefore not reading so much. I got a bit excited about having an entire library's worth of books at my disposal, especially as you can take out up to 100 items! Walking and cycling is the only way I'm going to go there, just to reduce the number of books I can bring home...
I'm currently reading 'Fragile Things' by Neil Gaiman. It is everything I'd expected it to be (and I'm enjoying it), although last nights dreams were mildly disturbing and involved many strange creatures and universes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 September, 2013, 04:48:20 pm
Just finished reading Jim Crace's novel Harvest. Its set in a 'Larkrise to Candleford' kind of time, before industralisation but certainly after the Middle Ages. A village is getting ready for the harvest, so that they and the local lord of the manor can benefit. Three strangers show up, no back-story to these folk, but instantly the villagers are wary and xenophobic. A series of events unfold, and its not long before Master Chaos and Mistress Pandemonium rule.

I had been told that this was a slow burner but that a real story would eventually form from it. I liked the main narrator of the story, Walt Thirsk, a decent enough bloke not coincidentally into the Autumn of his own life. Its a book that I can admire, but it was not an enjoyable reading experience, for me there were areas of boredom at the beginning and towards the end of the book.

Next book of the Booker Prize is 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton. Am already 30 into the 833 pages and there is a real intriguing pull to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 September, 2013, 06:04:09 pm
Just finished reading Jim Crace's novel Harvest... Its a book that I can admire, but it was not an enjoyable reading experience

Hmm. Your description fits with what I've heard about it but I'm still keen to read it at done point.

Currently reading The Beautiful And Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald - I've read Gatsby, of course, and a lot of the short stories, but this is only the second of his novels I've tackled. Beautifully written, as you expect from FSG, but what a thoroughly unlikeable bunch of characters! Which is also to be expected from FSG, I suppose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 29 September, 2013, 06:50:11 pm
I'm a big fan of Jim Crace.  I used to read his books as soon as they came out - Continent, the Gift of Stones, Arcadia.  He writes prose in a rhythm which is almost poetic/iambic which I find quite hypnotic, though this is less obvious in the later books. As is the habit of setting his works in worlds which feel real but are just out of reach of your experience and knowledge.  I had to look up the names of some of the luscious fruit he describes in Arcadia to find out if they were real. And they're all very different in setting and subject;  Being Dead about a murdered couple, working backwards from from the murder, and forensically forwards as their bodies rot (more beautiful than it sounds); Quarantine about a re-imagined Jesus, amongst other outsiders taking time out in the Wilderness;  the Pest House is a version of America in the future which feels more Medieval than futuristic.  The later ones are definitely harder to read, or maybe I'm more lazy as a reader.  But I'm looking forward to reading Harvest,

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 29 September, 2013, 07:04:21 pm
Crace's prose is brilliant and its a convincing enough book, especially when it touched on a whole range of subjects from just one village. But when I feel that I am forcing myself into reading it that I realise that I am not liking it!

Incidently I am 150 pages into Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood for our Reading Group and I could read her work ALL DAY. I think its horses for courses.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 02 October, 2013, 08:02:56 pm
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (sp?)

I read the 4 pages given away in the times. Historical Fiction Quite Good - mattc Shocked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 02 October, 2013, 11:37:32 pm
Just finished Wolf Hall and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Not my normal fare at all.  I liked the interplay of wit between the characters, very sharp.  I think I might look at A Man for All Seasons again now which I read for "O" level and didn't enjoy.   And then there's Bring Up The Bodies already on the Kindle.

I've also read The Fireflies of Port Stanley, which I feel guilty about having found very amusing.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2013, 10:06:30 am
Today's Kindle bargains of the day: The Crow Road and The Wasp Factory, both 99p.

Two books I loved when I read them as an impressionable teen, which were on my wishlist as Things To Get Around To Re-reading One Day. It'll be interesting to see how I react to them now compared to how I reacted to them back then. I'll punt them my son's way too - I'd love to know if they'll have the same impact on a 21st century teen.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 03 October, 2013, 10:13:31 am
REAMDE - Neal Stephenson

I've been reading it on the Nexus whilst turbo-training and I must say I'm rather enjoying it. I actually pre-ordered the Kindle version but have only now got round to actually starting on it. Not as good a 'Snow Crash', IMO, but much better than 'The Diamond Age' (again IMO) - typical Stephenson, really - infodumps and plot contortions ahoy

Recent reads have included: 'Consider Phlebas' (the first Iain Banks novel I read, and I've loved the Culture books ever since) and 'Neuromancer' - both books I can easily go back to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 03 October, 2013, 10:35:22 am
Thanks Citoyen, just downloaded those  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 03 October, 2013, 01:08:53 pm
The Universe Versus Alex Woods (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/universe-versus-alex-woods-gavin-extence).

(Sneaky graun linky there)

This entertained me most of the weekend. There were lots of laughs. And somewhere around Steeple Claydon a few sobs.

I are just finished this one. It was good, and a wee bit sad....

I've just downloaded Iain Banks' The Quarry, the new one by Andrey Kurkov and the new one by Alistair Reynolds. That should keep me going for a couple of weeks :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 October, 2013, 01:14:11 pm
Last night I finished "The Dirty Streets of Heaven" by Tad Williams, much much better than his previous books, partly due to the fact that there is only, really, one major character and fewer minor characters than his previous books.

Instead of jumping straight into his next Bobby Dollar book, I have decided to start "The Spirit Lamp" by Stephen Lawhead, the fourth book in his "Bright Empires"  five book series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 03 October, 2013, 03:46:52 pm
I've just finished "The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson, she of the Moomins fame. It's an excellent, gentle read about a summer spent on a small island by a young girl and her elderly grandmother.  Like Garrison Keiller's Lake Wobegone Days, The Summer Book is a book about nothing with no plot, but instead is filled with gentle observations on the characters, place and rituals.  The book is also semi-autobiographical.  I liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 04 October, 2013, 03:25:02 pm
Finally finished my umpteenth reading of Chickenhawk- took me a long time this time round, due to other stuffs getting in the way. Each time I remember what a cracking book this is.

About to commence The Land of Painted Caves, book 6 in the Jean M Auel Earths Children series.

I hadn't realised this book was out- 12 years between the release of books 5 and 6. I stumbled across it whilst trawling a charity shop book shelf.

I will need to read a Wiki synopsis of The Shelters of Stone to remind me what was going on.

Finished last night (books are taking me an age to read at the moment :-[ Probably due to failing specs prescription which made reading under artificial light at home a bit of a chore. Prescription fail rectified now).

A fairly good read as are all the Earths Children books but, as I understand this is the final book, the ending was a bit flat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 October, 2013, 09:25:50 am
Sansom - Dominion. 1952: Britain surrendered after Dunkirk. Police vs Resistance. It plods.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 06 October, 2013, 06:58:50 pm
Having chosen to put to one side 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton (actually I couldn't justify sticking this gargantuan book in my pannier bag so its sat in the staff-room) the fourth book that I have chosen to read is 'The Lowland' by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Set in Calcutta just after WW2, it is about 2 little boys growing up together and how their lives unfold. Upon setting up their own radio in their teens and with their intellect far outstripping everyone at their school, it is the younger brother who wants to fight oppression whilst the older brother just wants to be an academic and have a quiet life. It is the younger brothers actions that have dire consequences on his family and loved ones.

I can't say too much about the story because I do not want to give it all away, this is my favourite out of the 4 so far. I read this in one sitting, could not put the book down. The writing is profoundly moving all throughout and her characters are so compelling. Considering that this author has won the Pulitzer Prize I am not overly surprised! The one remaining mystery that prevails right to the very end is very convincingly upheld.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 07 October, 2013, 10:40:02 am
Just launched into David Walsh's Seven Deadly Sins: My pursuit of Lance Armstrong.

Compelling. I had to force myself to put it down so I could go to bed. Failure would have resulted in a non functioning fuzzy at work this morning.

I really must get a copy of LA Confidential.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 October, 2013, 11:18:16 am
Sansom - Dominion.

This is another I've picked up recently while it was 99p for Kindle. I've heard good things about the Shardlake series but you're not the first reviewer to comment on the lack of pace in Dominion. Hmmm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 07 October, 2013, 11:46:05 pm
Just finished Skallagrigg by William Horwood. I can stop crying now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jacomus on 08 October, 2013, 02:14:43 pm
Finally finished my umpteenth reading of Chickenhawk- took me a long time this time round, due to other stuffs getting in the way. Each time I remember what a cracking book this is.

About to commence The Land of Painted Caves, book 6 in the Jean M Auel Earths Children series.

I hadn't realised this book was out- 12 years between the release of books 5 and 6. I stumbled across it whilst trawling a charity shop book shelf.

I will need to read a Wiki synopsis of The Shelters of Stone to remind me what was going on.

Finished last night (books are taking me an age to read at the moment :-[ Probably due to failing specs prescription which made reading under artificial light at home a bit of a chore. Prescription fail rectified now).

A fairly good read as are all the Earths Children books but, as I understand this is the final book, the ending was a bit flat.

Is that Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, Vietnam War helicopter pilot?

You would probably enjoy Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story By Chuck Gross
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 08 October, 2013, 02:23:50 pm
Finally finished my umpteenth reading of Chickenhawk- took me a long time this time round, due to other stuffs getting in the way. Each time I remember what a cracking book this is.

About to commence The Land of Painted Caves, book 6 in the Jean M Auel Earths Children series.

I hadn't realised this book was out- 12 years between the release of books 5 and 6. I stumbled across it whilst trawling a charity shop book shelf.

I will need to read a Wiki synopsis of The Shelters of Stone to remind me what was going on.

Finished last night (books are taking me an age to read at the moment :-[ Probably due to failing specs prescription which made reading under artificial light at home a bit of a chore. Prescription fail rectified now).

A fairly good read as are all the Earths Children books but, as I understand this is the final book, the ending was a bit flat.

Is that Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, Vietnam War helicopter pilot?

You would probably enjoy Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story By Chuck Gross

Robert Mason it was.

I will keep my eyes open for Rattler one seven. Thanks Jacs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Biff on 09 October, 2013, 10:37:02 pm
I've discovered  a whole new genre (http://tinyurl.com/lmumv3n)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 10 October, 2013, 08:56:58 am
Just launched into David Walsh's Seven Deadly Sins: My pursuit of Lance Armstrong.

Compelling. I had to force myself to put it down so I could go to bed. Failure would have resulted in a non functioning fuzzy at work this morning.

I really must get a copy of LA Confidential.

Finished last night.

What a complete and utter twat I was to fall for it :-\

Having read the book, the evidence that was apparent for all to see was obvious. Hero worship goggles are very restrictive though.

The book seems to skit about a bit in places, backwards and forwards in time but a very compelling read.

As for the author. Respect to David Walsh for sticking with it. Respect also to Betsy, Frankie, Emma and Steve for standing up to be counted.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 October, 2013, 10:42:05 am
I've discovered  a whole new genre (http://tinyurl.com/lmumv3n)

That is amazing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 October, 2013, 10:49:52 am
The First Crusade - Thomas Asbridge

Just starting on this. Really interesting stuff on how Urban II militarized the papacy and twisted doctrine to allow for holy war.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 10 October, 2013, 11:39:34 am
I've discovered  a whole new genre (http://tinyurl.com/lmumv3n)

That is amazing.

Yes, quite incredible. This made me larf:

Everybody assumes that these books are by random perverts, but one of these days the camera's going to pull back and we're going to see, like, Kofi Annan, hunched over a typewriter with an impish twinkle in his eye.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 October, 2013, 02:54:07 pm
"A very special T-Rex is hunting her -- this T-Rex has psychic powers."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 October, 2013, 03:04:23 pm
"Horrified and aroused by the horned giant, Beliria must find a way to..."

What must Beliria find a way to do? Control her ferocious womanly urges? Tame the massive prehistoric beast? Resist penetration by its rampant dino-penis?

No, apparently, she must find a way to "...control the situation."

Talk about bathos.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 October, 2013, 03:51:14 pm
Hmm, I've never going to be able to regard the Crystal Palace wrongosaurs in quite the same light again.

I've also now learned there's a healthy academic debate about whether or not dinosaurs had penises. Thanks Google!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 10 October, 2013, 04:56:10 pm
I'm just about to start Doctor Sleep. Or at least I was until I read the posts above and realised what else I could be reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 10 October, 2013, 07:06:16 pm
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (sp?)

I read the 4 pages given away in the times. Historical Fiction Quite Good - mattc Shocked.

I'm a big Hilary Mantel fan.... :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 10 October, 2013, 08:40:02 pm
My dear old thing, you are merely well-upholstered!

Anyway, N has called my bluff and bought a charity-shop copy for £1.50.  ::-) That's about 200 pages per penny.

In the meantime I have started Alex Woods vs The Universe - partly due to the recco over in the SF thread (it's not SF). Splendidly funny & engaging opening chapter  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 11 October, 2013, 08:42:42 am
I have just started It's all about Treo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-All-About-Treo-Bravest-ebook/dp/B0089XJS9O#_), a book about Arms and Explosives Search Dog Treo and his handlers experience during a tour in Sangin, Afghanistan.

I have a worrying feeling that, before the book is done, I will be sitting in the corner blubbing like a good un :-[
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 11 October, 2013, 09:53:21 am
I absolutely loved that book. I've just given it to my mum actually who is loving it too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 11 October, 2013, 11:17:44 am
I absolutely loved that book. I've just given it to my mum actually who is loving it too.

I wish I could find the picture of Treo in his doggles to post on here, a happy enducing image if ever I saw one :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 12 October, 2013, 12:44:30 pm
Just finished A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

This is about a novelist who goes to live on a remote island with her convalescing husband. Whilst she is walking along the shore one day she fishes out some flotsam (or is it jetsam?) and brings it home. It turns out to be a bag with some diaries inside: the main section is by a 15 year old Japanese girl called Nao, who wants this diary to go to someone because she will be committing suicide pretty soon and she wants to leave her story behind to just one person. She also wants to venerate her great grandmother Jiko who became a Buddhist nun after her son died in World War 2.

This book elicits some very strong feelings - anger about Nao's school-life, pity about her father's depression and hope with Ruth (the novelist) discovering the diary and the great-grandmother who tries to help the family out. There were a couple of times in this book when I was close to putting it to one side as it was so bleak, but am glad that I stuck with it because this is a wonderful book.

So I am nearly there! Just 600 pages left of The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. For now its like Deadwood but set in New Zealand. Its a good yarn!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 14 October, 2013, 09:41:02 am
I have just started It's all about Treo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-All-About-Treo-Bravest-ebook/dp/B0089XJS9O#_), a book about Arms and Explosives Search Dog Treo and his handlers experience during a tour in Sangin, Afghanistan.

I have a worrying feeling that, before the book is done, I will be sitting in the corner blubbing like a good un :-[

I was very right  :'(

A lovely book in most places though.

It is books and relationships like this that a) make me wish I was a dog owner for the devotion and companionship and b) make me glad I'm not due to the absolute love that goes both ways in this type of relationship. If I owned a dog and we interacted in the way that Treo and Dave Heyhoe do, I would be devestated when my dog died.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 14 October, 2013, 10:57:23 am
Whatever you do, don't tell us how it ends.........
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 14 October, 2013, 10:59:23 am
Still ploughing my way through REAMDE ...

About three-quarters of the way through now, according to the Kindle app at any rate, and I suspect it's just about to get very interesting ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 14 October, 2013, 11:06:36 am
Whatever you do, don't tell us how it ends.........

Fear not, I won't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 14 October, 2013, 11:16:59 am
 :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 14 October, 2013, 06:30:46 pm
Whatever you do, don't tell us how it ends.........

Fear not, I won't.
Phew!

(I'm still scarred from watching Tarka The Otter as a kid - not gonna risk that experience again, no Sir. I even find Silent Running pretty traumatic. Sorry, this is the book thread, isn't it  :hand: )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 15 October, 2013, 06:02:17 pm
http://www.blurb.com/b/4628035-i-must-be-mad

Well not really, I just looked at it and ordered it  on the spot
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 October, 2013, 09:38:35 pm
Man Booker Update:

Finished The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Like I said, a long book! Set in 19th Century New Zealand, a man called Walter Moody arrives at Hokitika eager to escape his old life in Scotland and earn his fortune from the gold-rush. He comes into a private meeting between 11 gentleman who are all anxious to solve a series of misfortunate events: a man is found dead, a woman is found stumbling in a drugged out haze and is deemed to have been suicidal whilst a digger has mysteriously disappeared. Their own accounts include their loathing and distrust belong to one Francis Carver who had captained the boat on which Moody travelled on.

Out of all 6 books this is the one that is a proper story and is a well written piece of crime fiction. However it peters out rather drabbly in the end.

I have really enjoyed it this year but I hope that the bookies favourite, Harvest (Jim Crace) does not win. I think it should go to The Testament of Mary. Watch this space!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 15 October, 2013, 09:59:51 pm
Wow, the Man Booker Prize 2013 goes to the book that I finished this morning 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 October, 2013, 07:13:08 am
Finished "Happy Hour in Hell" by Tad Williams last night and started "Ghost Wars" by  Steve Coll (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Wars-Secret-History-Afghanistan/dp/0141020806) this morning.  It might take me a while to read this one, it's nearly 800 pages long!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 16 October, 2013, 09:05:43 am
Finished The Returned (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robert-bradley/book-review-the-returned-by-jason-mott_b_3767488.html) last night on the way home.
I think not having lost anyone close to me made it a little less relevant than it might be to others. I also think that any book that requires a chapter of explanation from the author afterwards is not well enough written.  :-\

It didn't get me all the way home so I started (for the nth time) The Dispossessed (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13651.The_Dispossessed) as reminded by jo in wunja's thread the other week.

Ahh, that's better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 16 October, 2013, 11:18:00 am
I've started The Dispossessed several times.  I'm not sure that I've ever finished it, but I tend to read more than one book at a time.  I never finished Lord Of The Rings, either......
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 16 October, 2013, 12:23:51 pm
Thanks for the review service again her_welshness.  I'll be starting with Harvest  for reasons stated above, but will review your reviews to help me decide with the next one.  But that won't be for a while because I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 October, 2013, 12:47:29 pm
Out of all 6 books this is the one that is a proper story and is a well written piece of crime fiction. However it peters out rather drabbly in the end.

Hmmm, makes me wonder if the judges actually finished it.  :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 October, 2013, 12:50:32 pm
I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 16 October, 2013, 12:54:38 pm
Still ploughing my way through REAMDE ...

About three-quarters of the way through now, according to the Kindle app at any rate, and I suspect it's just about to get very interesting ...

From memory, you suspect wrong  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 16 October, 2013, 01:00:54 pm
I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.

OK. I'll skip the next 200 pages.  That should do it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: her_welshness on 16 October, 2013, 07:30:06 pm
Thanks for the review service again her_welshness.  I'll be starting with Harvest  for reasons stated above, but will review your reviews to help me decide with the next one.  But that won't be for a while because I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

My pleasure! I think that you will get a lot from it. Like I said, beautifully written and very original in parts, it just didn't grab me.

Good luck with The Little Friend. I had been put off by its reviews and also that The Secret History is in my top 5 books of all time. I got the opportunity to go to a Q&A of Tartt talking about her latest work, but its on my late night at the library.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 18 October, 2013, 10:16:16 pm
Just finished Dust (third in the Wool trilogy) by Hugh Howey. Best SF I've come across in years.

Now I've just started on Complicity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 October, 2013, 06:55:43 pm
Just finished Charles Stross's latest entry in his "Laundry" series. A novella called  "Equoid" (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/09/rinse-drain-spin.html)    I think I need a unicorn chaser.... ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 19 October, 2013, 08:07:23 pm
I'm just about to start Doctor Sleep.
I'm not getting on very fast with Doctor Sleep because it's too scary to read alone at night.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 20 October, 2013, 06:41:38 pm
I just finished Long Walk Home by Jude Tebbutt.

It's a very honest book, by an ordinary person, who had a series of extraordinary and horrifying experiences.  She may have gained some catharsis from writing this book, I don't know.   Reading it has left me with sadness for her, but also great respect for her resilience and pragmatism.

Behind the scenes, as her son fought to get her home, Things Happened that she can't tell in the book for fear of compromising individuals, but there are clearly whole worlds of movers and shakers and parties around on the international scene who have to deal with kidnap and goodness knows what, goodness knows how.

We feel safe, don't we, in our nice cosy country, but we're only a hair's breadth away from anarchy.  And I don't want to go anywhere near bloody Somalia, ever.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 21 October, 2013, 07:26:35 pm
Just finished Dust (third in the Wool trilogy) by Hugh Howey. Best SF I've come across in years.

Now I've just started on Complicity.

Been wondering about those. Lots of Kindle marketing, but I've been a bit busy formatting my own stuff to do much reading. Taking a break from that, so are they seriously worth a read? What genre of SF do they fall into, if that doesn't give too much away? I am guessing post-apocalyptic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 22 October, 2013, 07:15:05 pm
Been wondering about those. Lots of Kindle marketing, but I've been a bit busy formatting my own stuff to do much reading. Taking a break from that, so are they seriously worth a read? What genre of SF do they fall into, if that doesn't give too much away? I am guessing post-apocalyptic.
Lots of kindle marketing because he self published first, I think1, then was taken up and marketed. Post apocalyptic for Wool, the others are "How did we get here?".
Very listenable for this non-reader.

1: Could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 22 October, 2013, 07:17:23 pm
I've just got through The Great Gatsby (very good) and Ian Fleming's two collections of Bond short stories (also very good, although For Your Eyes Only is the better one).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 24 October, 2013, 08:59:51 am
I'm just about to start Doctor Sleep.
I'm not getting on very fast with Doctor Sleep because it's too scary to read alone at night.
Finished. Most of it was pretty good, some of it was pretty scary, one bit of it was "oh ffs, there was no need for that 'twist'" and one bit was beautiful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 24 October, 2013, 09:08:12 am
Interesting Times- Rincewind returns.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 October, 2013, 09:11:50 am
Last night I finished "The Sisters Brothers", then moved onto "The Time Keeper", which I finished in 2 hours, the fact that the type is not dense on the page and it is only 200 pages long (a fair few of which are coverplate pages, i.e. just a page with a picture on seperating chapters) had something to do with the quickness that I read it.  I then moved onto a much more dense book, "A Stark and Wormy Knight" by Tad Williams, a collection of short stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 24 October, 2013, 06:36:22 pm
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-43. First of a three part series on WWII by Rick Atkinson. The blunders and incompetence displayed by American and British high commands is truly amazing. I almost think that the winner of that was the side that picked the least inopportune times to screw up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 24 October, 2013, 07:52:25 pm
Iain (M) Banks - Surface Detail (following on from 'Excession', with 'The Hydrogen Sonata' to follow)

I'm busy working my way through the Culture books again, albeit not in any particular order. This being Iain Banks, there have been several extremely 'interesting' deaths within the first couple of chapters, although no major characters (yet) ... time will tell if it can match the body count of 'Consider Phlebas'.

It seems to have received mixed reviews but I'm rather enjoying it at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 24 October, 2013, 10:34:05 pm
I love the Culture.

The new Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding - Mad About The Boy.

Pounds lost: 0  (bad)
Spinning sessions attended: 1 (bad)
Musical instruments learned: 0 (bad)
Tolstoy novels read: 0 (bad)
Indulgent trashy fiction novels about a favourite fictional character: 1(vvg. indeed)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 24 October, 2013, 11:37:54 pm
I love the Culture.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/spook-century.html#comment-1744871 (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/spook-century.html#comment-1744871)

Pre Culture Culture ?    I've read a few short stories by the Strugatsky's but this is new to me... :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 October, 2013, 02:25:54 pm
Wednesday's 99p kindle deal of the day: The Universe vs Alex Woods (might still be available at the low price, not sure)

Today's 99p kindle deal of the day: The Secret History

The former I'm very much looking forward to after recommendations here.

The latter I'm looking forward to revisiting, having first read it something like 20 years ago. Crikey.

Both will have to wait until after I've finished Spring Fever, which I have to say, even as a huge Wodehouse fan, is an awfully long way from being one of his best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 25 October, 2013, 03:24:43 pm
Citoyen, I rely on you to point all these things out from the kindle store. I follow you on all these books. Just downloaded The Secret History as well. I'm like your bookcase stalker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 25 October, 2013, 05:20:32 pm
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-43. First of a three part series on WWII by Rick Atkinson. The blunders and incompetence displayed by American and British high commands is truly amazing. I almost think that the winner of that was the side that picked the least inopportune times to screw up.
It's fair to say that Patton didn't do terribly well; he got the Vichy French to surrender and then put them in charge again while he went hunting and hobnobbing with the Sultan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 26 October, 2013, 01:33:41 pm
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-43. First of a three part series on WWII by Rick Atkinson. The blunders and incompetence displayed by American and British high commands is truly amazing. I almost think that the winner of that was the side that picked the least inopportune times to screw up.
It's fair to say that Patton didn't do terribly well; he got the Vichy French to surrender and then put them in charge again while he went hunting and hobnobbing with the Sultan.

Patton started screwing up before he left the US, squabbling with other services and making a mess of all the logistics. As I said, none of the Allied commanders were all that impressive.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2013, 02:04:44 pm

I'm like your bookcase stalker.

Heh.

I use ereaderiq.co.uk to keep track of my amazon wish list and notify me of price drops. Very handy!

My amazon wish list currently runs to about 400 books - I just add anything to it that sounds interesting (eg Alex Woods) then wait for it to become available cheaply. There are very few books I'm so desperate to read that I can't wait for the price to drop - plus I've got quite enough on my kindle already to keep me going for a long time...

Started Alex Woods last night. First impressions very favourable, despite a few minor irritations that aren't even worth mentioning. Great opening chapter, as I think someone said upthread. Very funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 27 October, 2013, 09:37:40 pm
I have just finished The Gardener from Ochakov by Andrey Kurkov (he of Penguin Lost etc).
Good book, suitably weird, slightly abrupt ending though. No penguins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 27 October, 2013, 09:38:48 pm
Next up is On The Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds. Need to find some stuff to read after that....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 30 October, 2013, 06:37:08 am
Towards The End Of The Morning by Michael Frayn.  The Erskine Morris character is a work of genius.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: The_Mikey on 30 October, 2013, 07:09:45 am
The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism  -  Naoki Higashida
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 30 October, 2013, 07:54:55 am
Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of The World - Alex Rutherford The third book on the Empire of the Moghul series (I started it the night before last and didn't have an internet connection to check the order in which to read them :( )

A very well written historical fiction book, along the lines of Bernard Cornwell or Simon Skarrow, but these are set in, as you might have guessed, India.  Set in the 16th Century the series of books follow one dynasty's rise to power and the treachery behind the throne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Moghul
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 October, 2013, 12:59:46 pm

Towards The End Of The Morning by Michael Frayn.  The Erskine Morris character is a work of genius.

I love that book and have read it several times. It does seem strangely outdated now though - it certainly doesn't reflect what it's like to work in journalism in the 21st century.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 October, 2013, 01:03:19 pm
Finished The Universe Versus Alex Woods last night. Enjoyed it. I don't think it quite lives up to the hype but there are some very funny bits. Alex Woods reminds me of Adrian Mole in many respects.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 30 October, 2013, 02:19:13 pm
Just finished Charles Stross's latest entry in his "Laundry" series. A novella called  "Equoid" (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/09/rinse-drain-spin.html)    I think I need a unicorn chaser.... ;)

Just finished it. Poor old HPL.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 30 October, 2013, 03:28:37 pm
Just finished Iain Bank's The Crow Road. I'm used to reading in your face thrillers so found the plot a little hard to tease out, patience was rewarded and the descriptive writing very enjoyable.

Now moved on to an Ed McBain - Bread (a 99p bargain from Amazon).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 31 October, 2013, 03:57:45 pm
More 99p Kindle bargains: Breakfast Of Champions and Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut.

I now have almost enough Vonnegut on my Kindle to start a secular church.* All I have to do now is read them all... shouldn't be a chore! :thumbsup:


*In joke for those who've read The Universe Versus Alex Woods.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 03 November, 2013, 08:53:53 pm
My turn my turn Chrissie Wellingtons book is the 99p bargain today
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 November, 2013, 09:23:56 pm
Just finished Iain Banks' final work, The Quarry.  Not a very enjoyable read, but having read all his other books I wanted to complete the canon.

Now beginning The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 03 November, 2013, 09:51:39 pm
Ah... Murakami is class. I must re-read a Wild Sheep Chase sometime soon :)
I'm currently reading Stonemouth by Iain Banks. My money is on a not happy ending.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 03 November, 2013, 10:00:23 pm
Ah... Murakami is class. I must re-read a Wild Sheep Chase sometime soon :)
I'm currently reading Stonemouth by Iain Banks. My money is on a not happy ending.

Ah, I really enjoyed Stonemouth!  Hurry up and finish it so we can talk about it without me spoiling it for you!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 03 November, 2013, 10:19:29 pm
Ah... Murakami is class. I must re-read a Wild Sheep Chase sometime soon :)
I'm currently reading Stonemouth by Iain Banks. My money is on a not happy ending.
W
Ah, I really enjoyed Stonemouth!  Hurry up and finish it so we can talk about it without me spoiling it for you!

Won't be long now :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 November, 2013, 12:37:43 pm
Ah... Murakami is class. I must re-read a Wild Sheep Chase sometime soon :)
I'm currently reading Stonemouth by Iain Banks. My money is on a not happy ending.
W
Ah, I really enjoyed Stonemouth!  Hurry up and finish it so we can talk about it without me spoiling it for you!

Won't be long now :)

Finished!

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 04 November, 2013, 03:34:41 pm
My turn my turn Chrissie Wellingtons book is the 99p bargain today
I listened to that earlier this year. I don't usually 'do' either biographies or autobiographies.

I didn't finish it. I didn't like her. This probably says more about me than Ms Wellington.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 06 November, 2013, 01:32:36 pm
"Street Without Joy" by Bernard Fall, the story of the French effort to regain control of Vietnam after WWII. According to Amazon.com this book was "required reading for policy makers in Washington". If that's the case, we had some incredibly dense policy makers in Washington back then.

Dr. Fall seems a bit biased in favor of the French colonial system, but the book is still an excellent read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 06 November, 2013, 06:54:16 pm
A303 - Highway to the Sun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: dasmoth on 07 November, 2013, 12:31:48 pm
Meeting the Challenge (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meeting-Challenge-Library-Flight-Pressel/dp/1624102034).  Phil Pressel's account of working on the HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite.  Some of it covers the same ground as the documents declassified by the NRO (http://www.nro.gov/history/csnr/gambhex/index.html) a couple of years back, but the new book highlights a lot of details of these incredible machines, and gives a feel for what it was like working at Perkin Elmer.

A must-have for spysat geeks...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 07 November, 2013, 12:36:09 pm
I finished Nightfall by Stephen LEather last night, and moved onto Midnight by the same author.

The books are books 1 and 2 in the "Jack Nightingale" series, about a former Police negotiator turned private eye who inherits a country house and estate under unusual circumstances.  In the first book he has to come to terms with the fact that his biological father sold his soul to a devil.  In the second he has to find his half sister and try and save her from the same fate that threatens him.

Well written, there are one or two timeline issues, but that doesn't, really, affect the overall story.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 07 November, 2013, 12:39:44 pm
The End of the World

Haruki Murakami

Wonderful stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 07 November, 2013, 12:40:27 pm
For a tough woman overcoming adversity how about "If You Fall" by paralympian Karen Darke ?  http://www.amazon.co.uk/If-You-Fall-Its-Beginning/dp/1905047886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373547754&sr=8-1&keywords=karen+darke

I followed this recommendation, and finally started to read this book last night.  Stayed in bed till 10am today reading it.  Wow.  I don't want to say too much and spoil anything but it's just what you need to read if you're looking for a bit of motivation and inspiration.

Thanks for the rec andrewc!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 07 November, 2013, 12:46:15 pm
Iain Banks - Matter

Interesting. Even by his standards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 November, 2013, 12:50:35 pm
Piccadily Jim - PG Wodehouse.

I've read more than 50 Wodehouse novels and collections of short stories in my lifetime, some of them several times over, but he wrote nearly 100 books, you know, so there are still plenty for me to discover and I'm gradually working my way through the catalogue. After the disappointment of the last one, this lesser-known early work was splendid. I'd go so far as to call it one of his best. Had me grinning from beginning to end. Laughing out loud a fair bit too, especially when the brilliant female detective character appears towards the end.

Some choice lines:

Quote
"In his normal state he would not strike a lamb. I’ve known him to do it."
"Do what?"
"Not strike lambs."

Quote
He wore the unmistakable look of a man about to be present at a row between women, and only a wet cat in a strange back yard bears itself with less jauntiness than a man faced by such a prospect.

Quote
Mr Pett, receiving her cold glance squarely between the eyes, felt as if he were being disembowelled by a clumsy amateur.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 07 November, 2013, 03:01:55 pm
Currently reading "History of Bedfordshire" by Joyce Godber and "Racing Through The Dark - the fall and rise of David Millar" by David Millar and Jeremy Whittle.  Both good books.

Next will be "Raising Steam" by Terry Pratchett (which was delivered this morninining :thumbsup:)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 07 November, 2013, 03:21:45 pm
Next will be "Raising Steam" by Terry Pratchett (which was delivered this morninining :thumbsup:)
Oooh ... that's good to know.
I pre-ordered a copy for my sister's Christmas present. I feel a bit of quality control coming on :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 07 November, 2013, 03:39:22 pm
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory

Interesting reading a story from the point of view of someone who is amoral.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 07 November, 2013, 03:58:30 pm
Next will be "Raising Steam" by Terry Pratchett (which was delivered this morninining :thumbsup:)
Oooh ... that's good to know.
I pre-ordered a copy for my sister's Christmas present. I feel a bit of quality control coming on :)

Ditto, but not for IZ's sister, but for Mrs T.  What am I going to when Mr P passes away?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mcshroom on 07 November, 2013, 10:21:57 pm
Now I've worked out how to get kindle books onto a kobo - 'You've Gone Too Far This Time, Sir!' by Danny Bent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 08 November, 2013, 09:23:54 pm
Big Brother (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-big-brother-by-lionel-shriver-8622204.html).

Interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 11 November, 2013, 10:55:37 am
Just finishe Maskerade and getting ready for Feet of Clay.

Maskerade is one of my favourite Granny Wheatherwax books. Nanny Ogg is in her element and Greebo is at his best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 November, 2013, 11:03:19 am
I finished Nightfall by Stephen LEather last night, and moved onto Midnight by the same author.

The books are books 1 and 2 in the "Jack Nightingale" series, about a former Police negotiator turned private eye who inherits a country house and estate under unusual circumstances.  In the first book he has to come to terms with the fact that his biological father sold his soul to a devil.  In the second he has to find his half sister and try and save her from the same fate that threatens him.

Well written, there are one or two timeline issues, but that doesn't, really, affect the overall story.

Now onto Nightmare, the third in the series.

As you can maybe tell, these detective thrillers with a devil worshipping sideline are gripping me...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 November, 2013, 11:48:15 am
On the subject of detective thrillers and devil worshipping, I just finished Falling Angel, the book the movie Angel Heart is based on (recently reappeared on Kindle, hard to get hold of before). Very good. Everyone knows the twist, but the book doesn't rely on it, it's more a case of it approaching like a distant freight train, as it steadily builds towards the inevitable. Some nice prose to boot, he does a good Chandler turn of phrase.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 11 November, 2013, 12:03:22 pm
Big Brother (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-big-brother-by-lionel-shriver-8622204.html).

Interesting.

In a good way? I quite fancy reading it, although I found We Need to Talk About Kevin such a grim experience. I'm glad I read it, but felt somewhat bruised afterwards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 November, 2013, 04:25:05 pm
Our Mutual Friend.

I've started it before but never finished it. I'm determined to see it through this time. Boy, it's long though. And feels it. But I'm enjoying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 November, 2013, 09:25:22 am
I finished Nightfall by Stephen LEather last night, and moved onto Midnight by the same author.

The books are books 1 and 2 in the "Jack Nightingale" series, about a former Police negotiator turned private eye who inherits a country house and estate under unusual circumstances.  In the first book he has to come to terms with the fact that his biological father sold his soul to a devil.  In the second he has to find his half sister and try and save her from the same fate that threatens him.

Well written, there are one or two timeline issues, but that doesn't, really, affect the overall story.

Now onto Nightmare, the third in the series.

As you can maybe tell, these detective thrillers with a devil worshipping sideline are gripping me...

And now onto Nightshade.

Not sure what to make of this one, it starts with a Dunblane style shooting in a Primary school in Berwick, and the abduction, for rape and murder, of a 9 yr old girl in Southampton.  Light reading it is not!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 13 November, 2013, 09:49:33 am
Big Brother (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-big-brother-by-lionel-shriver-8622204.html).

Interesting.

In a good way? I quite fancy reading it, although I found We Need to Talk About Kevin such a grim experience. I'm glad I read it, but felt somewhat bruised afterwards.
A proper book, for me, is as much about me, as the book. (This doesn't apply to froth of a SF/fantasy/detective fiction/chicklit nature, but proper books that make you think).
As such, We Need To Talk About Kevin was absolutely horrific in its battering, as a parent the similarities and differences in parenting styles and opinions were fascinating and terrifying.
In the same way, Big Brother is about obesity.

I haven't finished it yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Si on 13 November, 2013, 11:27:52 am
Prachet and Baxter's 'Long Earth' followed by the sequel "Long War".  Have to say that I was rather impressed, especially with The Long Earth.  Sort of book that you can just read for reading's sake rather than worrying about what is going to happen in the end.  Not read any Baxter stuff before but read most of the Prachet stuff....in some ways it's a bit of a departure for him, but his unmistakable style is always bubbling along just below the surface.  The Long War was also good but the end was a bit strange - partly predictable and partly as though they'd suddenly discovered that they'd run up to their word limit.  Worth reading though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mcshroom on 17 November, 2013, 08:34:51 pm
Just finished my first Iain M Banks book - 'Feersum Endjinn'. For the first half of the book I was sure the sections in phonetic text speak alike was going to put me off but it got much more readable a it went on :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 21 November, 2013, 09:07:05 am
Big Brother (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-big-brother-by-lionel-shriver-8622204.html).

Interesting.

In a good way? I quite fancy reading it, although I found We Need to Talk About Kevin such a grim experience. I'm glad I read it, but felt somewhat bruised afterwards.
I'm not sure I can recommend it. I don't think, in the end, it told me anything new or interesting (by which I don't mean facts, but theories and opinions and attitudes). Going into it knowing the author's brother died young at 300+lbs makes you read it through those glasses.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 November, 2013, 03:57:52 pm
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory

Started on it myself this morning. It's getting on for 25 years since I last read it so I've forgotten most of the detail of it, but I'm enjoying rediscovering it. Funnier than I remember.

Quote
Interesting reading a story from the point of view of someone who is amoral.

I'm thinking about this one. Is Frank truly amoral? Or does he have some kind of highly individual moral code, albeit one that's at odds with conventional morality? Hmmmm...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 November, 2013, 09:09:49 am
Started to read "Wheelmen", but got bored, it's just not that much of interest to me.

So switched to "Empty Mansions", the story of Hugette Clark and why she left 2 large mansions, one in New Jersey and one in California, and a huge apartment on Park Avenue, empty for over 20 years.

Fascinating reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 28 November, 2013, 01:51:45 pm
Just finished Standing in another mans grave by Ian Rankin, while good it felt as though he got to the last few chapters and thought "bugger, running out of space best finish", a shame really as most  of the book was very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 28 November, 2013, 03:08:09 pm
Started to read "Wheelmen", but got bored, it's just not that much of interest to me.

Oh dear.  That's on the bedside table waiting for me to finish with The Little Friend (not a euphemism).  Hope it's just 'you' tiermat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 28 November, 2013, 03:10:34 pm
"Cycling The Great Divide", 2nd edition (now with added Canada, eh?)

Research, innit? ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 November, 2013, 03:12:08 pm
Started to read "Wheelmen", but got bored, it's just not that much of interest to me.

Oh dear.  That's on the bedside table waiting for me to finish with The Little Friend (not a euphemism).  Hope it's just 'you' tiermat.

I hope so, too, I may return to it at a later time, but it starts with a LOT of background about cycling in the US, some of it completely irrelevant (as far as I can see) and some of it relevant (like the sports cold war between the US and Russia in the 1980's etc)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 November, 2013, 04:37:36 pm
Hillary Mantel, Bring up the bodies.  Title sounds like ghouls losing their stomach contents, but it ain't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 December, 2013, 03:39:58 pm
Breakfast Of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

On the train this morning, it got so I couldn't carry on reading because I was laughing so much it hurt. My fellow commuters must have wondered what was up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 02 December, 2013, 10:39:19 pm
Proulx's Shipping News, again, on my kindle this time. It's one of those books you have to read aloud to yourself in bits, even if you can't actually be heard. Unfortunately I don't know what a Newfie accent sounds like, so they're all bloody northerners in my head.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 December, 2013, 07:24:59 am
Finished "Empty Mansions" and was disappointed, it felt like the end was "Oh shit, we need to get this out to the publisher, now, lets just tie up loose ends and leave it at that".

Now reading "Inside Team Sky"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 03 December, 2013, 08:03:15 am
Morrissey's Autobiography.

There are no normal chapter divisions and he is very fond of adverbs, adjectives and metaphors.  He really didn't like school.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 December, 2013, 09:50:02 am
He really didn't like school.

Have you heard "The Headmaster Ritual"?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 03 December, 2013, 11:35:16 am
With his insistence on being elevated to a Penguin Classic before anyone had read what he had to say and that smug 'what a sensitive soul am I' cover photo, I think that has to be the most punchable book this Christmas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 03 December, 2013, 02:44:15 pm
That's Mozzer for you; his whole career is built around being an irascible arrogant twat, but it works.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 December, 2013, 03:25:15 pm
I keep a copy of James Branch Cabell's Jurgen (one of my favourite books) in my phone to read in waiting-rooms. Glad to say that's it's taking a long time to get through it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 December, 2013, 09:04:08 am
Never go back.

That's not the name of a book I'm reading but a bit of general advice.

Started on The Secret History this morning, which I first read as an impressionable teen many years ago and loved it...

Oh my god, it's awful. Really comically bad.

"She, I thought, was very beautiful, in an unsettling, almost medieval way which would not be apparent to the casual observer."

LOL!

I shall persevere with it out of morbid fascination, but I may end up throwing my kindle across the room in disgust.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 04 December, 2013, 12:20:11 pm
Never go back.

That's not the name of a book I'm reading but a bit of general advice.

Started on The Secret History this morning, which I first read as an impressionable teen many years ago and loved it...

Oh my god, it's awful. Really comically bad.

"She, I thought, was very beautiful, in an unsettling, almost medieval way which would not be apparent to the casual observer."

LOL!

I shall persevere with it out of morbid fascination, but I may end up throwing my kindle across the room in disgust.

Oh I don't know-

I first read Starship Troopers, Space Cadet, Rendevous With Rama and others as an impressionable yoof and loved them.

I read them again occasionally and still get the same joy from (re)discovering them as I did then.

Perhaps I didn't grow up ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 December, 2013, 12:54:16 pm
I read them again occasionally and still get the same joy from (re)discovering them as I did then.

Thing is, there are so many books I haven't read before that I should be reading them rather than going back over old ground...

Although I must admit to occasionally finding comfort in re-reading my favourite PG Wodehouse classics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 04 December, 2013, 12:59:44 pm
I read them again occasionally and still get the same joy from (re)discovering them as I did then.

Thing is, there are so many books I haven't read before that I should be reading them rather than going back over old ground...

Although I must admit to occasionally finding comfort in re-reading my favourite PG Wodehouse classics.

In the same way, there are many many films I have yet to see that I should be catching up with. It doesn't stop me watching something for the umpteenth time and thoroughly enjoying it though.

Sometimes old familiar ground is just the right thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ferret on 04 December, 2013, 01:29:17 pm
I've just started Stonehenge, exploring the greatest stone age mystery, it's the story of the archaeological dig that took place a few years ago and what they found and how it changed the way that Stonehenge is looked at now. Only just got past the introduction and a bit of waffle and I've already learnt that Stonehenge isn't (technically) a Henge due to the position of it's ditch. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 08 December, 2013, 08:51:46 pm
Pear Shaped. As recommended by E Gallumbits of this parish.

It's so refreshing when a writer acknowledges that thing that happens when you hit thirty, when you become invisible to eligible men because they're conditioned to be attracted to women in their twenties.  Something to do with ovaries, probably.  I extrapolated that to women in their mid-forties, obviously, but it was so restful to have the loneliness of being 'out there' when you are past the age of being attractive, written into a novel, simply because it's true..  And to have every stage of a bad relationship documented.  You can see the car crash coming (because you've done that very same car crash) but you can't stop it, because it's happening to a character in a book.

Thanks for the rec, EG. The main character (Sophie) was so much better-off without that fuckwit of a boyfriend, and sometimes in your life you need someone to tell you that.

Recommended for those who have recently been filed on the shelf by a fuckwit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 08 December, 2013, 09:21:48 pm
past the age of being attractive

Such an age appears (to this male) not to exist!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 08 December, 2013, 10:04:43 pm
past the age of being attractive

Such an age appears (to this male) not to exist!!

Sorry tonyh.  It's unjust to take the general and apply it to the particular.  There are many men who view women like this - but not all men do.  Acknowledged.

But in the context of the book, if you ever read it, it is all too familiar.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 December, 2013, 08:30:49 am
Just finished "Inside Team Sky", it seems to actually go nowhere, David Walsh likes to sit on the fence, doesn't he?

Then I started "Orange is the New Black, a Year Inside a Women's Prison".  It is compelling, so much so that I ended staying up $FAR_TOO_LATE to read more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 09 December, 2013, 10:04:53 am
Finally finished "In the Shadow of the Sword:The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World"

Its an account of the late antiquity, the end of the Roman and Persian Empires and the rise of the three monotheistic religions. If you think the Middle East is violent and screwed up these days try this book, it was far far worse then. Some parts of it read like they could be about events now, suicidal Muslim fanatics suddenly erupting into a the market place in Basra and killing everyone they can for example.  The Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians weren't any better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 15 December, 2013, 06:50:45 pm
Ovid's Ars Amatoria.  He's a bit of a comedian and he knows it.  The bit on male personal grooming is classic.

Quote
Don't let your hair stick up in tufts on your head; see that your hair and your beard are decently trimmed. .Take care that your breath is sweet, and don't go about reeking like a billy-goat.  All other toilet refinements leave to the women or to perverts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 December, 2013, 07:52:02 am
Unbroken - A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

The story of a guy who became an Olympic runner, then joined the AAF during WWII, and what happened to him.  It's funny, nicely paced and sad in places.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini has more background.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 18 December, 2013, 01:14:29 pm
HhHH.  Or is it HHhH?  About the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of few people who may really have been worse than Hitler.  There is a theory that the Allies wanted him dead in case he took over as Führer and they had to deal with an intelligent fanatic, not a mad one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 18 December, 2013, 09:44:46 pm
I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.

OK. I'll skip the next 200 pages.  That should do it.
Should have skipped about 450.  I think I've done with Tartts now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 December, 2013, 11:31:53 pm
I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.

OK. I'll skip the next 200 pages.  That should do it.
Should have skipped about 450.  I think I've done with Tartts now.

My memory of The Secret History turned out to be somewhat faulty. Certainly in respect of its pacing. It is sluggish and verbose. At half the length, it might have been a nice, light thriller. I'm now thinking that The Little Friend might be better than The Secret History, but I don't want to put the time into reading it again to find out.

And I've gone right off the idea of reading her new one. She's dead to me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 December, 2013, 09:35:29 am
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. A very nasty little story set in the watering-places of early 20th-century Europe.  Very slow and painstakingly detailed at first, then fairly whacks you in the teeth as you realise what's going on under the genteel exteriors.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 23 December, 2013, 11:35:15 am

And I've gone right off the idea of reading her new one. She's dead to me.

A wise choice. She's obviously got some serious talent as a writer, but it just lolls around for 800 pages. Basically there's a very good 200 page book lost in there. I think there's a theme, I also thought The Secret History sagged like a waterlogged ceiling in the middle and things seemed to get worse in The Little Friend. It's the everything-must-be-described style of writing. Entire dictionaries are sequestered and put to labour. I'll agree that occasionally scenes need  to be elaborated and ornately decorated (and she's very, very good at doing just this) but when every scene must slowly pirouette around every possible detail it becomes writing for the sake of it. There's also that slightly sickly narration that captures everything in gilded tones of wealth and privilege that makes it hard to really care about the characters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 December, 2013, 11:42:16 am

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.

Brilliant book. Having read it myself a few months ago, I'm amazed that it doesn't have a much greater reputation. It's undoubtedly one of the finest English-language novels of the 20th century. I'd struggle to name a better piece of writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 December, 2013, 11:50:47 am

There's also that slightly sickly narration that captures everything in gilded tones of wealth and privilege that makes it hard to really care about the characters.

They all seem like hackneyed pastiches of F Scott Fitzgerald characters to me. Entirely lacking in authenticity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 December, 2013, 11:58:06 am
Compare and contrast:

I'm currently reading Silas Marner. I deliberately chose it for its length - it's a short-ish novel, which is all I have strength for at the moment. Thing is, it's so wonderfully well written that I've ended up wishing it was much longer.

Tempted to read Middlemarch again now. There's a book that truly justifies its word count. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 December, 2013, 04:13:19 pm
For the last week or VSO no have been reading the first Bill Bryson book I have read that has held my attention for more than 20 pages.

One Summer, America 1927

Starts by recounting the successful flight of The Spirit of St Louis (and numerous failed flights) across the Atlantic, then ties other stories in, such as Babe Ruth's most successful season, the eugenics movement and the seeds of the Wall Street Crash.

A great and interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 29 December, 2013, 05:05:27 pm
I liked that too. Then again, I've not yet found a Bill Bryson book I didn't like.

Which reminds me. I need to re-read ("listen to", probably - audiobook) Walk in the Woods; I laugh a lot at Stephen Katz.

ETA: The audiobook "One Summer, America 1927" is narrated by BB himself. I don't find him anywhere near as good a narrator as William Roberts, who narrated the edition of A Walk in the Woods I've previously listened to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 29 December, 2013, 05:22:43 pm
For some reason I haven't read any of the recent Bryson books, despite loving the first few. But I have heard him doing readings (probably on R4?) and he's not great.

Audiobooks peeps: please stick to proper actors, or those with experience/training at this sort of thing  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 29 December, 2013, 05:31:19 pm
'Spain' by Jan Morris.  An oldie but a goody.  Very evocative...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 December, 2013, 05:59:48 pm
Hmm...I need some new books. Just finished the latest Alastair Reynolds one, which was good. Have scoured the Guardian books pages and bought Wool by Hugh Howey and got Raising Steam by Pratchett on the basis it'll be something to read on holiday next month.
Could do with some more to keep me going after that though. I will probably go back and start re-reading the early Murakami stuff but new is good. Any reccomendations?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 29 December, 2013, 09:23:53 pm
Currently reading Skagboys.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 29 December, 2013, 10:40:15 pm
Have you read 'How To Be A Woman' by Caitlin Moran? I just finished it and, while I don't agree with her necessarily, it's very very funny indeed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 29 December, 2013, 11:00:02 pm
I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.

OK. I'll skip the next 200 pages.  That should do it.
Should have skipped about 450.  I think I've done with Tartts now.

My memory of The Secret History turned out to be somewhat faulty. Certainly in respect of its pacing. It is sluggish and verbose. At half the length, it might have been a nice, light thriller. I'm now thinking that The Little Friend might be better than The Secret History, but I don't want to put the time into reading it again to find out.

And I've gone right off the idea of reading her new one. She's dead to me.
Bugger. I spent one of my credits on The Goldcrest. What if my memory of The Secret History is equally flawed? I can't read it to find out, and I certainly don't want to spend 22 hours listening, being wrong.
Fecking hell, the Goldfinch is 32 hours and 23 minutes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 30 December, 2013, 12:34:37 pm
Have you read 'How To Be A Woman' by Caitlin Moran? I just finished it and, while I don't agree with her necessarily, it's very very funny indeed.
Me? Yes. I really liked it. I think people would be foolish to view it as the ultimate feminist manual, but for younger women just starting to think about things, it's a good start, and for the rest of us, it has a few good points to make, and it's very funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 30 December, 2013, 06:32:18 pm
Currently 3/4's of the way through Jonathan Grimwood's "The Last Banquet",  an historical foodie novel set in 17th century France.  Enjoying it so far, though one or two scenes make me want to hit the protagonist with a brick.  I'm hoping the writer didn't do too much original research into the best way to cook household pets.... :sick:

Mr Grimwood is best known for his rather good SF and Fantasy as Jon Courtenay Grimwood , so he seems to be doing an Iain Banks with the alternate name.

I enjoyed "The Secret History" when I was younger, and have "The Nightingale" on my Kindle to read,  you lot are putting me off it now!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 December, 2013, 08:42:17 pm

Currently 3/4's of the way through Jonathan Grimwood's "The Last Banquet",  an historical foodie novel set in 17th century France.   

Sounds like just my kind of thing. I've added it to my wish list. :thumbsup:

If you fancy following that with an historical foodie novel set in 17th century England, try John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk. It's rather good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 January, 2014, 12:07:47 am

Currently 3/4's of the way through Jonathan Grimwood's "The Last Banquet",  an historical foodie novel set in 17th century France.   

Sounds like just my kind of thing. I've added it to my wish list. :thumbsup:

If you fancy following that with an historical foodie novel set in 17th century England, try John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk. It's rather good.

Correction - 18th century France .  All the dates were 17something or other...  and it ends with the Revolution....

Finished it now.  Pretty good stuff. http://jonathangrimwood.com/ (http://jonathangrimwood.com/)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 01 January, 2014, 10:39:25 am
The Cycling Anthology volume 2 (Le Tour) I'm finding it most excellent  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 01 January, 2014, 11:12:07 am
Some Christmas pressies:
Paris-Brest-Paris 120 ans, 1.200 kilometres
Lapize...now there was an ace
Road to Valour - Gino Bartali: Tour de France legend and Italy's secret World War Two hero
Wheeling Matilda - the story of Australian cycling
Bikie - a love affair with the racing bicycle
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 02 January, 2014, 04:26:28 pm
Have you read 'How To Be A Woman' by Caitlin Moran? I just finished it and, while I don't agree with her necessarily, it's very very funny indeed.
Taking a short break from writing current books and spotted this rec. Now on my Kindle. Will report later...

Just finished a Kindle deal, the Janus books by Andre Norton. Books of my childhood and my dreams.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 02 January, 2014, 05:06:21 pm
I think I can afford to invest 39p in my re-education towards SF.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 02 January, 2014, 06:20:15 pm
Ah, the suck fairy was kind to Ms Norton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 02 January, 2014, 08:24:35 pm
Have you read 'How To Be A Woman' by Caitlin Moran? I just finished it and, while I don't agree with her necessarily, it's very very funny indeed.
Taking a short break from writing current books and spotted this rec. Now on my Kindle. Will report later...

Just finished a Kindle deal, the Janus books by Andre Norton. Books of my childhood and my dreams.

Still got the Janus books on my shelves, and some of her other stuff on the Kindle.     I think "Plague Ship" was one of the earliest SF books I read, along with "Islands in the Sky" by ACC.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 January, 2014, 11:26:16 am
Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross.

The life and loves of a hard-up vacuum cleaner salesman in Bognor Regis in 1939.

Not a particularly well known writer these days but was a major figure in post-war literary London, famous for his "bohemian" lifestyle. I came to him via Anthony Powell's A Dance To The Music Of Time series of novels, in which he features as the character X.Trapnel.

And he can write. Oh yes, he can.

He's what I'd call a reader's writer - the pleasure of reading him is in savouring his fluent, accessible, authentically vernacular prose style. He's funny, astute, doesn't over-egg it, and says a lot in relatively few words.

Reminds me in many ways of Patrick Hamilton, George Orwell and Colin Macinnes. The voice reading it aloud in my head is Bill Nighy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 January, 2014, 11:28:56 am
"And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini.

Not as immediate as Kite Runner or Thousand Splendid Suns, still good, so far, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 January, 2014, 02:11:45 pm
The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter.  Reminds me a bit of Arthur C. Clark - thus far it's more like a guided tour than a story.  Favourite line to date There's one Born Again every minute.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 03 January, 2014, 02:16:27 pm
I'm very suspicious when a well known author starts co-authoring with others. If they are no longer capable of writing, maybe they should just stop. This view is based on the experience of reading a book co-authored by Clive Custler.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 January, 2014, 02:28:51 pm
I'm very suspicious when a well known author starts co-authoring with others. If they are no longer capable of writing, maybe they should just stop. This view is based on the experience of reading a book co-authored by Clive Custler.

Normally I would be, by TP has a record of some half decent colabs, including one faith Neil Gaiman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 January, 2014, 02:34:15 pm
My sentiment is that if other accomplished authors will help Pratchett get his ideas into book form then more power to them. Nobody's obliged to read them, and it might provide him some relief from the frustration he must feel these days.

I did read a book by Clive Custler once.  Maybe he hadn't had much practice back then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 January, 2014, 02:37:58 pm
My sentiment is that if other accomplished authors will help Pratchett get his ideas into book form then more power to them.

But is Pratchett doing it because he needs help? Or is it an "artistic" collaboration? I mean, he's certainly not doing it for the money.

I'm not a Pratchett fan so I probably wouldn't like it anyway but, Wunja, I wonder if perhaps you're worrying for the wrong reasons.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 January, 2014, 05:05:27 pm
I'm very suspicious when a well known author starts co-authoring with others. If they are no longer capable of writing, maybe they should just stop. This view is based on the experience of reading a book co-authored by Clive Custler.

Er... Mr Baxter is also rather well-known...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 January, 2014, 01:08:36 pm
Had a bit of a Kindle binge this morning - all the books on last year's Booker shortlist are now 99p (except the Colm Toibin one, for some reason), so I bought:
A Tale For The Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
Harvest - Jim Crace
We Need New Names - NoViolet Bulawayo
The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri

(I already have The Luminaries, but that's now 99p too, if anyone's interested.)

Also got another Ruth Ozeki that was on offer - All Over Creation - which looks interesting.

And The Goldfinch is currently 99p too - despite earlier comments on Ms Tartt, it's probably worth taking a punt at that price, so why not?

There's also The Universe vs Alex Woods, but I've already read that.

And quite a few others that I don't know. But the ones I've got will do for now - I'm still adding books to my Kindle faster than I can read them...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 04 January, 2014, 01:15:21 pm
[ Before Kindles, did everyone talk about how much their books cost them? Or even where they got them from? Aren't the words the thing? ]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 January, 2014, 01:22:14 pm
[ Before Kindles, did everyone talk about how much their books cost them? Or even where they got them from?

Before the internet, did people talk about funny cat photos?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 04 January, 2014, 01:42:37 pm
Before the internet, did people talk about funny cat photos?
No-one talks about them now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 January, 2014, 01:58:09 pm
Yeah, that'll be why a google search for "funny cat photos" returns 170 million results.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 04 January, 2014, 02:02:11 pm
OK, my fault for being deliberately vague. I meant this:

talk
verb
3rd person present: talks

    1.    speak in order to give information or express ideas or feelings; converse or communicate by spoken words.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 January, 2014, 02:09:28 pm
1. Fatuous pedantry. Yawn.

2. Wrong anyway. Do you seriously believe people don't talk IRL about things they've seen on the internet?

3. Also wrong because, as Led Zeppelin once so wisely put it, sometimes words have two meanings.

4. This is going boringly OT now. Stop it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 04 January, 2014, 03:32:21 pm
4. This is going boringly OT now. Stop it.
Whatever you say boss - I've no great desire to have a row over cat photos  :hand:

(I'm sure I can find a more trivial argument somewhere on YACF ...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 04 January, 2014, 05:00:48 pm
Waterstones to close multiple branches (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/02/waterstones-to-close-20-branches)   :(

The one at the bottom of Bold St in Liverpool has a sign up saying it will be closing on 1st February.  They have a larger shop in the newish Liverpool One mall within walking distance so I think it's days were numbered anyway.

I get most stuff for myself on Kindle these days, but that's due to lack of shelf space more than anything else.   I buy books as presents, and like to browse shops for them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 January, 2014, 06:43:43 pm
1. Fatuous pedantry. Yawn.
On YACF? Surely not?  ;D

Skagboys is on hold while I read library books - The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 04 January, 2014, 07:23:09 pm
Yeah, that'll be why a google search for "funny cat photos" returns 170 million results.

      How sad for them, I am a worrier by nature and while I think t'internet can be a good thing if used for communication and research I do wonder if maybe a bit of policing wouldn't be a good thing. By way of explanation I mean things like child pornography and in fact pornography in general, instructions for bomb making is another and, oh dear, where would we stop. Are nutters and perverts on the increase or were they always there in such numbers, I have a large bottle of Paddys Whiskey, it may help me to answer the unanswerable, wheres the bloody ice  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 January, 2014, 08:11:27 pm
Waterstones to close multiple branches (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/02/waterstones-to-close-20-branches)   :(

The one at the bottom of Bold St in Liverpool has a sign up saying it will be closing on 1st February.  They have a larger shop in the newish Liverpool One mall within walking distance so I think it's days were numbered anyway.

I get most stuff for myself on Kindle these days, but that's due to lack of shelf space more than anything else.   I buy books as presents, and like to browse shops for them.

It's a bit of dead business model – at least for mass market paperbacks (does anyone buy hardbacks?). The internet is where it's at, same as for music and increasingly video. Bricks and mortar either need to provide something that the internet can't or something additional, otherwise they're little more than a showroom for Amazon. Merely having a large stock of books isn't enough, Amazon are always going to have more. I quite like the experience of browsing, but it's a pity they've no linked up the download, why can't I grab the book there and then. Instead I have to note it down and then go home and (more likely than not) order it from Amazon. They almost missed the boat with DRM - can I buy an e-book in Waterstones and read it on my Kindle? I've no idea, which I guess is the fail.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 04 January, 2014, 08:37:51 pm
Just finished Robert Harris' old account of the Hitler diaries fiasco, "Selling Hitler".  It was a con trick of the purest variety; one forger knocked up the whole lot along with a shedload of "Hitler paintings" and even flogged the idiot Stern journalist (who had a serious Nazi obsession) the revolver Hitler used to shoot himself - despite the fact that it was manufactured in the wrong country and was of the wrong calibre, the journalist was convinced by a tag the forger attached to it saying basically "This is the revolver Hitler used to shoot himself, signed Martin Bormann".

The forger was sufficiently sloppy that the gothic Letraset he used on the diary covers said "FH" rather than "AH" but once you've found someone gullible enough, you keep milking them.

Prize right-wing tit David Irving was the first to denounce the diaries as fakes and then changed his mind just before they were proved to be so  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 04 January, 2014, 10:07:39 pm
Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Very interesting so far; I've made it through both prefaces and am up to page 8 where he is denouncing induction.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 05 January, 2014, 02:10:43 am
David, my sweet, what an apt book for you!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 05 January, 2014, 10:42:59 am
I finally unpacked 'Take On Africa', Helen Lloyd's account of her ride through Africa, yesterday.  Helen is a member of the CTC forum, if you're interested.

Helen's bike ride is about the journey, not the cycling, and she lives the opportunity to meet her environment wholeheartedly.

It's a cracking read so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 January, 2014, 02:23:32 pm
Waterstones to close multiple branches (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/02/waterstones-to-close-20-branches)   :(
I get most stuff for myself on Kindle these days, but that's due to lack of shelf space more than anything else.   I buy books as presents, and like to browse shops for them.

That story is from Feb 2011.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 05 January, 2014, 02:30:48 pm
Waterstones to close multiple branches (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/02/waterstones-to-close-20-branches)   :(
I get most stuff for myself on Kindle these days, but that's due to lack of shelf space more than anything else.   I buy books as presents, and like to browse shops for them.

That story is from Feb 2011.

So it is  :-[   I sent someone a text about the Bold St, Liverpool one closing and was sent that link in return.  I should have checked the date !
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 05 January, 2014, 03:47:26 pm
<Waterstone's' >

It's a bit of dead business model – at least for mass market paperbacks (does anyone buy hardbacks?). The internet is where it's at, same as for music and increasingly video. Bricks and mortar either need to provide something that the internet can't or something additional, otherwise they're little more than a showroom for Amazon. Merely having a large stock of books isn't enough, Amazon are always going to have more. I quite like the experience of browsing, but it's a pity they've no linked up the download, why can't I grab the book there and then. Instead I have to note it down and then go home and (more likely than not) order it from Amazon. They almost missed the boat with DRM - can I buy an e-book in Waterstones and read it on my Kindle? I've no idea, which I guess is the fail.
The coffee-shop + browsing model seems to have resuscitated the dying book-shop. Seems to work best in known 'book' places e.g. Oxford, Hay-on-Wye - perhaps because book-lovers make a trip out of browsing several shops.

You're right about downloading the book you've just browsed - I guess they need some sort of scanning tech, like the supermarket 'Self-scan' thingies, or something app-based.
I'd be pretty certain someone is looking into this already, but I'm surprised it hasn't appeared yet in any form.

Quote
Instead I have to note it down and then go home and (more likely than not) order it from Amazon.
"note it down"? you luddite - where's your camera-phone?!?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 January, 2014, 06:14:58 pm
Why even wait until you get home? The Amazon app has a barcode scanner and 1-click ordering...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 January, 2014, 06:31:31 pm
Actually, I do have some barcode app that indeed does all the work for me and brings back prices and availability on anything across the web. In all honesty, I mostly just rely on my good olde-fashioned wetware to remember the books I want.

Coffee shop works fine, though I'm not convinced whether it translates into sales of anything but coffee. Coffee, tbh, is probably far mure lucrative that books.

According to the internet, Waterstones do offer some kind of browse-and-download service, but considering I've been hanging around in Waterstones for several years, it's news to me. Which again is the problem. Despite spending a long time in their stores, I don't know how to buy ebooks from them or if I can read them. That's a fail.

Businesses didn't learn much from Apple decimating the music industry, in the much the same way, bookshops and publishers owned the space and yet they let Amazon march in take everything, while they still wittered on about the NBP, totally missing the point that the threat was somewhere else.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 05 January, 2014, 06:42:46 pm
Coffee shop works fine, though I'm not convinced whether it translates into sales of anything but coffee. Coffee, tbh, is probably far mure lucrative that books.

Yes I'm sure that's the case!

Nevertheless, a lot of these places have a quite small cafe attached to (and/or subsidising) truly massive physical collections of browsable titles. whether I buy their coffee* or not, I find this a good thing. (And better than a High St of just coffee chains and mobile phone shops).

*I usually pick the best smell, then order off Amazon-rainforest-coffee.com. Sometimes it's home before me :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 06 January, 2014, 10:05:45 am
'Alif the unseen'

Hacking, 'net security, Islam, the Arab spring and djinn. What's not to like?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 06 January, 2014, 10:29:45 am
Last week I finally finished the (shite) audio book I'd been listening to. It had become an audax-esque chore, in that I'd started so I was determined to finish, and I simply wasn't enjoying it.

(The Secret Keeper By Kate Morton)

This week I've started on The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and in a New Years Resolve (see Poor Student) have given it 50km, am not having any fun, have removed from my device.

Golly, this is liberating.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 January, 2014, 10:30:50 am
Levels Of Life by Julian Barnes

Confirmation, if it were needed, that I could happily read Julian Barnes on any imaginable subject - I never imagined I'd be so captivated by an essay on 19th century hot air ballooning and photography, but I was. And then it turns out to be a sublime extended metaphor for his grief over the death of his wife. Heartbreaking and beautiful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 07 January, 2014, 10:35:32 am
Terry Pratchet - Raising Steam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 07 January, 2014, 12:55:30 pm
Finished Tom Sawyer. It seems to me like Richmal Crompton and the Simpsons writers owe a lot to Mark Twain. Now enjoying Huckleberry Finn, with Harvest lined up next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 07 January, 2014, 01:04:04 pm
Why even wait until you get home? The Amazon app has a barcode scanner and 1-click ordering...

And my basic barcode scanner gives me the amazon link to the ISBN when I scan it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 12 January, 2014, 05:09:14 pm
Terry Pratchet - Raising Steam
Just finished.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 12 January, 2014, 05:15:48 pm
Have you read 'How To Be A Woman' by Caitlin Moran? I just finished it and, while I don't agree with her necessarily, it's very very funny indeed.
Halfway through; ta for the suggestion. Laughing like a drain and recognising a lot of common ground. I have collected, for later use, "as thick as a barrel of toes"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 12 January, 2014, 06:08:38 pm
I've been sent a couple of reading challenge suggestions, from one of the 30 zillion book blogs that my Literarally Better Half reads. If you like this sort of thing:

(if tl, dr!)
(click to show/hide)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 12 January, 2014, 06:20:21 pm
What have they got against library books?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 12 January, 2014, 06:21:26 pm
What have they got against library books?
Presumably they won't make a dent in your TBR pile!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 12 January, 2014, 09:47:12 pm
I'm not going near that. Last time I was involved in some reading thing with targets, I was accused of lying by my school, & put on detention - until my mother checked my list of books read, questioned me on their contents, then sent the school a blistering letter demanding an apology (to me, not her, by the teacher who'd told me I was lying, in class so that everyone who'd witnessed me being called a liar witnessed the apology).

Apparently I couldn't have read all those books because I didn't have time & some of them were too adult for me. :( If only I'd known that, maybe I wouldn't have read them all, or so quickly. Maybe I wouldn't even have (successfully) pestered the local library to give me an adult library card although I was supposedly too young for it, because I was bored with the contents of the childrens section.

You see why I've steered clear of reading challenges ever since.


I have a sneaking feeling that some other members of this forum may have had experiences which evoke fellow-feeling with what I felt back then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 January, 2014, 09:10:51 am
I might have done, but they let me have an adult library card when I was 8.

:smug:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 January, 2014, 09:31:24 am
Command Authority by Tom Clancy

The latest Jack Ryan thriller, co-written by Mark Greaney (never heard of him).  It's ok, not brilliant, not in the league of Red Rabbit or The Bear and the Dragon, but ok.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 January, 2014, 10:12:43 am
The goal is to read one or more novels from each of these continents in the course of 2014:

Africa
Asia
Australasia
Europe
North America
South America (please include Central America where it is most convenient for you)
and
The Seventh Continent (here you can either choose Antarctica or your own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it).

You could tick off the first five on the list just by reading last year's Booker shortlist, if you're so inclined. For a South American novel, I'd recommend Heliopolis by James Scudamore - English-born author but he lives in Sao Paulo and the novel is set there (hence the name). It's very good.

I'm on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/), which I think I've mentioned before, and I'm now in my third year of doing the reading challenge there. In 2012, I set myself the target of reading 52 books and managed 53. In 2013, I set myself the target of 60 but only managed 55. However, I did read some Very Long Books last year1, so my average page count2 was up by 50 pages per book - a crude measure but a good rough indication. I've set myself the same target this year and intend to read some shorter books in order to make up the numbers. Missing the point a bit, maybe, but I don't care.

Anyway, it's not like I'm doing it to be competitive against anyone else - it's just to motivate myself to read more, in the same way that I've previously used mycyclinglogs to motivate myself to get out on the bike more.

1. eg Parade's End (which is technically three books but I counted it as one) and Our Mutual Friend.
2. virtual pages, since most of my reading is on Kindle these days. Tend to go by the page count of the paperback.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 13 January, 2014, 10:36:47 am
Citoyen,

I think from the sort of stuff you list (from Dickens to Pym) and the fact that you were enquiring about prose stylists the other day, that you might like "Sick Heart River" by John Buchan.  I've just finished it (I've read a great many of his books) and while it has the standard Buchan non-plot of a chase or quest of some kind, it's by far his most contemplative and thoughtful (not to say autobiographical) novel.  It is also his last and was published after he died.  His books contain lots of attitudes and sentiments that I don't agree with and in this final one you can see him coming to terms with this himself.  It's also a ripping yarn, as are all his "shockers", as he called them.

I saw the challenges you set yourself.  "Our Mutual Friend" definitely has altitude points!

Peter
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 January, 2014, 11:02:49 am
you might like "Sick Heart River" by John Buchan.

Buchan's another who's passed me by, but I'll take your recommendation (still adding books to my to-read list faster than I can get through them...)

Quote
"Our Mutual Friend" definitely has altitude points!

I don't really think of Dickens as a "prose stylist" but he has his moments - and he's at the height of his powers as a writer in Our Mutual Friend, IMO. The description of the Veneerings' dinner party early on (second chapter, I think) is particularly brilliant - "leaves in the Twemlow" is a sublime metaphor. And there's a passage towards the end where he's describing a dog howling outside a lively village pub that really sums up the joy of reading Dickens for me - two pages to describe what could have been summed up in a short paragraph, but a sumptuous pleasure to read for its own sake.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 13 January, 2014, 11:10:59 am
Sure, I've read most of Dickens, now.  He occasionally (ok, frequently stumbles, especially in his short stories and whwre he was obviously writing to fill his magazine deadlines), but he does make me laugh out loud with some of his wonderful imagery.  I agree absolutely about the way he never uses one word when a chapter would do just as well.  Not to be Pecksniffed at!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 13 January, 2014, 03:38:07 pm
The Templar Knight trilogy by Jan Guillou (translated from Swedish). The story of a 12th century Swedish boy brought up by Cistersian Monks who ends up as a Templar Knight in Outremer at the time of the Third Crusade.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 13 January, 2014, 09:17:19 pm
"The End of the Party", aka "The Rise & Fall of New Labour", by Andrew Rawnsley.

Assuming it's true, I had no idea how far back and how extreme was Brown's antipathy towards Blair. So far, Rawnsley gives me the impression of being a great deal more sympathetic to Blair than he does Brown.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 January, 2014, 09:23:56 pm
you might like "Sick Heart River" by John Buchan.

Buchan's another who's passed me by, but I'll take your recommendation (still adding books to my to-read list faster than I can get through them...)

Quote
"Our Mutual Friend" definitely has altitude points!

I don't really think of Dickens as a "prose stylist" but he has his moments - and he's at the height of his powers as a writer in Our Mutual Friend, IMO. The description of the Veneerings' dinner party early on (second chapter, I think) is particularly brilliant - "leaves in the Twemlow" is a sublime metaphor. And there's a passage towards the end where he's describing a dog howling outside a lively village pub that really sums up the joy of reading Dickens for me - two pages to describe what could have been summed up in a short paragraph, but a sumptuous pleasure to read for its own sake.

And probably a sumptuous pleasure to write: I think a good deal of Dickens' writing was done for the fun of it.

Hardy, now... I still remember our English master saying "we can skip the next paragraph, it's just another of Hardy's interminable useless descriptions". And his introduction to Jane Eyre: "the girls'll like that one, it's a good cry."

Glad I read them, though: how else to enjoy the Thursday Next novels?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 14 January, 2014, 01:07:40 am
"The End of the Party", aka "The Rise & Fall of New Labour", by Andrew Rawnsley.

Assuming it's true, I had no idea how far back and how extreme was Brown's antipathy towards Blair. So far, Rawnsley gives me the impression of being a great deal more sympathetic to Blair than he does Brown.

Andrew Rawnsley seems to me to be trying to atone for his part in helping Cameron and Clegg to get elected.  His hatchet jobs in the Guardian on the Labour leadership have not been forgotten in this household. 
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 January, 2014, 08:42:56 am
Harvest by Jim Crace

It's undoubtedly very well written but not really grabbing me so far. Halfway through and still waiting for the story to start but suspecting that this is all I'm going to get. 

Maybe it's just me - I'm too tired to focus on reading for pleasure at the moment.

[edit: having just gone back to remind myself what her_welshness said about it at the time of the Booker nominations, I've decided it's not just me - I seem to agree with her entirely.]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 16 January, 2014, 10:15:09 am
"The End of the Party", aka "The Rise & Fall of New Labour", by Andrew Rawnsley.

Assuming it's true, I had no idea how far back and how extreme was Brown's antipathy towards Blair. So far, Rawnsley gives me the impression of being a great deal more sympathetic to Blair than he does Brown.

Andrew Rawnsley seems to me to be trying to atone for his part in helping Cameron and Clegg to get elected.  His hatchet jobs in the Guardian on the Labour leadership have not been forgotten in this household.

As I read more, the sympathy to Blair has evaporated. Brown was pretty well absent from the chapters about the Iraq war, especially the lead-in period. I think (without going back over a hundred or more pages) that it was Gen. Mike Jackson who commented, a propos the second Goldsmith opinion, "I put in a great deal of effort getting Milosevic behind bars in The Hague. I'll be damned if I'm going to end up as his next door neighbour!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 20 January, 2014, 09:24:04 pm
Listening to some H H Monro stories and enjoying them. I'm not sure if you can tell from listening, but he certainly sounds like a prose stylist.  Maybe it's the skill of the reader.  It seems as if the style is perfectly suited to the short story form - too pithy, cutting, and arch for anything longer.

I wonder if he called himself Saki because he's a wry swine. (Sorry).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bobb on 20 January, 2014, 09:28:45 pm
Command Authority by Tom Clancy

The latest Jack Ryan thriller, co-written by Mark Greaney (never heard of him).  It's ok, not brilliant, not in the league of Red Rabbit or The Bear and the Dragon, but ok.

I got given that for Christmas. Is it worth reading all the others first?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 20 January, 2014, 10:26:57 pm
Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 20 January, 2014, 10:59:10 pm
I've been sent a couple of reading challenge suggestions, from one of the 30 zillion book blogs that my Literarally Better Half reads. If you like this sort of thing:
...
Mt Kilimanjaro
...

Never trust a reading challenge that mentions Mt Kilimanjaro.  If they only read their Hemmingway properly, they'd know it was simply 'Kilimanjaro'. 

As for me, I'm reading Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.  Within the week I will myself be Dr M & Mr B  :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 21 January, 2014, 10:23:38 am
Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

Ooh. Intrigued!

(But I'm a bit worried by this phrase Science fiction's answer to Fifty Shades of Grey that seems to be attached to it  ??? )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 21 January, 2014, 10:27:15 am
Command Authority by Tom Clancy

The latest Jack Ryan thriller, co-written by Mark Greaney (never heard of him).  It's ok, not brilliant, not in the league of Red Rabbit or The Bear and the Dragon, but ok.

I got given that for Christmas. Is it worth reading all the others first?

I would say so, as there is definitely a progession to the storylines (though this book is still readable without having read the others first as TC does fill in the background).  I have now finished this and my view still stands, in that it is ok, but not as good as the others.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 21 January, 2014, 10:31:44 am
Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

Ooh. Intrigued!

(But I'm a bit worried by this phrase Science fiction's answer to Fifty Shades of Grey that seems to be attached to it  ??? )
I think that's due to it's word-of-mouth success rather than the content!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 January, 2014, 08:51:04 pm
Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

Ooh. Intrigued!

(But I'm a bit worried by this phrase Science fiction's answer to Fifty Shades of Grey that seems to be attached to it  ??? )

I'm pleased to report I have not read 50 shades, though I have read the Graun 5 min digested read version http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/digestedread and I can say it seems unrelated to me :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 22 January, 2014, 09:20:42 am
I think that's due to it's word-of-mouth success rather than the content!
Yes, that seems to make a lot more sense now!  :thumbsup:

(It would have been helpful if the journalists concerned had made that clear - they seem to live in a world where everyone knows everything ever said/written about 50 Shades ... )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 22 January, 2014, 10:09:50 am
Raising Steam

The first Pterry book that has made me laugh in a while.

I like it!  Especially as the engineer, in my mind, sounds just like Fred Dibnah.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 22 January, 2014, 01:14:11 pm
I might have done, but they let me have an adult library card when I was 8.

:smug:
I think the day I got an adult library card might have been the happiest day of my life so far.  ;D I don't remember how old I was, definitely still at primary school.

Listening to some H H Monro stories and enjoying them. I'm not sure if you can tell from listening, but he certainly sounds like a prose stylist.  Maybe it's the skill of the reader.  It seems as if the style is perfectly suited to the short story form - too pithy, cutting, and arch for anything longer.

I wonder if he called himself Saki because he's a wry swine. (Sorry).
I like Saki. We read "The Lumber-Room" in English class at secondary school and I loved Nicholas's "aunt"  being so certain there wasn't a frog in his bread and milk. And I had lots of those big hardback short story compendiums, and one of them had Sredni Vashtar in it, which I also liked. I have a collection of Saki short stories now, which I re-read every now and then. I like Clovis.

Never trust a reading challenge that mentions Mt Kilimanjaro.  If they only read their Hemmingway properly, they'd know it was simply 'Kilimanjaro'.
Rising like Olympus above the Serengeti...

Finally finished Skagboys. It was ok, but it feels like it was written just to milk the cash cow rather than to tell the story. I've just started Chocky, then I'm going to read The Trouble with Lichen.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 23 January, 2014, 09:27:22 am
I love Saki stories. When I was at sea I once took the Penguin Complete Saki and tried to make it last the entire trip by reading one story each evening. I still cannot think about ‘The Unrest Cure’ without laughing. The story involves Clovis enlivening someone’s life by convincing him that pogrom is to be arranged in the village of Tilfield (near Slowborough). There are a couple of lines that I remember regarding Boy Scouts helping as auxiliaries: ‘when they understood there was real killing to be done they were even keener than the men.’ And later:  "The Boy-scouts mistook my signal, and have killed the postman. I've had very little practice in this sort of thing, you see. Another time I shall do better."

The Schartz-Metterklume Method and The Toys of Peace also recommended.

Of course, the stories are very much of their time; Edwardian I suppose, and have fairly errr…unfashionable themes (see pogrom above). But then I think that many of the short stories were written to be ‘disgraceful’.

I wondered about nominating him as a prose stylist in the other thread but thought perhaps that these days it would be dismissed as just being smart-arsery’
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 23 January, 2014, 11:25:45 am
Just finished a revisit of Hoghfather and have started 'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton and Dan Coyle.

Only half way through chapter two but it has so far proved to be easy and absorbing reading. The style suits me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 23 January, 2014, 01:02:08 pm
I still cannot think about ‘The Unrest Cure’ without laughing.
The Schartz-Metterklume Method and The Toys of Peace also recommended.

The Unrest Cure is wonderful from start to finish. I don't know The Toys of Peace; I don't think it's in my collection.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 23 January, 2014, 07:17:44 pm
Within the week I will myself be Dr M & Mr B

Off-Topic, but...

Big congrats Dr M!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 January, 2014, 09:15:52 pm
More Simon Raven, n° 4 in his Firstborn of Egypt series: the upper crustacea moving crabwise and scavenging in filth without getting visibly dirty. "He's an honourable man. He's allowed to devise dishonourable schemes as long as he himself does not carry them out." Quite enjoyable in a small way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 24 January, 2014, 04:12:55 am
Another William Boyd: "Waiting for Sunrise". I missed full comprehension I fear, but still enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 January, 2014, 07:34:49 am
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan

Complete change from the book I read before (see upthread).

It is very good, so far, one of those books you really don't want to put down, no matter how tired you get.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 24 January, 2014, 12:54:35 pm
I still cannot think about ‘The Unrest Cure’ without laughing.
The Schartz-Metterklume Method and The Toys of Peace also recommended.

The Unrest Cure is wonderful from start to finish. I don't know The Toys of Peace; I don't think it's in my collection.

I don't think I've read or heard any of those, but my aural pleasure yesterday afternoon was enhanced by Tobermory, the talking cat, which I recognized from somewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Juan Martín on 24 January, 2014, 01:25:31 pm
Collections of Saki with these stories are available to download free from Amazon, and presumably elsewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 January, 2014, 01:28:37 pm
Dear Lord, but Simon Raven is delightful. The modern evil: "egalitarian aggression and sanctimonious drivel". Oh very yes.  And a country run by "touts and rabble".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 24 January, 2014, 08:18:45 pm
Just finished Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwall.

Its really just more of the same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 24 January, 2014, 09:54:09 pm
Collections of Saki with these stories are available to download free from Amazon, and presumably elsewhere.
I will check the Nook shop.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 25 January, 2014, 11:44:19 am
At about the time you wrote that I was downloading something called, very gratingly, 'The Saki Megapack', for £0.38, from the Nook shop.  '140 Classic Novels and Short Stories'.  Couldn't resist searching out 'The Unrest Cure' and reading it last night.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 25 January, 2014, 11:51:00 am
My re-reading of Iain Banks' (RIP) 'Culture' novels is nearing its conclusion - finished 'The Player Of Games' a couple of nights ago and enjoyed it immensely; probably the best of the lot so far, with "The Hydrogen Sonata" and "Excession" following closely behind.

Now trying very hard to get into "Use of Weapons" but it's hard work.

Kind of bums me out that there won't be any more Culture novels  :( (unless his estate allowed someone like Charles Stross to take up the mantle in which case there'd be a serious risk of Awesome)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 25 January, 2014, 11:54:05 am
Raising Steam

The first Pterry book that has made me laugh in a while.
I thought it was a bit 'meh' to be honest; far from his worst, but a long way from his best too - but then again, Going Postal and Making Money were always going to be pretty difficult acts to follow, the latter in particular.

Quote
I like it!  Especially as the engineer, in my mind, sounds just like Fred Dibnah.
Word Of Pterry is that it's quite intentional ;)
The same character also first appeared in "Reaper Man" (Word Of Pterry, again)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 26 January, 2014, 08:32:02 pm
Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy, by Eric Hotta. An account of the events leading up to and the reasoning behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, from the Japanese perspective.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 January, 2014, 09:48:59 am
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

Not sure why I had this one on my list, tbh. I must have read a review or heard something about it on the radio, but the story isn't something that I would normally imagine appeals to me: 40-something woman, Laura, living in a flat in Bayswater with her octogenarian Hungarian mother in law and mil's two sisters, plus 16yo daughter, Marina, who has left her state school to attend sixth form in a posh public school and is discovering a) she hates it, and b) boys. Then absentee father reappears on the scene...

Anyway, it's really good so far (I'm about halfway through). Charlotte Mendelson can write. And it's the writing that saves it from being an otherwise fairly unremarkable story about relationships and discovering what's important in life and blah blah blah... It doesn't seem to have anything particularly profound to say and I think I can guess where it's probably heading, but that's not really important, it's just a good read.

And funny too - the scene where Marina's boyfriend first introduces her to the delights of an erect penis are cringeworthy and hilarious in equal measure.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 27 January, 2014, 10:12:56 am
The Universe Versus Alex Woods

Recommended by someone on here, I don't recall who.
Kind of like Adrian Mole but with assisted suicide and more weed. Enjoyable enough that I read it in a single sitting (finally getting to bed at dumbass o'clock as a result) and I'd probably read it again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 28 January, 2014, 12:32:56 pm
Just finished a revisit of Hoghfather and have started 'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton and Dan Coyle.

Only half way through chapter two but it has so far proved to be easy and absorbing reading. The style suits me.

Just finished. My copy includes the post Oprah revelations afterword. A cracking read.

I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 January, 2014, 12:45:56 pm
Just finished a revisit of Hoghfather and have started 'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton and Dan Coyle.

Only half way through chapter two but it has so far proved to be easy and absorbing reading. The style suits me.

Just finished. My copy includes the post Oprah revelations afterword. A cracking read.

I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

Me too, after I read that book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 January, 2014, 02:34:37 pm
I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

For the better or worse?

My initial reaction on finishing the book was to feel more sympathetic to what he went through, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a clever piece of manipulation on his (and Dan Coyle's) part. Ultimately, I felt Millar displayed more genuine remorse and less in the way of making excuses for his behaviour (though he too is quite manipulative in the way he presents the facts in his book).

Still, utterly compelling. I want to read both Millar's and Hamilton's books again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 28 January, 2014, 02:41:32 pm
I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

For the better or worse?

My initial reaction on finishing the book was to feel more sympathetic to what he went through, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a clever piece of manipulation on his (and Dan Coyle's) part. Ultimately, I felt Millar displayed more genuine remorse and less in the way of making excuses for his behaviour (though he too is quite manipulative in the way he presents the facts in his book).

Still, utterly compelling. I want to read both Millar's and Hamilton's books again.

I would say for the better.

I'm not blind to the fact that this is a history book written from a participants perspective and therfore will show Tyler in a better light than a full disclosure truth by Lance or Johanne but, bearing that in mind, I feel more ambivilant towards him than I perhaps did before.

Another thing that makes me see hime in a more favourable light is this- he may not have been the main protagonist but, it was early confessors like Tyler that were responsible in part for the subsequent investigations that led to the reasoned finding and the Oprah show.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andrew on 28 January, 2014, 04:46:58 pm
Morrissey's Autobiography.

There are no normal chapter divisions and he is very fond of adverbs, adjectives and metaphors.  He really didn't like school.

All true. I've just finished it.

There are though three very broad divisions you can make; life before The Smiths, the Smiths years and the court case, and life after The Smiths.

The first part (pre Smiths) is a great read and almost poetry, Morrissey showing all of the same lyrical skills in his prose. A line that sticks in my mind is about a 'corn plastered swimming pool'. I suspect he took a pleasure in the construction of this section, honed it, refined it, shaped it. It shows. The book's worth a read for this section alone. If he continued in a similar vein until the book's end then it'd be arguably a contender for a modern classic. Sadly, it doesn't and, so, isn't (imho).

The second part of the book can only be considered a whine, a diatribe, a big sulk. He goes ON AND ON about the court case and I must admit to just flicking through page after page of his outpourings of injustice until I could be assured that the noise had stopped. Suffice it to say that I'd agree with Judge Weeks' description of 'devious, truculent and unreliable'. Though I'd add 'petulant' as well. Morrissey's time with The Smiths themselves goes largely unmentioned btw, excepting the odd mention of recording sessions. Most disappointing from my perspective.

The final section (the Morrissey solo years) is for the most part dull, inane and lifeless autobiography. A simple recounting of events and dates. It could be, without disrespect, footballer's prose.... (with notable exceptions, I'm sure). That said, his descriptions of both Julie Burchill and James Maker are sensitive and moving, I'm sure I'll read the latter again at some stage. Overall, in this final section, I got the sense of him trying to justify himself to both himself and others. We're treated again and again to tallies of people attending his concerts, to 'the love' coming from them. This is probably true but it's presented  others as a kind of 'who needs The Smiths' yah-bo sucks. If the sight of 1200 brawling Mexicans brings him happiness then who am I to say anything.

I came away from this book with an entirely new impression of Morrissey. I now think him not so much as a sensitive innocent but more aware, more manipulative and controlling, particularly where money is concerned. Still, there is no disputing his gift with words and it's for that that I admire him. Just a shame he wasn't able to exercise more control and illustrate that skill throughout this book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 31 January, 2014, 02:54:49 pm
This is Africa (http://www.blurb.com/books/5018581-this-is-africa) made by a co-rider from last years TdA trip
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 31 January, 2014, 03:44:03 pm
A song of Ice and Fire book 1- Game of Thrones. I am loving the way he has written each chapter from an individual characters perspective.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 03 February, 2014, 10:54:19 am
A song of Ice and Fire book 1- Game of Thrones. I am loving the way he has written each chapter from an individual characters perspective.
I've pretty much given up on it precisely because of this ... I don't mind interweaving storylines, but GoT has far too many characters to pull this off, IMO.

I've just finished 'Espedair Street' by the late Mr. Banks - it's the first 'non-M' book of his that I've read, although I did listen to its radio adaptation a few years ago on R4. It's not a bad read, in fact it captures the whole 70s-80s sex-n-drugs-n-rock-n-roll bit rather nicely, but the ending utterly ruined it (OK, you could sort-of see the ending coming a mile off, but even so ...)

Started 'The Crow Road' last night - enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 04 February, 2014, 10:34:58 pm
Half way through "The Days of Anna Madrigal".   So far, so good.

Armistead Maupin's reading in Liverpool next week is sold out, just as well as I doubt I'd be able to get the afternoon off  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 05 February, 2014, 07:01:02 pm
Close to half-way through 'The Crow Road' ... my, it's getting interesting :)

Have also downloaded 'The Steep Approach To Garbadale', since my interest in Iain Banks' non-scifi stuff has been piqued and it has a bit of a tech angle to it if the synopsis I read is any indication.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 05 February, 2014, 07:24:29 pm
Close to half-way through 'The Crow Road' ... my, it's getting interesting :)

Have also downloaded 'The Steep Approach To Garbadale', since my interest in Iain Banks' non-scifi stuff has been piqued and it has a bit of a tech angle to it if the synopsis I read is any indication.
I can't recommend Garbadale - it's not an awful book but to me it seemed a dull attempt at reproducing Crow Road.

For me his best are The Wasp Factory and Complicity (with Crow Road somewhere in there!). I liked Espedair too.
TWF is just unique, certainly nothing like his other books! Probably a love-hate thing, but it is short so I'd recommend it to anyone  :thumbsup: Complicity is probably much closer to CR in flavour.

Song of Stones is the worst of his I've read - just totally depressing. Didn't rate Canal Dreams much. The others I've either not read or can't remember very well!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 05 February, 2014, 07:29:57 pm
Close to half-way through 'The Crow Road' ... my, it's getting interesting :)

Have also downloaded 'The Steep Approach To Garbadale', since my interest in Iain Banks' non-scifi stuff has been piqued and it has a bit of a tech angle to it if the synopsis I read is any indication.
I can't recommend Garbadale - it's not an awful book but to me it seemed a dull attempt at reproducing Crow Road.!
We shall see - I'm enjoying 'The Crow Road' immensely.
Since I had a bit of Amazon gift voucher surplus to get rid of I've gone and got 'Whit' and 'Feersum Endjinn' as well - I suspect that in the case of the latter I'll have to do a bit of a mental gear change akin to what I had to do when I first read 'Trainspotting' (took me ages to get my head round phonetic Embra-ese)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 05 February, 2014, 07:46:19 pm
Close to half-way through 'The Crow Road' ... my, it's getting interesting :)

Have also downloaded 'The Steep Approach To Garbadale', since my interest in Iain Banks' non-scifi stuff has been piqued and it has a bit of a tech angle to it if the synopsis I read is any indication.
I can't recommend Garbadale - it's not an awful book but to me it seemed a dull attempt at reproducing Crow Road.!
We shall see - I'm enjoying 'The Crow Road' immensely.
Since I had a bit of Amazon gift voucher surplus to get rid of I've gone and got 'Whit' and 'Feersum Endjinn' as well - I suspect that in the case of the latter I'll have to do a bit of a mental gear change akin to what I had to do when I first read 'Trainspotting' (took me ages to get my head round phonetic Embra-ese)

If you can handle the phonetics you might want to give "The Bridge" a try as well  :thumbsup:    Whit is twee but fun.  Endjinn is good.   I'd agree with Matt about Garbadale, along with The Business it's one of his weaker efforts.    I've always thought Song of Stone was his last attempt to try a different writing voice , it failed miserably, so he went back to cozy Scottish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 06 February, 2014, 10:14:02 am
A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

I started and finished this book in one sitting.  It's a touching story of how the author reached the very bottom of life (as a homeless drug addict), started to turn his life around then found Bob.  Bob gives him the sense of responsibility and hope to clean up and move on. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Lady Cavendish on 06 February, 2014, 10:14:54 am
Right. I've been in and out of hospital recently like a boomerang, am in atm. I've got through a ridiculous amount of books. I'm bored out my mind.

Citoyen, where are you with all my recommendations?

I don't want anything too deep or needing too much concentration, as I'm drugged to the eyeballs. Something easy, Alex Woods-esque would be great. And I'm just downloading the streetcat named Bob, thanks Tiermat :)

List please :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 February, 2014, 10:48:48 am
Quote from: Lady Cavendish link=topic=342.msg1638817#msg1638817 Citoyen, where are you with all my recommendations?
[/quote

Well, er... I've just started We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, which is looking extremely promising. First impressions: here is an exciting new voice in literature. Immediately engaging and colourful without being overwrought. IIRC, her_welshness was also a big fan of this one.

I quite enjoyed Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson. My interest was tailing off by the end but I would recommend it on the basis of the lovely writing, and some good stuff about the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl (which I can only relate to indirectly, of course) and about being the single mother of a teenage girl living with your aged Hungarian in-laws in a poky London flat (likewise). None of the male characters come out of it particularly well!

I've also just finished an anthology of early PG Wodehouse stories - "Kid Brady Stories" (1905-7) and "A Man Of Means" (1914). Kid Brady is very early stuff, juvenilia that's probably only of interest to Wodehouse completists like me, or fans of boxing lit, perhaps. There are hints of his voice coming through but generally the style is very immature. "A Man Of Means", however, is just wonderful. It concerns the adventures of the hapless Roland Bleke, a recognisably Wodehousian hero, who keeps getting in scrapes with people who want to fleece him and yet somehow always lands on his feet, and with much more money than he started, despite having no interest in financial wealth and no idea what to do with his riches. Very funny, very easy to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 07 February, 2014, 08:48:26 am

Half way through "The Days of Anna Madrigal".   So far, so good.

Armistead Maupin's reading in Liverpool next week is sold out, just as well as I doubt I'd be able to get the afternoon off  :(

Finished it. Very good.
You complete & utter bastard Mr Maupin. I wasn't expecting that..!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 07 February, 2014, 08:50:53 am
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

The true story of a pleasure flight taken by US service men and women, through the valleys and mountains of New Guinea, that ended in disaster.

It is well written, moves along nicely and is, historically, interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Shangri-La
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 February, 2014, 09:03:34 am
The Twelve Caesars - Matthew Dennison

A potted biography of the twelves Caesars from Julius Caesar to Domitian
It's like (and admits to being) a modern version of Suetonious's famous "Twelve Caesars" so not a biography in the first they did this then they did that genre but more a description of character, politics and motives.  Excellent so far (I am only up to Augustus) but I would have to say some prior knowledge is essential as it assumes a basic background knowledge of Roman history.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 08 February, 2014, 06:38:25 pm
Finished "The Crow Road" - the ending was ... interesting, to say the least. Not quite as flat as that of 'Espedair Street' that's for sure.
I must admit feeling a little sad for the protagonist right at the end (those who've read the book will likely know what I'm referring to) but maybe that was the intention. I dunno.
 
Anyway, quite a low body count for a Banks novel, M or otherwise, although true to form the bodies in question met their end in a variety of, shall we say, interesting and unusual ways. Not your typical whodunnit, but immensely enjoyable in a macabre sort of way.

Moving on to "The Steep Approach To Garbadale" ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 11 February, 2014, 10:11:26 am
Moving on to "The Steep Approach To Garbadale" ...

... which I finished at silly o'clock this morning.

Definite similarities to "The Crow Road" - whether this was intentional on IB's part I don't know. I enjoyed it all the same, but like Crow Road it seemed to gather a lot of pace towards the end and the climax was truly :o-worthy.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 February, 2014, 10:14:41 am
Orr - My Story by Bobby Orr.

If you don't recognize the name, then this book probably isn't for you.

If you do then it is...

I am also working my way through Never Go Back by Lee Child, the latest Jack Reacher book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 11 February, 2014, 10:47:11 am
What is it about Lee Child's books? They are all the same, but you read the new one anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 19 February, 2014, 02:08:37 pm
I'm off to New Orleans shortly for a holiday.  On the off-chance that I'll have some reading time, can the panel recommend some fiction with a local (or fairly local) - to New Orleans - flavour to read.

By the way - I've never dabbled with Faulkner, and know nothing of his books.  Any good?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 February, 2014, 02:25:26 pm
Just finished The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort.  Jeez, what a total sleaze bag that guy is.

Hasn't stopped me reading Catching The Wolf of Wall Street, though.

Nuncio, there is a whole raft out there, including:
The Client
The Pelican Brief - both by John Grisham
Misisipi by Michael Rielly
Neon Rain (and sequels) by James Lee Burke

It seems easy to find detective stories set there, but not many others.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 February, 2014, 03:33:31 pm
-Tu connais William Faulkner?
-Non, qui est-ce? Tu as couché avec lui?
-Mais non, mon coco!
-Alors je me fous de lui.

Never read any Faulkner myself but have been minded to for a while since he ticks both the Modernism and Great 20th Century American Novels boxes. Was discussing him with a colleague recently. The one he recommended was As I Lay Dying.

Anyway, he's got to be a better bet than John bloody Grisham.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 19 February, 2014, 06:29:58 pm
"Climbing Anchors" by John Long and Bob Gaines. One of the more readable books on the subject that I've found, not that that's saying a whole lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 19 February, 2014, 07:48:47 pm
I'm off to New Orleans shortly for a holiday.  On the off-chance that I'll have some reading time, can the panel recommend some fiction with a local (or fairly local) - to New Orleans - flavour to read.

If you haven't read it already, an ideal opportunity to read A Confederacy of Dunces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces). Deservedly on many reading bucket lists.

Not quite New Orleans , but my introduction to the Walter Mosley's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mosley) Easy Rawlins was Gone Fishin' which captures the heat of coastal Texas and bayou country well. And if you get on with that, there are plenty of other excellent Easy Rawlins books (https://www.goodreads.com/series/53392-easy-rawlins) to choose from (mostly set in LA rather than the south).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 19 February, 2014, 08:43:02 pm
Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh, I hoped against hope that LA was innocent, then TT blew that out of the water, now reading this leaves a dirty taste in my mouth when I watch any sport, how many are really clean I wonder  >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 19 February, 2014, 08:58:04 pm
Thanks Jo and Citoyen.  A Confederacy of Dunces and As I Lay Dying look just right.  Off to the Nook.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 19 February, 2014, 09:43:50 pm
For utterly lightweight/ hysterically bad, you know Sookie Stackhouse is from the Louisiana hinterlands and heads into New Orleans in the later 'novels'?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 20 February, 2014, 12:41:38 am
Wasn't Interview With a Vampire set in New Orleans and Louisiana?

I did read a Faulkner book as a teenager, but it left no impression on me. I'll have to go back to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 20 February, 2014, 06:27:08 pm
The Easy Rawlins books are very good.
I recall Poppy Z Brites "Lost Souls" being set in New Orleans as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 20 February, 2014, 08:07:37 pm
Why Evolution is True, by Jerry Coyne.

Most of it's familiar stuff, but it's nice to be reminded, & even nicer to have it all laid out nicely by someone who knows his stuff, & there are quite a few interesting details which are new to me.

Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 21 February, 2014, 08:30:05 am
Easy Rawlings was one of the ones I was trying to think of.  IIRC it's those books that the Simpsons took the mickey out of in one of their episodes, the one where Chief Wiggum retires and goes to live on a houseboat in Louisiana.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 February, 2014, 02:12:46 pm
The Whale Has Wings - David Row

An alternate history series covering WWII. The idea here is that the FAA gains complete autonomy from the RAF in the early 1930s and so starts the war with much better fighters and dive bombers than it did in reality. This makes the outcomes of historical engagements slightly different. At first this doesn't change the course of history much but the differences mount up and WWII gradually diverges from what actually happened.
These aren't novels as such and are formatted more like a day to day strategic and tactical history of WWII sort of "June 11th 1141 - Force X with two light carriers, a battleship, two cruisers and five destroyers leaves Scapa Flow for the North Atlantic".
Despite the fact that it needs proof reading properly as sometime sentences get mixed up and the like it's quite fascinating for anyone who has an interest in WWII military history.
Really cheap on Kindle as well.
I have now finished the first three volumes which take us up to just before what historically would be Midway. Volume 4 is due to be published shortly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 February, 2014, 09:32:02 pm
I read The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng a little while ago, and loved it. It was one of those books where when you get 2/3 of the way through you start to get sad because you don't want it to finish. Now I'm reading his other book, The Gift of Rain, and feeling exactly the same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 February, 2014, 08:53:59 am
I read The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng a little while ago, and loved it. It was one of those books where when you get 2/3 of the way through you start to get sad because you don't want it to finish. Now I'm reading his other book, The Gift of Rain, and feeling exactly the same.

I loved The Garden of Evening Mists, shall have to look for The Gift of Rain.

I am, currently, reading "A Train in Winter" about the French resistance and especially the women therein.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 28 February, 2014, 09:39:48 am
I'm off to New Orleans shortly for a holiday.  On the off-chance that I'll have some reading time, can the panel recommend some fiction with a local (or fairly local) - to New Orleans - flavour to read.


"In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead" James Lee Burke
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 March, 2014, 02:14:56 pm
I read The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng a little while ago, and loved it. It was one of those books where when you get 2/3 of the way through you start to get sad because you don't want it to finish. Now I'm reading his other book, The Gift of Rain, and feeling exactly the same.

I loved The Garden of Evening Mists, shall have to look for The Gift of Rain.

I am, currently, reading "A Train in Winter" about the French resistance and especially the women therein.

Finished that, and have moved onto a much lighter tome (though only in subject matter): L.A. Private by James Patterson, I needed something like this after reading the last book, whilst it was brilliantly written and very detailed, it was very harrowing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 March, 2014, 02:59:12 pm
Re- New Orleans reading.

I've nearly finished A Confederacy of Dunces. Given that our 'hero' Ignatius J Reilly is so objectionable (some sort of 60's Falstaff/Don Quixote blend) it's a delight to read.  Maybe I'm enjoying it more than I might because I know New Orleans (having spent 6 days there.) Very funny.  The story of its creator is very sad.  Suicide at 32 after his manuscript was rejected, only for it to be published a couple of decades later and winning the Pulitzer Prize.

As I lay Dying is somewhat harder. I never knew Faulkner was a modernist.  I'm having to let some of the prose flow over me a bit.  Enjoying it but glad it's short!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 06 March, 2014, 01:28:30 pm
The Martian, Andy Weir

Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe.

I love this book. It's getting rave reviews everywhere, and praise for it's scientifc accuracy, but the story is gripping.

A lot of it is written in the first person. Features a lot of solo long distance travelling,  rationing of food, and repairing faerie visitations, so it really is like a ride report.

Worth £2 of anyones money on kindle. Author initially self published, but it did so well, it's been picked up by proper publishers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 06 March, 2014, 04:01:11 pm
Read the first two chapters and bought it.

Proper publishes seem to have pushed the price up a bit though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 06 March, 2014, 06:04:16 pm
It's getting rave reviews everywhere, and praise for it's scientifc accuracy, but the story is gripping.
That's a very strange but!

/amateurliterarycriticism
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the mo
Post by: geraldc on 06 March, 2014, 06:49:21 pm
That's a very strange but!

/amateurliterarycriticism
[/quote]
It's a very strange book. It's pretty much the same as the threads that pop up here with regards to PBP or LEL preparations, followed by a ride report, only wildly exciting as it's life and death. In audax terms the guy's the lanterne rouge and if he doesn't get to arrivee he dies, but he's only got half a bidon of water, no gps, and no spare inners left.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 07 March, 2014, 05:02:34 pm
Not a polished read, but it has to be one of the most engaging books I've read in years.

Dave
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 07 March, 2014, 05:30:48 pm
It's reenthused my love of gardening. I'm asking the other half if I can put some potatoes in this year. She won't like my suggestion of fertiliser though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 07 March, 2014, 09:41:30 pm
Mad About the Boy, by Helen Fielding. I'm 70 pages in and the lack of internal consistency with the other books is doing my head in.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 08 March, 2014, 08:31:13 pm
Gone Girl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_Girl_(novel)).
O, how I laughed. The characters are, well, it's hard to say anything without spoilers. Rarely are such a bunch of unlikeable folks made so fascinating.
(click to show/hide)
Because I listened, rather than read, the first person narrative from the protagonists is really really effective.

Apparently it's coming out as a film later this year... They're making it as a thriller, I thought it was a comedy!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 08 March, 2014, 09:06:10 pm
Comedy?  :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 10 March, 2014, 10:29:52 am
5 chapters in to Wheelmen.

It paints a picture of a totally reprehensible young Armstrong.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 10 March, 2014, 11:59:51 am
Comedy?  :o
Well no, it doesn't sound like a comedy.
But it's both believable and unbelievable at the same time? Horrific, appalling, hysterical. I listened to it, and had nearly finished and couldn't resist playing it in the car, where Chris was so intrigued he bought it too, and is also very much enjoying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 March, 2014, 12:03:32 pm
Comedy?  :o
Well no, it doesn't sound like a comedy.
But it's both believable and unbelievable at the same time? Horrific, appalling, hysterical. I listened to it, and had nearly finished and couldn't resist playing it in the car, where Chris was so intrigued he bought it too, and is also very much enjoying.

I kind of enjoyed it, though I wanted to throw the book across the room at times. I know what you mean about it being unintentionally funny. The ending is preposterous in the extreme.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 10 March, 2014, 12:16:06 pm
You thought it was unintentional? Really? I thought it was knowing enough that the humour was deliberate.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 March, 2014, 12:28:07 pm
You thought it was unintentional? Really? I thought it was knowing enough that the humour was deliberate.

Maybe. I just thought it was terrible writing! I wonder if that knowingness was made more apparent by the narration in the audiobook...

Regarding the film, I thought while reading it that the part of Amy had clearly been written for Gwyneth Paltrow, but in fact it has gone to Rosamund Pike. Ben Affleck is Nick, which seems pretty much spot on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 March, 2014, 12:10:53 pm
Anyone here read The Cuckoo's Calling? I'm not hugely tempted but it's on 99p Kindle offer at the moment so it might be worth taking a punt. Also worth noting for Fans Of Reading The Book The Film Was Based On: 12 Years A Slave is currently 49p and The Book Thief is 99p.

My reading has gone to pot lately. I've not finished a book for nearly a month. The last few I've read have failed to really grab me. I initially loved the writing in We Need New Names, but I lost interest by the end - it ended up as a bit of a stranger-in-a-strange-land cliché, and A Book About Africa White People Like.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 13 March, 2014, 12:16:10 pm
Understanding A Photograph, a collection of essays by John Berger.  It's quite gripping.  I took time out to read Christian Bouqueret's introduction to the Thames & Hudson book of Surrealist Photography, but I'm back into the Berger right now, in the middle of a reflection on Susan Sontag's On Photography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 13 March, 2014, 12:35:22 pm
Anyone here read The Cuckoo's Calling?
I quite liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 13 March, 2014, 09:51:04 pm
Women Who Run With The Wolves.

I don't know what I think of it yet, but it's nice to have your femaleness affirmed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 14 March, 2014, 07:59:14 am
Wolves run pretty fast, you know.  Shouldn't it be, 'Women Who Ride Their Bikes With The Wolves'?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 14 March, 2014, 08:26:52 am
Anyone here read The Cuckoo's Calling?
I quite liked it.
As did I:

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert JK Rowling Galbraith. I was just finishing the second Game of Thrones book when the library emailed to say my reservation for The Cuckoo's Calling was ready for collection, so I'm taking a break from swords and incest. I started it last night, read three chapters, so far, so good.
It saw me round our route check 300 this week: 14 annabit hours for each of them. I liked it, apart from the extended reveal at the end, I found that a bit unconvincingly 1930s/Agatha Christie. Good narrator, which is important for those of us who can't DIY.

(But y'know, I like True Blood novels, and read all of Twilight  ;D)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 16 March, 2014, 07:29:47 pm
The Martian, Andy Weir

Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe.

I love this book. It's getting rave reviews everywhere, and praise for it's scientifc accuracy, but the story is gripping.

A lot of it is written in the first person. Features a lot of solo long distance travelling,  rationing of food, and repairing faerie visitations, so it really is like a ride report.

Worth £2 of anyones money on kindle. Author initially self published, but it did so well, it's been picked up by proper publishers.
Thanks for the heads up, just my kinda read, really enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 16 March, 2014, 08:33:38 pm
The Martian, Andy Weir

Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe.

I love this book. It's getting rave reviews everywhere, and praise for it's scientifc accuracy, but the story is gripping.

A lot of it is written in the first person. Features a lot of solo long distance travelling,  rationing of food, and repairing faerie visitations, so it really is like a ride report.

Worth £2 of anyones money on kindle. Author initially self published, but it did so well, it's been picked up by proper publishers.
Thanks for the heads up, just my kinda read, really enjoyed it.
Me too. At one point I was convinced that Ian OTP was the author, but there were no bears involved in the plot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 16 March, 2014, 09:37:04 pm
Thanks for the Martian recommendation - I've just bought the hardback version (currently just a fiver on Amazon) as Uncle James will want to read it too and he doesn't have a Kindle. Plus sometimes I prefer real paper books!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 March, 2014, 08:06:08 am
I might move onto The Martian after my current read.

I have just finished "Killer - An Alex Delaware Novel" by Jonathon Kellerman and have moved onto "The House Girl" by Tara Conklin, the two books couldn't be more different, really, but I enjoyed the last one and am enjoying this one, so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 March, 2014, 02:52:54 pm
No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

Cor! I like this. A lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 20 March, 2014, 10:48:25 pm
Thanks for the recommendation of The Martian by Andy Weir - I loved it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 21 March, 2014, 07:50:40 am
D'oh! I forgot about The Martian, I'll queue it up for reading next.

I have finished "The House Girl", very interesting, it is 3 stories in one, all of which intersect.

Once I had finished that I moved onto "Skunk Works" by Ben R. Rich, about his time at Lockheed's Top Secret research and development centre in Burbank, California.  He particularly concentrates on the Stealth project.  I didn't know that the first stealth plane flew in 1975 and the developed it after reading a paper written by a Soviet scientist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 22 March, 2014, 10:20:55 am
I've just started The Merman by Carl-Johan Vallgren (a translation, not in the original Swedish). I was in tears in the first few pages, with a very distressing description of cruelty to a kitteh. I think it's going to be good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 22 March, 2014, 09:37:55 pm
Just finished Wheel Men.

Nothing new revealed but a very readable synopsis of the deception.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 23 March, 2014, 10:52:36 pm
"Circles of confusion" by Alan Roberts.  50 years of Vision engineering knowledge distilled into 450 or so pages.  I suspect I'm in a small minority of people who find this interesting.

Also contains: matrix mathematics, digital sampling, CCDs, optical transfer functions and colorimetry.  I think that may be a really small minority.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 27 March, 2014, 11:00:27 am
Just finished As the Crow Flies by Damian Boyd - currently free on Amazon.
A Police/Crime thriller involving an ex-met DI who has moved back to Somerset (and who wouldn't). An easy read with a good plot.

Started Dangerous Pursuits by Quentin Jardine. I gave up after reading the author's foward (4% of the book) where he explained that this wasn't really the same as an earlier book he had written although that might seem to be the case or something. It was another freebie, so no loss.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 27 March, 2014, 11:32:56 am
Am about half way through Babbit by Sinclair Lewis.  Published more than 90 years ago and set in mid-western USA but many of the attitudes and behaviours of the characters (a thoroughly unpleasant lot, so far) could easily be found in some elements of British society today. The eponymous character appears to be verging on a mid-life crisis so it will be interesting to see what happens in the second half and whether Babbit has some kind of Damascene conversion or the author's dislike for his own characters prevents any of them changing their ways.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 27 March, 2014, 01:36:35 pm
Longbourn, Jo Baker.  Pride & Prejudice retold from the servants perspective. By 'eck, it's ingenious the way it intertwines with the original, with a wonderful twist which Cannot Be Revealed.  I often felt, when ploughing my way through P&P and other classics of the ilk, that there was another story going on 'downstairs', with a whole other cast of characters, which was never told - so this one was a must-read.  And it was well worth waiting for.

Granted, Jo Baker is no Austen (but then, who is?), and the tone of "look how hard our lives are compared to them upstairs"  is sometimes a bit shrill.  But still, it's very entertaining both in itself and in spotting the events in the original.  And even if it didn't have The Twist, I'd still be glad it had been written.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 28 March, 2014, 09:25:14 am
Longbourn, Jo Baker.
Ooo 13hr 29 minutes. Perfect for The Dean this weekend.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 April, 2014, 12:52:48 am
Just finished 'The Martian'. Two opinions:

The reader: Damned good book, proper hard SF where someone understands that the Tim Robbins "Mission to Mars" shit is just that. The science is there, and it works, and because the PoV is a self-deprecating geek with a wonderful sense of humour, the whole thing works. Standard shout as I read it: What the fuck NOW?

The writer: abrupt ending. Cardboard cut-out supporting cast largely delineated by hook peccadillo.

The overall opinion: Yeah! Good shit, man!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 April, 2014, 08:25:07 am
The Tartan Special One by Barry Phillips. Proper laugh out loud till you cry funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 04 April, 2014, 11:00:24 am
A biography of Sir Walter Ralegh.
Much more to this bloke than throwing his best bib&tucker* over a water filled pothole at the feet the Virgin Queen's spdees.

The most interesting part of his life is that after the death of Elizabeth I when he was no longer a court favourite.Framed for treason,found guilty,repreived,imprisoned,released,framed by the Spanish & finally beheaded.
That James I was,by this account, a right nobber.

I'm left wondering how much different our history might have been if James' son Henry Prince of Wales had succeeded his father instead of James II.Charles I.
We may not,for instance,have endured the English Civil War.

* It seems that it was not Ralegh's cloak in that he had borrowed/hired it from an Elizabethan Moss Bros,thus  allowing a IDGAF perspective on his part.

edited.see Steph's post below
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 April, 2014, 03:48:24 pm
James II succeeding James I? A couple of generations out, surely...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 04 April, 2014, 04:03:36 pm
James II succeeding James I? A couple of generations out, surely...

oops,my bad.
thanks for pointing out my error.
I'll edit my post
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 04 April, 2014, 04:12:22 pm
D'oh! I forgot about The Martian, I'll queue it up for reading next.

Co-incidentally I ummed&aared about buying this in Tesco's a couple of hours ago.Two reasons why I didn't

I prefer not to have hard back books

I decided to buy something camping related instead
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 April, 2014, 04:13:47 pm
The book IS camping related!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 04 April, 2014, 04:14:41 pm
The book IS camping related!

 ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 04 April, 2014, 05:37:33 pm
Parts of the book are spent under canvas.

I think this book appeals to audaxers/long distance cyclists. One of my non cycling mates thought it was basically young adult fiction and therefore hated it. In my opinion it's a bit like if Adrian Mole audaxed in space, but in a good way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 04 April, 2014, 08:17:51 pm
The book IS camping related!
:thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 05 April, 2014, 07:39:57 pm
I ran out of new books on the plane this morning so started re-reading Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.

I have just purchased The Martian having read about it on the thread, and the new book by Auður Ava Olafsdóttir, Butterflies In November, as I quite enjoyed the greenhouse.

Have just finished the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey which I enjoyed, not particularly hard SF but a good read and nice strong female characters too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 06 April, 2014, 09:50:32 am
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, bought on a whim in the Cancer Research shop in Banbury, tis riveting, I think some of our recent political leaders have read about his discovery that the way to destroy opposing opinion is to attack and deride it (Blair possibly?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 06 April, 2014, 10:03:24 am
I started on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the other day.

Probably not my best choice for a bedtime book - reading when I'm tired, I'm struggling to figure it out...  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 06 April, 2014, 10:32:02 am
A brilliant read but does need concentration, thoroughly enjoyed it  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 06 April, 2014, 11:23:27 am
Don't worry too much about figuring it out.  John Le Carre has said he can't follow it either!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 06 April, 2014, 11:31:30 am
The tv version was very good I thought  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 06 April, 2014, 01:11:12 pm
The early Smiley novels are jolly good. In one Smiley suspects someone's broken into his house, knocks on his own door and asks for Mr Smiley. The man replies "He's not here, come in". Smiley demures, walks around the corner and writes down the number plates of the ten cars parked on the road, quiet street in Chelsea.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 08 April, 2014, 08:19:07 pm
A re-read of Ragged trousered Philanthropists. A must read for anyone connected with the construction industry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 April, 2014, 06:12:30 pm
Longbourn, Jo Baker.  Pride & Prejudice retold from the servants perspective. By 'eck, it's ingenious the way it intertwines with the original, with a wonderful twist which Cannot Be Revealed.  I often felt, when ploughing my way through P&P and other classics of the ilk, that there was another story going on 'downstairs', with a whole other cast of characters, which was never told - so this one was a must-read.  And it was well worth waiting for.

Granted, Jo Baker is no Austen (but then, who is?), and the tone of "look how hard our lives are compared to them upstairs"  is sometimes a bit shrill.  But still, it's very entertaining both in itself and in spotting the events in the original.  And even if it didn't have The Twist, I'd still be glad it had been written.
Just finished this and really liked it. I had spotted one half of the twist as soon as the character was introduced, but not the other half. I wasn't enamoured of the chapters set abroad, or the ending, but apart from that it was good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 15 April, 2014, 08:20:14 am
I've just finished 'The Martian', or ('Watneys's Red Peril' as I've been calling it to myself').  Not really my type of book.  The science was beyond me so there were large parts of the book that I zoomed through with little interest other than the outcomes.  Epistolary and diary novels  tend to drag after a while for me anyway, so I looked forward to the Hermes crew and Nasa bits, only to find them so flatly written and implausible I wanted to get back to Mars.  The Watney character at least was a bit fleshed out, but I got fed up with him telling me to 'Remember' stuff I'd forgotten or not understood in the first place.

I can see it making a cracking film.  It seems almost written with that in mind with the cliche of people - relatives, colleagues, strangers - dotted round the world looking on and rooting for the protaganist.  And they'd have to develop the minor characters and provide a few sub-plots too.  I wonder if Tom Hanks has been approached yet.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 April, 2014, 10:47:42 am
Just finished "Cockroaches" by Jo Nesbo, and have moved onto "The Long Road to Freedom"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 20 April, 2014, 08:48:09 pm
A Camera in the Hills: The Life and Work of W.A. Poucher.  Poucher was Wainwright's predecessor, in fell-walking guidebook terms, though he published photographs and type rather than sketches and hand-lettering.  I've had his guide to the Lakes since, oh, forever (actually, since 1985 according to the date I wrote on the flyleaf) and, whiile it doesn't have the same delights as Wainwright's guides, it has still been well-used and evokes fond memories of days on the fells. 

The photo of the author on the dustjacket made a big impression on me, a grizzled, stubbly, scruffy old bloke in a woolly bobble hat, just as a man-of-the-hills should look:
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NuYYsMnpPt8/U1P5AsvzT1I/AAAAAAAAFRQ/Ed42Wu-19Qs/s512/P1030120.jpg)

So, it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn from his biog that he was Head Perfumer at Yardley for 30 years, was known as The Father of Modern Perfumery, and published what is still known as the perfumers' bible, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps in 1923.  What's more, he apparently had a penchant for "wearing his wares", there being "many apocryphal tales of walkers who met this vision of loveliness on the hill - an immaculately turned-out hill walker complete with mascara, blusher, eye-shadow and lipstick."

I'm lovin' it so far, absolutely fascinating.  And I've not even got beyond the introduction, apart from a quick browse through the pics of a rather dapper and dashing chap.  Wonderful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 23 April, 2014, 10:47:20 pm
Just finished another Andy Straka book, got sucked in from the Kindle Freebie http://www.amazon.co.uk/Witness-Above-Pavlicek-Mystery-Series-ebook/dp/B0045JK2XM/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398289393&sr=1-2&keywords=straka

Quite good slightly formulaic detective books, the thing that makes them different is that they all have a very strong thread of falconry woven into the plot. Kept me amused, anyhow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 23 April, 2014, 10:57:42 pm
Not for the first time, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - mostly because the BBC are currently repeating the Primary and Secondary phases of the radio series on Radio 4Extra and I'm trying to stop myself buying the enormous CD box set of the rest.

It won't work of course, but forcing myself to read the books first will, at least, delay the inevitable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 23 April, 2014, 11:26:23 pm
I'm currently on the last volume of Ian Tregellis's "Milkweed Triptych" Bitter Seeds, The Coldest War & Necessary Evil.

Alternate History/Fantasy hokum, but very well done.   It starts in the late 1930's with a German mad scientist experimenting on orphaned children to produce a small group of people with scientifically augmented psi powers, who are then recruited into the SS and used to help destroy the British armed forces prior to invading the UK.

The British fight back by recruiting the islands remaining Warlocks, who can negotiate miracles with a pan dimensional race of nasties who don't like humanity very much & demand blood sacrifices for each favour.

If you enjoyed Tim Powers "Declare" or Charles Stross's "Laundry" series you'll probably get on with these.  Unremittingly bleak though, and the American author doesn't quite write British English like wot it should be spoke....

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 24 April, 2014, 07:24:45 pm
he [Poucher] was Head Perfumer at Yardley for 30 years, was known as The Father of Modern Perfumery, and published what is still known as the perfumers' bible, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps in 1923.

I suspect, however, that the editor of his biog was more into mountains than cosmetics.  Apparently, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps contains sections on
Quote
lip slaves and rogue sticks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 April, 2014, 10:51:34 am
The Wind in the Willows.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 April, 2014, 10:53:10 am
If you enjoyed Tim Powers "Declare" or Charles Stross's "Laundry" series you'll probably get on with these.  Unremittingly bleak though, and the American author doesn't quite write British English like wot it should be spoke....

Judging from the Internet, neither do most Brits.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 29 April, 2014, 12:30:20 am
I'm currently struggling with the Berlin-Baghdad Express by Sean McMeekin.

It's a fascinating story of German expansionism towards the latter days of the Great Game, but the book is a curious mismatch of in-depth scholarly history and derring-do populist history. Bloody stodgy prose, too.

It's an interesting enough thing to persist with, but could do with a bit more focus. He seems determined on including every detail of every treaty and every implication of every treaty and all the politicians who played the merest part. He's a bit keen on larding it with his own opinions of all of it, too, in a less-than-subtle way.

He's just not a good enough storyteller to get away with the scope of the tale he's trying to tell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 01 May, 2014, 02:09:05 am
I just started "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" by Robert S. McNamara. Yes, that Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968. Should be an interesting read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 07 May, 2014, 05:41:39 pm
Unlikely Warriors, by Richard Baxell. About the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. The unlikeliest thing revealed is that a group of Republican Spaniards spent time as POWs in a camp near Chorley.

(https://htmlcdn.scribd.com/94fw6nuneo33xc57/images/3-88b39751eb.png)

https://www.academia.edu/3002553/Spanish_anti-fascist_prisoners_of_war_in_Lancashire_1944-46

Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 May, 2014, 09:33:23 am
The new Ned Beauman, Glow. I was hooked from the description of a girl seen by the protagonist at a rave in a launderette in the opening scene.

I think that now he has his third novel under his belt, it's no longer too soon to coin the term Beaumanesque. He's not exactly a subtle writer but his metaphors are at least dazzlingly original. And funny.

I am a fan. I may have mentioned this before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rabbit on 13 May, 2014, 11:24:34 am
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

It's a book I read in my very early twenties, but it's taken 16 years of hard living to really appreciate the content and it makes a whole lot more sense this time around. 

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 May, 2014, 09:41:42 pm
Got this lined up for when I finish the Beauman...

Whitstable by Stephen Volk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D3RNVT4

Sounds intriguing!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 14 May, 2014, 06:30:21 pm
INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS the first two novells in Alison Morton's Roma Nova trilogy.

Really good fun with an interesting premise. The idea is that not some Romans survived the fall of Rome by fleeing to the Alps and setting up a small country there and that it survives to this day as a small independent state.
Its an alternate history that's nearly but not quite the same as our own. the other twist is that as they had to militarise so much to start with the Romans handed over running of the state to the women while the men concentrated on fighting to defend the state. In the end women and men join the military but by the present day Nova Roma is a matriarchal society.
The novels are thrillers set in this not quite our 21st century world.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 14 May, 2014, 07:37:46 pm
The idea is that not some Romans survived the fall of Rome by fleeing to the Alps and setting up a small country there and that it survives to this day as a small independent state.

So basically Switzerland is a warrior state where they speak Latin? Cool! (Do they still get all the Nazi gold?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 14 May, 2014, 07:41:50 pm
The idea is that not some Romans survived the fall of Rome by fleeing to the Alps and setting up a small country there and that it survives to this day as a small independent state.

So basically Switzerland is a warrior state where they speak Latin? Cool! (Do they still get all the Nazi gold?)

Thats the idea basically. They speak Latin and worship the old gods (they decamp Rome when the restrictions on worshipping the old gods are enforced).
No Nazis as there is no WWi or WWII. There is a "great war"  lasting 10 years from 1920 to 1930 but no Nazis.
The Romans do have a silver mine though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 21 May, 2014, 10:46:21 pm
Tim Moore's book 'Gironimo' about riding the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a vintage bike. 

http://www.podiumcafe.com/book-corner/2014/5/19/5730500/interview-tim-moore

That's an interview with him about the book.

So far I can't put this down (except to watch the new episode of GameOfThrones).  I was LOL'ing on my lunch break at work whist reading it in front of all my colleagues.  I don't care, it's really funny.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 22 May, 2014, 08:13:22 am
After reading a couple of heavy books (in content, not weight, as all my reading is in ebooks), I turned to a bit of light relief.  So I am now reading "The Rosie Project".

Despite being, essentially, chick-lit, I find it laugh out loud funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 22 May, 2014, 12:15:01 pm
Tim Moore's book 'Gironimo' about riding the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a vintage bike. 

I have that lined up on my iPod.  It was R4 Book of the Week last week, and I enjoyed his Tour de France book 12 years ago.

I'm reading Great Expectations again.  I can only read it now - especially the first few chapters - through David Lean's eyes.  Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 22 May, 2014, 04:19:36 pm
I've been enjoying Ian Rankin, weaving in and out of Edinburgh reality.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 22 May, 2014, 08:26:15 pm
Books read recently.
"A Spy Amongst Friends", by Ben McIntyre. Kim Philby & the days when having the right background & contacts was all you needed for a job in MI6. Interesting & well written.


Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson.  Ice age hokum. Entertaining, but not one of his best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 May, 2014, 07:20:06 am

Tim Moore's book 'Gironimo' about riding the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a vintage bike.

<adds to list>

:thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 June, 2014, 09:38:37 am
Prince/King/Emperor of Thorns

A trilogy with nods to GoT. Shows at least as much willingness to kill off characters. No characters with redeeming morals, either.

Relatively short, full of action and bloody battles. Main character and narator is truly vile to start with but he grows on you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 June, 2014, 01:21:43 pm
The Bees by Laline Paull. Interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 07 June, 2014, 11:17:43 am
Just finished Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  I really enjoyed it, the story of how one woman lost sight of what is important, after her mum died, then rediscovered it during a thousand mile hike California and Oregon on the PCT.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 June, 2014, 02:15:12 pm
Currently working my way through the Flashman novels. Somehow these had passed me by until now.
Excellent rollicking fun in the company of a Victorian cad, coward and scoundrel through some of the most famous incidents in the history of the Empire.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 June, 2014, 05:12:55 pm
Just finished Tom Holland's Persian Fire: superbly-written history of the Persian empire and its conflicts with the Greeks. Moving on to Iain M. Banks' Surface Detail for possibly the 3rd time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 07 June, 2014, 05:25:46 pm
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Fact-based fiction written in the 1st person.

I very rarely read fiction.This novel will not encourage me to read more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 June, 2014, 10:30:50 am
I recently had to read a short story by Philippa Gregory that was included in a "summer fiction" feature for a mag I was working on. It was ok but certainly didn't make me want to read any more of her stuff (though at least it was better than the excruciatingly bad Alexander McCall Smith effort that was also in the feature). If the subject matter interests you, jogler, try reading some Hilary Mantel instead - she might just restore your faith in fiction.

Another in the same category that I started reading this morning is Brighton Rock. By Jove, it's good. I last "read" it 27 years ago at school, though I don't think I paid much attention to it at the time. More fool me. Sublime writing. Entirely deserving of its classic status.

I finished Ned Beauman's Glow yesterday. A great read but somehow not as satisfying as his previous two novels. The writing is as dazzlingly exuberant as ever, I love his way with a metaphor, and it's very very funny, but the narrative structure seems a bit formulaic - the protagonist seems to bumble through, each new character he meets unravelling another piece of the mystery with a long expositionary flashback. Still highly recommended and better than about 99% of contemporary fiction, but ever so slightly disappointing after the genius of The Teleportation Accident.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 19 June, 2014, 08:19:16 am
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbot Abbot.

Discovered it while browsing Project Gutenberg!   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 20 June, 2014, 11:16:13 am
John Harvey's last Resnick book, not too bad as these things go. This after having stopped 1/3 of the way through Peter James' most recent Roy Grace offering as it was utter tripe. At least I skimmed the rest to see what happened to Sandy!.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 20 June, 2014, 02:41:29 pm
Just finished "Battle for the Bundu: The First World War in East Africa" by Charles Miller, a very informative (and entertaining) book.

Am half-way through "The Journey of Man: a genetic odyssey" by Spencer Wells. A good companion to the works of Herbert Wendt, Richard Leakey and Jacob Bronowski.

And, three-quarters of the way through re-reading "War With the Newts" by Karel Čapek*. I had forgotten just how entertaining that book is, and just how much food for thought it contains.

Next will be "The Long Mars" by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, which arrived today.

*With thanks to HellyMedic for showing an utter simpleton how to find Character Map :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 21 June, 2014, 09:05:57 pm
Idiopathy: a novel, by Sam Byers.

I'm kind of struggling with this.  The main protaganists are so uniformly awful I don't know that I want to waste any more energy getting to know them.  I know it's satire, but still.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 23 June, 2014, 11:24:05 am
I'm reading The Long Mars; to me it seems really down on the Pratchett quotient, and I'm finding it a bit turgid, SF-heavy and easy to put down. Anyone else?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 June, 2014, 12:43:39 pm
Having just completed the reorganisation of the Library in the Great Hall, it is time to put my jbex to the test by reading the Stuffs therein which I have not yet read to completion.

The Collector Collector ~ Tibor Fischer.  Just finished.  Squarely in the Land of Meh.
The Trial ~ Franz Kafka.  Ongoing.  A bit light on explosions and killin's.

Still to come:

The Broken Bridge ~ Philip Pullman.  I'm sure I had read this but apparently not.
Dream Story ~ Arthur Schnitzler.  Grauniad freebie.  In 1999.
Oscar Wilde ~ Richard Ellman.  Got halfway through this while in the Gulag.  Very academic, so not many jokes in it, but only paid a fiver for a first edition.
The Poetic Edda ~ trad. arr.  Dr Larrington's 1996 translation  :-[

Have also borrowed "The Triskellion Trilogy" by "Will Peterson".  The author is a fictional construct, half of which is Mark Billingham.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 23 June, 2014, 02:31:44 pm
I read "The Long Mars" yesterday and found it, well, dull. It was more like a travel blog than a book with a story to it.

There being nothing that caught my eye in the charity shop yesterday morning (I did get "Glory" and "Invictus" on dvd, but no books) I did some digging in the spare room. Tonight I shall start re-reading "The Brecon and Merthyr Railway" by D S M Barrie :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 23 June, 2014, 04:05:31 pm
Just finished Never Go Back by Lee Child.

Pretty much standard fair for the Reacher franchise, but how or why did Child create a character called David Baldacci?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 June, 2014, 02:47:06 am
Just finished Never Go Back by Lee Child.

Pretty much standard fair for the Reacher franchise, but how or why did Child create a character called David Baldacci?

Apparently one can follow Clues on Marshall Karp's webby SCIENCE and should one successfully decode Stuffs, have your name used as that of a character in Mr Karp's "Lomax & Biggs" series of books.  Perhaps Mr Child has a similar thing going?

Mr Karp should stop fannying around with James Patterson and get back to writing Stuffs under his own name, though I imagine there's more money to be made from being mentioned in the small print of a tome with Patterson's name on the cover chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 June, 2014, 10:04:48 am
Started, and have nearly finished "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.

It's only short (96 pages), but a very very good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 25 June, 2014, 10:36:42 pm
I Follow the Wind by Louise Sutherland, a Kiwi nurse who cycled around the world in the 1950s.

I did enjoy this line:

"... The Free Territory was occupied by British and American soldiers - ten thousand of them... I stayed for ten days!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 26 June, 2014, 12:40:26 am
Obviously a fast worker!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 June, 2014, 10:26:26 pm
I've finally finished "The Trial".  It's only taken nineteen years :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 June, 2014, 02:26:05 pm
Having been unable to sleep due to a clod, I should like to point out to "Will Peterson" that there is no such motor-car as a 1961 Packard.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: itsbruce on 29 June, 2014, 02:22:04 am
I've finally finished "The Trial".  It's only taken nineteen years :-\

Finding a bearable translation is part of the problem.   The early ones (30s/40s/50s) are terribly precious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 June, 2014, 11:23:28 am
I've finally finished "The Trial".  It's only taken nineteen years :-\

Finding a bearable translation is part of the problem.   The early ones (30s/40s/50s) are terribly precious.

Mine is the 1994 version by Idris Parry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 29 June, 2014, 01:01:14 pm
This

http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/bcq_questions_book.pdf
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 01 July, 2014, 10:09:09 am
The Dark Shore by A A Attanasio. A weird fantasy of very interesting ideas but full of turgid prose. A mild example is when someone got their clothes wet. They weren't hung by the fire to dry, "...he stick-hung them in the warmth-aura of the blaze..." :facepalm:

If Attanasio had learned to write properly this book would be half the thickness and twice as enjoyable. Still really interestingly weird thobut.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 July, 2014, 09:20:32 pm
Just finished Never Mind, the first of Edward St Aubyn's loosely autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels. Hmmm. Some stylish prose but nothing much to actually enjoy - one scene in particular is deeply unpleasant, all the more so for apparently being something that actually happened to the author. A lot of reviews mention how funny a writer he is but I didn't laugh once. None of the characters is even remotely likeable. And nothing much happens. And yet I feel a morbid fascination drawing me to the rest of the series. Hmmm.

Anyway, to follow that, I've just started Randall, the just-published debut novel by Jonathan Gibbs, who happens to be an old university friend of mine, albeit one I haven't seen for a few years. Not entirely surprising though - if you'd asked me in 1994 which of my peers would be first to get his novel published, I'd have put money on it being him. It's been getting rave reviews and first impressions are very promising - I wonder if that's because or in spite of the fact that I'm mentally hearing it in his voice...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 July, 2014, 07:26:21 am
More info about Randall here:
http://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/book-store/galley-beggar-press/randall-by-jonathan-gibbs/

It's actually rather good. Nice one, Gibbsy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 02 July, 2014, 08:43:46 am
Finished "The Dark Shore". It was interesting, if rather poorly written. To purge my brane of Attanasio's writing style I re-read "Dr Who and The Planet of the Daleks" again last night :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 July, 2014, 11:13:13 am
The Men Who Stare At Goats ~ Jon Ronson.

I've read something very similar to the first chapter - in which General Stubblebine tries and fails to walk through his office wall - somewhere else recently and I can't remember where and it's driving me maaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

My madness is at an end, as I have just found the opening of "The Men Who Stare At Goats" on p. 413 of "The God Delusion".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 02 July, 2014, 07:53:50 pm
On a similar note, I'm re-reading The Long Earth at the moment, and I've just realised how much it is like reading the first 'Riverworld' novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 06 July, 2014, 11:11:43 pm
Just finished The Rhesus Chart , the latest installment in Charles Stross's "Laundry" series.    Good toothsome fun... ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 July, 2014, 03:49:50 pm
Just finished Never Mind, the first of Edward St Aubyn's loosely autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels. Hmmm. Some stylish prose but nothing much to actually enjoy

Now reading the second volume in the series, Bad News. Enjoying it much more than the first. The somewhat Withnail-esque 22-year-old Patrick is rather more sympathetic than the 5-year-old Patrick, even though he's grown up into a pretty revolting young man. And it is very funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 10 July, 2014, 04:19:05 pm
"Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe. I got pointed at his books by one of the guys at Surly (yes, that Surly) and this seemed like a good place to start.

Very thinly veiled autobiography, and his style of writing is somewhat stream of consciousness and takes a bit of getting used to but its different enough from my usual reading fare that I'm rather enjoying it.

Also re-reading the His Dark Materials trilogy, making this the first physical book I've bought in absolutely ages (I originally had all three, now missing presumed lost, so this is the combined volume) - I'd have preferred electronic format, since electrons are more compact than dead trees, but it wasn't available as such.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 10 July, 2014, 08:33:17 pm
Gironimo! . By Tim Moore, a sort of follow up to French Revolutions, where he rides the route of the 1914 hardest ever Giro, with 400km plus stages and only 8 finishers, on a 1914 Bike.   It's really rather funny.  If you read and enjoyed  French Revolutions this is worth a read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 14 July, 2014, 09:33:51 am
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee. Its surprisingly readable for something that is set for GCSE literature!

ETA: Maybe there's a difference that I don't have to read it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 14 July, 2014, 08:04:08 pm
"Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe. I got pointed at his books by one of the guys at Surly (yes, that Surly) and this seemed like a good place to start.

Very thinly veiled autobiography, and his style of writing is somewhat stream of consciousness and takes a bit of getting used to but its different enough from my usual reading fare that I'm rather enjoying it.



That's the book I took to France on my first lone tour. 1983, I was 17. I loved it, Wolfe was at the Jesse Owen olympics and cheered so loudly when Owens won Hitler glared at him.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 14 July, 2014, 08:30:04 pm
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee. Its surprisingly readable for something that is set for GCSE literature!

ETA: Maybe there's a difference that I don't have to read it!
It was part of O-level English Lit. when I did mine (1987) - it's the only bit of 'set work' that I still read, even today, and I enjoy it just as much as I did back then.

Fantastic book, and the movie ain't half bad either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 July, 2014, 11:56:17 am
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

Hmm. Undoubtedly well written, if a little purple, but it's not really doing anything for me. It's the kind of book that would have made a much greater impression on me if I'd read it when I was 16 (see also: The Dice Man).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 21 July, 2014, 12:24:17 pm
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee. Its surprisingly readable for something that is set for GCSE literature!

ETA: Maybe there's a difference that I don't have to read it!
It was part of O-level English Lit. when I did mine (1987) - it's the only bit of 'set work' that I still read, even today, and I enjoy it just as much as I did back then.

Fantastic book, and the movie ain't half bad either.
It remains one of my favourite books. There is a lot in that simple prose.

I've recently finished 'The English Patient'.

Hmm. I was really enjoying it until the last 3 chapters. A complex weave of feelings then (for me) a very unsatisfactory way of winding it up. Smacked of the writer suddenly going "Oh, sh!t, I'm not sure how to finish this."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 21 July, 2014, 12:46:12 pm
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

Hmm. Undoubtedly well written, if a little purple, but it's not really doing anything for me. It's the kind of book that would have made a much greater impression on me if I'd read it when I was 16 (see also: The Dice Man).

I thought the same. I don't think I finished it. His 'Middlesex' is better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 July, 2014, 01:02:41 pm
I thought the same. I don't think I finished it. His 'Middlesex' is better.

Glad it's not just me. I was wary of it due to its "cult" status but it was a cheap Kindle offer, so... I'd rather be reading Middlesex or The Marriage Plot, based on reviews. At least it's short and an easy read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 22 July, 2014, 01:56:51 pm
Gironimo! . By Tim Moore, a sort of follow up to French Revolutions, where he rides the route of the 1914 hardest ever Giro, with 400km plus stages and only 8 finishers, on a 1914 Bike.   It's really rather funny.  If you read and enjoyed  French Revolutions this is worth a read.

Thanks for that I had missed this one. Download from Amazon and consumed in under 24 hours. Laughed my socks off in places.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 23 July, 2014, 11:29:51 am
Brilliance, which isn't. I like lit-cheese and it was 99p from those tax-shy Amazoners. Half way through and I've started to look at the time-left-in-book. I don't know what it is, but generally if I start a book, I have to finish. There's probably a word in German for the feeling that comes from having to finish a crap book.

Anyway, what really bugs is that protagonist is a 'brilliant' who has a 'power' but it's, wait for it, pattern recognition. Which is like the dullest superpower ever. Why not the ability to make paint dry just by looking at it for several hours. What's more, he's shit at it, otherwise he wouldn't be perpetually surprised by the telegraphed twists in the plot development which always have to be drudgingly explained to him. The hero is so smug you hope an asteroid lands on him, certainly his ego has enough gravity to attract one, and – of course  – the lead female character just swoons over him, despite the fact that not so many pages ago he was sworn to kill her. I think she might have been delivered in a box and inflated with a foot pump.

You can't even get good cheese these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 July, 2014, 12:06:31 pm
Half way through and I've started to look at the time-left-in-book. I don't know what it is, but generally if I start a book, I have to finish. There's probably a word in German for the feeling that comes from having to finish a crap book.

Scheißbuchfertigstellungbedürfnis

I just made that up, by the way. No idea if it's idiomatic but I like the sound of it. In any case, it's a problem I also suffer from.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 24 July, 2014, 06:41:53 am
Just asked my German chum, quoting you Citoyen, and got this response:

Quote
You have to separate it
scheiß Buchfertigstellungsbedürfnis


I queried whether it was a real word and he said

Quote
Naja....it is possible
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 July, 2014, 08:28:28 am
:thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 24 July, 2014, 09:09:18 am
Works for me ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 July, 2014, 06:33:30 pm
A few weeks ago I read "The Book Of Souls", the second in James Oswald's Inspector McLean series.  Liked it enough to get all four on the Kindle.  Then I re-read "Natural Causes", the first in the series.

Wait.  It's been abridged!  Where's the bit where the inspector's wicked cow-orkers order him a test drive in a Bentley Continental?

Oh.  That bit's in "The Hangman's Song".  The third in the series.  Which I've read.  I can't even blame this lapse on Strong Drink :-\

Poobums.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 July, 2014, 02:18:57 am
Scheißbuchfertigstellungbedürfnis

I tried this out on a German colleague in the pub after work tonight. She laughed. Which I think is a good thing. Whoever said Germans don't have a sense of humour obviously haven't met this one - although she may have been laughing at me (ie schadenfreude) rather than with me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 26 July, 2014, 06:27:03 am
Several of my German friends have excellent senses of humour - often very, very dry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 26 July, 2014, 08:26:33 am
We meet a German in NZ who told us, with a very serious face and the best German accent that an English person could muster, that Germans had fun time between 7-8pm every night. :-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 July, 2014, 06:06:16 pm
Montalbano's First Case ~ Andrea Camilleri.  More gourmet Sicilian crimethings to follow :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 28 July, 2014, 06:22:21 pm
I've just reached the twist in Ender's Game.(pbk, 1992 Legend revised edition, from a box of books discarded by a friend. )

I expect to start the 2nd book later this evening  :thumbsup:

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 29 July, 2014, 09:35:46 am
I really enjoyed Ender’s Game but the later books get a bit more messianic and preachy (a bit like what happened with his Alvin Maker series, the first three of which were pretty good I thought)., I enjoyed the second Ender book to a point, found the third unreadable, didn’t bother with the fourth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 29 July, 2014, 11:11:31 pm
Just asked my German chum, quoting you Citoyen, and got this response:

Quote
You have to separate it
scheiß Buchfertigstellungsbedürfnis


I queried whether it was a real word and he said

Quote
Naja....it is possible

Well, it was that. 91%, 92%... 93%...

It really was an uphill struggle. It wasn't worth the view from the end. Apparently award-winning, though presumably in the same way that every train station cornish pasty franchise is 'award winning.' Possibly they were in the same category. Frankly, I'd rather have had the pasty.

I don't believe reviews on the internet any more. Seriously, how could that pile of steaming turd garner rave reviews and galaxy of star ratings.

Actually, I never believed reviews on the internet. But for £10 I'll turn in a good one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 30 July, 2014, 01:23:49 pm
Hmm - can't remember if I posted this one. Read it a little while back.

alif the unseen

Well it is damn good. If you like William Gibson or Charles Stross, then you'll like this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 30 July, 2014, 01:28:38 pm
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 July, 2014, 01:50:08 pm
The Dance Of The Seagull ~ Andrea Camilleri

Livia wants to go to Val di Noto but Montalbano doesn't.  Because he doesn't want to run into the crew filming Luca Zingaretti playing the role of...

Nice Deconstruction of the Image there ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 30 July, 2014, 06:11:53 pm
Citoyen, this was done specially for you...

https://soundcloud.com/auntie-helen/german-view-of-book
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 30 July, 2014, 07:50:00 pm
re-reading

Six Wives:The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 July, 2014, 08:24:36 pm
Three of them die...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 July, 2014, 08:49:36 pm
Citoyen, this was done specially for you...

https://soundcloud.com/auntie-helen/german-view-of-book

Oh, that is brilliant! Totally made my day. Thank you!

The Germans saying squirrel is also great - I used to have great laughs making my students say squirrel when I worked in a French secondary school (though they got their revenge by making me say "écureuil")
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 July, 2014, 08:54:22 pm
Currently reading Whitstable by Stephen Volk, a poignant novella in which Peter Cushing plays himself, a real-life vampire hunter. It's rather good, though it assumes a strong familiarity with the town's geography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 30 July, 2014, 09:04:26 pm
Bridget Jones - the Edge of Reason.  Was v.g.  See, was away on singleton hols with only Thomas Dickens and Charles Hardy to read but needed cheering up.  Saw this in Oxfam shop.  Totes amazing, to think was read before me by prob someone in Africa!  Maybe Masai warrior!!  Oh, flyleaf - "To Jean, you are my Bridget. Love, Jack x".  Is better than Masai warrior, is true-life working-class romance!!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 30 July, 2014, 09:08:20 pm
Bridget Jones - the Edge of Reason.  Was v.g.  See, was away on singleton hols with only Thomas Dickens and Charles Hardy to read but needed cheering up.  Saw this in Oxfam shop.  Totes amazing, to think was read before me by prob someone in Africa!  Maybe Masai warrior!!  Oh, flyleaf - "To Jean, you are my Bridget. Love, Jack x".  Is better than Masai warrior, is true-life working-class romance!!!

Sequel https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg1583808#msg1583808

Love lovely Bridge.  Love lovely wine. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jogler on 30 July, 2014, 09:10:33 pm
Three of them die...

Divorced: Beheaded: Died
Divorced:Beheaded:Survived
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 30 July, 2014, 09:20:25 pm
Sequel https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg1583808#msg1583808

My posts are so derivative  :-[  Blame blurry good port
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 30 July, 2014, 09:23:25 pm
Just finished The Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Worlds-Stephen-Ward-Scandal-ebook/dp/B00GIUGD8O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406751068&sr=1-1) , a very in depth look at Ward's relations with high & low society and his "alleged" involvement with the security services. Not a particularly admirable chap, but if the book's half way accurate he was royally shafted by the establishment.

Of course you'd never get politicians indulging in such sordid behaviour nowadays..woman-arrested-for-posting-photo-of-george-osborne-at-prostitutes-flat (http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/woman-arrested-for-posting-photo-of-george-osborne-at-prostitutes-flat/)   


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 31 July, 2014, 07:21:30 am
Citoyen, this was done specially for you...

https://soundcloud.com/auntie-helen/german-view-of-book

Oh, that is brilliant! Totally made my day. Thank you!

The Germans saying squirrel is also great - I used to have great laughs making my students say squirrel when I worked in a French secondary school (though they got their revenge by making me say "écureuil")
Here is the longer track where I am trying to get him to say your magic words: https://soundcloud.com/auntie-helen/scheisbuchfertigstellungbedurfnis

He was being deliberately obtuse (I had the words written down on the phone so he knew what to say). And when I referred to you, Citoyen, as a 'nice young man' he decided to believe I was referring to him. Which I clearly was not, as he wouldn't say 'squirrel' for me either and only said Eichhörnchen!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 August, 2014, 12:17:10 pm
Abattoir Blues ~ Peter Robinson.  DCI Banks #22.

Someone gets killed utterly to DETH with a captive bolt, which should please the Sheddi among us.  However, a Deutz-Fahr Agrotron tractor will not fit in anything that could reasonably be described as a "van".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 August, 2014, 10:34:27 am
"On Gold Mountain" by Lucy See, the tale of her family's immigration into the US, from China (the Gold Mountain of the title) and how they progressed through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Her great grandfather was a bit of, as us Brits would say, a cad.

It is full of interesting history and facts, such as the fact that the US is one of only three countries in history to ever have banned citizenship based on race (the other two are way more publicised and known)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 10 August, 2014, 05:02:52 pm
As well as the above, on my ebook, I have started a dead tree book, one I have waited 3 years to get a hold of.

The Revolt of the Catalans by John Elliot is considered to be the definitive work on Catalonia during the 14th to 17th centuries.  Whilst not a light tome (weighing in at ~700 pages) it is very well written and easy to read (unlike another book I read on Catalan history and culture which felt like a trial to read)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 12 August, 2014, 05:42:12 pm
Just finished this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piano_Teacher_%28Lee_novel%29 (pbk, sorry I don't have other details handy)

It has a Richard-n-Judy sticker on the front, which is probably why it was a "World Bestseller". It's certainly not due to the page-turning pace or the lovable characters. I was very bored. Nothing happened until p70. Then another 100 pages until WWII broke out - which wasn't really a surprise, but did at least force a few events on the characters.

The only good bit was the pivotal character (but not the lead) Trudy, a sort of Holly Golightly transported to 1941 Hong Kong. It has adultery, wars, and concubines, but I never knew why anyone did anything.

Oh well, I tried - I know not to read this sort of thing now, I think it's just not written for the likes of me ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 14 August, 2014, 11:28:53 pm
"On the Map" by Simon Garfield.
It's about maps, & their history. I love maps. I like the book.

I wish the proofreading was better, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 14 August, 2014, 11:29:28 pm
Citoyen, this was done specially for you...

https://soundcloud.com/auntie-helen/german-view-of-book

Oh, that is brilliant! Totally made my day. Thank you!

The Germans saying squirrel is also great - I used to have great laughs making my students say squirrel when I worked in a French secondary school (though they got their revenge by making me say "écureuil")
Try getting Japanese to say squirrel. ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 August, 2014, 11:33:36 pm
Or "Shakespeare".  According to Dr Larrington this comes out sounding more like a mangled pronunciation of "Sex Pistols" :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 14 August, 2014, 11:39:57 pm
Mrs B doesn't seem to have a problem saying Shakspear.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 15 August, 2014, 06:39:31 am
Shakespeare is a new one - I will try it! I got a German lady 960km round the HBK Audax to say squirrel (and recorded it). Is that a bit mean?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 August, 2014, 07:47:44 am
Shakespeare is a new one - I will try it! I got a German lady 960km round the HBK Audax to say squirrel (and recorded it). Is that a bit mean?

Yes.  Yes, it is.

I, OTOH, acquired a certain cachet with Christina's German chums through being able to pronounce "Eichhörnchen" korektly, even after a Several of BEERS.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 15 August, 2014, 02:20:46 pm
Shakespeare is a new one - I will try it! I got a German lady 960km round the HBK Audax to say squirrel (and recorded it). Is that a bit mean?

Yes.  Yes, it is.

I, OTOH, acquired a certain cachet with Christina's German chums through being able to pronounce "Eichhörnchen" korektly, even after a Several of BEERS.
I have had so much practice at saying Eichhörnchen I've now got it pretty decently sorted and the tame Germans say it's a very good rendition, as is my Süchtelner Höhen (a major difficulty - both in terms of hilliness and pronunciation).

The lovely Birgit was happy to say 'Squirrel' for me as I had cooked her some food and been generally nice and friendly. She didn't look too knackered either!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 August, 2014, 02:58:36 pm
Hmmm, I wonder if there are any languages in which the word for squirrel is not difficult for non-native speakers to pronounce. (edit: apparently very few! (http://www.angelfire.com/fl/scalisti/languages.html))

Anyway, in the meantime, I am reading The Girl With The Thingummy Wotsit. It was either that or Cloud Atlas and frankly, I fancied something from the less taxing end of the literary spectrum. It's actually better than I was expecting so far. The prose is a little clunky in places but I suspect that's a function of the translation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 16 August, 2014, 08:08:47 am
I tried 'Shakespeare' on my tame German yesterday and he had no probs - I think maybe I misread Bledlow's post and it was Japanese people who can't say it.

My latest experiment with Germans is to see if they can say 'antidisestablismentarianism' and none of them can, they get halfway through and it all goes wrong. It seems the section 'mentarianism' is impossible for them to stress correctly in speech. It's good fun watching them try.

We now know that I can't pronounce the word for peach, Pfirsich, or parsley, Petersilie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 August, 2014, 10:58:01 am
I tried 'Shakespeare' on my tame German yesterday and he had no probs - I think maybe I misread Bledlow's post and it was Japanese people who can't say it.

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer, it was indeed the Japanese whom Dr Larrington reports as having prombles with The Bard.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruth on 17 August, 2014, 12:52:15 am
And The Mountains Echoed by Khalid Housseini. About two chapters in.

So far, so brilliant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 18 August, 2014, 08:58:35 pm
Life after Vietnam- when Chucky comes marching home by Col Chuck Sanders.

A story about being a Marine during the Vietnam war, or more exactly, returning from the war. Booze, Drugs, infidelity, being in a biker gang, religion etc.

Bought from the dude himself at Hilo market, Hawaii Island where he runs a stall. Had a chat withe him and also bought some Kona coffee (delicious). He writes like he talks so the book can be a bit hard to follow at times. Worth it though (in my opinion as an ex squaddie).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 19 August, 2014, 01:00:38 pm
The Chessmen, by Peter May. Third in his Lewis trilogy. I enjoyed the first two.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 August, 2014, 04:58:50 pm
The Chessmen, by Peter May. Third in his Lewis trilogy. I enjoyed the first two.

About time I revisited them...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 August, 2014, 01:10:23 pm
Anyway, in the meantime, I am reading The Girl With The Thingummy Wotsit. It was either that or Cloud Atlas and frankly, I fancied something from the less taxing end of the literary spectrum. It's actually better than I was expecting so far. The prose is a little clunky in places but I suspect that's a function of the translation.

Beginning to wish I'd gone for Cloud Atlas. I'm ploughing on with the Girl With The Thingummy Wotsit but my god, it's dull. I'm only carrying on in the hope that something will actually happen eventually. Quite enjoyed Lisbeth Salander getting her revenge on her guardian, but that's about the only moment of excitement so far.

Some of the descriptive prose is beyond banal. One line that really caught me off guard for its utter bizarreness was when a character's apartment is described as being 49 square metres. WTF?

Also, I'm as much of an Apple fanboy as the next media luvvie, but give over with the product placement already.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 22 August, 2014, 01:41:50 pm
Quite enjoyed Lisbeth Salander getting her revenge on her guardian, but that's about the only moment of excitement so far.

Ah, that Thingummy Wotsit.  I thought you meant Pearl Earring (and yes, reference to translation should have put me right on that).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 August, 2014, 02:42:13 pm
Ah, that Thingummy Wotsit.

Yeah, and I've got the other two Thingummy Wotsits to read as well, though I'm not inclined to bother at the moment. Maybe the Pearl Earring would have been a better bet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 22 August, 2014, 07:03:56 pm
Ah, that Thingummy Wotsit.

Yeah, and I've got the other two Thingummy Wotsits to read as well, though I'm not inclined to bother at the moment. Maybe the Pearl Earring would have been a better bet.
The first one is about 10 times slower then the 2nd. I still don't know how I finished it°

Must read the 3rd Wotsit sometime ...

°oh OK, this was before I realised the world wouldn't end if I DNFed a book :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 22 August, 2014, 07:07:06 pm
I read the first 2 thingywotsits and gave up as I really didn't care what happened.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 22 August, 2014, 07:43:07 pm
Got to a point in Thingummy Wotsit the First where our hero dude arrived at the island, met a few people then I decided my BRANE would turn to wibbly wobbly jelly if I continued so I put the book down. It stayed down.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 22 August, 2014, 10:22:25 pm
'Triton' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(novel))*, by Samuel R. Delany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany). Triton is a novel that offers several conflicting perspectives on the concept of utopia, and explores how sexuality and sexual attitudes relate to the socioeconomic underpinnings of society. It's also a bit of a mind-screw...


* Also published as 'Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 24 August, 2014, 08:29:13 pm
Efficient Android Threading.  Yes, it is as dull as the title suggests. What's worse it cost the thick end of 40 quid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: air dancer on 24 August, 2014, 10:37:40 pm
Thomas Piketty's - Capital in the 21st Century

Quite a well structured book that seems to be heading for a big conclusion, that I haven't got to yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 August, 2014, 08:42:49 am
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

Oh, Kurt, you funny genius. I'm beginning to think Vonnegut was the only truly sane person who ever lived.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 August, 2014, 08:46:38 am
Finished "On Gold Mountain", whilst on holiday.

Then started something unmemorable on the ebook.  This holiday didn't really give me much chance to read so it stayed not really read.  Upon returning home I started, and have nearly finished "Spanish Steps" by Tim Moore, the story of him doing the Camino with a donkey, called Shinto.  It is slow to start, but gets better as it goes on and is laugh out loud funny in places.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 29 August, 2014, 02:47:59 pm
I read the first 2 thingywotsits and gave up as I really didn't care what happened.

I gave up after the first one. I'm not sure why I read that, I'd seen the movie and that was dull too. I think it was 99p and I'd run out of suitable airport books. Their popularity eludes me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 August, 2014, 03:17:06 pm
I read the first 2 thingywotsits and gave up as I really didn't care what happened.

I gave up after the first one. I'm not sure why I read that, I'd seen the movie and that was dull too. I think it was 99p and I'd run out of suitable airport books. Their popularity eludes me.

It was marginally better than Dan Brown, I'll give it that. And reading tosh like that at least serves to highlight just how flipping good a writer Kurt Vonnegut is by comparison.

Here's a sample line from Cat's Cradle that I highlighted this morning:
"The stop-and-go signs, garish ghosts in the sleet, went through their irrelevant tomfoolery again and again, telling the glacier of automobiles what to do."

About as perfect a description of a traffic jam as you'll ever read in so few words. It's almost poetry. I'll give Stieg Larsson a certain amount of benefit of the doubt - I'm sure his prose isn't quite as lumpish in the original Swedish - but if he could actually write, he could have made his book about 200 pages shorter.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 29 August, 2014, 05:28:57 pm
I read the first 2 thingywotsits and gave up as I really didn't care what happened.

I gave up after the first one. I'm not sure why I read that, I'd seen the movie and that was dull too. I think it was 99p and I'd run out of suitable airport books. Their popularity eludes me.

It was marginally better than Dan Brown, I'll give it that. And reading tosh like that at least serves to highlight just how flipping good a writer Kurt Vonnegut is by comparison.

Here's a sample line from Cat's Cradle that I highlighted this morning:
"The stop-and-go signs, garish ghosts in the sleet, went through their irrelevant tomfoolery again and again, telling the glacier of automobiles what to do."

About as perfect a description of a traffic jam as you'll ever read in so few words. It's almost poetry. I'll give Stieg Larsson a certain amount of benefit of the doubt - I'm sure his prose isn't quite as lumpish in the original Swedish - but if he could actually write, he could have made his book about 200 pages shorter.

It's poetry all right - especially compared with much "poetry"!  Bet Bob Dylan has read it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 29 August, 2014, 06:05:10 pm
Clearly there are differing views on what makes a good read as expressed on this thread. But one of the reasons I often feel reluctant to post what I'm reading is that the standards applied to the written word in the critiques here seems much higher than they are for, say films or television. Kurt Vonnegut may well be a writer with an order of magnitude more skill and depth than Brown or Larsson (my experience is limited to Slaughterhouse 5, the Girl With... trilogy and da Vinci Code, all of which I enjoyed at the time in different ways), but one could say the same about Ingmar Bergman vs James Gunn or Dennis Potter vs Steven Moffat.

For what it's worth, my last two reads were Sex Lives of Siamese Twins (a somewhat grim but comic take on body image and weight gain/loss in American culture) and then 'Surviving the Evacuation' - a self-published Zombiefiction effort from Amazon (technically rather unimaginative writing, but good immersive fun).

Because I am less aware of the craft of good writing than many, I tend to look for books that I can get lost in, which often means hitting the Richard and Judy Book Club and page turning popular fiction. I'd like to feel less embarrassed about that, but I struggle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 29 August, 2014, 06:43:56 pm
Jo I'm in the same boat as you. I tend to read two kinds of books. Firstly the page turning fiction/sf-fi/comedy that sucks me in and hopefully gives me a roaring belly laugh on a bus or scares the crap out of me.

Secondly I read about stuff that takes my interest as in learning new stuff, though most times I forget, but not the manual kind. Being that biography about cyclists, about special forces, cycle touring accounts, how serial killers think, how the brain works etc.

But for the life of me, I can't tell you if it is a well written book that got such and such award and raised an eyebrow.  As long it make me turn a page it is a good book, it's ecapeism for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 29 August, 2014, 06:59:38 pm
... the standards applied to the written word in the critiques here seems much higher than they are for, say films or television. Kurt Vonnegut may well be a writer with an order of magnitude more skill and depth than Brown or Larsson (my experience is limited to Slaughterhouse 5, the Girl With... trilogy and da Vinci Code, all of which I enjoyed at the time in different ways), but one could say the same about Ingmar Bergman vs James Gunn or Dennis Potter vs Steven Moffat.
Yes, I found that a bit odd.

I, too, adore many Vonnegut books; but I'm not about to throw out all our other books that aren't really as good!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 29 August, 2014, 07:23:32 pm
My lightweight amusing page-turner
bookoftheweek:
books.google.co.uk/books/about/Mr_Penumbra_s_24_Hour_Bookstore.html?id=7QuIvZcgoQEC&redir_esc=y
(Choice of website not an accident)

Covers all the bases:
Some history of printing,
Jokes about modern tech,
A DanBrown-style plot (shock!)
Genius-level geeks
A 24h -print-only - bookstore

And it was in the
New York Times top-100
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 29 August, 2014, 07:43:41 pm
Keith Richards "Life" (he of The Stones) I certainly share his opinion of dentistry in the 1950's and still have a terror of them like him
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 29 August, 2014, 07:50:57 pm
Clearly there are differing views on what makes a good read as expressed on this thread. But one of the reasons I often feel reluctant to post what I'm reading is that the standards applied to the written word in the critiques here seems much higher than they are for, say films or television. Kurt Vonnegut may well be a writer with an order of magnitude more skill and depth than Brown or Larsson (my experience is limited to Slaughterhouse 5, the Girl With... trilogy and da Vinci Code, all of which I enjoyed at the time in different ways), but one could say the same about Ingmar Bergman vs James Gunn or Dennis Potter vs Steven Moffat.

For what it's worth, my last two reads were Sex Lives of Siamese Twins (a somewhat grim but comic take on body image and weight gain/loss in American culture) and then 'Surviving the Evacuation' - a self-published Zombiefiction effort from Amazon (technically rather unimaginative writing, but good immersive fun).

Because I am less aware of the craft of good writing than many, I tend to look for books that I can get lost in, which often means hitting the Richard and Judy Book Club and page turning popular fiction. I'd like to feel less embarrassed about that, but I struggle.

I truly have no shame when it comes to entertainment choices. Admittedly I was recently petarded by Dan Brown, a challenge I thought I was ready for, but sadly wasn't. Like trying to climb Everest in just a pair of candy-pink flipflops. I think many people put a lot of effort into reading stuff that bolsters their intellectual self-image. I can't think of any other reason else for someone to read an entire Martin Amis novel (and look what that wannabe enfant terrible did this time). I fear my Ikea bookshelves couldn't support those weighty hardbacks bursting with groaning, overwrought prose. I can't do the entire literary genre, all those Bookeresque worthies leave me cold. I read a chapter of Bring Up the Bodies and I couldn't help but think how much it would be improved by zombies. And I don't even like zombies. It's like being chased by shambling Morrissey fans. Anything that can be defeated by a spade or just walking reasonably fast is not a worthy adversary. But after about ten pages I was praying for zombies.

I'm reading Nightmare by Stephen Leather at the moment because I figure what more does a man need while he's slowly pickling in the bath, wrapped in the heady aroma of Badedas (or as it's called in my house, Badass, and it's ace because it makes the water lurid green), other than a bit of devil worshipping tomfoolery. It's alright, prose occasionally clunks, and if the protagonist tells me he likes smoking once more I'll set fire to him. Also, Mr Leather, Brixton isn't an edgy crime-filled ghetto where people are scared to go. I bet he lives in north London. Reminds me of the Dennis Wheatley novels I used to borrow from my grandad when I was little. I remember taking one to English class and the teacher being horrified. I suspect not from the plot. I was pretty much parented by Hammer Horror and the Devil.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 29 August, 2014, 09:20:27 pm
I tried 'Shakespeare' on my tame German yesterday and he had no probs - I think maybe I misread Bledlow's post and it was Japanese people who can't say it...
Nah. I said Mrs B has no trouble with it. Her family has samurai swords which they've been passing down for hundreds of years & a kamikaze pilot commemorated at Yasukuni, so I think you can work out whether she's German.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 29 August, 2014, 11:03:21 pm
It may not be a reading book as such (unless you count the introduction to each region/chapter) but a book I cannot leave alone is Claudia Roden's "Italy", I spend ages reading through it enjoying the anecdotes, probably the most picked up book at the moment, a lovely book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 August, 2014, 10:17:40 am
Martin Amis was worth reading once upon a time, back when he had something to say and an interesting way of saying it. Like the Rolling Stones or I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, he has become a pastiche of himself.

I found Bring Up The Bodies an easier read than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

No one should ever need to feel ashamed of their reading choices. I might pass judgment on the quality of a writer's work but that doesn't imply judgment of the person who reads it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 30 August, 2014, 11:36:59 am
It may not be a reading book as such (unless you count the introduction to each region/chapter) but a book I cannot leave alone is Claudia Roden's "Italy", I spend ages reading through it enjoying the anecdotes, probably the most picked up book at the moment, a lovely book.

Her book "The Food of Spain" is one I can, happily, read againand again. Less a cookbook than a journey through the history of food of that region.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 August, 2014, 12:17:24 pm
I've mentioned it before but I'll mention it again: Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food is a joy to read for its own sake, even if you never cook a single recipe from it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 30 August, 2014, 12:29:29 pm
Was: MI9: Escape and Evasion, by Foot and Langley, about the relatively obscure department which helped train people (particularly aircrew, who were not so easily replaced) for evasion and escape in Europe (and Asia, but less so due to the circumstances).  Not a recent book, and some of the files which they mention they couldn't use should now be available, but nonetheless fascinating for that.  There are interesting nuances, such as the automatic assumption that the reader will know about the massacre at Sagan ('The Great Escape' where many of the escapers were shot after recapture).  Feels dated in its approach, but is 'of its time'.

Is: Fat Chance by Lustig.  Interesting.  I know he's supposed to be the in thing in sugar-blaming.  I'm reserving judgement for now.

Next up: Float: Pilkington's glass revolution by Bricknell.  Found it in the £1 pile in the bookshop and couldn't resist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 30 August, 2014, 09:08:45 pm
Martin Amis was worth reading once upon a time, back when he had something to say and an interesting way of saying it. Like the Rolling Stones or I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, he has become a pastiche of himself.

I found Bring Up The Bodies an easier read than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

No one should ever need to feel ashamed of their reading choices. I might pass judgment on the quality of a writer's work but that doesn't imply judgment of the person who reads it.

    Re No one should etc - fwiw I totally agree, I remember choosing a book on Michael Jackson (ooh years ago -many years ago) for my son when he was quite little, the person serving me in Blackwells sort of sneered implying it wasn't a "proper" reading book, "oh" I said "does it only have pictures then", "no" replied oik, "well" I said "it's a frigging reading book is it not, hopefully spell checked etc so he will absorb and learn", never went back there.
    If you enjoy what you read then that is all you need to think about, they said the tinternet would kill books, of course it has everyone can see there are no books anymore  :facepalm:, computers will make you illiterate ? of course they have, have you ever typed a comma into an address bar instead of a full stop, very dodgy, it will not be what you're looking for, all good fun what.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 31 August, 2014, 03:20:41 pm
This hollybobs I've been reading Charles Stross' The Laundry books. Not heavyweight by any means but good page turning zombie spy thrilling fun :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 September, 2014, 05:10:17 pm
Just put this year's Booker shortlist on my ebook reader.

There may be some long nights ahead!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 September, 2014, 03:38:24 am
Thin Air ~ Ann Cleeves.  Book six of the increasingly inaccurately-named Shetland Quartet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rabbit on 15 September, 2014, 07:46:41 am
Just finished - Everest the Hard Way by Chris Bonington

Now a good deal of the way through 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 15 September, 2014, 06:33:41 pm
Just finished "Faster" by Michael Hutchinson.   Arguably Britain's best (and quite possibly only)  International Time Trialling Journalist.  The content could be as dry as dust in other hands but he manages to make it both interesting and, at times, funny.  Enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 15 September, 2014, 07:13:59 pm
Just put this year's Booker shortlist on my ebook reader.

There may be some long nights ahead!

(Only if you put the shortlisted books on your ebook reader as well )

Let us know what you think. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 15 September, 2014, 07:21:24 pm
Lady Chatterley's Lover

It's the Vintage (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chatterleys-Lover-Vintage-Classics-Promo-ebook/dp/B004OEIDNY) edition, which has a rather exciting cover. A colleague's comment on seeing it, "Oh, so is that the new version of '50 Shades' or something?"  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 September, 2014, 08:48:51 pm
Just put this year's Booker shortlist on my ebook reader.

There may be some long nights ahead!

(Only if you put the shortlisted books on your ebook reader as well )

Let us know what you think.

First one is easy, Ali Smith, How To Be Both. Pretentious shite. There always has to be one, at leadt it's not yet another Will Self one.

The Lives of Others is good, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 15 September, 2014, 10:12:31 pm
First one is easy, Ali Smith, How To Be Both. Pretentious shite.
My kind of review.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 September, 2014, 10:11:15 am
First one is easy, Ali Smith, How To Be Both. Pretentious shite. There always has to be one, at leadt it's not yet another Will Self one.

Hey, I liked Umbrella!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 September, 2014, 01:36:48 pm
First one is easy, Ali Smith, How To Be Both. Pretentious shite. There always has to be one, at leadt it's not yet another Will Self one.

Hey, I liked Umbrella!

You may have done, for which I applaud you, but to me it was just a load of pretentious shite, like all his books, in fact.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 18 September, 2014, 08:32:22 pm
... but to me it was just a load of pretentious shite, like all his books, in fact.

Gosh. I admire your perseverance to have kept reading all his books while concluding each and every one of them was pretentious shite. Personally, Great apes is one of my all time favourites.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 September, 2014, 10:23:14 pm
Fwiw, I don't believe Will Self is pretentious. I don't think he cares enough what other people think of him for that to be true. I always get the feeling from his work that he writes for his own enjoyment first and foremost. And I generally find his writing to be entirely sincere. He does seem to enjoy expressing a controversial opinion but I'd say he's far less cynical than the likes of Dan Brown or Jeffrey Archer.

I'm currently reading Cloud Atlas, another book that is frequently dismissed as pretentious shite. I'm absolutely loving it. Every beautifully crafted sentence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 September, 2014, 11:14:07 pm
I've met Mr Self. He talks like he writes. It's splendid and he doesn't seem to do it on purpose, all that bejewelled verbosity just spontaneous boils out of the him like someone reduced the linguistic pressure. He just likes words and unlike me he's smart enough that he doesn't have to make them up in a futile attempt to impress people (mostly, I'm pretty sure he sneaks some made-up ones in). One of the few writers who sends me gleefully scurrying for the dictionary just to check. And yes, I think he likes to be tad cheeky (and he was right about Orwell). None of this is influenced by the fact he bought me a pint.

I bleurgled through Cloud Atlas. Well written maybe, but contrived tripe. It was better than the movie though. Then again shitting rocks would be better than the movie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 September, 2014, 11:39:12 pm
Very well written and thoroughly entertaining contrived tripe so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 19 September, 2014, 12:02:36 am
Very well written and thoroughly entertaining contrived tripe so far.

A description which reminds me of a magazine article, which I think was by David Langford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Langford), where the author laid out a four-band system of categorising books or films:

Good good - Ought to be good, and it doesn't disappoint
Good crap - Ought to be crap, but it's surprisingly good
Crap good - Ought to be good, but falls short
Crap crap - Ought to be crap and oh boy, it sure is!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 20 September, 2014, 10:04:24 pm
I have just re-read Beau Geste. Great story and I'd forgotten the ending. It also had a word every half dozen pages or so which I had to look up the meaning of and yet it's not a difficult read.

Double Cross by Ben Macintyre is also a fascinating read, the true story of the operation to fool the Germans that the D-Day landings weren't going to be in Normandy. You couldn't make up some of the tales.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 September, 2014, 12:55:56 pm
Naming the dead (Rebus, worrying how similar we are  :o ) also Elizabeth David - English Bread and Yeast Cookery, it is very good  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 21 September, 2014, 07:25:26 pm
A Viet Cong Memoir, by Truon Nhu Tang. An excellent account of the conflict in Vietnam from 1946 to 1975, from the perspective of a high ranking member of the NLF.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 September, 2014, 08:58:51 pm
How on earth did you discover that one
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 21 September, 2014, 09:24:09 pm
Amazon.com book recommendations, based on my past reading/purchasing patterns. I've read a fair bit about the Vietnam war in the last few years, none of it especially flattering to the 5 US presidents involved or to the US government in general. It's extremely readable, and reading what someone on the other side has to say is fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: madcow on 21 September, 2014, 11:04:45 pm
Just finished - Everest the Hard Way by Chris Bonington

Now a good deal of the way through 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer

Got both of those and my copy of Everest etc is signed by Mr B himself and Doug Scott.
If you like "Into Thin air" , follow it with "No Way down" by Graham Bowley. Death and survival on K2.

My current book is "Where the hell have you been? " by Tom Carver, ex BBC foreign reporter.
His father, who was Montgomery's stepson, escaped from an Italian POW camp and walked back to the British lines.
 Tom Carver writes using material from his fathers diary,his own childhood memories and  then brings the reader back to recent times and when his dad is almost housebound.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 September, 2014, 12:09:54 am
Just finished - Everest the Hard Way by Chris Bonington

Now a good deal of the way through 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer

Got both of those and my copy of Everest etc is signed by Mr B himself and Doug Scott.
If you like "Into Thin air" , follow it with "No Way down" by Graham Bowley. Death and survival on K2.

I was talking to a cameraman in Battle Mountain who has worked extensively with David Breashears, leader of the IMAX expedition on Everest in '96.  His book High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places is worth a read.

My current book is "Where the hell have you been? " by Tom Carver, ex BBC foreign reporter.
His father, who was Montgomery's stepson, escaped from an Italian POW camp and walked back to the British lines.
 Tom Carver writes using material from his fathers diary,his own childhood memories and  then brings the reader back to recent times and when his dad is almost housebound.

Read that not so long ago; a jolly ripping yarn.  Natch if the baddies had sussed who he was he'd have been in Colditz quicker than you could say "Mein Hund hat keine Nase".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 22 September, 2014, 03:49:18 am
Just finished - Everest the Hard Way by Chris Bonington

Now a good deal of the way through 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer

Got both of those and my copy of Everest etc is signed by Mr B himself and Doug Scott.
If you like "Into Thin air" , follow it with "No Way down" by Graham Bowley. Death and survival on K2.

Another good followup to "Into Thin Air" (or just a really good read about high altitude mountaineering) is "The Climb", by Anatoly Boukreev. Boukreev was the Russian guide who helped rescue a number of people during the storm described in "Into Thin Air". "The Climb" is partly his version of the entire incident, partly a rebuttal of accusations made against him after said incident, and partly a summary of his views on what the role of a high altitude guide ought to be, contrasted with the role played by too many modern climbing guides.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 September, 2014, 04:40:50 am
And as a complete antidote try "The Burgess Book Of Lies" by Adrian & Alan Burgess.

Maybe true
Maybe not true
Better you believe
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 22 September, 2014, 07:50:49 am
Just finished All you need is kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. This is the book Edge of Tomorrow was based on.
Not a deep book by any means and a much simpler story than the film turned into, but an enjoyable read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 27 September, 2014, 02:15:02 pm
John le Carre - The Honourable Schoolboy, very good so far  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: interzen on 27 September, 2014, 02:38:26 pm
Neal Stephenson - Anathem

Weird vocabulary aside (the glossary helps) it's shaping up to be a good one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 September, 2014, 09:41:39 pm
Absolute Beginners - Colin Macinnes

I read his other two London novels some years ago but never this one, for some reason. Totally love it. Very funny and a sharp, authentic voice. Feel like re-reading the others again now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 October, 2014, 12:08:23 am
To The River - Olivia Laing

A deeply personal extended essay/travelogue about rivers, specifically the Ouse (the one in Sussex), in which Virginia Woolf drownded herself and which the author walked along from source to sea during one week in summer 2009 following a messy break-up.

And it's a lot more interesting than that makes it sound. Something you'd read for the quality of the writing alone, regardless of whether you have any particular affiliation with the subject matter.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 October, 2014, 12:39:18 am
Land of the Green Man ~ Dr Larrington.  I am instructed to look for "where it doesn't make sense, or where it's too boring to read, or too academic-sounding" on account of it not being published yet.

'Tis a folkloric ramble around the BRITISH Isles, with the chapters on the type of Other involved rather than the geography, if that makes sense.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 October, 2014, 02:46:31 pm
Land of the Green Man ~ Dr Larrington.  I am instructed to look for "where it doesn't make sense, or where it's too boring to read, or too academic-sounding" on account of it not being published yet.

'Tis a folkloric ramble around the BRITISH Isles, with the chapters on the type of Other involved rather than the geography, if that makes sense.

I just looked this up on Amazon cos it sounds intriguing but... Oh yeah, not published yet. You did mention that. Some of Dr Larrington's other books look interesting though.

As an aside, because I expressed an interest in Dr Larrington's work, Amazon thinks I might also be interested in a box set of The Chinese Detective, series 1 and 2.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 October, 2014, 03:31:44 pm
Got this one coming:

Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World, by one Mark Pendergrast

Saw a documentary based on it and ordered it.  One nice snippet: in the 18th century coffee had the reputation of being bad for a gent's libido. "Not tonight, m'dear, I've been drinking coffee" was the well-worn excuse for disappointing one's spouse.  In reality, many or most coffee-houses had a brothel on the first floor. This, apparently, led to Britain becoming a tea-drinking nation as m'dear counter-attacked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 October, 2014, 03:55:15 pm
As an aside, because I expressed an interest in Dr Larrington's work, Amazon thinks I might also be interested in a box set of The Chinese Detective, series 1 and 2.

This is no doubt due to the presence in the cast of one Larrington Walker.  No relation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 October, 2014, 06:06:22 pm
This is no doubt due to the presence in the cast of one Larrington Walker.  No relation.

Nothing to do with David Yip's obsession with medieval folklore then? How disappointing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 October, 2014, 07:16:47 pm
Currently just finished "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Richard Flanagan, a book about a group of Australians in a POW camp during WWII.

Quite good, but a little formulaic in places.

Moved onto "Perfect", which I thought was on the short list, but isn't...

Have also, recently, finished "To Rise Again at a Decent Hour" by Joshua Ferris.  This and the Ali Smith one make me despair at the Booker Prize this year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 October, 2014, 02:05:21 am
Having now finished "Lou Reed: The Life" by Mick Wall1, am about to start on "Buried Angels" wot is the latest Camilla Läckberg, or at least the latest Camilla Läckberg to be published in the BRITONS' English.  Three years behind the Swedish edition.  Cover blurb says she's sold 12 million books; Jo Nesbø is on 20 million hence his books are translated straight away :P

1: it's a good read but rather falls down with the repeated and somewhat startling revelation that artist / feminist / journalist / RELEASE co-founder Caroline Coon is dead which, it seems, she, er, isn't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 October, 2014, 01:47:48 pm
2/3rds of the way through "J" by Howard Jacobson.

It's very densely written, but readable nontheless.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 October, 2014, 03:11:04 pm
This and the Ali Smith one make me despair at the Booker Prize this year.

I was rather hoping my old uni friend's debut novel (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg1707386#msg1707386) would at least get shortlisted for something this year but it has gone unregarded by both the Guardian First Book Award and now the Booker. It's a great book. And I would say that even if he weren't a friend.

No doubt once I have read Bone Clocks I will also be adding my voice to the clamour of "He wuz robbed!" cries from Middle[brow] England at the fact that David Mitchell has once again been overlooked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 12 October, 2014, 04:51:42 pm
This and the Ali Smith one make me despair at the Booker Prize this year.

I was rather hoping my old uni friend's debut novel (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg1707386#msg1707386) would at least get shortlisted for something this year but it has gone unregarded by both the Guardian First Book Award and now the Booker. It's a great book. And I would say that even if he weren't a friend.

No doubt once I have read Bone Clocks I will also be adding my voice to the clamour of "He wuz robbed!" cries from Middle[brow] England at the fact that David Mitchell has once again been overlooked.

If that's the thing that's just been on Radio 4 for the last week or so I wouldn't bother, but then I find much fiction to be tedious drivel these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 October, 2014, 10:55:49 am
The Girl with All the Gifts which I didn't know was that genre, but Mr Kindle recommended it after Richard Kadrey's rather excellent The Getaway God, the latest Sandman Slim adventure. Who wouldn't want to roar around LA/Pandaemonium on their Hellion hog. That's not a question because the answer is 'everyone', that's who. I'd like to ride around Croydon on a Hellion hog, for that matter. And yes, motorbike, not pig.

I mostly avoid zombies (easy in real life, because they're shit, it's like being chased by an OAP, we only need to fear them if they get mobility scooters and the Daily Mail dubs them 'Pavement Terrorists'). Oh there's so many of them, comes the usual rebuke, force of numbers. These are people who never tried to post a parcel at 11am. Unless you find long waits terrifying they're not scary. Anyway, this was a cut above, and not just because fungus is scarier than the undead. Not entirely cheerful mind. Oh, those dystopian futures, always doom and gloom.

I did try The Martian but boats again failed to be floated. Seemed a formulaic 'outline problem then solve problem' with lots of babble and no character development. Everything is 'oh well, I'm going to die today, except no, I'm not because I've discovered [insert long dull explanation]'. Anyway, as part of my new policy, I'm dumping books that don't grab me, so it's dumped. Also, and I'll say this again, the wind on Mars isn't going to blow satellite dishes 'kilometres.' Pressure at ground level on Mars is about 0.6% what it is on Earth. It might flap a parachute and kick dust into the air. On the plus side, your bike tyres wouldn't need much pumping up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 13 October, 2014, 11:13:42 am
On the plus side, your bike tyres wouldn't need much pumping up.
Are you sure about that?
I suspect that you'd need as many strokes of the pump to achieve a proportionally lower pressure. In other words, if you need 100 strokes to get 6bar on earth, would you not need 100 strokes to get 6martian bar on mars? They'd be easier strokes, mind, but still need the same amount.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 October, 2014, 11:29:40 am
On the plus side, your bike tyres wouldn't need much pumping up.
Are you sure about that?
I suspect that you'd need as many strokes of the pump to achieve a proportionally lower pressure. In other words, if you need 100 strokes to get 6bar on earth, would you not need 100 strokes to get 6martian bar on mars? They'd be easier strokes, mind, but still need the same amount.

Hmm, true, as you'd be pumping from ambient pressure. Probably best to avoid those CO2 cartridges though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 15 October, 2014, 07:02:36 am
Just started Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond. So far the book is fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 October, 2014, 08:30:04 am
2/3rds of the way through "J" by Howard Jacobson.

It's very densely written, but readable nontheless.

Finished it last night, thought provoking is what I would call it, but a book that leaves more questions than answers.

Glad to see that my favourite out of the shortlist won this year.

Next year I am going to try and get through them all, this I might manage if a) there is no pretentious shite and b) there aren't any really really densely written books (yes, I am looking at you, "J" and "Bring Up The Bodies")
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 October, 2014, 07:36:01 pm
A monograph on Blackburn Roc/Skua by Aeroflash, FOTP.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 October, 2014, 02:14:34 am
a) there is no pretentious shite and b) there aren't any really really densely written books (yes, I am looking at you, "J" and "Bring Up The Bodies")

"It's difficult to keep up with [Hilary Mantel's] prose like it's difficult to keep with Fred Astaire on the dancefloor. But once you get into the rhythm it's like you can fly."

- comment on the Guardian website (and it's not often I feel compelled to quote anything from the bottom half of the internet)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 17 October, 2014, 09:53:42 am
If you haven't already done so, I can heartily reccommend reading "Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook to Travelling Upon the Ankh-Morpork & Sto Plains Hygienic Railway."

I am currently re-reading "Rucksack Man" by Sebastian Snow, being an account of his walk from Tierra del Fuego to the Panama Canal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 October, 2014, 09:58:44 am
a) there is no pretentious shite and b) there aren't any really really densely written books (yes, I am looking at you, "J" and "Bring Up The Bodies")

"It's difficult to keep up with [Hilary Mantel's] prose like it's difficult to keep with Fred Astaire on the dancefloor. But once you get into the rhythm it's like you can fly."

- comment on the Guardian website (and it's not often I feel compelled to quote anything from the bottom half of the internet)

Good point, and  I have to agree.  I would add that Howard Jacobson's writing (at least in "J") is in a similar vein.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 October, 2014, 09:37:44 pm
If you haven't already done so, I can heartily reccommend reading "Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook to Travelling Upon the Ankh-Morpork & Sto Plains Hygienic Railway."

I am currently re-reading "Rucksack Man" by Sebastian Snow, being an account of his walk from Tierra del Fuego to the Panama Canal.

Oh my Bog!  I remember reading "The Rucksack Man" over 30 years ago!  Didn't he end up half blind, with multiple pairs of hard contact lenses stuck behind his eyeballs?
Quite a character  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Snow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Snow)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 October, 2014, 09:51:09 pm
Just finished reading "God's War" by Kameron Hurley.   Grim, with a large side helping of bleak.   I'm pondering ordering the sequel though...

Set on a far future planet colonised by what appears to be an Islamic nation,  split into two sects who are now in a state of perpetual war.  All men from 16-40 are drafted into the military & not many come back... so a matriarchal society has evolved.

Our "heroine" starts off as a government approved bounty hunter, tracking down & beheading deserters from the front.....  Tough, stubborn, ruthless.... imagine a female version of Takeshi Kovacs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kovacs) and you won't go far wrong.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 23 October, 2014, 10:15:03 am
Recently read my way through ‘For the Win’, ‘Little Brother’ and ‘Homeland’*, all by Cory Doctorow – all very thought provoking about ‘the new normal’ a phrase I see in the news a lot now and is very good on how a free internet and freedom of speech are mutually dependent.  I find his tone a bit preachy at times but the subjects he’s writing about are real, very relevant to today and he articulates them clearly and emphatically.

He’s big on cold brew coffee too!

It’s also been useful in translating a lot of the language I see in comments on gamergate – an issue that shows that the freedom we are fighting to preserve for some people is the freedom to be an asshole of course.



*’Homeland’ is a follow on book from ‘Little Brother’.  The latter deals with what happens to a country when it gives up freedoms nominally in the name of fighting terrorism and both are very good in the militarisation of the police and feel very relevant now. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 06 November, 2014, 09:46:45 am
"Police", the latest Harry Hole book by Jo Nesbo.

It's strange to read a Harry Hole book that doesn't have him in it, well not so far (I am only a third of the way through at the moment).

It's good, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 November, 2014, 02:16:40 pm
The Blood Spilt ~ Åsa Larsson.  Second in her Rebecka Martinsson series of Scandicrime Stuffs.  OK so far...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 12 November, 2014, 06:26:53 pm
You by Caroline Kepnes. It's narrated by a man who is stalking a woman. It's extremely creepy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 November, 2014, 09:06:20 pm
"Police", the latest Harry Hole book by Jo Nesbo.

It's strange to read a Harry Hole book that doesn't have him in it, well not so far (I am only a third of the way through at the moment).

It's good, though.

Finished it, it is very good, right to the end.

Now started "Domestique" by Charlie Wegelius (or some such spelling). I didn't know that he's from York, his first club being VC York.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 12 November, 2014, 10:00:34 pm
"Police", the latest Harry Hole book by Jo Nesbo.

It's strange to read a Harry Hole book that doesn't have him in it, well not so far (I am only a third of the way through at the moment).

It's good, though.

Finished it, it is very good, right to the end.

Now started "Domestique" by Charlie Wegelius (or some such spelling). I didn't know that he's from York, his first club being VC York.
I hope you enjoy it.  I thought it the best pro cycling book I've read. I wonder what the balance of the input was between Wegelius and Tom Southam.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 13 November, 2014, 12:27:46 pm
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 1 of 14. Halfway through. Enjoying it, but initially struggled (inevitably) to get one's tongue around chaps and girls' names. I dunno, why don't they throw the odd ordinary one in sometimes, like, Geoff or Steve. I suppose Rand and Perrin qualify, but ones like Al'Thor and Aes Asidai (or somefin') coming up with your own pronunciation. Wizardry 'n' stuff abound.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 November, 2014, 01:48:48 pm
"Police", the latest Harry Hole book by Jo Nesbo.

It's strange to read a Harry Hole book that doesn't have him in it, well not so far (I am only a third of the way through at the moment).

It's good, though.

Finished it, it is very good, right to the end.

Now started "Domestique" by Charlie Wegelius (or some such spelling). I didn't know that he's from York, his first club being VC York.
I hope you enjoy it.  I thought it the best pro cycling book I've read. I wonder what the balance of the input was between Wegelius and Tom Southam.

I am, very much, it makes a major change from the "It's shit in the peleton" "He did drugs but I never touched them, but I am going to rat him out, anyway" kind of book (mostly aimed at LA, but some not).  I like the style, I like the content, so far.  Shit luck he had on the quad bike, wasn't it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 13 November, 2014, 09:02:59 pm
The Thirteenth Tale. I can't put it down!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 13 November, 2014, 09:10:15 pm
"Ancillary Justice" by Anne Leckie.  Her debut novel, and it won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Clarke & BSFA awards for SF in the same year.  First time anyone's done that!

It's rather good  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 14 November, 2014, 07:20:19 am
Its different isnt it. I think there is a sequel due out soon as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 14 November, 2014, 08:08:35 am
The Man Who Saved Britain - Simon Winder

A reflection on the post war British psyche through loss of Empire and World status with the Bond novels of Ian Flemming as a framework to hang it all on.

Funny and sad in equal measures as most of Simon Winders books are.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 14 November, 2014, 01:18:12 pm
'Alan Stoob: Nazi hunter'

Quote
Alan Stoob is the Nazi-Hunter de nos jours. If you haven't seen any Nazis on the streets of Dunstable latterly it is entirely down to his tireless efforts. (Charlie Higson)

Alan Stoob is the funniest and most effective Bedfordshire-based Nazi Hunter I've come across. (Stephen Mangan)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 November, 2014, 10:13:12 am
Its different isnt it. I think there is a sequel due out soon as well.

I've just downloaded "Ancillary Sword".   Hopefully it will pass the time until the new William Gibson is released on Kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 November, 2014, 11:51:29 am
The Fire Witness ~ "Lars Kepler".  Third Scandicrimething featuring Joona Linna as maverick cop Joona Linna.  Over 200 pages in and only two killin's?  Standards are slipping.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 November, 2014, 12:50:38 pm
You by Caroline Kepnes. It's narrated by a man who is stalking a woman. It's extremely creepy.
Finished it. Eek!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 November, 2014, 01:15:11 pm
"Ancillary Justice" by Anne Leckie.  Her debut novel, and it won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Clarke & BSFA awards for SF in the same year.  First time anyone's done that!

It's rather good  :D

Hmm, I read that as a Kindle 99p thing. I found it pretty dull mix of porridgy prose and uninteresting characters diligently labouring towards the inevitability of future volumes.

Books, like Cornish pasties, always seem to be award-winning these days. Both are disconcertingly chewable and ultimately unsatisfying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 17 November, 2014, 01:24:29 pm
The Girl with All the Gifts

I really liked that. Was a bit spooky listening to it while riding in the dark, mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 November, 2014, 03:59:55 pm
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August which started off in that stodge-lit (aka I've-done-a-creative-writing-course) style which was a bit off-putting, but loosened and livened up after a couple of chapters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 18 November, 2014, 10:14:44 am


snip Cornish pasties, always seem to be award-winning these days. Both are disconcertingly chewable and ultimately unsatisfying.

BURN HIM!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 18 November, 2014, 10:39:54 am
snip Cornish pasties, always seem to be award-winning these days. Both are disconcertingly chewable and ultimately unsatisfying.

See also: cheese, wine (but inexplicably only bronze or silver awards) and curry houses in Brick Lane.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 19 November, 2014, 09:55:13 pm
You know sometimes you're enjoying a book so much you really resent going to work?

When bobb and I were in Greece I read Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I really enjoyed it and got myself the next two in the series, Moon Over Soho and Whispers Under Ground. I finished Moon Over Soho yesterday and started Whispers Under Ground straight away. I really really really like them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 November, 2014, 11:58:16 pm
You know sometimes you're enjoying a book so much you really resent going to work?

When bobb and I were in Greece I read Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I really enjoyed it and got myself the next two in the series, Moon Over Soho and Whispers Under Ground. I finished Moon Over Soho yesterday and started Whispers Under Ground straight away. I really really really like them.

Episode 5, Foxglove Summer, was published last week and purchased by me today.  I've only skimmed the first few pages but they made me laugh at least half a dozen times.

Hurrah! It's dedicated to pTerry and uses the word "wossname" in the dedication.
Bah! Ben Aaronovitch is right at the beginning of the General Library so putting it in its rightful,place on the shelves will require moving about nine hundred books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 20 November, 2014, 06:45:17 pm
Warning: Audiobook content. Previously, it has been writ that audiobook content is OK on this 'ere thread. But equally, I know some folks can be snippy about this - so I give fair warning!

Now then. "A Feast for Crows - George R R Martin.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 22 November, 2014, 02:53:47 am
"Ancillary Justice" by Anne Leckie.  Her debut novel, and it won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Clarke & BSFA awards for SF in the same year.  First time anyone's done that!

It's rather good  :D

Hmm, I read that as a Kindle 99p thing. I found it pretty dull mix of porridgy prose and uninteresting characters diligently labouring towards the inevitability of future volumes.

Books, like Cornish pasties, always seem to be award-winning these days. Both are disconcertingly chewable and ultimately unsatisfying.

Just got that one. Will let you know what I think, but yes, I did spot the 'endless volumes' ahead signals. As long as she doesn't do the bloody irritating thing that stopped me reading the 'Destroyermen' series, where the author reintroduces every character with a minibio: "Dennis Silva, the powerfully built gunner's mate who had been born in Mooserump and served time in...... and who had been having a secretive relationshipo with  Zyzzyxxas, the sister of Anthronos, whose brother was...."

Dear author: we met Silva in book one. He has been a central figure in every volume so far. Your readers know who he is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 22 November, 2014, 09:34:56 am
The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez. 

An American goes to Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 to help the women of Afghanistan.  Being a healthcare professional I always envisage the most useful kind of 'help' to be medical, but the not-very-right-on world of the beauty salon opens the door to independence and power for women in a very different culture.  I'm loving it so far, it's about women taking care of each other in lots of different ways, in a man-centred society.  Deborah makes some terrible faux-pas, but who wouldn't?  She forges ahead anyway.

I hope it stays as good as this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mcshroom on 22 November, 2014, 10:41:45 am
Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

I'm counting this as research for a March trip to the Emerald Isle :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 22 November, 2014, 08:06:29 pm
In that case you need Eric Newby's 'Round Ireland in low gear' too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 23 November, 2014, 11:53:40 pm
^Which is (or was) floating round the Lending Library thread - I got it from Basil, and sent it off to Pedaldog.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 24 November, 2014, 12:40:02 pm
Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

I'm counting this as research for a March trip to the Emerald Isle :)
I found this a lot more entertaining than:
- The Eric Newby book, or
- Hawks's sequel (A Piano in the Pyrenees) - which I am about to finish.

(I only preseverd with the latter cos it's a very easy read, suitable for man-flu sufferers. Happy to add to The Lending Library if there is demand! )

Probably better than all the above was Newby's "Short Walk in the Hindu Kush".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 November, 2014, 12:42:48 pm
"What If?" by Randall Munroe.

It's in the vein of "Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze" etc, but written, and illustrated, by every geek's favourite web comic artist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mcshroom on 24 November, 2014, 02:00:05 pm
Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

I'm counting this as research for a March trip to the Emerald Isle :)
I found this a lot more entertaining than:
- The Eric Newby book, or
- Hawks's sequel (A Piano in the Pyrenees) - which I am about to finish.

(I only preseverd with the latter cos it's a very easy read, suitable for man-flu sufferers. Happy to add to The Lending Library if there is demand! )

Probably better than all the above was Newby's "Short Walk in the Hindu Kush".

Ah I have his second book on my shelf ready to read. That doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. oh well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2014, 02:12:12 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 24 November, 2014, 04:42:10 pm
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 2 of 14
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 24 November, 2014, 06:00:19 pm
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 2 of 14
Oh jeeze.

There was a short period in my early teens when I found that sort of thing a selling point. MaybeI'd been lucky and only read trilogies that were as good as most stand-alone novels; whatever,  I soon became reeeeeally bored of these endless "epics".

Put me off for decades!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 24 November, 2014, 06:14:47 pm
'Something to Declare' by S.A.A. Calvert.

Really enjoyed it and found myself somewhat involved in the plot, which is unusual for me. A very engaging book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 25 November, 2014, 09:07:01 am
Yay! Aunty Steffie sold another one!

I'm re-reading The 39 Steps, prior to embarking on the sequals that have Richard Hannay in them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 25 November, 2014, 09:17:34 am
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 2 of 14

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 25 November, 2014, 11:46:52 am
Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  >:(), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 25 November, 2014, 12:54:55 pm
You know sometimes you're enjoying a book so much you really resent going to work?

When bobb and I were in Greece I read Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I really enjoyed it and got myself the next two in the series, Moon Over Soho and Whispers Under Ground. I finished Moon Over Soho yesterday and started Whispers Under Ground straight away. I really really really like them.

On audiobook they are read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1506183/) and they are Awesum.
(I too found Broken Homes a bit less wonderous, but I thought at the time, that that was because it accompanied a particularly miserable DIY200).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 25 November, 2014, 02:51:03 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I'm getting near to the end of Whispers Under Ground overground wombling free. I'll probably go straight into Broken Homes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 25 November, 2014, 05:57:39 pm
Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  >:(), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.
;D

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 25 November, 2014, 06:08:43 pm
'Something to Declare' by S.A.A. Calvert.

Really enjoyed it and found myself somewhat involved in the plot, which is unusual for me. A very engaging book.

A fan! Thank you, dear reader. May I suggest that you read the much shorter 'Uniforms' next. You will understand by the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 25 November, 2014, 07:25:49 pm
Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  >:(), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.
;D

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!

Mine too, an unholy mixture of hardcore history, science, classic fiction, airport novels and any SF that comes to hand when I cant be arsed reading anything too serious. The only thing you wont find is fantasy and crime fiction.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 25 November, 2014, 08:16:36 pm
I thought I didn't like crime fiction until I discovered Sophie Hannah and Helen Fitzgerald.

I'm also working my way through the Poirots, in order. They're all the same, really. Someone contacts Poirot to say "something fishy is going on, please come and investigate" but by the time he gets there, there's been a murder. Then someone contacts him to say "I know something about the murder" but before they can say who it was, they've been murdered too. Then Poirot works it all out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 25 November, 2014, 09:07:55 pm
Just starting 'Deathbird...' by Ellison, once again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 November, 2014, 09:59:39 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 26 November, 2014, 04:13:09 pm
Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  >:(), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.
;D

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!

Hey, that would be a good one for 'The Gallery' wouldn't it!? …

My bookshelves
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 26 November, 2014, 06:27:18 pm
Yay! Aunty Steffie sold another one!

I'm re-reading The 39 Steps, prior to embarking on the sequals that have Richard Hannay in them.

I warned you. I will find and burn your clogs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 26 November, 2014, 06:28:03 pm
Yay! Aunty Steffie sold another one!

I'm re-reading The 39 Steps, prior to embarking on the sequals that have Richard Hannay in them.

I warned you. I will find and burn your clogs.
:)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 November, 2014, 08:07:03 pm
Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  >:(), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.
;D

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!

Hey, that would be a good one for 'The Gallery' wouldn't it!? …

My bookshelves

OK, Riggers, you start...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 28 November, 2014, 08:57:32 am







… it is done
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 November, 2014, 11:38:38 am







… it is done

I have just seen the thread :thumbsup:  Mine will be along shortly once I'm sufficiently caffeinated.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 November, 2014, 02:37:57 pm
Have started Shift by Hugh Howey, the follow up to Wool.

It's a bit harder to get into the the first book, but getting good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 November, 2014, 07:24:57 pm
Have started Shift by Hugh Howey, the follow up to Wool.

It's a bit harder to get into the the first book, but getting good.
Stick with it and all will slowly become clear.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 November, 2014, 09:34:13 pm
I liked the Hugh Howey books :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 November, 2014, 09:43:41 pm
I am reading his 'Sand', among other books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 November, 2014, 09:53:10 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.

I have finished that one and am now reading Nation by Terry Pratchett.

In the list for next are Colourless Tsuru thingy by Haruki Murakami and
The Peripheral by William Gibson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 29 November, 2014, 02:57:12 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.

I have finished that one and am now reading Nation by Terry Pratchett.

In the list for next are Colourless Tsuru thingy by Haruki Murakami and
The Peripheral by William Gibson.
I have just finished Broken Homes. I did not see the twist coming. I am aghast.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 November, 2014, 04:28:02 pm
I liked the Hugh Howey books :)

I am liking Shift, just, due to current circumstances(not least of which is tiredness and insomnia caused by Prednisol) I am finding it a bit harder going than I did Wool.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 November, 2014, 07:37:55 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.

I have finished that one and am now reading Nation by Terry Pratchett.

In the list for next are Colourless Tsuru thingy by Haruki Murakami and
The Peripheral by William Gibson.
I have just finished Broken Homes. I did not see the twist coming. I am aghast.
I was a bit shocked too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 29 November, 2014, 07:42:42 pm
Pyramids by Terry Pratchett. I'm (very slowly - I'm not a massive reader) working my way through the Discworld universe, on account of somehow never reading any of them as a yoof.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 02 December, 2014, 03:48:02 pm
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 3 of 14
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 02 December, 2014, 04:03:59 pm
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 3 of 14

I never got past book one.  A friend tells me that by about book seven the first half of the book is mostly recap.  This may be a lie of course.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 02 December, 2014, 04:04:29 pm
I'm reading 'The Lies of Locke Lamora'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 02 December, 2014, 04:09:04 pm
London Falling. Interesting idea, akin to the Ben Aaronovitch books, but curiously hard to follow. I think it's the revolving characters, he keeps skipping from one to the other, and gives none of them time to develop, so I keep having to flick back a few pages. Maybe it'll sort itself out by the end but it wouldn't have benefited from building out a single protagonist rather than wheeling through four fairly indistinguishable ones.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 02 December, 2014, 04:23:04 pm
Please can you tell me the name of the WW2 thriller where a junior spy has an affair with an older man at a cottage and things are not as they seem? Recent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 December, 2014, 08:17:52 am
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 3 of 14

I never got past book one.  A friend tells me that by about book seven the first half of the book is mostly recap.  This may be a lie of course.

Sounds like Tad Williams' SOP, except he doesn't just put the recap at the beginning, it's all the way through, and gets a bit annoying after a while.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 03 December, 2014, 09:21:30 am
Don't worry chaps. M'brain can easily recognise tell-tale sentences of the dreaded re-cap, and take appropriate skipping action. For context purposes I can see why it's done, but it is annoying, I agree.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 03 December, 2014, 10:19:08 am
Just finished Dancing with Myself  , Billy Idols biography.   I enjoyed it, language is a bit flowery in places, but it seems honest and no hold barred,  I found the mid/late seventies punk stuff particularly interesting as a contemporary. worth a read if you're of a certain age.

Just started rereading Catch 22.  read it years ago but can't remember much about it apart from the names of the main protagonists, so its like reading it anew!

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 December, 2014, 02:54:06 pm
It's a major major read...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 December, 2014, 07:57:26 am
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.

I have finished that one and am now reading Nation by Terry Pratchett.

In the list for next are Colourless Tsuru thingy by Haruki Murakami and
The Peripheral by William Gibson.
I have just finished Broken Homes. I did not see the twist coming. I am aghast.
I was a bit shocked too.
Finished Foxglove Summer. I want the next one NOW!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 04 December, 2014, 09:36:43 am
It's a major major read...

 ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 04 December, 2014, 09:43:26 am
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 3 of 14

I never got past book one.  A friend tells me that by about book seven the first half of the book is mostly recap.  This may be a lie of course.

Sounds like Tad Williams' SOP, except he doesn't just put the recap at the beginning, it's all the way through, and gets a bit annoying after a while.

I think Tad Williams was the author that made me mostly give up on the fantasy genre. His books fail my 'Fetishargs of Qzog' test harder than a Joel Silver film failing the Bechdel Test.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 December, 2014, 11:27:07 am
The World According To Noddy ~ Noddy Holder.  Only just started so the jury is still out, but I thoroughly enjoyed "Who's Crazee Now?" so the portents are good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 December, 2014, 08:08:38 pm
Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).
I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.

I have finished that one and am now reading Nation by Terry Pratchett.

In the list for next are Colourless Tsuru thingy by Haruki Murakami and
The Peripheral by William Gibson.
I have just finished Broken Homes. I did not see the twist coming. I am aghast.
I was a bit shocked too.
Finished Foxglove Summer. I want the next one NOW!
Get thee to the Laundry Archives. Similar MO, but zombies and ting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 December, 2014, 10:12:28 pm
I just started Fathomless Riches by Rev Richard Coles.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 December, 2014, 01:01:45 am
Just started "An Officer And A Spy" by Robert Harris.

GN: It's well-reviewed by the critics :thumbsup:
BN: One of critics in question is Michael Gove :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 December, 2014, 01:39:44 am
Natchez Burning ~ Greg Iles

GN: 800+ pages so will keep me going for a day or two
BN: Fifth of a series, the first four of which I have not read
GN: Stephen King likes it
BN: Dan Brown likes it
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 12 December, 2014, 11:05:27 am
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 4 of 14

"Ta éthermundren gein il hadren old chap." I wish there was a character introduced who would say: "You're talking bollocks mate!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tigerbiten on 14 December, 2014, 01:46:45 pm
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor.

Translated version -> http://royalroadweed.blogspot.co.il/
I've got to volume 9 so far and it's very good.
Down side it's taken me 32 hours straight to do it.
So I'm now going to get a few hours sleep .............  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 December, 2014, 07:01:03 pm
London Falling. Interesting idea, akin to the Ben Aaronovitch books, but curiously hard to follow. I think it's the revolving characters, he keeps skipping from one to the other, and gives none of them time to develop, so I keep having to flick back a few pages. Maybe it'll sort itself out by the end but it wouldn't have benefited from building out a single protagonist rather than wheeling through four fairly indistinguishable ones.

Didn't really sort itself out which is a shame since I quite liked the story. Too many narrators and protagonists. Definitely would have worked better from a single point-of-view or at least giving each character more than a couple of pages before flipping to the next. In the end, you have four people with one-note motivations and a samey voice that meant I had to scan back or ahead sometimes to figure out who's point of view. Slightly telling of the author's scriptwriting background where you can pass off much of that characterisation to having people on doing and talking onscreen.

That said not bad, it you like the Aaronovitch, Gaiman, urban fantasy kind of gig. May try the second one if it's cheap on the Kindle.

Just read Broken Homes too which was better.

(click to show/hide)

Might have to give Charles Stross books a try. I confess I only read one, Accelerando, and found it hard going. It was bit like being locked in a bathroom for a near-infinitely long shit with only a near-endless supply of old copies of Wired to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 14 December, 2014, 08:41:07 pm
Do it ian! I think you'll like The Laundry Archives. Lots of comments on working for a big org that remind me of some of your posts :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 14 December, 2014, 08:43:12 pm
Just finished Colourless Tsukuru Tasaki. It was a good book, unresolved though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 December, 2014, 02:52:26 pm
Do it ian! I think you'll like The Laundry Archives. Lots of comments on working for a big org that remind me of some of your posts :)
If you haven't read it yet, try "A Colder War" for a taste of his Lovecraft-meets-cold war riffing. The Laundry books are a delight, and there is a very dark core even to the funniest bits.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 16 December, 2014, 02:58:07 pm
Just finished Waypoint by Jez Evans. A kindle cheapy. Author knows about sailing, appears to know about Harriers and can put a tale together. Not highbrow fiction, but I found it readable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 18 December, 2014, 09:25:44 pm
Natchez Burning ~ Greg Iles

GN: 800+ pages so will keep me going for a day or two
BN: Fifth of a series, the first four of which I have not read
GN: Stephen King likes it
BN: Dan Brown likes it

Thanks for Greg Iles, perfect accompaniment to manflu what I have been SUFFERING with. I've gone for chronological order and chewed my way through the first two Penn Cage stories. Raymond Chandler, he's not, it's a shame he hasn't got a good editor, but enjoyed none the less. I seem to have no 3 on my Kindle now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 18 December, 2014, 09:30:39 pm
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, and yes it is my first time.  It reminds me of Anna Karenin  ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 18 December, 2014, 09:30:54 pm
Recently finished William Gibson's "The Peripheral",  very good indeed.   

I'm now half way through "Mr Norris Changes Trains" , by Christopher Isherwood.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 19 December, 2014, 12:01:47 am
The Blackheath Seance Parlour, by Alan Williams.

Bought 'cos I live in Blackheath and so does the author. A little bit over-written but generally rather good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 20 December, 2014, 03:16:37 pm
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, by Rachel Maddow. I first heard of Rachel Maddow on this forum, and I'm very impressed with her writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 29 December, 2014, 07:20:29 pm
The Domesday Book (no not that one) by Howard of Warwick. Very funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 29 December, 2014, 11:07:10 pm
I'm taking a little break from the Discworld to launch myself head-first into ALL the Tolkien. I've read some of it in dribs and drabs over the years but I've either forgotten or didn't notice the importance of half of it, so now I'm actually paying attention.

At my usual pace I expect to be finished a few weeks after I die of old age.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 December, 2014, 11:24:30 pm
I'm taking a little break from the Discworld to launch myself head-first into ALL the Tolkien. I've read some of it in dribs and drabs over the years but I've either forgotten or didn't notice the importance of half of it, so now I'm actually paying attention.

At my usual pace I expect to be finished a few weeks after I die of old age.

Some is more readable than others,  I've read The Hobbit & LOTR innumerable times,   I ploughed through The Silmarillion once in my late teens, and have not been tempted to return....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 December, 2014, 02:24:01 am
I never managed more than a few pages of the Silmarrillion, despite several attempts. I gave up when it eventually dawned on me that the problem was not my reading ability* but the fact that it's a shit book.

*I was off the scale on those school reading age tests by age 10.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 30 December, 2014, 09:59:29 am
While (IMHO) The Hobbit and all The Lord of The Rings were most excellent reads indeed are worth reading more than once The Silmarillon left me struggling, I thought it might be me, obviously not.

                 French Revolutions by Tim Moore for Christmas, I is rather enjoying it (while making me feel incredibly guilty that if this guy with noooo practice can do this why haven't I done something as I am on my trike most days, oh embarrassment  :facepalm:)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 December, 2014, 10:35:25 am
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Entertaining.

The Silmarillion was a book published to make more dough out of dead Daddy.  It was never intended to be readable, just to be bought.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 30 December, 2014, 10:46:10 am

The Silmarillion was a book published to make more dough out of dead Daddy.  It was never intended to be readable, just to be bought.




                                         That figures
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 December, 2014, 01:37:53 pm
Woe!  My Kindle has run out of voles, though at least it gave me a freebie copy of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" before the flatteries went bat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 30 December, 2014, 01:45:56 pm
I'm taking a little break from the Discworld to launch myself head-first into ALL the Tolkien. I've read some of it in dribs and drabs over the years but I've either forgotten or didn't notice the importance of half of it, so now I'm actually paying attention.
I can recommend the track-list I used for Tolkien <mumble> years ago: skip the Sillymarion and finish off with Bored Of The Rings instead. It's rather good, and you'll really need it by that stage!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 30 December, 2014, 11:18:59 pm
View from a Hill, by Mark Burgess. Very enjoyable so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 December, 2014, 03:10:43 pm
Just finished Peter May's "Enzo Files" series.  Enjoyable enough but somehwat formulaic.  You can guarantee that in the course of each book Enzo will get beaten up, have a brief affair with at least one female protagonist and have Troubles with at least one of his daughters.  And in the last one a suspect wears a béret.  This is ponciness of the very worst sort - the italics and Frenchification, not the headgear - and should be discouraged.  With a lump-hammer if necessary.

Common sense says that there must be at least two more as yet unwritten/unpublished, because Enzo tells us that this is so.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 31 December, 2014, 04:11:54 pm
I'm taking a little break from the Discworld to launch myself head-first into ALL the Tolkien.

Hobbit romped through, onto Fellowship which I seem to have on both my Kindle and in paperback. I'm going for the Kindle version mostly because the paperback is starting to fall apart.

In fact, I seem to have a small pile of Tolkien paperbacks I'd mostly forgotten about, usually pinched from my Dad, including two copies of The Hobbit which are both older than I am (one's pretty sturdy and one is rapidly disintegrating, so is being left well alone).

I never managed more than a few pages of the Silmarrillion, despite several attempts. I gave up when it eventually dawned on me that the problem was not my reading ability* but the fact that it's a shit book.

*I was off the scale on those school reading age tests by age 10.

Yeah, I'll see whether I actually read the Silmarillion. At best, it'll probably be behind Unfinished Tales and Tom Bombadil (I'm not that fussed for the poems, but they might grow on me.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 01 January, 2015, 10:45:00 am
I'm listening to "How to Flirt With A Naked Werewolf"

It's formulaic tosh with one dimensional characters and a 'plot' so predictable you've probably already guessed what happens.

I'm loving it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 01 January, 2015, 10:47:37 am
Don't you love these "self-help" books!?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 January, 2015, 11:45:45 am
Have finished "One Man and His Bike" by Mike Carter, am 2/3rds of the way through "Dust" and a 1/3 of the way through "Gironimo"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 01 January, 2015, 05:43:13 pm
I read these blog posts this week

http://mediadiversified.org/2014/12/26/top-ten-books-ive-read-this-year-a-feminist-perspective/

http://mediadiversified.org/2014/12/29/top-10-books-by-novelists-of-colour-published-in-2014/

I've read some of the books on the first list and none of the books on the second. I've bought some for my nook, added some to my "to be reserved" list on my library account, and just downloaded the library copy of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 January, 2015, 07:05:59 pm
After reading some comments here I worked my way through all 5 of Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" series,   highly entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 January, 2015, 09:03:33 pm
I read these blog posts this week

http://mediadiversified.org/2014/12/26/top-ten-books-ive-read-this-year-a-feminist-perspective/

I could take that list more seriously if it didn't include Remarkable Creatures, which is an awful piece of tat. Yes, from a "feminist" perspective it does at least place Mary Anning centre stage where she deserves to be, but then it spoils the effect somewhat with a tawdry cliched invented sex scene that has no basis in historical fact and massively diminishes Anning's status as a self-determining human being.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 January, 2015, 12:57:31 am
Out Of Time by CM Saunders.

A short spine-chilling novella about a writer with a dark secret who finds himself having a very strange holiday adventure... Not my usual kind of thing but the author is a friend so I thought I'd give it a go. First half is a bit meh but once the weirdness kicks in, it gets better. And quite gruesome at times. I predicted the twist in the ending though. Anyway, not bad in a Tales Of The Unexpected / Twilight Zone / Hammer House Of Horror kind of way - fine if you like that kind of thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 03 January, 2015, 10:57:56 am
Don't you love these "self-help" books!?

O. My. G.
It's a trilogy.

Now enjoying The Art of Seducing A Naked Werewolf.


I'll get my real brain back eventually.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 03 January, 2015, 11:07:32 am
Don't you love these "self-help" books!?

O. My. G.
It's a trilogy.

Now enjoying The Art of Seducing A Naked Werewolf.

I'll get my real brain back eventually.
Love the category it's in:
www.amazon.co.uk › Books › Romance › Paranormal › General

I don't want to know what the 'non-general' sub-categories are ... :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 03 January, 2015, 11:54:49 pm
Worked my way through Copeland: Alan Turing's Electronic Brain, then Alan Turing: The Enigma. Just starting on an abridged version of D'Arcy Thompson's Growth and Form.

I do have a copy of The Breakaway on the Kindle to read in due course.

In between times I am revising my maths education with some elementary calculus.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 January, 2015, 01:48:21 am
Natchez Burning ~ Greg Iles

GN: 800+ pages so will keep me going for a day or two
BN: Fifth of a series, the first four of which I have not read
GN: Stephen King likes it
BN: Dan Brown likes it

Thanks for Greg Iles, perfect accompaniment to manflu what I have been SUFFERING with. I've gone for chronological order and chewed my way through the first two Penn Cage stories. Raymond Chandler, he's not, it's a shame he hasn't got a good editor, but enjoyed none the less. I seem to have no 3 on my Kindle now.

Encouraged by this I am now kindling my way through the earlier ones.  Currently at 72% of the first one because iTunes keeps requiring my attention.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 04 January, 2015, 07:00:17 am
Having got a kindle for Christmas I am enjoying EF Benson, starting with Queen Lucia.
I have also made a start on Underworld by Don DeLillo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Marco Stefano on 04 January, 2015, 08:30:06 am
I inherited the complete works of Dickens a couple of years ago, now reading Martin Chuzzlewit. Once tuned in to the writing pattern & language, very enjoyable and funny, similar to Wodehouse (well, the other way round, but you get the drift).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 January, 2015, 08:59:57 am
And i have just started re-reading  David Copperfield, and am finding it a joy - a bit of comfort reading for this time of year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 January, 2015, 02:09:52 pm
The Race Against The Stasi: The Incredible Story Of Dieter Wiedemann, The Iron Curtain And The Greatest Cycling Race On Earth by Herbie Sykes

Having heard several recommendations for this from various sources, I downloaded it for my Kindle the other day and started it yesterday. Very good so far, a fascinating story well told - I'd go so far as to say it's living up to its lengthy subtitle so far. Properly educational too - Dieter Wiedemann and the Peace Race are subjects I knew absolutely nothing about before starting this. Only other remark I would add is that due to the format, with lots of short interviews interspersed with documents from the Stasi files, it doesn't work particularly well on an ereader - this is one that would probably be better to read in print.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 January, 2015, 02:15:28 pm
Having got a kindle for Christmas I am enjoying EF Benson, starting with Queen Lucia.

Funnily enough, the Mapp & Lucia books were among the first I added to my Kindle when I got it. I got totally hooked on them and read the whole series over the space of a few months in late 2012. :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 January, 2015, 12:50:34 pm
I read these blog posts this week

http://mediadiversified.org/2014/12/26/top-ten-books-ive-read-this-year-a-feminist-perspective/

http://mediadiversified.org/2014/12/29/top-10-books-by-novelists-of-colour-published-in-2014/

I've read some of the books on the first list and none of the books on the second. I've bought some for my nook, added some to my "to be reserved" list on my library account, and just downloaded the library copy of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
I'm about 80 pages from the end of Americanah, and I don't want it to finish. Loving it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 07 January, 2015, 01:09:05 am
H is for Hawk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/H-Hawk-Helen-Macdonald/dp/0224097008/). Not really sure how to categorise this one - it's part memoir, part nature book, part biography of TH White, part elegy to the author's father, even enough of a falconry manual to give a numpty like me delusions of knowing something about the subject - but I read it at a sitting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 13 January, 2015, 10:01:24 am
Mary Beard - Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations

This is basically a collections of her book reviews from the LRB, TLS etc of other authors books on classical subjects plus some lectures she has given. Unless you have some knowledge of the classics don't bother but if you do its insightful and funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 January, 2015, 11:10:55 am
In dead tree version, this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hungry-Cyclist-Pedalling-Americas/dp/0007278845

In pixellated data version, this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Believe-Yesterday-through-History-Adventures/dp/0099492989/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421147394&sr=1-11&keywords=tim+moore

The former is much better than the latter, but that could be to do with me having more interest in cycling than historical re-enactment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 14 January, 2015, 05:47:43 pm
Tacitus - the complete works

That is "The Histories" "The Annals" and "Germania". Just had the 2009 Everyman edition in hardback delivered today and its gorgeous. It's the 19th century translation by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb which has been a standard for a lot of the last century. It has a long forward by Robin Lane Fox and notes etc added by Eleanor Cowan. Its hardback on lovely paper with a bookmark and great typesetting. A bargain for £10, that's hardly more than a slim Penguin Classics paperback.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 15 January, 2015, 12:46:32 pm
Popped over to Wantage the other day to visit a real ale pub called The Shoulder of Mutton, OMG what a pub but that's for another thread, we stumbled upon a most amazing second hand bookshop (Regent Furniture and Books in Newbury Street) think Cemetery of Forgotten Books in The Shadow of the Wind, lots of tiny alcoves rammed with books.
     Anyway I got Four Tales by Joseph Conrad (The Worlds Classics series) and am getting stuck into that, I shall have to save up, borrow a trailer and go over there again.
                        Oh yes, and the beer in the pub was excellent although Barbara was sat there as I stuck my nose into my book

                                                                                                :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 15 January, 2015, 06:14:10 pm
Happy to lend you a trailer quint  :)!.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 16 January, 2015, 10:52:40 am
Cheers  8)  Happy new year to you and many trouble free miles   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 January, 2015, 10:55:42 am
Finished the Tim Moore book and now am on "The Empty Throne" by Bernard Cornwall.

Quite good, but his description of which Uthred it is narrating the book is a bit tedious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 19 January, 2015, 06:33:20 pm
Conundrum, by Jan Morris. I first read this book when it was suggested to me by what I now perceive to have been a remarkably clear-sighted librarian, when I was around fourteen. One of two formative pieces in my understanding of life, the other being the hatchet job on April Ashley I read in '69 or '70.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 24 January, 2015, 05:54:05 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 25 January, 2015, 03:12:52 pm
I quite enjoy Lee Child's offerings, I don't mind admitting. Just finished one which reminded me to share the name of a baddie (now written out) - Randy Pope  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arry_b on 25 January, 2015, 03:57:48 pm
I've enjoyed this, it's a Pratchett / Douglas Adams tale of mystic Devon folk, and only a couple of quid on Kindle.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bubble-Time-Lyonnesse-Tales-Book-ebook/dp/B00BNWH4KI
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 January, 2015, 04:41:17 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.

A bit odd, I found.  Might return to it and actually finish it, sometime.

Meanwhile I am reading "The Art of Asking" by Amanda Palmer.

"Who?" I hear you ask? Well she is the wife of one Neil Gaiman and used to be the front person of a "Dark Cabaret Act" called Dresden Dolls.

A useful book that has already managed to make me £8500, just by asking...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 26 January, 2015, 04:52:13 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.

A bit odd, I found.  Might return to it and actually finish it, sometime.

Meanwhile I am reading "The Art of Asking" by Amanda Palmer.

"Who?" I hear you ask? Well she is the wife of one Neil Gaiman and used to be the front person of a "Dark Cabaret Act" called Dresden Dolls.

A useful book that has already managed to make me £8500, just by asking...

They haven't officially split, have they?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 26 January, 2015, 04:56:18 pm
Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre - It's a Jack Parlabane novel but has the feel more of his recent Jasmine Sharp novels (Parlabane is less smug for one thing due to both circumstances and writing style I felt).

Very much enjoyed and inhaled in half a day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 January, 2015, 05:07:59 pm
@Mr B

Who? Dresden Dolls? Not officially, IIRC they are still on their extended hiatus.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 26 January, 2015, 05:17:47 pm
@Mr B

Who? Dresden Dolls? Not officially, IIRC they are still on their extended hiatus.

Yep, them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 January, 2015, 05:20:01 pm
@Mr B

Who? Dresden Dolls? Not officially, IIRC they are still on their extended hiatus.

Yep, them.

I think she is too busy being Mrs Gaiman, writing books and meditating to go back on the road.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 January, 2015, 09:54:00 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.

A bit odd, I found.  Might return to it and actually finish it, sometime.


Finished it. Loved it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 27 January, 2015, 12:40:31 pm
...onto Fellowship which I seem to have on both my Kindle and in paperback. I'm going for the Kindle version mostly because the paperback is starting to fall apart.

Fellowship done, and I need a break from the Tolkien already. I don't seem to have the mental energy to read another book that big, so I've gone for something lighter - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 January, 2015, 05:29:14 pm
Been bingeing on Wodehouse lately...

The Small Bachelor - based on a musical he co-wrote with Guy Bolton and dates from 1927, so very much golden era Wodehouse. Brilliantly bafflingly convoluted plot. Very funny.

The White Feather - 1907, an early school story about a boy's attempt to recover his honour following an episode of cowardliness. Pretty good on the whole, but still very much the work of a writer learning his craft and discovering his style. A definite improvement on The Gold Bat (1904) but not yet as polished as Mike (1909), which is easily the best of his school books. A few unfortunate signs of an "of its era" outlook (you'd have to call Wodehouse institutionally racist rather than maliciously racist but you would hope for better from someone of his apparent intelligence).

Uncle Fred In The Springtime - 1939, yet another Blandings story involving people posing as other people and attempted pig theft. I don't particularly mind his habit of rehashing storylines but this feels a bit stale compared to Blandings classics such as Leave It To Psmith and Summer Lightning. Meh.

Money For Nothing - 1928, another bona fide classic, this time featuring the notorious criminals Dolly and Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist, who are among my favourite recurring Wodehouse characters. Not one of his very best but still wonderful by most normal standards.

Tales Of St Austins - 1903, a collection of short school stories, all of which had previously appeared in The Public School magazine. A lot of in jokes that you'd probably only get if you attended a minor English public school at the turn of the century. Plotting is thin - extremely thin by Wodehouse standards - but there are some good lines. Interesting mainly for its historical value.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 February, 2015, 12:42:09 am
My Idea Of Fun - Will Self

First read this about 20 years ago when it was new. Loved it at the time. Now, rediscovering it, I feel it possibly deserves to be considered a genuine classic, albeit still the work of an immature writer. Not perfect but quite brilliant. And very funny.

Also, wtf was he on when he wrote it? At a conservative estimate... everything.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 February, 2015, 08:48:23 am
Poor Things - Alasdair Gray.

Strange fellow, Gray, almost sadistic in his writing. Not what people think of as satire these days - much more grotesque, and fascinating.

Some rat walked off with my Penguin 60 of Five Letters from an Eastern Empire.  >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 February, 2015, 01:27:56 pm
My Idea Of Fun - Will Self

First read this about 20 years ago when it was new. Loved it at the time. Now, rediscovering it, I feel it possibly deserves to be considered a genuine classic, albeit still the work of an immature writer. Not perfect but quite brilliant. And very funny.

Also, wtf was he on when he wrote it? At a conservative estimate... everything.

OTOH it wasn't my idea of fun :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 February, 2015, 01:42:07 pm
OTOH it wasn't my idea of fun :(

Indeed, I remember you expressing that opinion before. It's partly because of discussions here of Mr Self's work that I decided to re-read it - it's such a long time since I first read it that my recollection of it is scant to say the least, besides which I was so much younger and greener then and I'm interested to see if I feel differently about it now I'm older and wiser(ish).

Unlike Donna Tartt's Secret History, which I *HATED* on re-reading as a grown-up, I'm finding that MIOF has actually improved with age.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 February, 2015, 01:47:53 pm
I may have to give it another go; it must be the thick end of ten years since ai read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 February, 2015, 02:14:25 pm
Finished Rivers of London and have moved onto Moon Over Soho.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 February, 2015, 08:43:30 pm
This http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dancing-Big-Eunice-Frontline-Fractured/dp/1906817286/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I bought it a few years ago and lent it to a social worker who promptly changed jobs and never returned the book. So I bought a new copy. A friend of mine knows Alistair Findlay and says in some parts of West Lothian, where social work children's services used to be known as "prevention of cruelty to children," he wouold knock at the doors and be announced as "the cruelty's here."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 04 February, 2015, 08:57:33 pm
Most of the way through the fifth of The Cycling Anthology series, I have the feeling they are running out of ideas, don't see how though, my daughter (to cheer me up re hospital visit) bought me "The Country Set" more of a dip into rather than read, tis by Hannah Dale and the drawings are most excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 February, 2015, 09:37:15 am
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Early doors yet but signs are good, especially with a main character named Joe Spork.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 06 February, 2015, 12:51:53 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.

Thanks for that, on a whim I added to my holiday reading, I'd say the book is more satisfying than the ending, but overall enjoyed. May even go and find some of her others as apparently that is her 10th book.

ETA apparently, that's the only one in Kindle format so I won't be having any others in a hurry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Thing2 on 07 February, 2015, 02:13:23 am
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Early doors yet but signs are good, especially with a main character named Joe Spork.

I've just finished it, and I enjoyed it muchly. It had me in giggles in some places, which is very rare for a book.
I've recommended it to the friend who is letting me borrow Rivers of London, which I am really looking forward to (mostly due to the praise on here).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 February, 2015, 08:33:52 am
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Early doors yet but signs are good, especially with a main character named Joe Spork.

A faiseuse d'anges in C18/C19 France was an abortionist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 07 February, 2015, 09:56:50 am
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Early doors yet but signs are good, especially with a main character named Joe Spork.

I've just finished it, and I enjoyed it muchly. It had me in giggles in some places, which is very rare for a book.
I've recommended it to the friend who is letting me borrow Rivers of London, which I am really looking forward to (mostly due to the praise on here).

If you want the series on epub, let me know.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 07 February, 2015, 10:23:46 am
Just finished The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

A novel about social injustice in Britain, set in the 1920s.

It could have been written last week.  I've come over all socialist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 February, 2015, 11:37:04 am
Lucy Porter mentioned the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in her show last night, which made me think I should get my son to read it - he's 16 and studying history for A-level so I think really needs to read it.

So should I, for that matter.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 07 February, 2015, 11:40:12 am
I only read it, because I had a really interesting patient I was chatting to, who recommended it.  He seemed like the kind of wise old chap I should take notice of, so I did read it, and I'm glad I took up his suggestion.

I just need to find a proper Party For The Working Man to vote for now at the election  ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 February, 2015, 01:38:39 pm
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Early doors yet but signs are good, especially with a main character named Joe Spork.

I've just finished it, and I enjoyed it muchly. It had me in giggles in some places, which is very rare for a book.
I've recommended it to the friend who is letting me borrow Rivers of London, which I am really looking forward to (mostly due to the praise on here).

Good-oh.  It was a pressie from Dr Larrington, whose form for book recommendations is generally pretty good.  We are eagerly awaiting the Anbaric Distascope adaptation of "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell", wot was another one of hers.  I suppose I ought to re-read it before that happens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 07 February, 2015, 01:47:20 pm
Gibson's Peripheral is glowing in my TBR pile, and now this on the radio:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02j2b59

William Gibson
World Book Club

This month World Book Club talks to cult American-Canadian writer William Gibson about his much garlanded novel that launched the cyberpunk generation with one of the last century’s most potent visions of the cyberspace future.

The first winner of the science fiction ‘triple crown’ of awards for the genre, Neuromancer conjures a nightmare world of concrete megacities trapped under geodesic domes and run by shadowy megacorps. Washed-up computer hacker Case longs to escape by jacking into the technicolour but terrifying virtual reality of the Matrix, and is glad to be hired by a mysterious employer and his alluring sidekick Molly to pull off the ultimate hack.

55 minutes
 
Tomorrow
20:05
GMT
BBC WORLD SERVICE
 
Wed 11 Feb 2015
09:05
GMT
BBC WORLD SERVICE

(I always like the way World Service schedules include the "GMT" )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 09 February, 2015, 09:42:20 pm
It is, I think, about time I had another crack at reading the combined A Feast For Crows/A Dance With Dragons (http://boiledleather.com/post/25902554148/a-new-reader-friendly-combined-reading-order-for-a) (books four and five of A Song of Ice and Fire).

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23853117/YACF/20150209%20AFFC%20ADWD%20reading%20order.png)

I haz a spreadsheet. Reading a book shouldn't need a spreadsheet.  :facepalm:


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 11 February, 2015, 06:48:58 pm
Um. Naughty post. New book in throes of publishing: "Sweat and Tears"; should be available in next day or so.

Anyone with lingering abuse triggers should stay away.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 11 February, 2015, 07:38:24 pm
William Gibson's Peripheral is glowing in my TBR pile,
30 pages in - I have no idea what is going on.

I've never had this problem with Gibson,  and I've read plenty of weird SF shit over the years. Has his prose gotten even more terse and opaque?  Or am I just getting older and dumber?:-\

EDIT: Aha! Just read the spoiler-laden Guardian review. The comments are mostly:
"I was ready to give up after 50 pages - but then read this review. Thanks!"

I feel better now  ;D
(but I'm a bit disapointed in Gibson - books shouldn't be this hard to follow. I'd read Booker winners for that sort of thing. )

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 15 February, 2015, 08:24:03 pm
Re-reading White Fang by Jack London, the horror story from which every horror film ever takes its template.

It's brilliant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 February, 2015, 11:51:54 am
Finally finished "Angelmaker", which was OK but not, I think, worthy of the praise plastered all over the cover.  Which means I'll have to think of something else for Miss von Brandenburg's birthday present chiz.  Now on "Prayer For The Dead", the fifth instalment of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series.  Halfway between Rebus and Peter Grant - set in Edinburgh and with mild supernatural overtones.  I am fervently hoping that no further Heavy Things land on top of his newly-restored Alfa.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 16 February, 2015, 12:06:05 pm
Finally finished "Angelmaker", which was OK but not, I think, worthy of the praise plastered all over the cover.  Which means I'll have to think of something else for Miss von Brandenburg's birthday present chiz.  Now on "Prayer For The Dead", the fifth instalment of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series.  Halfway between Rebus and Peter Grant - set in Edinburgh and with mild supernatural overtones.  I am fervently hoping that no further Heavy Things land on top of his newly-restored Alfa.

Which Alfa? I may have to acquire, although I will first have to manually disengage the automatic safety mechanism that clicked in with the words "supernatural overtones"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 February, 2015, 03:25:25 pm
'Proud', by Gareth Thomas and ghost.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 February, 2015, 06:15:45 pm
Finally finished "Angelmaker", which was OK but not, I think, worthy of the praise plastered all over the cover.  Which means I'll have to think of something else for Miss von Brandenburg's birthday present chiz.  Now on "Prayer For The Dead", the fifth instalment of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series.  Halfway between Rebus and Peter Grant - set in Edinburgh and with mild supernatural overtones.  I am fervently hoping that no further Heavy Things land on top of his newly-restored Alfa.

Which Alfa? I may have to acquire, although I will first have to manually disengage the automatic safety mechanism that clicked in with the words "supernatural overtones"

Doesn't say specifically but it's from the 70s and has a roof, so my guess would be a Tipo 105/115 GT - the 1963-77 one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 16 February, 2015, 08:00:17 pm
Finally finished "Angelmaker", which was OK but not, I think, worthy of the praise plastered all over the cover.  Which means I'll have to think of something else for Miss von Brandenburg's birthday present chiz.  Now on "Prayer For The Dead", the fifth instalment of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series.  Halfway between Rebus and Peter Grant - set in Edinburgh and with mild supernatural overtones.  I am fervently hoping that no further Heavy Things land on top of his newly-restored Alfa.

Which Alfa? I may have to acquire, although I will first have to manually disengage the automatic safety mechanism that clicked in with the words "supernatural overtones"

Doesn't say specifically but it's from the 70s and has a roof, so my guess would be a Tipo 105/115 GT - the 1963-77 one.

Hot damn. A roof you say? Probably the GT Junior, ordinary version. Even an writer couldn't destroy a Zagato bodied one, shirley?

I may have to get involved.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 February, 2015, 08:10:10 am
Deffo a roof, and rear seats big enough to fit DC Stuart MacBride into.  It doesn't play a major role in the way that Morse's Lancia Jag does, though it might if the books ever get ruined for the Anbaric Distascope.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 17 February, 2015, 01:18:43 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.

A bit odd, I found.  Might return to it and actually finish it, sometime.

I quite enjoyed that.  I don't know where I thought it was going, but then it headed up somewhere completely different, the "number 14" moment I would guess.

I've been rereading bits from Andy Weir's "The Martian".  The story of the book is good too.  One moment he's publishing installments on the internet, then he self publishes it as a Kindle book, then he's got a Publisher, and now Ridley Scott is filming it.  Looking forward to seeing it.

 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 February, 2015, 01:27:24 pm
William Gibson's Peripheral is glowing in my TBR pile,
30 pages in - I have no idea what is going on.

I've never had this problem with Gibson,  and I've read plenty of weird SF shit over the years. Has his prose gotten even more terse and opaque?  Or am I just getting older and dumber?:-\
...

I'm around p.30 as well. Sort-of getting it.  If he were a fencer he'd use absence-of-blade all the time - nothing much to get hold of.

Just finished Neil Gaiman's "The Ocean at the Bottom of the Lane".  Nice little story - Guillermo del Toro could make a nice little film out of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 17 February, 2015, 01:34:00 pm
Deffo a roof, and rear seats big enough to fit DC Stuart MacBride into.  It doesn't play a major role in the way that Morse's Lancia Jag does, though it might if the books ever get ruined for the Anbaric Distascope.

Ah, gentlemen, that reminds me.

Anyone else devoured the James Leasor (author), Jason Love books? Plus his They Don't Make Them Like That Any More (http://www.amazon.co.uk/They-Dont-Make-Them-Like-ebook/dp/B004T5WQAY/)

It is some years in the past wot I read them, I may go for the Kindle versions and see how they read 30+ years on. As I recall, they were the very best fictional story PROPER CAR books evah, he really knew and loved old cars. Plus, James Leasor qualifies as a PROPER GOOD EGG, having entered into a correspondence with one of his fawning readers, and invited said reader to visit and see his Cord. Regrettably, no photographic record exists :(

I commend his books to the house.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 February, 2015, 01:52:17 pm
The Girl Who Played With Fire

File under More Of The Same. The blend of obsessively detailed descriptions of products and obsessively detailed descriptions of torture and murder remind me in some ways of American Psycho. I wonder if Stieg Larsson was a Brett Easton Ellis fan. ;)

It's a bit of an antidote to all the PG Wodehouse I've been mainlining recently.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 17 February, 2015, 10:21:09 pm
Finally finished "Angelmaker", which was OK but not, I think, worthy of the praise plastered all over the cover.  Which means I'll have to think of something else for Miss von Brandenburg's birthday present chiz.  Now on "Prayer For The Dead", the fifth instalment of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series.  Halfway between Rebus and Peter Grant - set in Edinburgh and with mild supernatural overtones.  I am fervently hoping that no further Heavy Things land on top of his newly-restored Alfa.

Which Alfa? I may have to acquire, although I will first have to manually disengage the automatic safety mechanism that clicked in with the words "supernatural overtones"

Doesn't say specifically but it's from the 70s and has a roof, so my guess would be a Tipo 105/115 GT - the 1963-77 one.

Hot damn. A roof you say? Probably the GT Junior, ordinary version. Even an writer couldn't destroy a Zagato bodied one, shirley?

I may have to get involved.

OK, so which was the first one.....Natural Causes.... HOW MUCH? ? ? ? let's have a look anyhow......
Quote
Instant Order Update for a forgetful dickhead. You purchased this item on 24 July 2013

Don't remember an Alfa in that, don't remember the opening passages, must have been on a freebie/cheapie and succumbed to the Great Amazon Kindle Software Update of 2014 - the one where they trashed the collections of anyone who shared accounts across devices and people.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 February, 2015, 10:30:48 pm
The Alfa may not have shown up until volume two...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 18 February, 2015, 10:41:30 am
Turned out what I was looking at was the first few pages of volume 2 at the end of Vol 1, turned back to the beginning and remembered reading (and enjoying) but leaving me with the vol 2 option at nigh on £6, which roughly translates into "wait until Amazon does 'em on special"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 February, 2015, 01:12:51 am
Risk of getting this thread split and bits of it carted off to "Vroom" notwithstanding, in "The Book Of Souls" the Alfa is identified as a 1969 GTV, which would perforce make it:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 February, 2015, 06:05:29 pm
This week's read is "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy.

Quite good so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 26 February, 2015, 10:00:25 pm
Risk of getting this thread split and bits of it carted off to "Vroom" notwithstanding, in "The Book Of Souls" the Alfa is identified as a 1969 GTV, which would perforce make it:
  • a 1750, and
  • way past my bedtime


Mmmmm.... The 1750 was the best of the engines IMO, as having owned 1300, 1600, 1750 & 2000 at different times. Not that I was ever addicted to them, no.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 26 February, 2015, 10:03:30 pm
Wolf Hall.  It's a good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 February, 2015, 09:15:35 am
Dear Ms. Mantel,

I was shocked, and disappointed, to find that your prize-winning novel "Wolf Hall" does not have any actual wolves.  In it.

Money back please!

Sir David Attenborough
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 February, 2015, 01:34:09 pm
Never mind Wolves, Wolf Hall doesn't even have Wolf Hall in it.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 27 February, 2015, 04:33:07 pm
Never mind Wolves, Wolf Hall doesn't even have Wolf Hall in it.



It's mentioned a lot thobut.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 27 February, 2015, 08:13:03 pm
Dnfed the book, but I'm 90% sure the telly version visits there lots.

 :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 February, 2015, 08:38:00 pm
Telly version covers both books though.

I need to catch up with the telly version. I've only seen the first episode so far but I've got the rest saved up. Might be worth a binge at some point.

Also need to re-read the books before the third part comes out later this year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 27 February, 2015, 09:46:31 pm
Just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go).
Feel like a grown up again. Loved it's meaty thought-provoking deceptive simplicity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 27 February, 2015, 10:50:12 pm
Just finished Hannibal by Thomas Harris. Easy read for the train journey. 
Although a bit ghoulish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 28 February, 2015, 03:09:48 pm
When Andustar gave me his no longer required Sony e-reader, it had lots and lots of Agatha Christie novels on it. Eventually it packed in and I got a Nook, but since I had the e-reader, I started working my way through all the Poirots in order, and this week I finished them (apart from the Sophie Hannah one, which I will read soon).

The thing about the Poirots is that apart from Murder on the Orient Express which is genius, the plots are all the same. Someone is murdered. Poirot says "someone knows something which is a clue to who the murderer is. That person needs to come and tell me before the murderer kills them too." Then the person who knows the clue gets murdered, and then he works it all out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 March, 2015, 01:17:54 pm
Just finished Andy Weir's The Martian. Highly recommended.

The guy must do Audax. Here's the last sentence of the book:

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 March, 2015, 01:50:24 pm
I'm sorry, said it before, but  I got through about a third of the way through The Martian – thought it was awful. The formulaic (outline problem > propose solutions > solve problem)n. The prose couldn't have been flatter if a hippo had sat on it to contemplate joining Weight Watchers. I didn't you know could make being stranded in Mars sound less exciting than spending a night a Basingstoke Travelodge but by god, this guy has done it. Is it too late to order a pizza? Let's review the leaflet. Hmm, ham and pineapple. I know I will try phoning Dominoes. Oh, a pizza has arrived. The main character seemed to have left his personality back on Earth. The interior lights were out and I wasn't sure anyone was home. Did anyone care about him? Did he care about anyone? He didn't seem to have actual life. Maybe he finds it under a rock later in the book. Perhaps he marries a one of those little robots we've left crawling around down there.

Science was off too. No knock-you-over wind on Mars for starters, and erm, you're not going to grow plants successfully like that. Blah.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 March, 2015, 03:55:49 pm
Oh well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 March, 2015, 03:58:39 pm
This week's read is "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy.

Quite good so far.

Now onto "Authority", the second in the trilogy.

Still have NFI what is happening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 March, 2015, 04:09:14 pm
This week's read is "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy.

Quite good so far.

Now onto "Authority", the second in the trilogy.

Still have NFI what is happening.

Looks entertaining. Might have a go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 March, 2015, 04:15:47 pm
I'm sorry, said it before, but  I got through about a third of the way through The Martian – thought it was awful. The formulaic (outline problem > propose solutions > solve problem)n. The prose couldn't have flatter if a hippo had sat on it to contemplate joining Weight Watchers. I didn't you know could make being stranded in Mars sound less exciting than spending a night a Basingstoke Travelodge but by god, this guy has done it. Is it too late to order a pizza? Let's review the leaflet. Hmm, ham and pineapple. I know I will try phoning Dominoes. Oh, a pizza has arrived. The main character seemed to have left his personality back on Earth. The interior lights were out and I wasn't sure anyone was home. Did anyone care about him? Did he care about anyone? He didn't seem to have actual life. Maybe he finds it under a rock later in the book. Perhaps he marries a one of those little robots we've left crawling around down there.

Science was off too. No knock-you-over wind on Mars for starters, and erm, you're not going to grow plants successfully like that. Blah.

FWIW the science is off in most SF. When it's way out hyperspace etc you just sit back and enjoy the ride, when it attempts to be a bit closer to reality people stick pins in it.  If Jim Lovell's book Lost Moon bore an SF label people would be picking at it.

I thought the bloke a wee bit too serendipitous but all it all it was a good yarn and had a few good chuckles in it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 March, 2015, 05:43:35 pm
I'm sorry, said it before, but  I got through about a third of the way through The Martian – thought it was awful. The formulaic (outline problem > propose solutions > solve problem)n. The prose couldn't have flatter if a hippo had sat on it to contemplate joining Weight Watchers. I didn't you know could make being stranded in Mars sound less exciting than spending a night a Basingstoke Travelodge but by god, this guy has done it. Is it too late to order a pizza? Let's review the leaflet. Hmm, ham and pineapple. I know I will try phoning Dominoes. Oh, a pizza has arrived. The main character seemed to have left his personality back on Earth. The interior lights were out and I wasn't sure anyone was home. Did anyone care about him? Did he care about anyone? He didn't seem to have actual life. Maybe he finds it under a rock later in the book. Perhaps he marries a one of those little robots we've left crawling around down there.

Science was off too. No knock-you-over wind on Mars for starters, and erm, you're not going to grow plants successfully like that. Blah.

FWIW the science is off in most SF. When it's way out hyperspace etc you just sit back and enjoy the ride, when it attempts to be a bit closer to reality people stick pins in it.  If Jim Lovell's book Lost Moon bore an SF label people would be picking at it.

I thought the bloke a wee bit too serendipitous but all it all it was a good yarn and had a few good chuckles in it.

Yeah but, there's reams of technical description, and that kind of problem solving is the grist of the book, so it ought to stand up to scrutiny. I can suspend disbelief about hyperdrives and the like because it's a device that nudges a plot where it needs to go, how it works is generally not integral to the plot. Unless it's a book about hyperdrives. Which sounds pretty dull. Unless they're like the one on our mothership which went wrong and turned everyone on subdecks 1829-345G through H inside out. It's still a bit weird down there and they never did get rid of the smell.

Anyway, it's not for me to dictate what others enjoy (I made that mistake when I tried to prove that Dan Brown's Inferno was actually readable and people that said otherwise were just being intellectual bullies, and as a result ended up mentally soiling myself) but I don't get the hype about this book and the comparison with Robinson Crusoe is a bit cheeky, since Defoe wrote a classic novel where you cared about Robinson, and there was tension and characters, and entire thing is memorable. Everyone remembers the footprints in the sand.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 04 March, 2015, 05:48:51 pm
.... and the infinite improbablitiy drive is a perfect example of how it should be done. And, if you don't agree with it, you can drink the tea.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 March, 2015, 05:53:12 pm
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 March, 2015, 09:27:58 pm
But how many people remember Robinson stripping naked, swimming out to the sinking ahip and filling his pockets with Useful Things?  This seems unlikely for any non-marsupial life form.

Did your mothership's Accident with the hyperdrive happen in the summer of 2006, ian?  If so it would explain a lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 March, 2015, 09:35:10 pm
Never underestimate the value of a good editor. A million self-published Kindle books agree.

The hyperdrive blew in 2010. But in 2006, there was the teleporter incident. While superficially similar, that malfunction didn't exactly turn crew inside out, it performed some kind of anatomical origami on them. They're still straightening things out. No one goes down to that subdeck any more either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 March, 2015, 09:37:30 pm
But how many people remember Robinson stripping naked, swimming out to the sinking ahip and filling his pockets with Useful Things?  This seems unlikely for any non-marsupial life form.

Maybe his mother were a hamster.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 March, 2015, 10:05:34 pm
But how many people remember Robinson stripping naked, swimming out to the sinking ahip and filling his pockets with Useful Things?  This seems unlikely for any non-marsupial life form.

Maybe his mother were a hamster.

I doubt that's plausible. Hamsters are terrible swimmers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 March, 2015, 10:25:18 pm
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

Can't remember if I mentioned this already but it's so good it deserves to be mentioned again anyway. I love his determinedly middlebrow prose. He's the antithesis of Will Self, who I also love, as I may have mentioned, but for sheer readability, Mitchell takes the prize every time.

This is a fine example of a book that isn't spoiled by the improbability of its events, even though they can seem quite bizarre in the broadly naturalistic narrative.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 March, 2015, 09:54:49 am
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchel


I'm going to read this, and I'm holding you responsible Citoyen (I just spent an entire £2.80 on it). I want to know what middlebrow prose is. I'm trying to better myself, as my prose is probably lowbrow enough to be mistaken for a moustache.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 March, 2015, 10:00:03 am
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

Can't remember if I mentioned this already but it's so good it deserves to be mentioned again anyway. I love his determinedly middlebrow prose. He's the antithesis of Will Self, who I also love, as I may have mentioned, but for sheer readability, Mitchell takes the prize every time.

This is a fine example of a book that isn't spoiled by the improbability of its events, even though they can seem quite bizarre in the broadly naturalistic narrative.

I loved that book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 March, 2015, 10:09:19 am
I want to know what middlebrow prose is.

Has a sense of style but is so readable that it's liable to get a recommendation on the Richard & Judy book club. Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the paradigm.

David Mitchell is an accomplished writer and you get the feeling that he is deliberately aiming for readability but would be very capable of Will Self style verbal pyrotechnics if he turned his mind to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 05 March, 2015, 10:43:07 am
I want to know what middlebrow prose is.

Has a sense of style but is so readable that it's liable to get a recommendation on the Richard & Judy book club. Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the paradigm.

David Mitchell is an accomplished writer and you get the feeling that he is deliberately aiming for readability but would be very capable of Will Self style verbal pyrotechnics if he turned his mind to it.


Damn. David Mitchell? He was the author of that steaming  pile called Cloud Atlas, wasn't he? Had I realised I probably wouldn't have stumped up.

Isn't the Kindle a wonderous thing, click, click, read a couple of pages, buy, without ever being certain what the book is called or who wrote it.

You should be on commission.

So far, I'm enjoying it although I find it a little contrived, the characters a bit too two dimensional. Nobody said "Feck" in the 80's did they? and the female lead probably wouldn't have said "fuck" except with friends. I shall give it a chance.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 March, 2015, 10:47:42 am
Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the paradigm.

Oh shit. You could have warned me. If you'd been paying attention you'd know the kind of agitated state that even thinking of Louis de Bernières induces. My only attempt is the copy of Captain Corelli's Mandolin that likely still moulders in the undergrowth at the end of Frith Street W12 like forgotten nuclear waste.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 05 March, 2015, 10:55:28 am
I'm glad I'm not clever enough to despise Captain Corelli. I got a great deal of pleasure from it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 05 March, 2015, 11:03:07 am
Me too. I enjoyed his South American trilogy even more, which I believe could be described as 'Magical Realism', although I have never read any Gabriel García Márquez, so what do I know? But they did feature enormous cats, which was nice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 March, 2015, 11:05:46 am
As with all recommendations here or elsewhere, caveat emptor. ;)

So far, I'm enjoying it although I find it a little contrived, the characters a bit too two dimensional.

That, I think, is deliberate and all part of the effect. For me, it only serves to heighten the weirdness when it kicks in.

Quote
Nobody said "Feck" in the 80's did they?

I did wonder about that, but she has an Irish mother so...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 March, 2015, 11:44:01 am
I will countenance they I may be odd. But I found Captain Corelli's Mandolin to be insufferably cloying and the pacing just lolled around with all the animation of a dead fish floating in the harbour. It was all terribly, terribly I'm Going to Write a Proper Book. But it wasn't a book I wanted to read. I mean, I can understand it being not a bad book. But I did throw my copy over a hedge in a fit of enough already. It was also used to stun the albino assassin in my alternate denouement of the fabulous Dan Brown epic Inferno (you probably don't recall, as I think everyone had bailed out on that thread, that it was a casually tossed copy of CCM that saved our debonair historic symbologist (trust me, it's a job) from being shot by the menacing silhouette of the albino assassin). We should all be grateful for this as it allowed Robert Langdon to go on and buy some name brand tweed jackets and have sex with enigmatic, athletically striding European ladies. Possibly in jaundice coloured tights. Them, not him. And not during the sex. Although maybe that's a Thing too. I'm not Googling.

But then there's stuff like The Martian (and what was the other one I complained about, oh, Brilliance) which come loaded with five star reviews and gushing praise, but I think, hold on, this is genuinely awful. Now, when choosing a book (and I'm not very clever, which I believe you should have established by this point), I only read the one and two star reviews. This is pretty good practice, because if I ever publish a book, it'll probably only have one and two star reviews.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 March, 2015, 12:11:55 pm
I always read the 1 and 2 star reviews - they're often more informative than the 5 star reviews, whether or not I agree with them.

Being liked by Richard & Judy is usually enough to put me off a book, but I make an exception for David Mitchell. I loved Cloud Atlas too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 05 March, 2015, 01:51:15 pm
Books are like films though aren't they. It doesn't matter what the Great and the Good of the critical circle think, they could wax lyrical about how the prose drips like nectar from the pages or how the characters are about as engaging as a severely irritating STI being scrubbed down with bleach, if the book grabs you by the imagination bone, you will enjoy it.

I've watched and loved many a filum or read and enjoyed many a book slated by the circle. Fuck em.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 March, 2015, 06:56:52 pm
I loved Captain Corelli, despite the first 50 pages being a total slog and the last 50 being utterly infuriating and rage inducing. I love the South American trilogy even more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 05 March, 2015, 08:34:38 pm
Me too. I enjoyed his South American trilogy even more, which I believe could be described as 'Magical Realism', although I have never read any Gabriel García Márquez, so what do I know? But they did feature enormous cats, which was nice.

My favourite books in the whole world. :D
I tried a GGM book and it just got on my tits.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 March, 2015, 08:57:48 pm
Books are like films though aren't they. It doesn't matter what the Great and the Good of the critical circle think, they could wax lyrical about how the prose drips like nectar from the pages or how the characters are about as engaging as a severely irritating STI being scrubbed down with bleach, if the book grabs you by the imagination bone, you will enjoy it.

I've watched and loved many a filum or read and enjoyed many a book slated by the circle. Fuck em.

I dunno. I asked my friend Jess, south London's only vampire librarian, and she grades books using this matrix. CCM falls into the upper left yawn quadrant whereas The Martian is entrenched in the lower left premeditated murder quadrant.

(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn190/ianp_photo/Happy%20Now.001.png)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 06 March, 2015, 09:00:28 pm
I look at rose in two ways. Good prose should either astonish the reader with its style and originality, or it should disappear into the background so smoothly that the reader doesn't notice anything other than the plot. Bad prose can do neither. Mr Donaldson, I wish to drag neither a thesaurus nor the OED with me when I read a book. Your prose is very clever willy-waving wank. Mr Brown, yours is just Janet and John level shit.

What I like, in the main, is style 2 but with extras. I am re-reading Ted Sturgeon's short stories at the moment (as my Black Dog has locked up my own writing) and he drops little extras in that are like small non-dreaming jewels. Writing of a man with what may be learning difficulties of an odd sort, he writes that his character understands well but hears slowly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pingu on 08 March, 2015, 11:52:18 pm
The best bit about CCM was the pine marten :-)



Apart from when it died  :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 March, 2015, 11:09:47 am
This week's read is "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy.

Quite good so far.

Now onto "Authority", the second in the trilogy.

Still have NFI what is happening.

Now onto "Acceptance".

(click to show/hide)

I dunno....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 March, 2015, 11:33:12 am
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 March, 2015, 11:34:41 am
I'd not thought of that one, Mr L, could be (as it is set, at least the first book and most of the second book, anyway in the Florida Everglades).

You have spoilt it for me now :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 March, 2015, 11:39:17 am
ph33r my l33t r3m0t3 r3@d1ng 5k1llz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 March, 2015, 10:31:05 am
I like this review of The Bone Clocks - does a good job of picking out both what's good about it and its flaws - but be warned, it contains lots of SPOILERS...

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/08/soul-cycle

It is flawed, I'll admit that, but I still loved it. The big question is whether or not all this dazzling storytelling amounts to anything worth saying. Maybe, maybe not, but the corollary question is: does it really matter if it doesn't?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 March, 2015, 10:42:54 am
I read the first 50 pages last night I didn't suffer any kind of CCM reaction. I confess it's quite nicely written – I generally can't handle the sweaty, overwrought prose. I will ask Jess to rate it at the end. I hope she doesn't have to kill David Mitchell. I quite liked Peep Show.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 March, 2015, 10:46:05 am
I like this review of The Bone Clocks - does a good job of picking out both what's good about it and its flaws - but be warned, it contains lots of SPOILERS...

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/08/soul-cycle

It is flawed, I'll admit that, but I still loved it. The big question is whether or not all this dazzling storytelling amounts to anything worth saying. Maybe, maybe not, but the corollary question is: does it really matter if it doesn't?

Read that a while back.  A right touch of the Dennis Wheatleys at times, but tremendously enjoyable - which is what fiction is about for me.

Wife bought me an early PKD, Martian Timeslip, a while back.  Despite his being practically deified among SF authors I couldn't read it; it's just too stale.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 10 March, 2015, 01:47:18 pm
Do you work for Audible, citoyen? It's their deal of the day @ £3.49 (and in My Library now)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 March, 2015, 02:24:51 pm
Do you work for Audible, citoyen? It's their deal of the day @ £3.49 (and in My Library now)

No, but maybe I should - making money out of liking stuff is a good wheeze.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 11 March, 2015, 05:08:04 am
Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam.

As the title says, it's the story of the war in Vietnam from the (North) Vietnamese perspective.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 March, 2015, 10:38:44 am
No One Here Gets Out Alive ~ Jerry Hopkins & Danny Sugerman.  Biography of Mr Mojo Risin'.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 March, 2015, 03:16:46 pm
The Race Against The Stasi ~ Herbie Sykes.  The tale of East German cyclist Dieter Wiedemann, the Peace Race and various beastly totalitarianism fans.  Only just started but it comes highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 15 March, 2015, 12:33:36 am
I finally got round to reading Stanisław Lem's The Star Diaries, which I purchased years ago entirely on the basis of a newsgroup sig.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 March, 2015, 09:35:46 am
I finally got round to reading Stanisław Lem's The Star Diaries, which I purchased years ago entirely on the basis of a newsgroup sig.

(click to show/hide)

That's Lem for you. Haven't read that one. Or if I have, not for years, like maybe 40.  I liked The Invincible most, I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 March, 2015, 11:29:55 am
Oddly enough, I knew what that was going to be before clickying the Spoiler wossname.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 March, 2015, 09:50:34 am
The Race Against The Stasi ~ Herbie Sykes.  The tale of East German cyclist Dieter Wiedemann, the Peace Race and various beastly totalitarianism fans.  Only just started but it comes highly recommended.

I have finished this.  According to $STASI_STOOGE Wiedemann not only wanted to represent the DDR at the Olympic Games but also to be a Master Lathe Operator :o  It's easy to laugh at this sort of thing with the benefit of fifty+ years of West German fascist propaganda hindsight, to say nothing of the articles from the Ossi press (BRITONS would have chased the editor up a tree and set fire to it, I feel) and makes you wonder how they got away with it for so long.

Now on "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry.  No surprise that it's about the Manson Family; Bugliosi was the Deputy DA who prosecuted the Tate & LaBianca murders.  Any fundamental flaws it may have are so far masked by its superficial flaws, notably that it looks like a piss-poor photocopy picked up in a Saigon market rather than something for which I paid eight quid in Waterstones >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 16 March, 2015, 06:39:04 pm
Oddly enough, I knew what that was going to be before clickying the Spoiler wossname.

 ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 20 March, 2015, 08:45:48 am
This week's read is "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy.

Quite good so far.

Now onto "Authority", the second in the trilogy.

Still have NFI what is happening.

Now onto "Acceptance".

(click to show/hide)

I dunno....

Finished it, Acceptance was the most difficult to read, as it was really stilited for the first half of the book.  It then picked up and whizzed through to the end.  It is maybe a bit too long, and ...

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 March, 2015, 08:54:35 am
The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins

Didn't know what to read next so my wife suggested this. Took a bit of convincing but I'm loving it. A rollicking good read, replete with a cast of Damsels In Distress and Evil Italian Counts. It's as wordy as you'd expect of a mid-19th century novel but Old Man Collins has a pretty good turn of phrase.

And unlike most Famous Classics Wot I Never Read, I've so far gone through life without hearing how this one ends so no spoilers, please!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 March, 2015, 11:36:02 am
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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 24 March, 2015, 09:10:26 pm
Divergent.

It was recommended to me as a good read.  I'm afraid I found it pretty mediocre, even for teen fiction.  I don't intend to read the rest of the series.   Just silly, and superficial.

Next:  either Bring Up The Bodies, Mad Addam, or Life After Life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 24 March, 2015, 10:20:51 pm
I'm currently re-reading Blindsight by Peter Watts, as a warm up for the sequel Echopraxia.

This is not your typical humans meet aliens first contact story...... the "humans" are not quite baseline and the aliens are very alien indeed. 

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 March, 2015, 10:23:29 pm
After a false start last summer I am now tackling Carl Hiaasen in earnest.  And larrffing.  A lots.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 March, 2015, 10:41:18 am
Divergent.

It was recommended to me as a good read.  I'm afraid I found it pretty mediocre, even for teen fiction.  I don't intend to read the rest of the series.   Just silly, and superficial.

Next:  either Bring Up The Bodies, Mad Addam, or Life After Life.

What exactly is the deal with teen young adult fiction? No this isn't stand up, I'm genuinely a bit confused, because it's everywhere. What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented? How did they survive before we manufactured a genre that didn't solely feature them? Was I irrevocably damaged by reading adult literature? No, not that kind of adult literature, the other, the one with words.

I saw a couple of Hunger Games movies on a plane and they were a bit meh. Less young adult, more simple mind. Look at that plot  st r  e    t      c         h.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 March, 2015, 10:42:49 am
Redeployment by Phil Klay.

It is shit, badly written, assumes you have a knowledge of what US military acronyms mean and doesn't follow any order.

Avoid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 March, 2015, 11:34:01 am
Redeployment by Phil Klay.

It is shit, badly written, assumes you have a knowledge of what US military acronyms mean and doesn't follow any order.

Avoid.

See also Dale Brown ect. ect.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 25 March, 2015, 11:43:13 am
Quote

What exactly is the deal with teen young adult fiction? No this isn't stand up, I'm genuinely a bit confused, because it's everywhere. What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented? How did they survive before we manufactured a genre that didn't solely feature them? Was I irrevocably damaged by reading adult literature? No, not that kind of adult literature, the other, the one with words.

I saw a couple of Hunger Games movies on a plane and they were a bit meh. Less young adult, more simple mind. Look at that plot  st r  e    t      c         h.

       What is now Adult fiction of course, I remember reading She (Rider Haggard) and Riddle of the sands (Erskine Childers) along with various rubbish (Zane Grey) at quite a tender age and thoroughly enjoying them, the writing (esp in the likes of the first two) coupled with a young imagination meant that with a few strokes of the pen the reader was "there".

        There are some very good modern writers that can do this however there is also a lot of dross, was it always so ?

                                                                                                :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 25 March, 2015, 12:18:24 pm
It is, I think, about time I had another crack at reading the combined A Feast For Crows/A Dance With Dragons (http://boiledleather.com/post/25902554148/a-new-reader-friendly-combined-reading-order-for-a) (books four and five of A Song of Ice and Fire).

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23853117/YACF/20150209%20AFFC%20ADWD%20reading%20order.png)

I haz a spreadsheet. Reading a book shouldn't need a spreadsheet.  :facepalm:

Nearly two months later and I've finally finished it. Hard work with all the swapping, but not too much agro on a Kindle - trying to do it with two heavy paperbacks would have been a pain.

Next up, some more Pratchett I think. Then back to the Tolkien.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 25 March, 2015, 12:56:43 pm
What exactly is the deal with teen young adult fiction? No this isn't stand up, I'm genuinely a bit confused, because it's everywhere. What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented? How did they survive before we manufactured a genre that didn't solely feature them?

As an young teenager in the early 1980s I very much enjoyed the 'young adult' fiction of Bernard Ashley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Ashley_(author)) (Terry on the Fence and Break in the Sun were two favourites) and Joan Lingard's (http://joanlingard.co.uk/children.php) Kevin and Sadie books. Not that new.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 March, 2015, 01:12:43 pm
Oh I do get that, it's just the rather cynical marketing (after all, what were Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer), and a perception that YA is slapped on anything made to appeal to the valuable teen audience. There's also a faint whiff of American prudishness, where teens of course should be protected from the horrors of foul language and the throbbingly educational and much re-re-read sex scene on p172, the dread 'age-appropriate' material that's the bane of any US librarian. As a voracious reader in my teens, I emptied the library of practically anything and everything. In all honesty, I'm glad I read James Herbert and Stephen King rather than have to wade through Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. And I also got to digest Joyce, Hardy, and pretty much all the classics. Which is why I'm qualified to use big words inappropriately on the internet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 March, 2015, 06:49:16 pm
Back in the mid-to-late-80s, when I was a callow youth, I was similarly indiscriminate in my reading habits, but nothing could have induced me to read Thomas Hardy. I'm also kind of glad I didn't discover Joyce until I was a bit more grown up. Aged 15, I was mostly into Sue Townsend, Tom Sharpe and John Le Carré, as far as I can recall.

My sister was a big fan of Judy Blume. I read a few of her books myself and mostly liked them, though being a boy I found some aspects of them a bit icky.

Yes, YA is surely nothing more than a marketing term to make stuff saleable that no one would touch with a shitty barge pole otherwise.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 25 March, 2015, 07:21:44 pm
Ursula le Guinn's Earthsea was aimed at YAs, wasn't it?  And The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, which I loved.  I'd gladly read those again tomorrow.  I was reading Hardy, too, and enjoying it, in my teens.

Divergent wasn't even comparable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 March, 2015, 10:34:10 am
Gave up on REdeployment, and switched to The Girl on the Train Much, much better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 27 March, 2015, 08:34:52 am
Harry Harrison wrote what I think is adult fiction with a slant towards the sort of young adult he wanted to be.

The Stainless Steel Rat books were/ are a great read for proper grown ups but I discovered them as a callow yoof. Deathworld was on the same spectrum.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 27 March, 2015, 07:01:57 pm
I'm currently re-reading Blindsight by Peter Watts, as a warm up for the sequel Echopraxia.

This is not your typical humans meet aliens first contact story...... the "humans" are not quite baseline and the aliens are very alien indeed.

Now onto Echopraxia......... it has vampires......and zombies........
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 27 March, 2015, 07:59:44 pm
What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented?

I think I more or less surfed that wave as it came in:  Tolkien, but not Lewis whose work I disliked.  Alan Garner (obviously) starting with the Weirdstone, the Owl Service and Red Shift - why use a hundred words when one will do (have you read Thursbitch)? That led to things like T W Rolleston's Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race, and Frazer's Golden Bough.  By then I was no longer what could be described as the target market for YA books.

I did once read a couple of USAnian YA fiction books by a chap called Paul Zindel.  'Pardon me, you're stepping on my eyeball' was one of them.  Interesting contrast with British writers and references, but it didn't help the disconnection yawning gulf that separated me from most of my peers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 27 March, 2015, 08:18:55 pm
What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented?

Quote from: ian
....reading adult literature?
Ummm, think you answered your own q. 

I read pretty much _anything_ I could get my hands on, from Dad's pulp westerns (J. T. Edson anebode?), kids stuff (Victorian to modern),  "thrillers" by the likes of Hammond Innes, "classics" such as c dickens & j austen f'rinstance.  Not forgetting lots and lots and _lots_ of sci-fi, eg Silverberg, Asimov, Heinlein, Budrys. ect ect ect.

I don't think I was unusual, and I suspect that modern young adults, adult? hah! :),  bibliovores are probably doing much the same only now they've got a extra advertising thrown at them.

Anyway the reason I dropped by,  "The Compleet Molesworth" (for the umpteenth time) cheers cheer cheers.

P.S.
Thomas Hardy? Dear God NO!  You're just sitting there watching the light at the end of the tunnel turn into an oncoming train from page 1.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 27 March, 2015, 09:58:38 pm
What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented?

Quote from: ian
....reading adult literature?
Ummm, think you answered your own q. 

I read pretty much _anything_ I could get my hands on, from Dad's pulp westerns (J. T. Edson anebode?), kids stuff (Victorian to modern),  "thrillers" by the likes of Hammond Innes, "classics" such as c dickens & j austen f'rinstance.  Not forgetting lots and lots and _lots_ of sci-fi, eg Silverberg, Asimov, Heinlein, Budrys. ect ect ect.

They do ECT in The Bell Jar IIRC.  Did you read that too?

Oh, you mean Et Cetera.  Sorry  ;D

(Since I'm in here, I may as well clock in with Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon.  It's too early to tell but I'll probably like the story if I can keep track of all the characters, otherwise I'll resort to basking in phraseology as the geekish prose washes over me.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 March, 2015, 08:29:39 am
What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented?

Whatever we could get our hands on.  Which is a shame, really, since a lot of stuff rolls off at that age. You can't detest Kafka properly until you're grown up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 28 March, 2015, 03:00:46 pm
Next up, some more Pratchett I think.

I'm about a quarter of the way through Eric. It's strange reading a book which doesn't take two months to get through!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 March, 2015, 03:41:22 pm
You can't detest Kafka properly until you're grown up.

 ;D

Works the other way too - I remember trying to read Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy when I was 14 because my dad had told me it was very funny. I just found it boring and it put me off reading any more Waugh for years. Rediscovered it in my late 20s and found it hilarious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 29 March, 2015, 10:30:43 am
Some books are better left for different ages. Having discovered books quite early in life, I turned voracious, starting with fairy stories, graduating to myths and legends and pretty much anything on the junior library shelves, a the rate of about four each day. Some well meaning soul mentioned Edgar Allan Poe to me. Not finding it on the shelves or the catalogue I was a little mystified. I presented myself at the counter to see if it could be reserved, I suppose I must have been about 7 or 8 at the time.

The librarian explained that it was in the adult library, but could be reserved. So I did. I only found out years later that she then toddled off to my dad (she knew where he worked), to ask if it was appropriate for me to read. Bastard said yes.

I still remember the emotion of the Poe fuelled dreams.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 29 March, 2015, 10:37:17 am
Reading my anniversary present: "my cool shed"  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 02 April, 2015, 10:34:14 pm
I'm currently re-reading Blindsight by Peter Watts, as a warm up for the sequel Echopraxia.

This is not your typical humans meet aliens first contact story...... the "humans" are not quite baseline and the aliens are very alien indeed.

Now onto Echopraxia......... it has vampires......and zombies........

Fuck,   Mr Watts doesn't seem to believe in happy endings....

2 very good books.  Recommended.  You can download Blindsight for free from the authors website http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm (http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm)

Edit: Now I've finished it I can read the reviews.  From Locus: "Peter Watts is some precisely engineered hybrid of Lucius Shepard and Gregory Benford, lyrical yet hard-edged, purveyor of sleek surfaces and also the ethical and spiritual contents inside.'

It's nearly 3 decades since I read Life During Wartime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_During_Wartime_%28novel%29) & The Jaguar Hunter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaguar_Hunter)  :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 April, 2015, 01:53:24 am
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

Kind of compelling, but also kind of tedious. I'm glad there aren't any more in the series after this one. Not quite halfway through it but so far it feels more like an extended postscript to the second book than a novel in its own right.

The average page count of the last four books I've read including this one is over 600. I really need to read something shorter next, for the sake of my sanity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 April, 2015, 07:06:02 am
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee.

Very very well written, from a first person perspective. Story of a near-future USA where the Americans appear to have pretty much all died out or left and the Chinese have taken over.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 April, 2015, 09:24:20 am
You can't detest Kafka properly until you're grown up.

 ;D

Works the other way too - I remember trying to read Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy when I was 14 because my dad had told me it was very funny. I just found it boring and it put me off reading any more Waugh for years. Rediscovered it in my late 20s and found it hilarious.


Wonderful. "It was done by an effort" still comes out (so to speak) in our conversations occasionally.

The Loved One was filmed with Robert Morley in the 60s. Must dig that up some time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 April, 2015, 05:33:27 pm
I did finish The Bone Clocks the other week and even though I read it under the influence of Citoyen's evil mind control, I did quite enjoy it. You'll be pleased to know I'm not going to do any more of those that David Mitchell jokes (not getting a rise there, but I got you a while back with Lionel Shriver, which is always a dead cert to get a 'he's a she' correction).

I did try Annihilation which was mentioned up-thread, as it sounded kind of eerie but I gave up about 30% in on the grounds that it seemed to be pages of glassy description and a character I just didn't care about, whose interactions were just odd. My eyes kept sliding to the bottom of each page. Once I start skimming, it's probably time to move onto something else.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 April, 2015, 05:23:33 pm
I did once read a couple of USAnian YA fiction books by a chap called Paul Zindel.  'Pardon me, you're stepping on my eyeball' was one of them.  Interesting contrast with British writers and references, but it didn't help the disconnection yawning gulf that separated me from most of my peers.
Oh, me too. I'd forgotten those completely.

I read Judy Blume, Stephen King, Tolkien, some of the Sweet Valley series and another similar series I forget the name of, lots of Dennis Wheatley, and whatever else I could get from the library. We did some of the Kevin and Sadie books at school. There have always been Young Adult books, they just used to label the shelves as 12-16.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 04 April, 2015, 06:44:23 pm
The Bible (http://artofelectronics.net/).  Much-anticipated 20 years overdue Moore's-Law-compliant third edition.  Looking good so far.

(This is probably a good time to bag a cheap copy of the Second Edition if you've ever found yourself needing to design a circuit and don't already own one.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 04 April, 2015, 08:03:40 pm
The Bible (http://artofelectronics.net/).  Much-anticipated 20 years overdue Moore's-Law-compliant third edition.  Looking good so far.

(This is probably a good time to bag a cheap copy of the Second Edition if you've ever found yourself needing to design a circuit and don't already own one.)
Goodness.  That's _still_ being published!?  I blew the dust off my '84 copy the other day and had a flick through it and wondered whether or not to keep it.  It went back on the shelf.  You never know....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 04 April, 2015, 08:39:49 pm
The Bible (http://artofelectronics.net/).  Much-anticipated 20 years overdue Moore's-Law-compliant third edition.  Looking good so far.

(This is probably a good time to bag a cheap copy of the Second Edition if you've ever found yourself needing to design a circuit and don't already own one.)
Goodness.  That's _still_ being published!?  I blew the dust off my '84 copy the other day and had a flick through it and wondered whether or not to keep it.  It went back on the shelf.  You never know....

Oh yes.  It has a cult following on account of being full of distilled practical wisdom, rather than the usual collection of impressive looking maths that might come up in the exam that you tend to find in most general electronics textbooks.

I borrowed the second (1989) edition from one of the lab techs when I was in the sixth form, and read vast swathes of it after I'd swatted up on whatever it was I needed for the project I was doing.  It's fantastically readable.

The third edition brings it up to date with all that's changed in microcontrollers, FETs, serial busses, power supply design, etc in the last 25 years.  More than justifies the shelf space.  (Indeed, there's so much *different* material, that I'll be hanging on to the second edition for the foreseeable future.  You never know.)

The preface strongly implies that they're not planning on writing another one, if that wasn't obvious enough from the binary exponential nature of the publishing dates :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 04 April, 2015, 08:43:43 pm
The Bible (http://artofelectronics.net/).  Much-anticipated 20 years overdue Moore's-Law-compliant third edition.  Looking good so far.

(This is probably a good time to bag a cheap copy of the Second Edition if you've ever found yourself needing to design a circuit and don't already own one.)
Goodness.  That's _still_ being published!?  I blew the dust off my '84 copy the other day and had a flick through it and wondered whether or not to keep it.  It went back on the shelf.  You never know....

I still have my copy. Don't do much electronics these days, but you never know...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 06 April, 2015, 12:08:17 am
What exactly is the deal with teen young adult fiction? No this isn't stand up, I'm genuinely a bit confused, because it's everywhere. What did young adults read before young adult fiction was invented? How did they survive before we manufactured a genre that didn't solely feature them?

As an young teenager in the early 1980s I very much enjoyed the 'young adult' fiction of Bernard Ashley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Ashley_(author)) (Terry on the Fence and Break in the Sun were two favourites) and Joan Lingard's (http://joanlingard.co.uk/children.php) Kevin and Sadie books. Not that new.

I really enjoyed Robert Westall in the eighties. The Machine Gunners was on the telly, and our primary school teacher was from Tyneside so could do the right accents when he read it to us.

It was clearly aimed at a young audience, and I went on to Fathom Five, Scarecrows. I'm sure I have a copy of Futuretrack 5 somewhere, that was a fabulous dystopian novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 April, 2015, 10:18:59 am
Life - Keith Richards

Gotta love Keef and this is lucid, sharp, funny and entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 April, 2015, 12:24:31 pm
The thing that puzzled me about "Life" was how on earth His Keefness ever remembered all the details, unless he had some sort of amanuensis following him night and day since 1962.  In which case the amanuensis would likely be dead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 April, 2015, 08:48:37 pm
Mother's Milk - Edward St Aubyn

Having just finished the excellent Some Hope, which is no.3 in the Patrick Melrose series, I'm moving straight on to no.4. I do like his style. Some Hope centres around a dinner party featuring a cast of obnoxious poshos, including the thoroughly awful Princess Margaret (based on first hand knowledge, apparently), but it's much better than that makes it sound. Very funny, in a waspishly Waugh-esque kind of way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Graeme on 08 April, 2015, 09:07:21 pm
Getting annoyed with 'One hundred percent lunar boy'. I want it to be good because the author was in a band I like.

Managed to speed read 'Fresh!' in the pub this evening. Feeling encouraged by that academic book. It is odd that I'm enjoying (really really enjoying) academic books much more than novels these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 April, 2015, 12:33:39 pm
Mother's Milk - Edward St Aubyn

Having just finished the excellent Some Hope, which is no.3 in the Patrick Melrose series, I'm moving straight on to no.4. I do like his style. Some Hope centres around a dinner party featuring a cast of obnoxious poshos, including the thoroughly awful Princess Margaret (based on first hand knowledge, apparently), but it's much better than that makes it sound. Very funny, in a waspishly Waugh-esque kind of way.

Mother's Milk is superb. Finished that and straight on to At Last, the final volume, which is fairly flimsy and feels like a bit of a postscript but rounds off the series nicely. It strikes me that in the hands of a different writer the series would have made a pretty harrowing misery memoir, but Edward St Aubyn is too wedded to irony to go down that route. Considering the awful things that happen to Patrick (all autobiographical), the books really shouldn't be as funny as they are.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 April, 2015, 08:01:03 pm
Just finished Alan Warner's Morvern Callar. Amazing book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 April, 2015, 09:21:44 am
Having finished "On Such a Full Sea" I have moved onto Boy, Snow, Bird
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 12 April, 2015, 12:43:44 pm
I read that a few weeks ago and really liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 13 April, 2015, 12:47:56 pm
I was looking for some cheerful predictable froth so downloaded Lisa Jewell's 'The House We Grew Up In (http://www.novelicious.com/2013/08/review-the-house-we-grew-up-in-by-lisa-jewell.html)' and instead had horrific foreshadowings and came home and threw things out.
I even had a warm and friendly chat with No2Son, JustInCase.  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 April, 2015, 01:01:58 pm
The rate at which my "To Read" pile is growing is causing respected physicists to rethink their theories on the expansion of the universe.  Note to self: do not allow yourself to be distracted by the book section when visiting Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles for the ooh a new Jo Nesbø sole purpose of buying Brown Drink.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 April, 2015, 01:15:55 pm
A Song of Shadows (apparently the 13th Charlie Parker book, blimey) – kept me up past well past sensible bedtime o'clock.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: menthel on 13 April, 2015, 01:43:32 pm
High rise by J.G. Ballard. Might be good, not sure yet as I have only read the first few pages!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 April, 2015, 02:07:03 pm
High rise by J.G. Ballard. Might be good, not sure yet as I have only read the first few pages!

I rather liked that when I read it as a young Mr Larrington, after hearing the Hawkwind track it inspired.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: menthel on 13 April, 2015, 02:37:10 pm
High rise by J.G. Ballard. Might be good, not sure yet as I have only read the first few pages!

I rather liked that when I read it as a young Mr Larrington, after hearing the Hawkwind track it inspired.

Is it Moorcock Hawkwind? If I had my headphoes I would have instituted a search of Napster, but without them I think I might get a funny look in the open plan office!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 April, 2015, 02:38:26 pm
First appeared on "PXR5" circa 1979.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: menthel on 13 April, 2015, 02:40:00 pm
First appeared on "PXR5" circa 1979.

Will have a look once I get somewhere more suitable for listening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 13 April, 2015, 04:45:04 pm
Silence of the Sea. An Icelandic thriller/suspense with maybe a bit of horror later.  Nice easy read for my Cyprus break.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 April, 2015, 04:55:05 pm
Donna Tarrrttttt (delete to taste) The Goldfinch.  Wife called it riveting. Guess I'm case-hardened.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 April, 2015, 05:38:14 pm
Donna Tarrrttttt (delete to taste) The Goldfinch.  Wife called it riveting. Guess I'm case-hardened.

Nah, it's duller than ditchwater on a grey, wet Wednesday afternoon in February. And it goes on forever. And then when it gets to forever, with barely a stop for sandwiches, it carries on. It might never end. I have a suspicion she's still adding pages to the end when no one is looking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 April, 2015, 07:08:35 pm
Quartet In Autumn - Barbara Pym

Oh my.

I don't know if it would be appropriate to say I enjoyed this one. It's rather bleak, quite upsetting even. Philip Hensher described it as "a spare masterpiece in loneliness", which is spot on. But it also has moments of humour - proper laugh out loud stuff. And some moments where you really don't know if you should be laughing or recoiling in horror.

It reminds me a lot of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. And of Patrick Hamilton's Slaves Of Solitude.

Barbara Pym was recommended to me by Peter OTP but this is still only the second of hers that I've read. I must read more. I like her style.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 April, 2015, 07:42:44 pm
And to return things to the level of Philistinism Thee Panel can expect from Yours Truly, having disposed to Carl Hiaasen's solo fiction and non-fiction I am now on the three novels he wrote in collaboration with Bill Montalbano prior to the publication of "Tourist Trap".  Generic airport fodder really.  Not many laughs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 16 April, 2015, 08:36:37 pm
Just finished All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld. Atmospheric, menacing, sad. Really liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 17 April, 2015, 10:57:09 am
Quartet In Autumn - Barbara Pym

Oh my.

I don't know if it would be appropriate to say I enjoyed this one. It's rather bleak, quite upsetting even. Philip Hensher described it as "a spare masterpiece in loneliness", which is spot on. But it also has moments of humour - proper laugh out loud stuff. And some moments where you really don't know if you should be laughing or recoiling in horror.

It reminds me a lot of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. And of Patrick Hamilton's Slaves Of Solitude.



Barbara Pym was recommended to me by Peter OTP but this is still only the second of hers that I've read. I must read more. I like her style.

Glad you appreciated it!  Her life was a little bleak by the time she wrote "Quartet In Autumn", including fourteen years of not being published.  Her earlier work is more light-hearted and just as well-written.

Peter
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 April, 2015, 11:31:45 am
Yes, I think you recommended her on the back of me saying I'd enjoyed EF Benson, and I understand Barbara Pym's earlier stuff is much more whimsical in that vein.

It's the quality of her writing that makes her so good to read - says an awful lot without seeming to say much at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 17 April, 2015, 11:47:34 am
Justina Robson's "Quantum Gravity" SF series.

A weird mashup of cyborg SF / fantasy but really enjoyable. I knew her years ago (like 15 or so) when she was the partner of one of my work colleges at the time. She was an aspiring novelist at the time and now it seems she is quite famous.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 17 April, 2015, 12:02:32 pm
Finished David Copperfield eventually.  Apart from the long self-indulgent 'tail' and the usual criticism of his depiction of his female love-interest characters, I enjoyed it (again). I like the perambulations between Yarmouth, London and Dover.

Then The Bone Clocks. Loved the writing throughout, but while I could cope with the odd hint of the fantasy in the first few chapters, the full blown anchorites v horologists stuff turned me off. I liked the extended epilogue though - back to earth with a thud. I'll be back to David Mitchell once he's written a 'straight' novel.

Now on C J Sansom's Sovereign. I find the writing wooden to the point of being stilted, such a contrast with Wolf Hall (and The Bone Clocks). Still, I'm half-way through and am involved just enough to want to know what happens next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 April, 2015, 01:22:06 pm
Then The Bone Clocks. Loved the writing throughout, but while I could cope with the odd hint of the fantasy in the first few chapters, the full blown anchorites v horologists stuff turned me off. I liked the extended epilogue though - back to earth with a thud. I'll be back to David Mitchell once he's written a 'straight' novel.

That bit reminded me of the old Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides Out and so forth. A wee bit much.  The epilogue was realistic enough to be almost worrying.  I've read similar in other books recently, too.

I'm still on Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.  In between reading sessions I don't feel particularly impelled to get back to it, but when I'm reading it it pulls me along well enough.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 17 April, 2015, 02:45:01 pm
That bit reminded me of the old Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides Out and so forth.

I've not read those but it reminded me strongly of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: menthel on 17 April, 2015, 02:57:08 pm
High rise by J.G. Ballard. Might be good, not sure yet as I have only read the first few pages!

And finished. Quite enjoyed it but the ending felt a little weak and willing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 April, 2015, 03:05:14 pm
That bit reminded me of the old Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides Out and so forth.

I've not read those but it reminded me strongly of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

Same here - on both counts (never read Dennis Wheatley, Bone Clocks reminded me of Philip Pullman)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 April, 2015, 03:07:39 pm
Having finished Boy, Snow, Bird, I have decided i wanted to read something a bit lighter. So I am now reading "Saint Odd" by Dean Koontz. How the fuck did he manage to get published? I have read better penny dreadfuls, or is that the point?

FFS he spends a whole PARAGRAPH describing a flock to birds landing at the side of a lake!!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 19 April, 2015, 05:17:33 am
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.  Picked up in the hotel book swap after finishing the 2 "airport fodder" thrillers.  So far so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 19 April, 2015, 08:51:19 am
Having finished Boy, Snow, Bird, I have decided i wanted to read something a bit lighter. So I am now reading "Saint Odd" by Dean Koontz. How the fuck did he manage to get published? I have read better penny dreadfuls, or is that the point?

FFS he spends a whole PARAGRAPH describing a flock to birds landing at the side of a lake!!!
Dean Koontz is an odd writer, in that occasionally he can produce something that is not only gripping but bloody terrifying. There are scenes in 'Phantoms', 'Watchers' and 'Twilight Eyes' that cut right to the nightmare lode. But I said 'scenes' deliberately. A lot of his writing is dorss, most of it in fact, and when he tries to do 'art' it is shite. A good writer could well cdaptivate the reader with a full paragraph describing said flock of birds landing; he isn't one. He is also a right-wing gun-freaqk nutjob, and some of his books carry little polemics about things along the lines of the Waco seige.

I stopped reading him a LONG time ago, after the first of the Odd books. Which are unmitigated shite.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 April, 2015, 12:01:23 pm
The Hollow Crown - Dan Jones

Popular history by the one off the telly who isn't Peter Snow's son. It's OK but a bit try-hard. One of those swashbuckling wordsmiths who thinks "conditions affecting France" is too dry and would rather write "conditions afflicting their French cousins across the sea"; instead of being sentenced to hang, perps are sentenced to "swing on the hangman's rope". He gets points for going against 500 years of pro-Tudor marketing to point out that they were a bunch of fatherless chancers, but loses points for turning the main protagonists into pantomime heroes and villains.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 April, 2015, 12:16:54 pm
I rather like the Odd Thomas series, because I am irredeemably shallow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 19 April, 2015, 01:09:17 pm
I've always found you rather tall and wide...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 21 April, 2015, 05:23:47 pm
Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 11 of 14.

I'm skipping passages now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 April, 2015, 06:18:30 pm
Greg Iles' "The Bone Tree".  Only bok 5 of the series of, so far, 5.  Follows on immediately after "Natchez Burning".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 21 April, 2015, 07:41:16 pm
I could never get Dean Koontz. I didn't know he was a nut until this thread, but it's unsurprising. I just looked on the interwebs and Oh God That Hair. Anyway, the books read peculiar. It's a thing, trust me. You can't write without things inadvertently leaking out of your brain. It's like parking an old car on the driveway, there's always a oil stain underneath.

Just finished Charlie Parker 13. Marvellous. Read it in two sittings. If you like spooky, crime shenanigans you can't go far wrong. As a boon it's marvellous written.

Found a virtual pile of Vonnegut that I got for 99p some time back and am starting to re-read (actually I'm not sure I ever read Sirens of Titan), as it's been an awesome number of years. God knows what they were putting in his coffee.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 April, 2015, 03:28:51 am
Greg Iles' "The Bone Tree".  Only bok 5 of the series of, so far, 5.  Follows on immediately after "Natchez Burning".

Hmm.  Enough killin's to leave a further episode thinly populated with major characters but enough loose ends to make one inevitable.  Also full of Wrong about the relative top speeds of the German-and USAnian-market Audi S4.

Now on "22 Dead Little Bodies" by Stuart MacBride, billed as "A Logan & Steel short novel".  Only one dead little body so far but it's early days yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrinklyLion on 24 April, 2015, 08:36:57 am
Just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go).
Feel like a grown up again. Loved it's meaty thought-provoking deceptive simplicity.

I bought that as a random pick to read on the train.  Liked it so much I subsequently bought a second copy for my ex BiCL's christmas pressie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 April, 2015, 01:21:14 pm
OK, it turned out that the first stiff was a dead big body, followed at intervals by four more.  Add to it the twenty-two little ones and Mr MacBride would be up for an award for the killin's/page ratio, except that one of the little bodies was a pigeon and a further twenty were budgies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 April, 2015, 01:34:34 pm
Found a virtual pile of Vonnegut that I got for 99p some time back and am starting to re-read (actually I'm not sure I ever read Sirens of Titan), as it's been an awesome number of years. God knows what they were putting in his coffee.

After reading Cat's Cradle, I came to the conclusion that Vonnegut was the only sane one among us.

Anyway, Vonnegut. Good idea. The perfect antidote to the turgid overwritten prose of the telly historian I've just been ploughing through. I'm now reading Mother Night.

I've never read Sirens of Titan either but I've got it in the pile. May read it next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: menthel on 24 April, 2015, 01:37:09 pm
The Simpsons and their Mathematics. Its very interesting but quite frankly some of the maths is a bit beyond my tiny mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 25 April, 2015, 08:41:21 pm
I've just finished re-reading The Malacia Tapestry. My old copy hasn't fallen apart yet, helped by being untouched for many years.

I'd forgotten why I'd not re-read it for a long time. Basically, because Perian de Chirolo is such an annoying shit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 27 April, 2015, 01:09:27 pm
The Shepherd's Life, by James Rebanks.  A beautifully described, unromanticised account of life as a hill shepherd.  Swallows and Amazons it ain't;  it's about a very particular culture and heritage, by someone very obviously proud of his place in it.  It's about feelings of duty towards that culture, and about a sense of place and belonging - that makes it sound old-fashioned, which is a bit ironic given that he tweets his daily life to a bazillion followers.

And, quite apart from how good it is, I just love the fact that this book exists and has given hill farmers an eloquent and well-received voice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 April, 2015, 03:49:21 pm
John Connolly's latest "Song of Shadows". And the latest Mark Billingham "Time of Death" awaits at the library.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 April, 2015, 04:14:25 pm
A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 27 April, 2015, 06:53:39 pm
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

'nuff said, really.  Also, footnotes - glorious footnotes - all the way down.   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 April, 2015, 08:59:59 pm
A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)

Yep, new Thorne.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 28 April, 2015, 10:28:09 am
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

'nuff said, really.  Also, footnotes - glorious footnotes - all the way down.   :thumbsup:

Thanks - that's now on my Amazon wish list !
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: simonp on 28 April, 2015, 01:07:26 pm
The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 28 April, 2015, 10:59:00 pm
The Untouchables by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley

Written in 1957 and the prose reflects the era in which Ness operated and the book was written. The tag line is "Upon which is based tha fabulous, compelling television series". My copy was printed in 1968 and sold for 3/6 :D

When I consider the subject matter of the book and the target of the oeprations and reflect with my professional head on, I am quite humbled by the courage displayed by The Untouchables. Walking into gangland brew houses with no back up. Operating in an environment where knowing who you could trust was a luxury. Improvisation to overcome obstacles. So far, a cracking read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 April, 2015, 08:41:39 am
The Flying Scotsman

No, not about the train, but about Mr Obree, written by the same.

I am liking it (enjoying it is the wrong word as it his harrowing at times, especially his early suicide attempt).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 April, 2015, 05:47:42 pm
Sins Of The Father ~ Graham Hurley.  Third in the series featuring copper Jimmy Suttle, who was a sidekick in Hurley's previous DI Joe Faraday series.  I hope the opening chapters really are full of rose-tinted kippers as otherwise it's painfully obvious that the Mystery African doned the kilin'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 April, 2015, 10:39:51 am
Old Filth - Jane Gardam

Reading this on my dad's recommendation. It's interesting, well written, though I'm not entirely gripped - a bit too much in the way of description and not enough in the way of plot for my liking. I like the poignant, nostalgic tone though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 01 May, 2015, 09:22:06 pm
Making my way through Eric Schlosser's _Command and Control_, a history of US nuclear weapons accidents. So far it's a cracker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 May, 2015, 08:30:40 pm
A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)

Yep, new Thorne.

Now started.  Not a single killin' yet chiz, but I'm only on page 12.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 03 May, 2015, 09:05:13 pm
Sitting in a tent in a Wet Wales, I've just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't really get into it until fairly close to the end - I've enjoyed it overall but not as much as the others so far.

Moving on, back to The Great Tolkien Read with The Two Towers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2015, 05:58:37 pm
A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)

Yep, new Thorne.

Now started.  Not a single killin' yet chiz, but I'm only on page 12.

Warning: this book contains dead badgers...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 10 May, 2015, 09:41:54 pm
Terra by Mitch Benn and The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 11 May, 2015, 10:17:02 pm
Just finished Kameron Hurley's "Gods War" trilogy.
Excellent SF that messes with traditional gender roles in a future offworld Muslim society. Plus it has iky bugs.
Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 12 May, 2015, 08:13:22 am
Magnus Mills. The Field of the Cloth of Gold.
Half way through.  Typical Mills territory. If anyone out there has read him, you'll know what I mean.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 May, 2015, 01:36:06 pm
I keep meaning to catch up on Mills as I think the most recent one I've read is The Scheme For Full Employment. TCtF: the slim volumes of Mills' short stories were published by former flatmates of Miss von Brandenburg.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 12 May, 2015, 05:59:34 pm
A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)

Yep, new Thorne.

Now started.  Not a single killin' yet chiz, but I'm only on page 12.
Not reading any of Mark Billingham's books, so starting with Sleepyhead. 4.5 killin's so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 May, 2015, 07:07:21 pm
Magnus Mills. The Field of the Cloth of Gold.
Half way through.  Typical Mills territory. If anyone out there has read him, you'll know what I mean.


I thought I'd read more Magnus Mills than just The Restraint of Beasts, but apparently I haven't. Are they all worth reading after that?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 May, 2015, 09:49:49 pm
I liked them; whether this is any recommendation, OTOH...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 12 May, 2015, 10:41:21 pm
I think the standard phrases are 'unique voice', 'deadpan humour', 'fabulous', 'mythic', 'whimsical'. "Odd, endearing and disturbing" describes most of them. In my experience they can be infuriating to the point that sometimes you want to throw the book across the room (I did that once after a particularly deceitful reveal midway through 'Explorers of the New Age' ) but then rush across to retrieve and read on. They are very easy to read. The themes seem generally to be related to worlds of systems, routine, work, and threats to those worlds/societies from outside. There is usually a sense of impending doom as a crisis looms.The books are usually narrated by a protagonist who is trying to find his way in whatever society is being described, and struggling.

The Restraint of Beasts was the one most grounded in a world which is most recognizable as ours, give or take couple of gratuitous/accidental murders.

All Quiet on the Orient Express (my favourite) can be pinpointed in a modern setting and location but is starting to get a bit weird.

Three to See the King .Not recommended. Very weird. I've forgotten it apart from something about wanting to live in a house 'made entirely of tin'.

The Scheme for Full Employment.  A couple of laugh-out loud moments. It's mainly about a system of routes for vans which are carrying spare parts for those vans, and cakes, between various depots. It has the given the team I work in now the phrase 'An early swerve' (eg I've worked late this week twice already so I think I'm going for an early swerve).

Explorers of the New Century. A sort of skewed Amundsen v Scott tale to be the first to reach the 'Agreed Furthest Point'

The Maintenance of Headway. Where Magnus Mills draws on his experience as a bus-driver (I think he still drives buses in London).  The idea is to maintain the ideal gaps between the buses but the system that the inspectors are trying to impose doesn't always suit the drivers.

A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In.  Set in the made-up world of Greater Fallowfields. A model society except that nobody seems to be in charge - the Emperor is away somewhere - and nobody is equipped to do the job they have. Still, a pleasant enough place to live, except that the next society along seem to be building a railway through the woods directly towards Greater Fallowfields.

The Field of the Cloth of Gold. Halfway through. So far it's reminding me strongly of my experience of camping in Loughton before LEL 2013. That and it being a metaphor for imperialism and the Romans in Britain.

All strongly recommended from me (except Three to See the King) but don't blame me if you find them nonsense. A Cruel Bird, I think, is the most purely distilled Mills, so if you only read one more after The Restraint of Beats, then that should probably be the one. Oh, and if you think you an get tasters by reading his short stories - don't. They really are crap.







Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 May, 2015, 11:12:51 pm
Well, you've sold him to me at least, Nuncio.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 13 May, 2015, 09:32:21 am
The Last Policeman, then Countdown City by Ben H Winters

The protagonist is a straight-as-a-die young policeman in a disintegrating world. An asteroid will destroy everything in 3 month's time, civilization is ripping itself apart.

I didn't expect to like this, but was pulled in. The disintegration is just a backdrop to the slow-burn detection. Old-school detective novel in a pre-apocalyptic world.

Can't wait to get my hands on the last book in the trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 May, 2015, 10:17:46 am
Started Petersburg by Andrei Bely, then put it down again.  This book was described as a forerunner of Joyce's modernism, and (by Vladimir Nabakov?) as one of the four most important novels of the 20th Century, but when the author repeats entire paragraphs word for word for the sake of effect he can take his modernism and shove it.

Moved on to All That Follows by Jim Crace, whose novels I usually enjoy, but I can't bring myself to care about a has-been jazz musician with a faltering marriage living in a security-dictatorship UK.  It feels as if it was all done before, probably on TV in the early 60s.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 13 May, 2015, 12:42:29 pm
I’m a big fan of Jim Crace but struggled to get to the end of that one. Although his books are so very different from each other their strengths, or what is in them that appeals to me (like Magnus Mills’, strangely enough), are strongly imagined alternative worlds (but not in an SF sense). All That Follows was not like that other than it being set a few years in the future. His latest one, Harvest, is a return to that. I also like the way he writes, almost poetic at times in his earlier novels; after a while you realize you’re reading along to a lilting blank verse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 May, 2015, 01:11:10 pm
Harvest was so intense it was like a punch in the gut.  Before that I read Arcadia, which was also good but felt like a slice of something else - one of Ian McDonald's, maybe.

Re blank verse, lilting is the word I thought of to describe Petersburg's repetitions. I could imagine it being read by someone like Lawrence Olivier or Richard Burton à la Under Milk Wood. But not for the entire 800-900 pp of the thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 13 May, 2015, 07:58:10 pm
I bought All Quiet on the Orient Express last night, purely on the basis it was the cheapest kindle book...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 14 May, 2015, 08:12:09 am
Harvest was so intense it was like a punch in the gut.

Quarantine is like that too. A version of Jesus in the wilderness. Bold subject matter, but one of those books which leaves you feeling breathless and which lives with you long after you finish with it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 May, 2015, 10:33:45 am
Just about to start Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 May, 2015, 02:30:45 pm
The Rosie Effect.

Very good so far and not a case of "difficult second book"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 May, 2015, 02:52:21 pm
Curse those dreadful people at the Mega-Global Sounds Like A Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia!  They give me a freebie of Neil Gaiman's Stardust (now there's a book that belongs in the Dan Brown assassination thread as an example of of how not to be Dan Brown) and now I would appear to have boughtThe Ocean At The End Of The Lane.  Woe is me!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 May, 2015, 07:03:22 pm
Curse those dreadful people at the Mega-Global Sounds Like A Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia!  They give me a freebie of Neil Gaiman's Stardust (now there's a book that belongs in the Dan Brown assassination thread as an example of of how not to be Dan Brown) and now I would appear to have boughtThe Ocean At The End Of The Lane.  Woe is me!

Great book.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 19 May, 2015, 10:32:27 am
The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst

Jeez, how long is this book? It feels like I've read at least 600 pages of it already but I'm only just over halfway through. It's only the quality of the writing that's keeping me going. And the outside possibility that something interesting might happen if I stick with it long enough.

I loved The Line Of Beauty, and I'd still like to read The Swimming Pool Library because it's supposed to be pretty good, but this feels like he's run out of things to say.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 24 May, 2015, 05:31:28 pm
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

It's thematically a bit like 'Sliding Doors' in that it explores the paths not taken in a woman's life, as she lives her time over and over again.  I started it once, got to chapter 3 and then gave up when I bought a new Pterry but I found this at the bottom of the TPOB beside my bed and gave it another shot.

It's one of those rare books I'll take with me and think about for ages. Kate Tkinson has a way of writing people that makes you fond of them - a real rare gift.

It's made me want to re-read Moon Tiger too, another book about a woman who experienced WW2.  Both books up there in my hit parade, definitely.

Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bledlow on 25 May, 2015, 12:09:41 am
... Neil Gaiman's Stardust ...
Now there's a book I've never got round to reading despite having seen the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 25 May, 2015, 06:37:17 am
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

It's thematically a bit like 'Sliding Doors' in that it explores the paths not taken in a woman's life, as she lives her time over and over again.  I started it once, got to chapter 3 and then gave up when I bought a new Pterry but I found this at the bottom of the TPOB beside my bed and gave it another shot.

It's one of those rare books I'll take with me and think about for ages. Kate Tkinson has a way of writing people that makes you fond of them - a real rare gift.

It's made me want to re-read Moon Tiger too, another book about a woman who experienced WW2.  Both books up there in my hit parade, definitely.

Recommended.
I liked it,  but it's not in my hit parade. There's a lot of death.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 June, 2015, 01:24:49 pm
Finished "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng, a story of a mixed race family in America during the 40s through to the 80s.  Well written, gripping and you actually care about the characters.

Then moved onto "Young God" by Katherine Faw Morris, stripped bare, raw, compelling, I read it in one sitting, thus meaning I didn't go to sleep until after midnight.

My next one, that I have just started is "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henriquez.  Holding out on a view of this as I am only 9 pages in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 June, 2015, 01:34:25 pm
Currently ploughing through all Neal Asher's oeuvre. I like these a lot. A self contained universe to set them all in with AIs, big spaceships and quite a lot of violence. Oh and there's some giant ducks that speak gibberish, a dragon and some huge and rather nasty intelligent crabs. Great fun. If you like Ian Bank's Culture series you will probably like these too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 June, 2015, 02:05:42 pm
Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, picked up for 99p as a Kindle special.

A historical novel that takes as its backdrop the events and social framework leading up to and through WWI. I keep swinging from exasperation for the plot clichés to admiration for the quality of writing that keeps you rolling along. The cast of characters is set almost too wide, as he lays out events on the world stage; it gives him the ability to add historical detail and social comment as part of the narrative. If nothing else, he does Welsh Wales very well indeed (I think his background is Welsh?) and weaves the story with skill around the protagonists and historical events, using the different characters to provide alternative perspective albeit in a self conscious way sometimes.

Just over half way through, will have to see if I keep going through others in the trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 08 June, 2015, 10:23:25 pm
Currently halfway through "enduring love" by Ian McEwan.  I have never refs any of his stuff before and I am really enjoying it. Beautiful writing and story had me gripped.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 09 June, 2015, 07:25:15 am
Coincidentally, I've just finished The Children Act, which I think is his latest. I haven't read him for a while and had forgotten how lucid his writing is. Still, I felt a bit short-changed by this. There are some weighty matters considered but it seems so slight - almost perfunctorily dealt with.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 09 June, 2015, 08:07:00 am
Keith Richards' autobiography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 09 June, 2015, 08:34:07 am
Keith Richards' autobiography.

As if he can remember anything.

 ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 June, 2015, 08:35:40 am
Finished "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng, a story of a mixed race family in America during the 40s through to the 80s.  Well written, gripping and you actually care about the characters.

Then moved onto "Young God" by Katherine Faw Morris, stripped bare, raw, compelling, I read it in one sitting, thus meaning I didn't go to sleep until after midnight.

My next one, that I have just started is "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henriquez.  Holding out on a view of this as I am only 9 pages in.

"The Book of Unknown Americans" is slow to start with but really picks up.  I have to admit I shed a tear towards the end.  I enjoyed it.

I have now moved onto "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr.  Set slightly before, and during, WWII, it's the story of two people, one a French girl and the other a German boy.  So far it flows well and it keeping me reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 June, 2015, 09:08:37 am
The latest Peter James. It's ok, which is a vast improvement on his previous offering. Can't help but feel the storylines are getting a bit stale though, maybe the ex-wife thread will finally get resolved this time... or maybe not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 09 June, 2015, 09:52:05 am
Coincidentally, I've just finished The Children Act, which I think is his latest.

Coincidentally, I've just finished The Cement Garden, which I think was his first.
I'm not really a fan of "Horror", but fortunately it was more than that. Quality as usual.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 09 June, 2015, 10:09:20 am
Keith Richards' autobiography.

As if he can remember anything.

 ;)
When the book came out we were in Dunedin NZ. The local rag was up in arms because he wrote that Dunedin was the worst place he ever gigged.

So either he :
1/ pretended and fooled the lot of us, that he was high as a kite all the time
2/ Dunedin is/was that crap that even a drugged/hangover/drunk/stoned mind still clocked it that it was bad.

But how the heck can a person who have travelled so much over the last 50 years remember one place so well. I think he just threw a dart at the globe, just so that he could write a name of a town that was bad to be able to fill the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 09 June, 2015, 10:39:09 am
Shades of grey

No not the adolescent softporn thing

The dystopian novel by Jasper Fforde. The first of a series of three but as he seems to write slower than even George R R Martin I may not live long enough to read the last one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 09 June, 2015, 01:29:12 pm
The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness.
This. And then the next one- The Ask and The Answer. And there will be a third.

I like it a lot. It's helped by really good narration-Humphrey Bower.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 09 June, 2015, 09:41:06 pm

But how the heck can a person who have travelled so much over the last 50 years remember one place so well. I think he just threw a dart at the globe, just so that he could write a name of a town that was bad to be able to fill the book.

I travelled a lot in an an earlier incarnation.  Believe me, horrific experiences stay with you:-

Pie....Fleetwood
Chips.....Great Yarmouth
Clientele.....Wackerfield, County Durham
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 June, 2015, 11:17:53 am
Cyclogeography: Journrys Of A London Bicycle Courier ~ Jon Day.  The author is a former courier who now teaches Eng. Lit. at KCL, and has an impressively spade-like beard that makes him look a bit like a young Brian Blessed.  Also he's one of Dr Larrington's former Penniless Student Oaves.  Nicely written but a bit dry and academic thus far.  Buy it direct from Notting Hill Editions and not only do you cut out the tax-dodgers at the Mega-Global Sounds Like A Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia but you also get a free e-book version.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 16 June, 2015, 12:46:03 pm
I was not expecting Keith Richards' autobiography to contain his recipe for bangers & mash, and two pages of his thoughts about shepherd's pie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 16 June, 2015, 05:14:32 pm
He may be getting confused over Eel Pie Island, iconic venue in the 60s!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 16 June, 2015, 11:09:47 pm
Nick Lane's "The Vital Question"

Having failed miserably to finish a degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry in the 1980's, and gone off to work in Telly land instead, this book just proves that you can take the girl out of biochemistry, but you can't take biochemistry out of the girl.  Scratching away at the remaining bits of my memory, the book has reminded me why I used to like the subject.  I'll probably have to throw away my thirty-year-old copy of 'Zubay' - actually, that should have happened years ago anyway - and get something much more up to date covering recent bioenergetics thinking.

Not saying I agree, or indeed disagree, with everything in the book - my educational days are way too far distant to be able to judge the merits of his views, but by crikey I need to bring myself up to date!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 16 June, 2015, 11:16:21 pm
Nothing, the Kindles battery is flat and Mrs Pcolbeck has gone to bed so I can't rummage through the "to read" pile that lives under our bed  >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 16 June, 2015, 11:24:36 pm
You can read your Kindle whilst it's charging.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 16 June, 2015, 11:32:11 pm
You can read your Kindle whilst it's charging.

Not when its completely flat you cant. It wont switch on until it reached a certain level of charge.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 June, 2015, 12:59:44 pm
You'll just have to improve your mind with the tv then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 17 June, 2015, 03:43:28 pm
Finished The Dark Tower by Stephen King (all seven of them, equivalent to 4250 pages in print...) last week and I'm feeling a bit bereft now.  Highly recommended, and (unusually for Sai King) a brilliant not-letting-down ending.

Currently reading The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker and enjoying it.  A bit slow and unexceptional to start, but the intrigue is ramping up nicely.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 18 June, 2015, 10:53:19 am
The Martian - Andy Weir (Audiobook)

Cracking story, really well read  :thumbsup:.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 20 June, 2015, 09:16:41 pm
The collected stories of Theodore Sturgeon, one of my favourite writers. Just finished "Slow Sculpture" on the train, and had to dab at the eyes a little.

Sigh. Back to working on 'A Longer War' now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 21 June, 2015, 08:46:07 pm
Shades of grey

No not the adolescent softporn thing

The dystopian novel by Jasper Fforde. The first of a series of three but as he seems to write slower than even George R R Martin I may not live long enough to read the last one.

That's next on my list, after The Fourth Bear.  Which reminds me...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 21 June, 2015, 08:48:01 pm
Jasper Fforde, The Fourth Bear.

Outrageously inventive, and downright hilarious.  DCI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary investigate the disappearance of Goldilocks ("She was always such a fusspot - nothing was ever quite right for her").  They needed a good result after the three pigs sued for harrassment, and the papers had just uncovered the Little Red Riding Hood fiasco ("RED-CLOAKED TOT IN SWALLOWING DRAMA").  Berkshire is the obvious place to look, since it (and not, alas, Surrey) was declared a safe haven for bears after the passing of the Animal (Anthropormorhic) Equality Act: they clubbed together and built themselves a luxury apartment block, what with mountain streams and trackless pine forests being in short supply in Berkshire. 

Not quite as coherent, I thought, as The Big Over Easy, the previous Nursery Crime investigation into the murder of Humpty Dumpty.  But still the stratospheric flights of fantasy, the What on earth goes on in Jasper Fforde's head? and the literal lolz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 22 June, 2015, 09:12:28 am
Just starting "Farmageddon: The true cost of cheap meat" by Philip Lymbery, the Chief Exec of Compassion in World Farming.

Mrs Q read it in February and it's had a lasting impact on the food that appears on our dinner table.  Highly relevant in a week when **obligatory Guardian reference** there were reports of widespread MRSA in factory farmed pigs.
http://www.philiplymbery.com/farmageddon-book/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 23 June, 2015, 09:44:08 am
Currently reading The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker and enjoying it.  A bit slow and unexceptional to start, but the intrigue is ramping up nicely.  :thumbsup:
Oh my goodness, how many plot twists?!?
Highly recommended  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 26 June, 2015, 03:40:19 pm
One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon. I was in my teens during his presidency. I remember having a vague sense that he was a bit of a bastard, but I had no idea that he was this bad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 June, 2015, 03:45:33 pm
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

The story of two sisters, living in France during WWII.  One lives in the country and suffers, badly, the other joins the resistance.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nightingale-Kristin-Hannah/dp/0312577222
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 June, 2015, 09:51:07 pm
Just started The Rosie Project. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 28 June, 2015, 10:19:59 am
One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon. I was in my teens during his presidency. I remember having a vague sense that he was a bit of a bastard, but I had no idea that he was this bad.

                     All those who aspire to and those who actually reach that level in politics (yes, you to Mr Blair) are bastards AND "that" bad, see the original version of House of Cards with Francis Urquart which I remembered when watching Tony Blair and his slick bunch of gangsters electioneering in 1997.

       btw, Bernard Cornwells Waterloo
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 June, 2015, 02:52:03 pm
David Hewson's novelisation of the third part of "The Killing".  You don't need to have seen the TV version for these to work, though you'll probably have to have read the first two in order to make sense of the politics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 28 June, 2015, 05:29:45 pm
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

The story of two sisters, living in France during WWII.  One lives in the country and suffers, badly, the other joins the resistance.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nightingale-Kristin-Hannah/dp/0312577222

Sounded right up my wife's street, downloaded onto the kindle I bought her as a holiday present before we go away. Thanks for mentioning it here.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 June, 2015, 08:03:52 am
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

The story of two sisters, living in France during WWII.  One lives in the country and suffers, badly, the other joins the resistance.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nightingale-Kristin-Hannah/dp/0312577222

Sounded right up my wife's street, downloaded onto the kindle I bought her as a holiday present before we go away. Thanks for mentioning it here.

I have just finished it, I really really enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 June, 2015, 08:13:18 am
Jim Crace, The Devil's Larder. Reminiscent of one of those Spanish-speaking authors with triple-barrelled names that expand to six if you look closely, the one who wrote a story about a conversation with a puddle of ink.  Borges?  More fun, though, much more. Good one for a camping trip.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 07 July, 2015, 06:44:34 pm
Just finished Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, as it had been a Kindle cheapie at 99p. Overpriced by about 98p.

Maybe a little unfair, but not very. Best that I can say for it? Better than Dan Brown.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 July, 2015, 08:49:22 pm
I nearly bought Angels & Demons recently when it was on 99p offer. Decided it wasn't worth that much.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 July, 2015, 07:19:14 am
Re-reading KSR's Forty Signs of Rain.  Fascinating science and political insights to make you howl.

On tablet, Ian Hay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hay_Beith)'s All in it: K(1) carries on. Sequel to his The First Hundred Thousand (K1).  Alternately light-hearted and grim.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 08 July, 2015, 10:03:11 pm
I bought All Quiet on the Orient Express last night, purely on the basis it was the cheapest kindle book...

Finished this last week. It was OK but reminded me why I probably didn't read any more Magnus Mills - that sort of 'person being a doormat' narrative wears me out and makes me annoyed.

Am currently reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

Don't think I have any new books lined up... suggestions welcome.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 08 July, 2015, 10:11:36 pm
I appreciate it's not really a book as such, but it's a gateway to literacy - and I SO need it, so I'm including it here:

(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3718/19537589501_6fc9afb231.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/vLtfFp)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 July, 2015, 10:57:08 pm
Today's lesson:

Allez tout droit pendant 600km, faisez volte-face et répétez.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 14 July, 2015, 03:15:25 pm
To kill a mockingbird. Never read it before, and as it's all over the news, I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. I've seen the film a few times though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 15 July, 2015, 06:58:02 am
To kill a mockingbird. Never read it before, and as it's all over the news, I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. I've seen the film a few times though.

I read "To Kill A Mockingbird" not too long ago, and thought it was excellent. "Go Set a Watchman" is next in line on my Kindle, the reviews have really sparked my interest.

I'm currently working on "Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and Everest"", by Wade Davis. The description of World War I is simply horrifying in every way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 15 July, 2015, 08:36:09 pm

Am currently reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.


I'll be interested in what you make of it. I thought it was an interesting idea but almost every page screamed "TV adaptation" in the writing.

Am currently reading The Four-Dimensional Human by Laurence Scott, which is pretentious and thought-provoking in equal proportions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 15 July, 2015, 09:20:14 pm

Am currently reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.


I'll be interested in what you make of it. I thought it was an interesting idea but almost every page screamed "TV adaptation" in the writing.


It was OK, a bit holiday-lite reading I suppose, not the sort of thing I would want to read all the time but alright while I found some other books to read.

Since then I've bought Robin Ince's Bad Book Club: One man's quest to uncover the books that taste forgot, as a recommendation from a friend. It's quite amusing but I find that I don't really lose myself in that sort of book.
Coming up are:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
The Amulet Of Samarkand (Bartimaeus Trilogy Book 1) by Jonathon Stroud
The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Improper Stories by Saki

Hopefully I'll find something satisfying in that lot...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 July, 2015, 09:32:23 pm
I'll be interested in what you make of it. I thought it was an interesting idea but almost every page screamed "TV adaptation" in the writing.

The author writes Radio 4 afternoon plays. I felt this was readily apparent in the novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 July, 2015, 10:13:47 pm
This Unit commends Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Sequence to the House.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 16 July, 2015, 03:24:17 pm
This one recommends The Girl With All The Gifts.

I'm currently listening to some shit by Charlaine Harris. No Sukey, but just as dreadful. Love it. Haven't got to any execrable sex scenes yet, but it's only a matter of time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 16 July, 2015, 10:26:59 pm
^very good to the 2 units above.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 17 July, 2015, 09:04:39 am
Finished Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernieres during the week.  A collection of short stories, none exceptional, but I enjoyed The Girt Pike, Silly Bugger (1) and Silly Bugger (2)

Just getting into A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  I hope it starts going somewhere, soon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 17 July, 2015, 11:38:59 am
Working my way through some war memoirs a'la Spike Milligoon. Currently on Mussolini- his part in my downfall.

That they are 'of their time' is evident by the language. Copious use of Wog, Iti and the N word...........
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 23 July, 2015, 06:27:16 am
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

The story of two sisters, living in France during WWII.  One lives in the country and suffers, badly, the other joins the resistance.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nightingale-Kristin-Hannah/dp/0312577222

Sounded right up my wife's street, downloaded onto the kindle I bought her as a holiday present before we go away. Thanks for mentioning it here.

I have just finished it, I really really enjoyed it.

So did my missus. She averages a book a week and said this was the best she'd read in a long  time. I'm not a great reader but enjoyed Peter may, Entry Island and now on my other hol book guy martins autobiography which is not as good as I'd hoped. If your not into motorbike racing forget it
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 23 July, 2015, 09:33:51 am
Eddie Merckx- The Cannibal (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eddy-Merckx-Cannibal-Daniel-Friebe/dp/0091943167/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437640296&sr=1-2&keywords=eddie+merckx) by Daniel Friebe
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 24 July, 2015, 12:55:02 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
There was a bit in that that made me say "WHAT THE FUCK?" out loud on the bus.

I have just started Finders Keepers by Stephen King, and I'm about halfway through The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 24 July, 2015, 12:57:27 pm
Armada by Ernest Cline, a disappointing follow up to Ready Player One.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 24 July, 2015, 02:20:27 pm
Merivel by Rose Tremain. Can't help but think that I should have read Restoration first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 July, 2015, 05:03:58 pm
I have just started Finders Keepers by Stephen King

I enjoyed that, though it's starting to look like an ongoing series.  This may or may not be accounted a Good Thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 24 July, 2015, 06:33:42 pm
Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, picked up for 99p as a Kindle special.

A historical novel that takes as its backdrop the events and social framework leading up to and through WWI. I keep swinging from exasperation for the plot clichés to admiration for the quality of writing that keeps you rolling along. The cast of characters is set almost too wide, as he lays out events on the world stage; it gives him the ability to add historical detail and social comment as part of the narrative. If nothing else, he does Welsh Wales very well indeed (I think his background is Welsh?) and weaves the story with skill around the protagonists and historical events, using the different characters to provide alternative perspective albeit in a self conscious way sometimes.

Just over half way through, will have to see if I keep going through others in the trilogy.

Started Winter of the World. I forgive him the occasional clunkiness of the story, plot and prose off the back of the way it is formed around real events, how he brings to life the range of ways people reacted to the rise of fascism. I can see myself working through them all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob on 24 July, 2015, 10:52:13 pm
The Martian. So far, very very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 July, 2015, 11:37:46 am
The Martian. So far, very very good.

God, is everyone broke? It's shit. Don't make me do the Dan Brown thing again to prove it. I got mental scars from that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 July, 2015, 05:46:48 pm
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey

It's taken me several weeks to get anywhere with this, largely because I haven't had the mental capacity for reading lately, but in fact it's one of those books that's so good, you don't really want to come to the end of it anyway. But end it must - there are less than 100 pages to go and the fate of one of the main characters, revealed early on, can't be far away now...

Beautiful writing, totally original, and a compelling story. I knew it was supposed to be good but it has far exceeded my expectations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 25 July, 2015, 08:32:36 pm
Don't make me do the Dan Brown thing again to prove it. I got mental scars from that.

Oh go on, it's worth it.  For the rest of us
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 July, 2015, 09:16:52 pm
Don't make me do the Dan Brown thing again to prove it. I got mental scars from that.

Oh go on, it's worth it.  For the rest of us

Oh come on, it might not be English Lit but its 10^eleventy better than anything Dan Brown can excrete.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 25 July, 2015, 11:39:46 pm
Don't make me do the Dan Brown thing again to prove it. I got mental scars from that.

Oh go on, it's worth it.  For the rest of us

Oh come on, it might not be English Lit but its 10^eleventy better than anything Dan Brown can excrete.

I think it's a pretty realistic account of what wouldn't happen if Someone From The Internet was allowed to be an astronaut.

And better than Dan Brown.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lisat on 26 July, 2015, 07:30:00 am
How to build a girl. Caitlin Moran.
Fairly amusing. In fact I laughed out loud on the train journey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 26 July, 2015, 02:09:07 pm
Yes, but they don't let people from the internet be astronauts, and this is probably why. I confess I didn't finish The Martian, which is something, because I have a fairly high tolerance (I was trained at the Steven Segal Academy of High Cheese). But it did read like being force-fed someone's not terribly interesting blog. Which might be fine, but you're stuck on Mars and fighting for survival. Surely a bit of that might bleed into what you're writing? Oh, hold on, I'm going to use an exclamation mark! That'll do it. Yay! Your all so gay!

So, we've got teen blogger stuck on Mars. Let's run with that plot. Let's forget about metaphor, simile, allusion, and all that rhetorical junk, and line up some dull pedestrian words and make them cross the page. Let's make sure that our character has no interior life, and while we're at, no exterior life. Wait! Phew, got that exclamation mark out of way. We learn those at Astronaut School!

Then there's the episodic problem-solution plot. It's like Macgyver without Richard Dean Anderson. That like ice cream without ice and cream. Problem announces itself, endless dull exposition follows, and then yay, saved again! Mars is so gay! I like disco. He doesn't seem terribly concerned about his constant iterations with near disaster. People get more animated trying to find the exit from a large car park.

Can it be saved by the science? Well, given the number of errors in the chapters I read, no. You might as well make up some shit and have Morgan Freeman narrate it – that I can believe. Firstly, as I said before, it starts off with a wind storm on Mars. Now, I've never been to Mars, but I'm sure the wind has to work pretty hard to get dust into the atmosphere, even given the lower gravity, owing to the fact the surface pressure on Mars is about 0.6% of what sea-level is on Earth. There's simply not enough atmosphere to blow over large objects.

Anyway, my will to live locked itself in the cupboard under the stair are refused to come out until stopped reading the chapter about potatoes. Then my inner botanist, so aggrieved at the laboured nonsense, went to join it. They'd only come out when I promised not to read any more.

Sorry, it's just one those (many) things I don't get. I could ignore it, but people keep saying 'you should read it, it's great'. No, I really shouldn't and no really, it isn't. And to prove it, Ridley Scott is making it into a movie. Ain't no come back from that: we've seen the awesome suckiness of Prometheus.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 26 July, 2015, 02:23:39 pm
To be fair, the dull exposition - if not the science[1] - is the whole point of the book.  Though it does end up reading uncannily like one of my ride reports, which is probably why I don't have a blog.

Ob-xkcd:

(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_martian.png) (http://xkcd.com/1536/)

I must confess, I'm intrigued by how the movie's going to turn out.  Obviously terrible.  Terrible, of course.  My money's on big visuals that go to some lengths to get Mars right, let down by a script with an over-reliance on duct-tape and Hollywood-scienceing the shit out of things.  And not enough Richard Dean Anderson.


[1] The whole plan hinged on the natural curiosity of potatoes.  And a failure to appreciate quite how nasty hydrazine can be.  He got the feeling of accidentally bricking something important bit right, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 26 July, 2015, 02:32:24 pm
....and speaking of informative reviews, I've just found this site http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/ while looking into some questions raised by the Ken Follett book. I have a suspicion it might lead to some odd purchases.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 26 July, 2015, 04:21:46 pm
To be fair, the dull exposition - if not the science[1] - is the whole point of the book.  Though it does end up reading uncannily like one of my ride reports, which is probably why I don't have a blog.

Maybe it changes – I've just read another couple of reviews – and it seems not. But that endless exposition kills it dead for me. I don't really care, tension was flatter than roadkill after the 18-wheeler description had rolled over, stopped and then reversed back to be sure. There was no description of Mars, surely one of the most incredible sights any human can have, nor anything about how that makes him feel? Nothing about himself, the people back home, love and loss, surely something that being marooned a bazillion miles from everything and everyone would bring into laser focus. Doesn't that bode for a monumental perspective? Apparently not. And in that very Dan Brown way, the reader has to be told everything. Every-fucking-thing.

And then there's the language, rather than sound like an astronaut, whom you'd imagine is a highly trained, educated, and kind of on-point guy, he's comes across like a fourteen year boy. In fact NASA seems to be staffed entirely by children. I've heard of budget cuts, but that's shocking. Not least because they'll likely be using the Hubble to look down girls' cleavages.

It just one dimensional, no style, no verve. Words for the sake of them. I still don't get the popularity. Mind you, I don't understand TV talent shows. The list of things I don't understand is epic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 26 July, 2015, 05:28:55 pm
I've just finished "The Watchers And The Watched" by Sid Chaplin.  Chaplin wrote many episodes of "When The Boat Comes In" and the stories on which Alan Plater based "Close The Coalhouse Door".   I wish he could be "re-discovered": he writes about life and relationships in such a down-to-earth way yet with a wistfulness that respects the dreams of ordinary people, even the moribund working class.  Thanks to Deano for putting this my way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 26 July, 2015, 08:47:45 pm
Peter: I'll second that.  The Day of the Sardine was my introduction to Sid Chaplin.  You've inspired me to go and read it again now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 26 July, 2015, 09:36:40 pm
I couldn't find either of my copies of The Day of the Sardine, which is why he got the Watchers and the Watched ;D

The Leaping Lad is a great collection of stories, too - but that was completely unobtainable, the last time I tried to get a copy. I read Newcastle University's copy, though (twice).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 27 July, 2015, 10:29:55 pm
The Leaping Lad is a great collection of stories, too - but that was completely unobtainable, the last time I tried to get a copy.

Several on Abebooks (http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=sid+chaplin&sts=t&tn=leaping): I've just bought the cheapest one though.

(I'm sure a loan could be arranged given the number of Sid Chaplin fans that seem to be coming out of the woodwork.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 28 July, 2015, 04:53:24 pm
We seem to have got a nice little group going here, jsab.  I'm a bit worried that the membership criteria may be predictive: at least two of us have face-planted this year....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 July, 2015, 07:20:08 pm
The Burning Room by <somebody or other >,  it's OK, as far as penny dreadfuls go. The reason I popp in here was that I notice that the Booker long list has been published. Do I go for trying to read 12 books* before the winner is announced?

*Yes,  I know there is 13, but I have already read "A Spool of Blue Thread"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 31 July, 2015, 12:12:00 pm
Just finished "Go Set A Watchman", the recently released work by the author of "To Kill A Mockingbird". Definitely worth reading, either by itself or together with "To Kill A Mockingbird". I'm starting on "Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 01 August, 2015, 11:02:46 pm
Charlie Stross' latest Laundry book, The Annihilation Score. No spoilers here: it's actually written from Mo's viewpoint rather than Bob's. Enjoyed it, as I always do, and it was interesting to see him doing something I do by telling parts of an existing story from a second viewpoint, you get to see other characters developed in a different way.

Enjoyed it, but I did think the ending was a little precipitate. I also don't think Charlie got more than a little way into female thinking.And you try and walk in heels that high yourself, Mister Stross.

As a parallel. stemming from that book, I am now reading The King in Yellow, and it is interesting to see how what was science fiction in many ways (19thC book set in the 1920s) failing to extrapolate the future in anything other than Victorian concepts. There are other considerations, such as the casual antisemitism, that jar.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 03 August, 2015, 01:33:46 pm
Just getting into A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  I hope it starts going somewhere, soon.
Done.  It got quite good towards the end.  Now reading Christophe Bassons' autobiog, wot I got off the S. American river site for 99p.  Will probably get meself another Stephen King afterwards...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 August, 2015, 12:59:59 pm
Just started "No Cure For Love", the "new" non-Banks Peter Robinson.  It ws actually published in 1995 but not in BRITAIN and since Banks got popular people are asking silly money for secondhand copies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 August, 2015, 01:27:59 pm
First of the Man Booker long list, "The Illuminations" by Andrew O'Hagan.

So far I am about 30 pages in, starts out in a retirement community in Scotland.

I am looking forward to the Tom McCarthy and the Bill Clegg ones.

I may be thwarted in my ambition to read all 13 by October, though, as a couple aren't published until September....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 05 August, 2015, 02:06:59 pm
The Martian is possibly no literacy masterpiece because it was written by a Computer Programmer who spent his AOL layoff money on taking three years off work (well, out of work) to write self-published pap on the Internet.

It was reader feedback that drove it from a virtual blog (yes - it sounds like a blog, because that's almost how it started) to a printed book.

A lot of the science was reworked as time went by - readers would correct Andy Weir's science, and it was updated over and over until being fixed in stone when committed to paper.

Interesting interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SemyzKgaUU

Ironic Moment - Andy Weir pulling apart some of the Plot Holes in the film Gravity  :thumbsup:

ETA: I'm being a bit harsh on Andy Weir here - he's a top of the line geek. No, I mean really geeky. Watch the video. He also comes across as a really nice guy whose overriding sense of The Martian is "Wow - I didn't expect all this shit to happen."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 August, 2015, 12:33:08 pm
I finished "The Illuminations" by Andrew O'Hagan, it is slow to start, a little disjointed (it does jump between Scotland and Afganistan) but settles down a bit later on.  Not brilliant, though, and I have to wonder how it got into the Man Booker Long List, I will be surprised if it, and "A Spool of Blue Thread" make it onto the short list.

I have moved on, rather rapidly, to "The Moors Account" by Laila Lalami.  Think of a re-writing of Don Quixote, by a modern author, and the location changed to The New World (It starts with them landing at La Florida) in the 15th Century and you won't be far off.  A good deal easier to read than Don Quixote, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 12 August, 2015, 09:50:02 pm
Last time I had to stop reading a book because I was howling with laughter on the bus, it was The Tartan Special One. Today, it's a James Herriot book, and a farmer expressing frustration at an uncooperative cow with "stand still, tha shittin' owd bovril."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 15 August, 2015, 09:37:44 pm
Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli - the first Charlie Mortdecai novel.

Hilariously, whimsically violent and terrifying.  It's a story about art theft, but written in a style that owes more than a little to PG Wodehouse.  I adored it.  Apparently they made of a film of it, which was a massive flop, and I'm not surprised because the genius of this book is all in the writing.

Also, a bit of it takes place at Carnforth Station and Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, and I've bin there on m'bike, so I enjoyed that too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jurek on 15 August, 2015, 09:41:25 pm
Being there always adds.....
:)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 15 August, 2015, 11:20:55 pm
Read all 3 of the Mortdecai books earlier this year, having read the middle one in my teens. First was the best, last one rather nasty. Haven't seen the film but the reviews were not encouraging ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 15 August, 2015, 11:29:16 pm
I might not bother with the others then.  The first one was nasty enough.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 22 August, 2015, 09:40:01 pm
Clothes Music Boys by Viviane Albertine.

Apparently the trade copy had the original title (Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys) but my copy doesn't.

This might be the most honest book I've ever read.  The Slits aren't my favourite punk band, but I think that's just because their music doesn't get much airplay any more, and isn't so familiar.  But I gave the book a go, and oh my, what a woman Viv Albertine was and is.  She can bloody write, too.  She transported me to the '70s, and art college, and life in that mad punk clique.  She doesn't dress up anything to make it look pretty and somehow that makes it seem more real than anything else I've ever read about that era.  The grunginess of the '70s comes through like the smell of rotting rubbish.

She brings you right into the present, too, and so much of what she writes, I could have written myself, about motherhood, and the love you have for your children, and the loss of self that comes with all that.

I absolutely love this book.  Now I need to go and listen to her new album.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 25 August, 2015, 01:18:41 pm
Victoria Pendleton's autobiography.

She was a bit troubled as a young wasn't she?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 25 August, 2015, 03:48:05 pm
Just finished another of Amazon's 99p offers, the story of Eddie Chapman (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agent-Zigzag-Wartime-Chapman-reissued-ebook/dp/B003FI37R2/), aka agent zigzag (amongst other alias), one of the most incredible life stories you will ever read.

It is not the greatest literary work of all time, in some ways that helps as the invented bits are so clearly literary (cough) devices that the background facts shine through. However, as the background facts often include contemporaneous assessment of his state of mind, that's sometimes a deceiving approach.

The book is a detailed retelling of the story of a crook and inveterate womaniser turned spy turned double agent who played a potentially significant part in the outcome of WWII. Entirely fascinating stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 August, 2015, 03:50:32 pm
Just finished a short one - 100 Acts of Minor Dissent by the ever-entertaining Mark Thomas.  I wish there'd been more about the process and evolution of the project, instead of just the Acts themselves, but it was an enjoyable read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 26 August, 2015, 12:12:38 pm
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, for such a terrible subject it is compelling reading,
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 26 August, 2015, 12:16:36 pm
I don't agree with Beevor's politics, nor, necessarily, with his broader conclusions, but his meticulous attention to the detail shows an astonishing amount of research, and he has a way of developing a very complex situation into a readable narrative without falling into the trap of oversimplifying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 26 August, 2015, 04:31:01 pm
Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary, as recommended by some woman on Radio 2 a few weeks back.  Grim but gripping.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 26 August, 2015, 04:49:25 pm
Whacked 3,400 words out yesterday and today so relaxing by reading something I somehow never got round to--Cold Comfort Farm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 26 August, 2015, 07:09:19 pm
I don't agree with Beevor's politics, nor, necessarily, with his broader conclusions, but his meticulous attention to the detail shows an astonishing amount of research, and he has a way of developing a very complex situation into a readable narrative without falling into the trap of oversimplifying.

                             Quite so, William L Shirer was exactly the same with The rise and fall of the third reich which I read because I wanted to understand how on earth the world let it happen, it is also the only book I have kept concealed because I couldn't stand the possibility of people seeing the swastika on the spine and misunderstanding, pathetic ? possibly but if it made me recoil in disgust then  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 August, 2015, 07:29:54 pm
Both the dust jacket and the bit of the cover over the spine are long gone from my copy of The Rise & Fall Of The Third Reich but OTOH it was a freebie.

ETA: he dies at the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 26 August, 2015, 08:28:48 pm
I saw the movie as well  :o (well, a few really, the end never changed)  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 26 August, 2015, 08:52:50 pm
Whacked 3,400 words out yesterday and today so relaxing by reading something I somehow never got round to--Cold Comfort Farm.

I hope you enjoy it as much as this house does/did.  We still kletter the dishes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 30 August, 2015, 07:20:29 pm
Ineffably sad now I've finished The Shepherd's Crown. I tried to eke it out, but it wasn't to be, a bit of a tearful read at times.

He's been part of my life for the last 30+ years, it hardly seems possible that he has gone, but he left us with a good one. His ideas will soar long after he has gone, because they aren't his ideas - they are ours.

Granny Wetherwax is everywhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 31 August, 2015, 06:40:33 pm
More detailed appraisal once I have left the land that the Internet forgot, aka Morocco, but I have managed to read my way through all but 2 of the Man Booker prize long list.

My favourites, so far are The Chimes and A Little Life.

Still to read are The Year of the Runaway (half way through) and A Short History of Seven Killings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 August, 2015, 06:45:37 pm
Good news: Coming soon: The Hanging Tree (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hanging-Tree-Ben-Aaronovitch-ebook/dp/B00XUDPFQS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=), the sixth instalment of Ben Aaronovitch's very splendid and worthwhile "Rivers Of London" series (or Peter Grant, if you prefer).
Bad news: Not soon enough; it's published on November 19th.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 August, 2015, 08:10:36 pm
Re-read Fight Club because the Kindlebot for some reason decided to reorder my recently read list into a list of things I'd read at some point that was might have only been coincidentally recent, and I had a train journey to Southampton to contend with (and I'm reading a dead tree number9dream which I'd found on my wife's bookshelf but had forgotten to take with me). I figured Basingstoke and Palahniuk seemed a perfect pairing.

Still marvellous and a good reminder not to ever eat anything at a posh catered do. And you will wander around for two days afterwards talking about yourself in the third person. I am ian's righteous indignation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 31 August, 2015, 10:14:45 pm
Good news: Coming soon: The Hanging Tree (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hanging-Tree-Ben-Aaronovitch-ebook/dp/B00XUDPFQS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=), the sixth instalment of Ben Aaronovitch's very splendid and worthwhile "Rivers Of London" series (or Peter Grant, if you prefer).
Bad news: Not soon enough; it's published on November 19th.

Yes, that's ages away yet.

This morning I finished the latest of the Laundry Archives by Charles Stross - The Annihilation Score. Snaffled it up in a couple of days.
Before that I read the first of the 'Bartimaeus' books - The Amulet of Samarkand. Better than Hairy Potter but I don't think I'll bother buying the rest until I get desperate for something to read.

Before that I read Station Eleven by Emily Mandel St John. It's post apocalyptic but there are no zombies and the story arc tied up quite nicely - also - Calvin & Hobbes gets a mention so it must be good!

Not sure what I'm going to read next out of the pile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 August, 2015, 10:48:38 pm
Miss von Brandenburg has just acquired the first book in some other series by Jonathan "Bartimaeus" Stround but is still ploughing through the breezeblock-sized biography of Leonard Cohen I gave her for her birthday.  Which was in January.

New Rebus isn't out until November either chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 August, 2015, 11:57:35 pm
Just finished "The Killing III" by David Hewson, based on the TV series of that ilk.  Basically the same story though he mucks about with the somewhat ambiguous ending, and drags Troels Hartmann back as the PM, which means the return of Morten Weber instead of the PM's idiot brother (played on the box by the wonderfully-named Jonatan Spang).  He should have had Birgitte Nyborg instead for some real crossover action, and maybe Martin Rohde could have been let out of prison to help Lund as well.  Actually the novels are pretty good in their own right; way better than most film or TV tie-ins anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 02 September, 2015, 07:44:44 pm
Ineffably sad now I've finished The Shepherd's Crown. I tried to eke it out, but it wasn't to be, a bit of a tearful read at times.

He's been part of my life for the last 30+ years, it hardly seems possible that he has gone, but he left us with a good one. His ideas will soar long after he has gone, because they aren't his ideas - they are ours.

Granny Wetherwax is everywhere.
Absolutely. I cried at times, laughed out loud many times and feel a real sense of loss. I hope nobody feels the need to 'continue' his work.

On the other hand, who was the pretentious knob in the Graun who dismissed all of TP's books as 'mediocre' and then admitted he had never actually read one?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 02 September, 2015, 07:59:47 pm
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.   A really good and interesting start! The Moon is destroyed in the first sentence!  its a book of two halves though, one set now ish and the second half 5000 years in the future. I found the first half gripping, the second half not quite so much, but an enjoyable read. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 September, 2015, 11:39:16 am
Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley - funny but rather dated.

Laura Lamont's Life In Pictures by Emma Straub - not sure why I picked this one up, probably because it was a cheap Kindle offer. It's pretty awful but a very easy read, which suits me fine at the moment. Straub seems to think she's the new F Scott Fitzgerald. She isn't. Part of the problem is that despite the fairly accurate historical setting based on real people and places, all the studios and stars have been fictionalised, which largely prevents me giving a fuck about any of them. And I can't help thinking there's a much more interesting story begging to be told here. The narrative is told from a limited third person point of view, which is the worst of both worlds. You don't see anything outside Laura's restricted purview, but nor do you ever feel you really get inside Laura's head, which is a shame because she could potentially make a brilliant unreliable narrator if the story were cast as a first person memoir. Instead, it's just sentimental tosh about the golden age of Hollywood with nothing original to say on the subject.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 03 September, 2015, 04:34:17 pm
Faster after 50, Joe Friel.

Well... you gotta try, haven't you?  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rob on 03 September, 2015, 04:55:38 pm
Faster after 50, Joe Friel.

Well... you gotta try, haven't you?  ::-)

Looks like we're all at it.   I just bought the Cyclist Training Bible.   Resisting the urge to fork out on a power meter as it will make me even more dull than I already am.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 03 September, 2015, 04:58:39 pm
Faster after 50, Joe Friel.

Well... you gotta try, haven't you?  ::-)

Looks like we're all at it.   I just bought the Cyclist Training Bible.   Resisting the urge to fork out on a power meter as it will make me even more dull than I already am.

Haha! Don't worry - you'll only set off fboab's alarms if you start posting stats on here  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 03 September, 2015, 05:42:10 pm
Clothes Music Boys by Viviane Albertine.

Apparently the trade copy had the original title (Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys) but my copy doesn't.

Our libraries have it under 2 ISBNs, but with the same (longer) title. <boggles>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 03 September, 2015, 05:50:53 pm
(sorry to book-stalk you, Ruthie!)
Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli - the first Charlie Mortdecai novel.

Hilariously, whimsically violent and terrifying.  It's a story about art theft, but written in a style that owes more than a little to PG Wodehouse.  I adored it.  Apparently they made of a film of it, which was a massive flop, and I'm not surprised because the genius of this book is all in the writing.

Also, a bit of it takes place at Carnforth Station and Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, and I've bin there on m'bike, so I enjoyed that too.
This sounds bloody brilliant! I avoided the film (which sounds like that sad thing - a bad Johnnie Depp movie), but the books sound right up my street. My library elf has instructions for a trip tomorrow.

I do love Depp though - I bet if I watched the trailer for the film, his portrayal will be stuck in my head when I read the books. Which would be terribly unliterary of me /booksnob
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 September, 2015, 07:37:33 pm
(sorry to book-stalk you, Ruthie!)


No problem at all, mattc.

Would you like a jelly baby?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 03 September, 2015, 07:57:48 pm
Gosh, that's very kind of you!

Not what I expected amongst the shelves of the Fiction section. (Or have I strayed into Auto-biographies? ... )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 03 September, 2015, 08:16:18 pm
s'welp me I'm ploughing my way though Us by David Nicholls. His writing is ok in bits, often making me smile which makes the process acceptable. Unfortunately it's the bits in between the bits that make it rather turgid for me. Somewhat ironic that I'm reading it at Mrs Ham's behest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 03 September, 2015, 08:23:49 pm
(sorry to book-stalk you, Ruthie!)
Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli - the first Charlie Mortdecai novel.

Hilariously, whimsically violent and terrifying.  It's a story about art theft, but written in a style that owes more than a little to PG Wodehouse.  I adored it.  Apparently they made of a film of it, which was a massive flop, and I'm not surprised because the genius of this book is all in the writing.

Also, a bit of it takes place at Carnforth Station and Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, and I've bin there on m'bike, so I enjoyed that too.
This sounds bloody brilliant! I avoided the film (which sounds like that sad thing - a bad Johnnie Depp movie), but the books sound right up my street. My library elf has instructions for a trip tomorrow.

I appear to have the relevant epub & mobi files.....   if you'd care to drop me a PM with an email address I can save your elf a trip....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: darkpoint on 03 September, 2015, 08:40:11 pm
I've just read "The Martian" which is really very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 September, 2015, 10:23:45 pm
I'm taking down all your names.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 September, 2015, 10:58:40 pm
I've just read "The Martian" which is really very good.

I heard the Martian's favourite tipple is advocaat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2015, 10:38:44 am
I'm taking down all your names.

I can assure you I have no intention of reading it.

I might re-read Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 September, 2015, 12:23:11 pm
Birds Without Wings, citoyen?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 September, 2015, 12:33:03 pm
Birds Without Wings, citoyen?

Any good? And more to the point, would it upset ian?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 September, 2015, 01:00:46 pm
More detailed appraisal once I have left the land that the Internet forgot, aka Morocco, but I have managed to read my way through all but 2 of the Man Booker prize long list.

My favourites, so far are The Chimes and A Little Life.

Still to read are The Year of the Runaway (half way through) and A Short History of Seven Killings.

OK, so there are three I haven't read (I have now finished The Year of the Runaways and have started A Short History of Seven Killings) as The Fishermen is not, currently, available as an ebook and I still haven't been able to find a copy of Did You Ever Have a Family.

Here are my brief notes:

Anne Enright - The Green Road A story of an Irish family, from County Clare, spread over 3 decades.  Mother, father, 2 sons, 2 daughters.  Well written, not over long and interesting.

Laila Lalami - The Moor's Account A (sort of) re-telling of Don Quixote, but the main character is (unsurprisingly) a Moor and a slave, and it is set, mainly, in North America.  Even though the book is quite long, I didn't, ever, feel like "I wish this book would just end so I can get on with the next one".

Tom McCarthy - Satin Island Basically it is a book about writer's block.  Sounds like a bundle of fun, doesn't it? Well it is better than you might expect.

Andrew O'Hagan - The Illuminations This is an interesting one, as it appears to be two seperate stories, but they merge about half way through the book and make an interesting story of love, scandal and loss.

Manilynne Robinson - Lila I hates this book, really really hated it. Imagine a "Misery Memoir" made into fiction (so you can, instead of telling the truth, just make shit up) and you pretty much have it.

Anuradha Roy - Sleeping on Jupiter Interesting, funny and insightful, I really enjoyed this one.  It's a story of two people, basically, a young girl who ends up in an Ashram after all her family are killed and the woman who took her in when she first escaped the ashram.

Sunjeev Sahota - The Year of the Runaways A story of two people who escaped India and came to England, separately and the stories of the people around them, family, friends and love interest.  Another insightful book and quite enjoyable.

Anna Small - The Chimes I LOVED this book, set in a post-apocolyptic England, the populace is controlled by The Chimes and memories re physical objects.  The hero, Simon, and his friend Lucien, set out learn the truth and to change the world.

Anne Tyler - A Spool of Blue Thread An enjoyable book but I don't think it has a chance of making it past the long list (some argue it shouldn't have made it this far!)

Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life I haven't read a book this good, either in story, or in writing style in a long, long time.  An author that can mix first and third person so effortlessly that you don't really notice it has to be REALLY good at what they do.  I laughed, I cried and I felt a certain emptiness once I had finished it.

The one thing all the books have in common, this year, is that they really are all very well written.  There is no pretentious carp (no Will Self! YAY!) I am willing to go out on a limb and predict that "A Little Life" will win.  Then again I am ALWAYS wrong with my prediction.  Even if it doesn't win I would, if asked to recommend one book out of the long list, recommend that one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 September, 2015, 01:17:54 pm
Quite likely. The list of things that upset me is long. Captain Corelli's Stupid Mandolin at least had the good grace to brain the evil silhouetted albino villain before he could put a bullet through our tweedy symbologist's head. I'm pretty sure his head is tweedy. Did that really happen in the Da Vinci Code?

I'm almost inclined to read the rest of The Martian just to be annoyed about it. I've never understood those people who watch entire TV series just to complain how bad it was and how much they didn't enjoy it, but I think I see where they are at now. The warm sensation of righteous complaint. That quietly smouldering atomic pile of resentment over the time a book, film, or TV show has stolen. Any moment it could flare back into furious life. Fucking fuckity fuck fuck. I think Righteous Indignation actually powers the internet. If we could channel this infinitely renewal resource, we could potentially replace all current power sources. Imagine, a world powered by Righteous Indignation. Every keystroke on the internet converted into pure clean, if somewhat foul-mouthed, energy. Every 'fuck', every 'shit', every word of furious complaint, every exclaimation mark, every CAPITALISATION. All that glorious, fuming Righteous Indignation. I can feel the heat. My driveway lights could be kept on by Mildred Barnstable's of Tunbridge Wells continued simmering contempt for the Great British Bake Off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 September, 2015, 01:25:59 pm
Gate of Fire - Stephen Pressfield.  Story told by a Greek picked up by the Persians on the battlefield after Thermopylae. Excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 04 September, 2015, 01:26:34 pm
I appear to have the relevant epub & mobi files.....   if you'd care to drop me a PM with an email address I can save your elf a trip....
That's very kind, but we're a dead tree based household, and she likes the fresh air.

EDIT: ooh, it's here - and a day earlier than I expected. Hoorah!
(and it appears to have been a donation to the library. Which is nice.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 September, 2015, 01:53:46 pm
And of course things like iPlayer and streaming generally allow one to be Righteously Indignant at a time of one's choosing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 September, 2015, 02:06:40 pm
Birds Without Wings, citoyen?

Any good? And more to the point, would it upset ian?

If you consider Captain Corelli to be worth rereading: very, and probably.

I don't often reread books, but I recently revisited Birds after 10 years, and it got me just as much as the first time.  I didn't even skip the Mustafa Kemal chapters this time around.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 September, 2015, 07:21:57 pm
Ian, if you didn't finish The Martian, I think the ending will bring you exactly what you're looking for....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 September, 2015, 10:30:24 pm
Ian, if you didn't finish The Martian, I think the ending will bring you exactly what you're looking for....

Advocaat?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 05 September, 2015, 02:00:21 pm
Quite likely. The list of things that upset me is long. Captain Corelli's Stupid Mandolin at least had the good grace to brain the evil silhouetted albino villain before he could put a bullet through our tweedy symbologist's head. I'm pretty sure his head is tweedy. Did that really happen in the Da Vinci Code?

I'm almost inclined to read the rest of The Martian just to be annoyed about it. I've never understood those people who watch entire TV series just to complain how bad it was and how much they didn't enjoy it, but I think I see where they are at now. The warm sensation of righteous complaint. That quietly smouldering atomic pile of resentment over the time a book, film, or TV show has stolen. Any moment it could flare back into furious life. Fucking fuckity fuck fuck. I think Righteous Indignation actually powers the internet. If we could channel this infinitely renewal resource, we could potentially replace all current power sources. Imagine, a world powered by Righteous Indignation. Every keystroke on the internet converted into pure clean, if somewhat foul-mouthed, energy. Every 'fuck', every 'shit', every word of furious complaint, every exclaimation mark, every CAPITALISATION. All that glorious, fuming Righteous Indignation. I can feel the heat. My driveway lights could be kept on by Mildred Barnstable's of Tunbridge Wells continued simmering contempt for the Great British Bake Off.


                             So perfectly stated
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 05 September, 2015, 08:45:29 pm
"Alexander At The World's End" by Tom Holt.  Again.  I'll probably re-read, "The Walled Orchard" (likewise T. Holt) next.  Which is arse about face, but that's me all over; a right wee rebel.  Yeah... right.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 September, 2015, 03:22:42 pm
BTW, in Gates of Fire, Pressfield uses the term "banty cap". I've seen it before but I've no idea what it means.

Any suggestions?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 07 September, 2015, 03:24:22 pm
BTW, in Gates of Fire, Pressfield uses the term "banty cap". I've seen it before but I've no idea what it means.

Any suggestions?

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/banty+caps
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 September, 2015, 03:46:48 pm
BTW, in Gates of Fire, Pressfield uses the term "banty cap". I've seen it before but I've no idea what it means.

Any suggestions?

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/banty+caps

Yeah, I tried Google too. Hardly suitable for an ancient  Greek.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 September, 2015, 10:19:35 am
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut

If I had to put the Vonnegut books I've read in order of preference, they would be as follows:
Cat's Cradle
God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
Slaughterhouse-Five
Mother Night
Breakfast of Champions

I haven't quite worked out where Sirens fits in this list yet, but it's somewhere near the top. I love them all, in any case.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 September, 2015, 10:47:15 am
I recently read a load of Vonnegut (probably all of them) because they were 99p on Kindle. I still dunno what he was on, but it was evidently very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 September, 2015, 12:44:14 pm
I still dunno what he was on, but it was evidently very good.

Yeah, I downloaded all of them when they were 99p on Kindle, but I've been dipping in and out rather than read them all at once - still have at least another 9 on my digital to-read pile. I think it was after reading Cat's Cradle that I came to the conclusion that he's the sane one, it's the rest of us who are mad/on something.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 11 September, 2015, 12:16:51 am
"Be brave, be strong" by Jill Homer (as recommended by Interzen).  Riding the 2009 Tour Divide,   I've got the guidebook & have very vague ambitions of 2-3 months as a retirement trip.   She did it in 24 days...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 12 September, 2015, 08:38:50 am
Though a certain strain of readers might appreciate this.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COqLUcRWcAAnoKV.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 September, 2015, 06:41:42 pm
 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 September, 2015, 07:41:43 am
Just started The City & The City by China Miéville. Very promising start. Never read any of his stuff before (and yes, I'm aware this isn't regarded as a good choice for first-timers) but clearly the boy can write, which bodes well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 September, 2015, 08:39:17 am
If I'd started China Miéville's stuff with Kraken I wouldn't have read any more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 17 September, 2015, 08:48:38 am
Just cracked out The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas  :'(

(click to show/hide)

Rattling through Stephen King's On Writing at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 September, 2015, 11:44:35 am
Slaughterhouse Five - cant believe its taken me so long to get around to reading this, so it goes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 18 September, 2015, 01:42:18 pm
It must seem a daft thing to get excited about but I have just received
 an original (hardback) copy of Mrs Balbir Singh's "Indian Cookery" inside
 is a stamp from the original bookshop, "Krishan's Book Shop
  - Hotel Claridges  _  New Delhi India

                                ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 September, 2015, 05:56:28 pm
Just started Go Set a Watchman.  Too early to say if it'll be worth the read.  Scout is now called Jean Louise, which is so close to Jean-Louis that every time I read it I do a double-take.  Bad name.  Haven't yet met anyone particularly admirable or even likeable.

Taking occasional times out to read a freebie penny dreadful by the name of Butcher Bird, by a chap called Kadrey.  Nobody likeable here, it's all tattooists, demons, assassins and dire liver-for-a-liver retribution.  Really, it's the last time I go to San Francisco.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 22 September, 2015, 10:09:34 am
Marie Kondo, The life changing magic of tidying up.

The wife bought it and gave it to me to read based on the recommendation of a friend. It's a self help type book for decluttering.

Basically if you touch one of your possessions and it doesn't bring you joy, bin it.

Kondo's method also forbids the use of worn out clothes to be worn around the house, she calls it "loungewear" so the other half has vetoed any implementation of any of her methods of decluttering.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 September, 2015, 10:45:40 am
Just started Go Set a Watchman.  Too early to say if it'll be worth the read.  Scout is now called Jean Louise, which is so close to Jean-Louis that every time I read it I do a double-take.  Bad name.  Haven't yet met anyone particularly admirable or even likeable.

Taking occasional times out to read a freebie penny dreadful by the name of Butcher Bird, by a chap called Kadrey.  Nobody likeable here, it's all tattooists, demons, assassins and dire liver-for-a-liver retribution.  Really, it's the last time I go to San Francisco.

Go Set a Watchman was pretty dull, more of a sketch than a novel. I wasn't sure of its purpose other than to bank some cash. Mind you, I always thought To Kill a Mockingbird was a bit overrated.

I do like Richard Kadrey though, what's not to like? Devils, demons, the undead, vampires, and an LA simulacrum of Hell (in the Sandman Slim series). Reminds me he's a got a new one out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 22 September, 2015, 10:58:43 am
Marie Kondo, The life changing magic of tidying up.

The wife bought it and gave it to me to read based on the recommendation of a friend. It's a self help type book for decluttering.

Basically if you touch one of your possessions and it doesn't bring you joy, bin it.

Kondo's method also forbids the use of worn out clothes to be worn around the house, she calls it "loungewear" so the other half has vetoed any implementation of any of her methods of decluttering.

Not a book to be put aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force.

(with apologies  to Dorothy)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 September, 2015, 02:08:44 pm
Just started Go Set a Watchman.  Too early to say if it'll be worth the read.  Scout is now called Jean Louise, which is so close to Jean-Louis that every time I read it I do a double-take.  Bad name.  Haven't yet met anyone particularly admirable or even likeable.

Taking occasional times out to read a freebie penny dreadful by the name of Butcher Bird, by a chap called Kadrey.  Nobody likeable here, it's all tattooists, demons, assassins and dire liver-for-a-liver retribution.  Really, it's the last time I go to San Francisco.

Go Set a Watchman was pretty dull, more of a sketch than a novel. I wasn't sure of its purpose other than to bank some cash. Mind you, I always thought To Kill a Mockingbird was a bit overrated.

I do like Richard Kadrey though, what's not to like? Devils, demons, the undead, vampires, and an LA simulacrum of Hell (in the Sandman Slim series). Reminds me he's a got a new one out.

Yeah, well, GSAW was her first novel that she rewrote into TKAM when the publishers turned it down.  A bit like those lacklustre early novels written by later-famous names under pen-names, e.g. "The Da Vinci Cod written by Damn Brown (now known to be Joseph Göbels)"  More a curio than a book.

Richard Kadrey is fun, and he has the chutzpah to put one of his books on gutenberg.org.  Gotta like that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sprogs on 23 September, 2015, 08:12:50 pm
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Muakami
I was loaned this book by Lucie at esquires in Ambleside, I don't think I've ever been so drawn in or so emotionally affected by any other book. As I read it I find myself going back to earlier parts to check I've remembered it correctly and reading the book again from there.
Thank you lucie, I hope you'll write something in it for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 September, 2015, 10:35:36 am
That's on my list. I loved IQ84 and the Wind up Bird Chronicle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 24 September, 2015, 11:23:02 am
The Da Vinci Cod
(http://jesseland.phui.com/DaVinciCod.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 26 September, 2015, 06:46:17 pm
Not a book, as such, but I'm currently perusing a very complimentary review of The Esteemed Dr Larrington's book in last week's New Statesman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 September, 2015, 07:21:12 pm
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 26 September, 2015, 08:41:06 pm
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 27 September, 2015, 09:28:52 am
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

I liked that one!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 27 September, 2015, 10:18:45 am
Having finished The Girl With All The Gifts (meh,  zombies) I am now reading Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 27 September, 2015, 03:36:09 pm
David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks.  Halfway through, and lovin' it (as I have all his stuff).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 September, 2015, 05:50:12 pm
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

I liked that one!
I'm loving it. I really loved About Grace too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tigerrr on 27 September, 2015, 06:55:50 pm
The Martian. Great read and all you need to know about survival on mars if you get left behind there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 September, 2015, 09:13:06 pm
The Martian. Great read and all you need to know about survival on mars if you get left behind there.
That's quite an audax.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 September, 2015, 12:07:43 pm
Not a book, as such, but I'm currently perusing a very complimentary review of The Esteemed Dr Larrington's book in last week's New Statesman.

Still waiting for my freebie copy which is a mouldy chiz considering the long list of suggestions, and fakts about the superstitions of Trent boatmen with regard to Pigs, I submitted to the Author this time last year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 30 September, 2015, 12:36:20 pm
The Martian. Great read and all you need to know about survival on mars if you get left behind there.
That's quite an audax.

There's a bus shelter round the back of Syrtis Major, and an all-night garage in Tharsis, second volcano up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 October, 2015, 12:25:26 pm
I am slowly working my way through the novels of Hammond Innes and have reached about 1950.  He couldn't 'arf churn them out.  Ripping yarns, of their time1, bit formulaic with much thwarting of Nazis and the hero getting the girl, but D** B**** still ought to read them.

1: Not politically correct and/or plot would fall apart in a world with mobile phones.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 02 October, 2015, 12:55:41 pm
The Constant Gardener John Le Carre, read by Michael Jayston.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 October, 2015, 08:00:34 pm
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 03 October, 2015, 08:09:22 pm
I've re-listened to His Dark Materials.

Great series of audiobooks.

Must be challenging if you're a God-botherer - which is of course why they never made the other two movies. Which kind of proves Philip Pullman right - in that whole "Church suppressing anything 'Fun' thing" he has going on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 October, 2015, 08:21:16 am
Rubicon, by Tom Holland.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 October, 2015, 11:06:23 am
The Secret Agent by Conrad. And Modern Palestine or The Need of a New Crusade, by the Rev. John Hammond B.D, for the lolz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 October, 2015, 12:12:13 pm
Rubicon, by Tom Holland.

That's very good.
(click to show/hide)

 I just pre- ordered Mary Beard's new history of Rome "SPQR"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 October, 2015, 01:26:54 pm
Rubicon, by Tom Holland.

That's very good.
(click to show/hide)

 I just pre- ordered Mary Beard's new history of Rome "SPQR"

Irritating how the Caesarian episode dominates every account of Roman history when skulls were being enthusiastically dugged ever since Romulus dun Remus in.  Shakespeare's fault.

Early days with this particular TH, but it's very enjoyable.  I like "plebs sordida". Must remember that for the next time I see Andy Mitchell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 October, 2015, 12:38:37 pm
If I'd started China Miéville's stuff with Kraken I wouldn't have read any more.

The City & The City turns out to be a very good, solid crime thriller, albeit one with an unconventional setting. But the weird stuff doesn't get in the way of the story.

I was motivated to read it by the news that they're making it into a TV series. I'm looking forward to it - it could be very good. And it's being made by the same people who made Parade's End, which I loved.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 05 October, 2015, 12:49:03 pm
Reading the kindle unlimited free selection. The DI Nick Dixon series is entertaining enough. The final book so far, Swansong,  is what would happen if Jack Reacher went undercover as a substitute teacher in Hogwarts
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 October, 2015, 01:28:57 pm
If I'd started China Miéville's stuff with Kraken I wouldn't have read any more.

The City & The City turns out to be a very good, solid crime thriller, albeit one with an unconventional setting. But the weird stuff doesn't get in the way of the story.

I was motivated to read it by the news that they're making it into a TV series. I'm looking forward to it - it could be very good. And it's being made by the same people who made Parade's End, which I loved.

He's moving more into psychological novels these days and leaving the parallel worlds bit - Bas-Lag in particular - behind.  He was thrashing it a bit in the later books of that series. Perdido St. Station and The Scar were excellent, though.

Interesting news re The City... - thanks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 05 October, 2015, 01:48:17 pm
Quote
God's Debris is the first non-Dilbert, non-humor book by best-selling author Scott Adams. Adams describes God's Debris as a thought experiment wrapped in a story. It's designed to make your brain spin around inside your skull.

mmmm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HFYD8E4?keywords=scott%20adams&qid=1444049099&ref_=sr_1_3&s=books&sr=1-3

I'll stick with it, the jury is still out. Whatever, I figgered my £3.50 is a pretty small donation for all the fun I've had from Dilbert over the years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 05 October, 2015, 03:21:16 pm
Nearly finished The Shining (Stephen King, obvs).  Just got past the part whereat Nicholson did the "Heeeeeeere's Johnny" adlib  :o (not seen the fillum, but I imagine it's quite scary...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 October, 2015, 07:57:35 pm
Nearly finished The Shining (Stephen King, obvs).  Just got past the part whereat Nicholson did the "Heeeeeeere's Johnny" adlib  :o (not seen the fillum, but I imagine it's quite scary...)

Is that before the "No beer and No TV make Homer something something...." bit?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 06 October, 2015, 09:06:19 am
 ;D
That's not in the book either... (neither is "all work and no play...")  ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 October, 2015, 09:14:53 am
Nearly finished The Shining (Stephen King, obvs).  Just got past the part whereat Nicholson did the "Heeeeeeere's Johnny" adlib  :o (not seen the fillum, but I imagine it's quite scary...)

I first read that on a business trip to Milan, where it was just about the only English-language book in the hotel shop that I hadn't either already read or wouldn't care to be seen reading. My room was quite luxurious, with long purple velvet curtains and heavy furniture, but being equipped with the usual underpowered hotel lighting there were lots of shadows.  I couldn't put the damned book down until about 3 am, and opening the bathroom door to go for a pee took quite an effort of will...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 October, 2015, 10:42:14 am
D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944 :Holger Eckhertz

A short (150 pages) book but interesting. There is no overview of D Day just a series of interviews conducted by a German journalist with German troops who were in the front-line on D-Day.
The interviews were done several years after the end of WWII and its interesting to read how the soldiers felt about what happened to them and what they were expecting on that summer.
Its a bargain at 99p on Amazon for Kindles at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 October, 2015, 11:49:14 am
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

I was aware that it had inspired Orwell to write 1984, but not quite the extent of the 'inspiration'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 06 October, 2015, 01:05:22 pm
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon.  Bafflingly surreal, in a good way but a way which I only want to sample once in a while.  For my next book I'll want something with a concrete plot, a reduced set of characters and a narrator who doesn't go off into side alleys at every opportunity.

I've re-listened to His Dark Materials.

Great series of audiobooks.

Must be challenging if you're a God-botherer - which is of course why they never made the other two movies. Which kind of proves Philip Pullman right - in that whole "Church suppressing anything 'Fun' thing" he has going on.

Challenging?  Not remotely.  It's kind of like an alternate universe where John Calvin became pope - which is sufficiently far from actuality that the jibes can be ignored and you can concentrate on a good story.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 06 October, 2015, 02:36:53 pm
Pete Browns "Three Sheets to the Wind", excellent, I have been drinking beer (much to my doctors disgust) for over fifty years and I have learnt in a funny but oh so informative way from this book, I just have to go to Australia even if only to be able to say "Pint o'Piss Please Mate"  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 October, 2015, 03:57:00 pm
Pete Browns "Three Sheets to the Wind", excellent, I have been drinking beer (much to my doctors disgust) for over fifty years and I have learnt in a funny but oh so informative way from this book, I just have to go to Australia even if only to be able to say "Pint o'Piss Please Mate"  ;D

If you haven't already read it this Unit endorses the same author's "Man Walks Into A Pub".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 October, 2015, 06:42:39 pm
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 06 October, 2015, 09:11:51 pm
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Hmm.  It's got a well timed twist and I didn't see the end coming.  Good mystery novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tigerrr on 07 October, 2015, 10:12:49 am
'Look Who's Back'. Adolf wakes up in a park in Berlin in 2011.  Had some good reviews.  Slightly queasy making though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 07 October, 2015, 10:47:43 am
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

Thanks to one of my boys for leaving it lying around.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 07 October, 2015, 11:46:09 am
'Look Who's Back'. Adolf wakes up in a park in Berlin in 2011.  Had some good reviews.  Slightly queasy making though.

I've just finished that too. High concept, with potential, but a disappointment. It felt more like a very wordy pitch for the book rather than anything with any narrative substance. And yes, queasy, I think for the wrong reasons. It feels too light-hearted and sympathetic to the man to have him mention "the Jewish Problem" in the way he does. It's a lot less satirical than the author thinks it is.

But I did like the recurring gag about mad ladies picking up dog poo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 07 October, 2015, 11:49:34 am
The Establishment by Owen Jones.

Scarier than any horror novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 07 October, 2015, 01:48:09 pm
'Look Who's Back'. Adolf wakes up in a park in Berlin in 2011.  Had some good reviews.  Slightly queasy making though.

I've just finished that too. High concept, with potential, but a disappointment. It felt more like a very wordy pitch for the book rather than anything with any narrative substance. And yes, queasy, I think for the wrong reasons. It feels too light-hearted and sympathetic to the man to have him mention "the Jewish Problem" in the way he does. It's a lot less satirical than the author thinks it is.

But I did like the recurring gag about mad ladies picking up dog poo.

Dog poo is something mentioned in guided tours of Berlin- or the abundance of dog poo in the gravel of the car park situated where The Bunker was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 October, 2015, 03:35:34 pm
Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn

Murder mystery set in 1930s London. Oswald Mosley is a minor character. Off to a promising start - funny and very readable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 12 October, 2015, 07:28:18 am
'Look Who's Back'. Adolf wakes up in a park in Berlin in 2011.  Had some good reviews.  Slightly queasy making though.

I've just finished that too. High concept, with potential, but a disappointment. It felt more like a very wordy pitch for the book rather than anything with any narrative substance. And yes, queasy, I think for the wrong reasons. It feels too light-hearted and sympathetic to the man to have him mention "the Jewish Problem" in the way he does. It's a lot less satirical than the author thinks it is.

But I did like the recurring gag about mad ladies picking up dog poo.
coincidentally my German friends were talking about this book to me yesterday as it's just been made into a film here. The 11-year-old girl clearly didn't understand the significance (fair enough) and her father's comment was it was rather unfunny for something that is trying to be a comedy. They suggested I didn't try to read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 October, 2015, 08:16:40 am
^^^Given current fashions in popular shitterature, it's a wonder he didn't come back as a zombie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 12 October, 2015, 12:10:04 pm
I caught a bit of that on Radio4:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06d29bp

Missed the start, had no idea what was going on; but it sounded intriguing! Maybe it worked better condensed into 2 hours than as a full novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 October, 2015, 12:35:32 pm
Just finished "The Fishermen" which makes just one book that I haven't managed to finish from this year's shortlist.  The one I haven't finished is "A Short History of Seven Killings", which I find quite hard going due to trying to comprehend the patois that a big chunk of it is written in.

The prize winner is announced tonight (IIRC) and my money is still on "A Little Life"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 14 October, 2015, 05:07:46 am
Nearly finished The Shining (Stephen King, obvs).  Just got past the part whereat Nicholson did the "Heeeeeeere's Johnny" adlib  :o (not seen the fillum, but I imagine it's quite scary...)

There are two films. Kubrick's is excellent, even down to the sounds of the tricycle. The story diverges heavily from SK's original, but Jack is superb in the role.

The other version is King's own, and it is the usual mess from someone who doesn't grasp the difference between the two media. King puts everything in the book into what was a TV mini-series, and whoever cast the kid needs shooting. Teh vomit-inducing uberkewt, the sort of face that asks for a punch. Slow, draggy and permanently ruined by kid's hairstyle and teeth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 14 October, 2015, 10:34:42 pm
Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy. Enjoyed them as if I was a tween girl.
Surprisingly dark.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 October, 2015, 08:01:20 am
Just finished "The Fishermen" which makes just one book that I haven't managed to finish from this year's shortlist.  The one I haven't finished is "A Short History of Seven Killings", which I find quite hard going due to trying to comprehend the patois that a big chunk of it is written in.

The prize winner is announced tonight (IIRC) and my money is still on "A Little Life"

Don't ever put money on what I say, will you?

So "A Short History of Seven Killings" won.  Grrrrr

Probably best to put your money on the one book I don't manage to finish!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 17 October, 2015, 05:52:10 pm
Music Theory for Dummies

It's the first wooden book I've picked up for ages. In this case I found it under a pile of stuff stacked on the piano. I've managed two paragraphs so far before losing interest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 October, 2015, 11:20:11 am
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

Love it. Interesting American counterpoint to the very Russian perspective of Yevgeny Zamyatin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 October, 2015, 09:14:48 am
The latest "Reacher" episode from Lee Child. Guilty pleasures  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 October, 2015, 09:35:14 am
The latest "Reacher" episode from Lee Child. Guilty pleasures  ;D

"Make Me"? I am reading that one, and enjoying it.

Child is one of those authors, though, that you can't read a load of his books in a row as you start noticing a lot of formulaic lines and events.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 October, 2015, 09:51:22 am
Having now reached volume 23 of Hammond Innes' output (less his four pre-WW2 novels) I have concluded that the success of "The Wreck Of The Mary Deare" allowed him to retire in 1957 and be replaced by a doppelganger, who also happened to be a rather better writer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 19 October, 2015, 10:29:21 pm
Re-reading Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. Enjoying it more than I did 1st time about 30 years ago
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 20 October, 2015, 12:58:21 am
Having now reached volume 23 of Hammond Innes' output (less his four pre-WW2 novels) I have concluded that the success of "The Wreck Of The Mary Deare" allowed him to retire in 1957 and be replaced by a doppelganger, who also happened to be a rather better writer.

D, did you know his first novel was called The Doppelganger?!  I read a lot of his work years ago.  I particularly enjoyed the one set in Australia, Golden Soak, I think.  I'll have to try them again.  Do you read Neville Shute?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 20 October, 2015, 11:19:09 am
The latest "Reacher" episode from Lee Child. Guilty pleasures  ;D

"Make Me"? I am reading that one, and enjoying it.

Child is one of those authors, though, that you can't read a load of his books in a row as you start noticing a lot of formulaic lines and events.

Let me know what you think of the (limited, obviously) character "development" at the end.  Change may be in the air?

Now on to James Oswald's latest, semi-supernatural, Edinburgh cop story "Prayer for the Dead".  And the newest Peter James (The house on cold hill) is waiting at the library for me. Good job we've a long weekend away  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 October, 2015, 11:51:22 am
Having now reached volume 23 of Hammond Innes' output (less his four pre-WW2 novels) I have concluded that the success of "The Wreck Of The Mary Deare" allowed him to retire in 1957 and be replaced by a doppelganger, who also happened to be a rather better writer.

D, did you know his first novel was called The Doppelganger?!  I read a lot of his work years ago.  I particularly enjoyed the one set in Australia, Golden Soak, I think.  I'll have to try them again.  Do you read Neville Shute?

His first four novels may be available as e-books but not easily, so I aten't read them.  Apparently he was delighted to have received a thirty quid advance for the first one and only later discovered he'd signed a contract to write four.  "Golden Soak" is next on the list.

I may have read the odd Shute as a young Mr Larrington.  Or not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 20 October, 2015, 06:18:01 pm
He's s worth a try.  He writes well about aviation (his firm made the Airspeed Oxford).  He spells his name Nevil, unlike me - but then my name's not Nevil(le).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 20 October, 2015, 08:00:27 pm
Over the last week I've read:
- The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy
- I Left My Tent in San Francisco by Emma Kennedy

Both contain choice language but aee hilarious and well worth a read,

I've also read The Help, which was thought provoking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 21 October, 2015, 11:33:24 am
I've also read The Help, which was thought provoking.

Oh, if only some of our software-buying customers could say the same. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 21 October, 2015, 12:48:59 pm
Close Encounters of the Furred Kind by Tom Cox. Cats!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 23 October, 2015, 10:41:09 am
Re-reading Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. Enjoying it more than I did 1st time about 30 years ago

A book I have read a several of times. One of those I don't tire of.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 October, 2015, 11:07:09 am
Today's #kindlebargains:

Black Swan Green and number9dream by David Mitchell

That's my middlebrow pretentiousness quota filled for a while at least. Will be interesting to see how his early stuff compares to the later ones I've read (Cloud Atlas, Thousand Autumns & Bone Clocks).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 23 October, 2015, 11:23:47 am
Black Swan Green is not middlebrow pretentious at all. It's a semi-autobiographical coming of age novel. Quite different to his other stuff, and one of my favourites of his.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 23 October, 2015, 11:30:10 am
I'm always getting David Mitchell confused with David Nicholls, whose Us I am reading at the moment.  All three of the main protagonists seem almost totally twattish to me, so I don't feel as sympathetic to them or as eager to find out what happens to them ("emotionally invested", I suppose) as I perhaps would like to be.  But it certainly has its moments.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 October, 2015, 11:37:10 am
Jo - yeah, I'm being facetious. But I'm sure you realised that. I was vaguely aware that his early stuff is generally regarded to be very different to the later books, but he can do little wrong in my eyes, pretentious or not. Very much looking forward to reading both.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 23 October, 2015, 12:52:28 pm
I'm reading number9dream at the moment (I'm really going to need a night of Seagal movies to address the balance). I quite like it, though the prose strains in places (the wealth of some of his writing is breathtaking but it does in places get a bit too breathless), and the bit I'm reading at the moment I'm not sure about (the surrealistic anthropomorphic animals) which, unless it's going somewhere, seems to be oddness for oddness' sake.

Fucksticks though, I paid £5.99 for this the other day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 25 October, 2015, 05:08:43 pm
Just finished Frankenstein and commenced The Great Gatsby, both free books on Kindle.

I wasn't sure with Frankenstein but I think this was due a) to the period style in which it was written and b) to the enormous difference between the book and any film offering based on it. My reading menu will cerainly change and develop as I discover more on Kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 25 October, 2015, 08:58:57 pm
Best ever free book on Kindle is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. :thumbsup:  No Name is pretty darn good as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 October, 2015, 10:18:11 pm
I got Neil Gaiman's Stardust as a Kindle freebie - a link just appeared in my inbox.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2015, 07:41:59 am
The Racer by David Millar

Pretty tedious so far. Racing Through The Dark was excellent. I'm beginning to realise just how much help he must have had to write that one. There's a chapter on why Ryder Hesjedal has the nickname Legend. Fascinating stuff. Not.

I may have to break my self-imposed rule of finishing every book I start.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 October, 2015, 08:25:03 am
Best ever free book on Kindle is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. :thumbsup:

Free on Gutenberg too.

Moonstone is good, and supposedly distinguishable as the first modern detective story, but
(click to show/hide)

The Racer by David Millar

Pretty tedious so far. Racing Through The Dark was excellent. I'm beginning to realise just how much help he must have had to write that one. There's a chapter on why Ryder Hesjedal has the nickname Legend. Fascinating stuff. Not.

I may have to break my self-imposed rule of finishing every book I start.

I have yet to read a book [ghost]written by any pro cyclist, but people send me such bin ballast every Christmas. :sick:  I might get Tyler Hamilton's opus at some point, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2015, 09:28:20 am
Tyler Hamilton's book is well worth reading, but so is Racing Through The Dark. Hamilton had Daniel Coyle helping with The Secret Race and makes no bones about it. And why should he? Daniel Coyle is a first rate cycling journalist. It makes sense that someone who rides a bike for a living should get someone who writes for a living to help with the words.

As far as I can see, Millar did write Racing Through The Dark himself, though Jeremy Whittle is credited as editor. I suspect it took quite a lot of editing.

The Racer seems to be Orl Mi Own Werk. The prose is pretty hackneyed but tbh the real problem may just be that he has nothing interesting to say in it. At least RTTD had a sense of purpose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 26 October, 2015, 09:28:49 am
I got Neil Gaiman's Stardust as a Kindle freebie - a link just appeared in my inbox.
Is it good, Mr L?  I got it too, several months ago, but haven't got round to reading it yet.  The Memsahib read it and didn't really enthuse...

Us was monumentally disappointing, considering how much I enjoyed One Day.  The colossal twattishness of the characters never relented, and it just seemed like a bit of a self-indulgent travelogue of pretentious European art galleries on Nicholls' part.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 October, 2015, 10:39:00 am
I got Neil Gaiman's Stardust as a Kindle freebie - a link just appeared in my inbox.
Is it good, Mr L?  I got it too, several months ago, but haven't got round to reading it yet.  The Memsahib read it and didn't really enthuse...

I enjoyed it well enough though it's not up there with the likes of "Neverwhere" or "American Gods"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 26 October, 2015, 01:57:48 pm
some books enjoyed recently:

Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The miniaturist - Jessie Burton
A spool of blue thread - Anne Tyler




Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spindrift on 26 October, 2015, 06:07:18 pm
Just got the latest Pat Barker and Faulk's The Girl at the Lion d'Or for £1.49 each, Norwich Oxfam.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 October, 2015, 12:44:07 am
I put down The Racer because it was making me cringe, and picked up Foundation instead, the first volume of Peter Ackroyd's History of England, but that turned out to be a real chore too (surprising and disappointing, as Ackroyd is usually so brilliantly readable) so I put that down too and dipped into some early Wodehouse short stories from a volume called The Man With Two Left Feet, and they proved to be a bit of a curate's egg, so I put that down too and picked up Black Swan Green and...

Well, I read it in pretty much one sitting.

I have to admit it didn't grab me from the off like Bone Clocks or Thousand Autumns did. First half is like Adrian Mole but not as funny, and less authentic. Slightly irritating, even. But then it gradually becomes less a catalogue of period detail and ersatz teenage dialogue, and more a poignant reflection on actions and consequences, and the importance of understanding the bigger picture. It's outwardly a more conventional narrative than anything else I've read by David Mitchell but still weaves in enough fantastical elements to be recognisably his work, while keeping them just the right side of believability.

Superb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 29 October, 2015, 10:16:02 am
Best ever free book on Kindle is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. :thumbsup:
Thanks for the tip. I'm enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 October, 2015, 10:32:23 am
I've not read The Moonstone but I loved The Woman In White. Proper page turner.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 29 October, 2015, 01:13:25 pm
The Divergent series. I'm on a bit of a binge of young adult fiction at the moment, and am enjoying it immensely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 October, 2015, 02:15:32 pm
Ah well, the Peter James wasn't the next in his "Roy Grace" cop stories (I never checked before ordering), but instead something about a haunted / possessed house. I got 10 pages in before that went into the "returns" bag.  Having a go at a new-to-me author Craig Robertson. Set in Glasgow, so has some resonance for me, we'll see.  Waiting to be collected the latest offerings from John Grisham and Michael Connelly.  Oh, and on checking my account a Patricia Cornwell (Depraved Heart) I persist with her against my better judgement really. This may be the end, or a return to some kind of form (as the last Val McDermid was) and a Yrsa Sigurdadottir. They're not terrible well written, but give an insight into Icelandic society merely by being set there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 October, 2015, 03:32:37 pm
You can never be quite sure with FOREIGNS whether it's just a ropy translation, unless you're one of those annoying people who can read them in the original language.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 30 October, 2015, 09:23:47 am
I'm just about to start The French Lieutenant's Woman. I haven't read it for years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 November, 2015, 06:03:21 pm
The Debt To Pleasure by John Lanchester

As someone who at one stage of his life made a living by writing about restaurants, a lot of this resonates with me perfectly. Acutely observed and very funny.

I should add, however, that I have NOTHING AT ALL in common with the protagonist, Tarquin Winot, who appears to be a cross between AA Gill and Patrick Bateman.

That I am enjoying this so much is slightly surprising given that I didn't rate Capital that highly at all - although I did find it very readable, for which I have to give it some credit. The Debt To Pleasure, by contrast, is almost unreadable in places, and is the first book I've read for a while for which I've had to keep a dictionary handy for regular reference, but I can forgive it that because it's a stylistic quirk designed to reflect the personality of the narrator, and as such is wholly authentic in a quite marvellous way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 02 November, 2015, 06:14:31 pm
Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli - the first Charlie Mortdecai novel.

Hilariously, whimsically violent and terrifying.  It's a story about art theft, but written in a style that owes more than a little to PG Wodehouse.  I adored it.  Apparently they made of a film of it, which was a massive flop, and I'm not surprised because the genius of this book is all in the writing.

Also, a bit of it takes place at Carnforth Station and Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, and I've bin there on m'bike, so I enjoyed that too.
Many thanks for this tip.

Whizzed thru the first one, currently half-way through the 2nd. "Whimsically violent" is quite appropriate!

But I wouldnt say it's nasty at all (except perhaps for truly sensitive readers). The Lucifer Box series (Mark Gatiss) owe a lot to these - which is a good thing. Kyril is probably funnier, with more likeable characters (none of whom you'd invite to dinner.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 02 November, 2015, 08:01:20 pm
I thought Debt to Pleasure was great, though I did find it hard to read - the protagonist's head is not the pleasantest place to be, and the looming sense of dread as it becomes clear things are going to end badly stressed me out a bit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 03 November, 2015, 09:43:08 am
Insurgent AKA Divergent book 2. Guessed the secret well before the reveal, but if I can't work out the plot twists for a book aimed at  tween girlsyoung adults, I really should hang my head in shame.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 November, 2015, 09:53:56 am
Different Every Time - a biography of Robert Wyatt.

A book spanning such a long time period inevitably makes for a social history, especially when the subject is so politically and intellectually engaged.  The madness of the 1960s fostered such immense creativity and I do wonder if there'll ever be such a cultural watershed again.  I'm only a few chapters in and I'm hooked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 November, 2015, 09:58:17 am
Different Every Time - a biography of Robert Wyatt.

One biographical detail that I imagine they left out: he went to the same school as my son. There's a commemorative clock in the entrance foyer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 November, 2015, 10:00:34 am
Warriors of the Storm - Bernard Cornwall.

Latest of "The Last Kingdom" books.  Good, but confusing to me, slightly as we are watching "The Last Kingdom" on BBC Two at the same time.  Follows the usual formula of pulling you along until you are nearly bored then throws in a battle to lift you a bit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 November, 2015, 11:09:59 am
Different Every Time - a biography of Robert Wyatt.

One biographical detail that I imagine they left out: he went to the same school as my son. There's a commemorative clock in the entrance foyer.

There's quite a lot in it about his schooldays  :)  But you're right.  Your son isn't mentioned.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 November, 2015, 11:18:46 am
Insurgent AKA Divergent book 2. Guessed the secret well before the reveal, but if I can't work out the plot twists for a book aimed at  tween girlsyoung adults, I really should hang my head in shame.
(click to show/hide)

(click to show/hide)
...though that was a bit different.

I wasn't planning to read it anyway.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 November, 2015, 03:14:22 am
Your hollowed out asteroid wasn't running an Aztec culture, by any chance?

Captive Universe by Harry Harrison
http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Captive_Universe
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 November, 2015, 08:21:12 am
^^^Rings a bell.  It was a long time ago and disappointing anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 04 November, 2015, 03:57:09 pm
...It was a long time ago and disappointing anyway.

Just like most of the science/fiction I've read.  I've almost given up reading fiction completely now, unless you count wikipedia, I suppose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 November, 2015, 04:41:11 pm
Being a superficial old bugger, most of my recreational reading is fiction.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Katie on 05 November, 2015, 12:16:43 pm
Avengers fanfic, that seems long enough to count as a book. Someone added it to GoodReads, anyway. ("Toasted Buns", feat. Tony/Cap. It is glorious and I've been howling with laughter since p1.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 November, 2015, 09:04:34 am
Even Dogs In The Wild, the latest from Ian Rankin, finally landed on my Kindle the other day.  It' billed as the new Rebus but he's yet to put in an appearance.  And the only killin' so far took place before the book even started.  OTOH, I've only just reached Chapter 2.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 09 November, 2015, 04:02:10 pm
Just finished Ben Elton's Time after Time.

Historically I have enjoyed the ideas in his books sufficiently to overlook the shortcomings in the writing; his last - two brothers - I thought was really very good.

Time after time, unfortunately, is a mediocre SF idea, featuring Newton as appears obligatory these days (cf Rivers of London) with a plot so thin it could form the basis for a new diet. The characters are badly formed, two dimensional caricatures (ok,not unusual for BE), there's only one plot twist which isn't transparent, and that's because it's a bit "so what?". Some interesting background which may be factual around the detail of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, but that can only hold attention for a short while. All in all, save your money and time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 09 November, 2015, 04:30:14 pm
Amazon are selling Look Who's back on kindle for 99p.

I'm finding it very funny. I've even laughed out loud a few times, which is rare for a book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 November, 2015, 05:12:13 pm
Amazon are selling Look Who's back on kindle for 99p.

I just had a look on Amazon for this and I appear to have misssed out on the bargain - the price at the time of writing is £4.49.

However, I'm intrigued by one of the other books that also turned up in the search results, which is 99p: The Day Jesus Rode Into Croydon, which purports to have been written by one Kirk St Moritz, who if memory serves me correctly was the John Travolta-alike character in Dear John.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 November, 2015, 12:56:27 am
Even Dogs In The Wild is up to Mr Rankin's usual standard.  Hurrah!

(click to show/hide)

Now reading "The Beat Goes On", being a collection of Rebus short stories, some of which aten't in previous collections thereof.  It's been lurking on my Kindle since dog knows when, but said Kindle has a habit of forgetting to keep unread Stuffs marked as "new" as well as randomly marking collections in which I've read everything as containing new Product when they don't.  Bad Kindle.

It seems to be the time of year for new crimethings with yet another Jo Nesbø, the latest tome in the increasingly crap Inspector Lynley saga and volume 4 of Graham Hurley's Jimmy Suttle series either just out or coming shortly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 12 November, 2015, 10:51:34 am
My animals and other family by Clare Balding, a sort of autobiography.

I didn't know anything about Clare Balding. Some sort of tv sports presenter (I don't have a TV).

I didn't know her father was a racehorse trainer or that she was a champion jockey.
For me the book was quite cathartic. In some ways her father was like mine, and the total immersion in racing, horses, horse muck etc was like my childhood.

Apart from all that, it's funny, sad and downright weird at times. That's the racing world for you. Clare Balding can be really, really funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 12 November, 2015, 12:45:04 pm
The Mountain Can Wait by Sarah Leipciger, and Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 November, 2015, 12:00:50 am
The Big Over Easy ~ Jasper Fforde, on the recommendation of that there Mr Plumtree otp.  Liking it now after a slow start but a bit disappointed that thus far DI Spratt has failed to tell his The Boss that a man's got to know his limitations.  Perhaps he does so in The Fourth BEAR.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 13 November, 2015, 08:51:16 am
I couldn't possibly comment.  Bear with it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 13 November, 2015, 07:45:48 pm
I enjoyed Look who's back. It does put you in the absurd situation of thinking I quite like this fictional Hitler. It's a cross between Adrian Mole, Borat, and Mein Kampf, highlighting the absurdity of extremism and modern culture.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Katie on 14 November, 2015, 01:02:58 am
How Cav Won The Green Jersey (Ned Boulting)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tigerrr on 15 November, 2015, 04:48:30 pm
Just read the Ladybird How It Works series - the best one is 'The Hipster' which was most amusing. It should be required reading for posters on the coffee thread in Food and Drink!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 18 November, 2015, 12:22:11 pm
The Chronicles of the League of Gentlemen Cyclists.

Spesh (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=94030.msg1944792#msg1944792) - you have a lot to answer for!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 November, 2015, 01:32:16 pm
Well I struggled through Patricia Cornwell's latest (Depraved Heart, it may finally be the last of hers I read), and given up a few pages in to Yrsa Sigidardottir's latest (I'll not bother with any more of hers for sure), I looked at my waiting stack, and pulled out Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London", about a probationary copper that sees ghosts. Works for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 18 November, 2015, 01:42:42 pm
Well I struggled through Patricia Cornwell's latest (Depraved Heart, it may finally be the last of hers I read), and given up a few pages in to Yrsa Sigidardottir's latest (I'll not bother with any more of hers for sure), I looked at my waiting stack, and pulled out Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London", about a probationary copper that sees ghosts. Works for me.

Any link to the recent BBC series River? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06jkk8f) Scandinavian Detective Inspector investigating the moider of his Detective Sergeant. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 November, 2015, 01:51:59 pm
Well I struggled through Patricia Cornwell's latest (Depraved Heart, it may finally be the last of hers I read), and given up a few pages in to Yrsa Sigidardottir's latest (I'll not bother with any more of hers for sure), I looked at my waiting stack, and pulled out Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London", about a probationary copper that sees ghosts. Works for me.
There are a few of us here who like the Ben Aaronovitch novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 November, 2015, 03:55:57 pm
Bloody coppers with supernatural leanings!  I just got an e-mail from Nozama to tell me that the next James Oswald has been delayed too.  Ghosties on the line or something.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 November, 2015, 08:02:33 pm
Well I struggled through Patricia Cornwell's latest (Depraved Heart, it may finally be the last of hers I read), and given up a few pages in to Yrsa Sigidardottir's latest (I'll not bother with any more of hers for sure), I looked at my waiting stack, and pulled out Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London", about a probationary copper that sees ghosts. Works for me.

Any link to the recent BBC series River? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06jkk8f) Scandinavian Detective Inspector investigating the moider of his Detective Sergeant.

None whatsoever  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 November, 2015, 08:05:44 pm
Bloody coppers with supernatural leanings!  I just got an e-mail from Nozama to tell me that the next James Oswald has been delayed too.  Ghosties on the line or something.

Which one - The Damage Done?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 November, 2015, 08:06:33 pm
Well I struggled through Patricia Cornwell's latest (Depraved Heart, it may finally be the last of hers I read), and given up a few pages in to Yrsa Sigidardottir's latest (I'll not bother with any more of hers for sure), I looked at my waiting stack, and pulled out Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London", about a probationary copper that sees ghosts. Works for me.
There are a few of us here who like the Ben Aaronovitch novels.

My first try, and really entertaining right from the off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 November, 2015, 08:36:07 pm
Bloody coppers with supernatural leanings!  I just got an e-mail from Nozama to tell me that the next James Oswald has been delayed too.  Ghosties on the line or something.

Have just investigated - never heard of him.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 November, 2015, 01:33:08 am
Bloody coppers with supernatural leanings!  I just got an e-mail from Nozama to tell me that the next James Oswald has been delayed too.  Ghosties on the line or something.

Which one - The Damage Done?

Yes, now due on 25 February next year.  Although only delayed by a fortnight, unlike Mr Aaronovitch's next tome which has been delayed by about six months chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 November, 2015, 10:25:28 am
Well I've some catching up to do on Aarononvitch, and I read 2 Oswalds in the last 6 weeks  :D.  As to delays, I had to wait an additional year for the second volume (of three promised) by Mark Oldfield. Goodness knows when / if he'll finish the sequence! There's nothing on FF about it (similarly nothing re the next - if there'll be one - from Ewart Hutton)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 November, 2015, 11:08:53 am
Someone sent us wossname's latest in his Shardik series, the ones about the lawyer in Henry VIII's time. Lamentation. It's bloody heavy to hold. Plods, too: our hero just got a pea smeared on his shirt by an infant. Had to keep the trinitrin handy when I was reading that bit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 November, 2015, 07:18:30 pm
Just when I was on the verge of getting my unread Kindle inbox down  to zero and making a start on the dead-tree-based pile the wretches at Nozama fire volume 4 of Graham Hurley' Jimmy Suttle series onto my slab of read-y goodness.  And the dead-tree pile will only get bigger when my foot starts working enough to allow me to hobble to 'stow Central :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 November, 2015, 08:43:07 pm
Oh good, I'm 4 of 46 in the list for that at the library :-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 November, 2015, 10:25:03 am
Oh good, I'm 4 of 46 in the list for that at the library :-)

Just finished it.  He seems to be finding form again; I thought the first couple of Jimmy Suttle books were somewhat below par compared with the Joe Faraday ones.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 25 November, 2015, 01:51:35 pm
Neuromancer - William Gibson

Now I know where the Wachowski brothers got all their ideas from for The Matrix.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 25 November, 2015, 05:43:14 pm
Neuromancer - William Gibson

Now I know where the Wachowski brothers got all their ideas from for The Matrix.
Seriously?!?  Oh well - better late than never.

Hope you enjoyed it (at least) half as much as I did. If you havent read any other Gibsons, you have a lot to look forward to :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 26 November, 2015, 11:06:05 am
It might surprise you but I've traditionally not read much (well, any) sci fi.  I decided it was time to fill that void. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 26 November, 2015, 11:30:40 am
Oh good, I'm 4 of 46 in the list for that at the library :-)

Just finished it.  He seems to be finding form again; I thought the first couple of Jimmy Suttle books were somewhat below par compared with the Joe Faraday ones.

It's now at the library waiting for me. I thought the first two were ok (helped by the fact that I know the area as we often go to Budliegh Salterton), better by far than the last Faraday outing, but not as good as the earlier ones.

Similarly the latest Ian Rankin / Rebus is going pretty well.

I've just about decided Val McDermid is never going to be as good as she once was. The last Jordan/Hill offering was a bit meh (not a patch on Wire in the Blood IMO), and her other recent books have been too overtly feminist/lesbian oriented for my tastes - in that virtually every major female character was lesbian.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 November, 2015, 05:10:35 pm
Val McDermid did a non-fiction one last year - Forensics: The Anatomy Of Crime - which was both jolly interesting and notably free of lesbians.  This Unit commends it to The House.

Hurley's "Back Story", about how each of the Faraday novels came about, is also worth a read.  Sometimes the DVD extras cam be more interesting than the film ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 27 November, 2015, 05:17:03 pm
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 November, 2015, 05:30:32 pm
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE

I got:

And the one with the seagull on it ought to be Charlie Connelly's Attention All Shipping but isn't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 November, 2015, 09:26:50 pm
Bloody coppers with supernatural leanings!  I just got an e-mail from Nozama to tell me that the next James Oswald has been delayed too.  Ghosties on the line or something.

Have just investigated - never heard of him.

I have been lurgied this (long) weekend (typical of me to be sick on holiday) so have demolished the first book and and am now gnashing through the 2nd.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 December, 2015, 01:15:44 pm
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE

I got:
  • 8, and
  • bored

I got 10 before I lost interest...

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 December, 2015, 06:03:09 pm
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE

Also on 7/20 but can only find 19 clues.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 02 December, 2015, 01:35:09 am
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE

I got:
  • 8, and
  • bored

I got 10 before I lost interest...

(click to show/hide)

A couple of those I hadn't twigged, but can add

(click to show/hide)

can only find 19 clues.

Indeed. I wonder if one is revealed when you've solved those 19.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 December, 2015, 01:44:19 am
Just started The Girl In The Spider's Web, being David Lagercrantz' fourth volume in Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  Early signs are that is it least much better translated than its predecessors.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 December, 2015, 06:51:29 am
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE

I got:
  • 8, and
  • bored

I got 10 before I lost interest...

(click to show/hide)

A couple of those I hadn't twigged, but can add

(click to show/hide)

can only find 19 clues.

Indeed. I wonder if one is revealed when you've solved those 19.

I cheated - looked at the page source.  There's a green one in behind "London and Paris".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 December, 2015, 07:45:11 pm
Just started The Girl In The Spider's Web, being David Lagercrantz' fourth volume in Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  Early signs are that is it least much better translated than its predecessors.

About 3/4 of the way through.  It's suddenly become rather silly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 03 December, 2015, 12:41:08 am
Have you seen this? Currently on 7/20
https://caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com/hiddenbooks/default.aspx?competition=9#.VliPudZSZXE

I got:
  • 8, and
  • bored

I got 10 before I lost interest...

(click to show/hide)

A couple of those I hadn't twigged, but can add

(click to show/hide)

can only find 19 clues.

Indeed. I wonder if one is revealed when you've solved those 19.

I cheated - looked at the page source.  There's a green one in behind "London and Paris".

Thanks. I like that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 December, 2015, 07:55:59 am
Just started The Girl In The Spider's Web, being David Lagercrantz' fourth volume in Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  Early signs are that is it least much better translated than its predecessors.

About 3/4 of the way through.  It's suddenly become rather silly.

That'll be just after she gets shot, then!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 December, 2015, 08:10:24 am
Salander getting shot I can just about cope with but

(click to show/hide)

I stand by my earlier comment re the translation though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 December, 2015, 07:52:01 pm
That was a bit meh and Lagercrantz is obviously angling for a Several of sequels.  As an antidote I read Guy Martin's "When You Dead, You Dead" this afternoon and have now started "Bazaar Of Bad Dreams" by some unknown author with the unlikely name of Stephen King.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 06 December, 2015, 10:36:53 pm
BN (yes, I know, wrong thread): I've got a bad back.
GN: I've been lying on my back finishing reading things that have been half read for far too long. So far this weekend:
The Peripheral by William Gibson
Art of Photography by Bruce Barnbaum
Microadventures by Alastair Humphreys
and the most recent copies of Arivée and Cycle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 December, 2015, 07:17:54 am
As a relief from the spookiness, killin's and the pockyclipse provided by Mr King I've just started The Secret War: Spies, Codes And Guerrillas 1939-1945 by Max "Hitler" Hastings.  Promises much underhand behaviour, general ludicrousness, SCIENCE and Nazis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 December, 2015, 08:22:44 am
Discovered a couple of unread Jim Craces at the bottom of a pile on our old printer table. Now reading The Pesthouse, which promises to be a barrel of laffs.

I went off him for a bit after starting All That Follows and disliking it (lacklustre, depressing).  This one feels more like a book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 December, 2015, 08:28:58 am
Only read Being Dead of his.  Recommendations, anyone?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 07 December, 2015, 10:31:04 am
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, Time In A Bottle and Thursday.  ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 December, 2015, 10:46:33 am
So far, I'd recommend everything but All That Follows.

In the last year I've read Harvest, Arcadia, The Devil's Larder and that.  All different, all good.  TDL is a series of short pieces, all centred on food.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 December, 2015, 11:24:35 am

Only read Being Dead of his.  Recommendations, anyone?

I've only read Harvest, which I thought was very good indeed without actually enjoying it all that much.

Currently revisiting David Lodge's Small World having been reminded of it by the Dan Brown thread, as mentioned elsewhere. Proper comfort reading. Must be the third or fourth time but it's still hilariously funny. And you don't even have to be interested in structuralism to enjoy it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 07 December, 2015, 11:27:45 am
I'm reading Dan Brown's Inferno, I gave up the first time I tried to read it a year or so ago. I read Dan Brown as it's inspirational and to remind me that nothing is impossible.

How does this crap get published, and why do people think he's a good author.

It has made me want to visit Florence though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 07 December, 2015, 12:26:57 pm
Only read Being Dead of his.  Recommendations, anyone?

I loved Arcadia - I must re-read it (again) some time. Don't bother with Six. I think I've read All that Follows but can't remember a thing about it.

Quarantine.  A beautiful book, and slightly disturbing. About Jesus. Or is it?  Hmmm? (I'd recommend this one.)

Also the first two, Continent and The Gift of Stones. They're good. Different.

The range of subjects is astonishing.  The early ones have a strong thread of the poetic about them. There's an underlying iambic rhythm to his prose in parts which sounds as if it might be a tad mannered, but I like it.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 07 December, 2015, 12:33:52 pm
As a relief from the spookiness, killin's and the pockyclipse provided by Mr King
Is there much spookiness in it? I don't mind about killin's and the pockyclipse, but I don't like extreme spookiness when I'm reading books on my own at night, and I've just got his Bizarre Dreams out of the liberry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 December, 2015, 01:03:48 pm
As a relief from the spookiness, killin's and the pockyclipse provided by Mr King
Is there much spookiness in it? I don't mind about killin's and the pockyclipse, but I don't like extreme spookiness when I'm reading books on my own at night, and I've just got his Bizarre Dreams out of the liberry.

Not really.  Nothing that would have made me want to sleep with the lights on anyway.  The pockyclipse story is probably the scariest one because it's more plausible.  OTOH I read The Exorcist aged 9 and didn't find that particularly scary either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 11 December, 2015, 12:29:41 pm
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Actually made me say "what the fuck?" out loud on the bus the other day. Luckily it was the 14 and nobody noticed.
Current as ever, I'm listening to this right now. Apart from some slightly odd pronunciations (peedant, for example) the reader is OK.

My "what the fuck?" was walking through the estate late on my way home, having zoned out for 5 minutes running up to it. I'm really quite loving it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 13 December, 2015, 10:39:33 am
Different Every Time - a biography of Robert Wyatt.

A book spanning such a long time period inevitably makes for a social history, especially when the subject is so politically and intellectually engaged.  The madness of the 1960s fostered such immense creativity and I do wonder if there'll ever be such a cultural watershed again.  I'm only a few chapters in and I'm hooked.

I've finished it.  The first time I've ever grieved at the end of a biography!  The way you grieve at the end of a novel, when you wish it would never end.  The best thing is that the story continues of course, as Robert is still being Robert at the moment so there may be room for addenda.

A unique and excellent life and creative output, it's even had me listening to 70's prog rock in the wee smalls - while sober.  Dammit, I nearly listened to some jazz!  I continue to have my musical horizons broadened as a result of reading this.  I'm very grateful for this.

Meticulously researched (just like it says in the blurb) and subtly written, respectful but not fawning.

This one's not going to the church fayre book stall.  I'll definitely read it again.  This book is an education and I recommend it.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 13 December, 2015, 02:55:23 pm
Re reading 1984, again.

Also reading Casino Royale to my 13 yo son (special needs, can sit and listen, but not read on his own)

Just finished Kraken by China Mielville, very dark humour, fantasy London Underworld.  Have more of his on e-books.

Also re-reading The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance by Volek and Phinney, plenty of evidence that nutritional ketosis can help give better blood glucose control for T1s.

Generally also have a couple of management type books on the go as well, dipping in for bits and pieces now and then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 December, 2015, 03:25:07 pm
A unique and excellent life and creative output, it's even had me listening to 70's prog rock in the wee smalls - while sober.  Dammit, I nearly listened to some jazz!  I continue to have my musical horizons broadened as a result of reading this.  I'm very grateful for this.

A record company exec said at the time that he wasn't sure whether Soft Machine were the label's best-selling jazz band or worst-selling rock band.  As a general oral history of the Sixties this Unit recommends Jonathan Green's Days In The Life.

Started Hammond Innes' The Conquistadors yesterday as I didn't fancy lugging Max Hastings into the West End on a Saturday afternoon.  So far I have learned that the boy Cortés was a bit of a chancer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 13 December, 2015, 05:08:08 pm
The four-letter-computer-place thing explainer (https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/), in which the drawing guy explains how lots of things work using only the ten hundred most used words.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 December, 2015, 01:22:31 pm
90% of the way through The Pesthouse, another Crace. 

As noted Arcadia was excellent, ditto Harvest but very black, but lately I've realized that Crace is a miserable bugger.   The Pesthouse is about as much fun as Iain Banks' last book, the one he wrote while waiting to die of cancer.

But you never know, the last 10% might turn it into a comedy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cygnet on 15 December, 2015, 08:38:10 pm
I've just finished reading  'One man and his bog' - an account of walking the Pennine Way. Aside from the pig/tea incident just north of Hadrian's Wall (which rang bells of my walk) it put me in mind of Arrivee reports, but also via the way my mind works:
'What I talk about when I talk about running' by Hariuki Murakami.
I'm sure there's space out there for a talented cyclist for a companion piece - What I talk about when I talk about cycling!

TG or LaidbackRich to the fore.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 December, 2015, 02:24:51 pm
Try this one, and the previous one about the SW Coastal path
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pennine-Walkies-Boogie-Up-Way/dp/0099661411

As for myself, I have finally found a second-hand copy of John Sladek's 'New Apocrypha', which I am devouring.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 28 December, 2015, 08:46:38 am
I have just worked my way through all the James Oswald books. Not in order, though. I read them like thus: 1,4,5,2,3.

They still made sense, and were not totally spoilt by knowing that Emma survives etc.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 December, 2015, 01:11:11 pm
'The New Apocrypha' by the late great John Sladek. Halfway through now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 December, 2015, 01:12:41 pm
Halfway through "The Year" by Citizenfish otp.  It is a Thing of Splendid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 December, 2015, 01:41:06 pm
I have just worked my way through all the James Oswald books. Not in order, though. I read them like thus: 1,4,5,2,3.

They still made sense, and were not totally spoilt by knowing that Emma survives etc.

I binge read them a couple of weeks ago and am now doing the same with the Stuart Mac Macbride ones.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 December, 2015, 01:51:03 pm
The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu.  Unusual. Excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 28 December, 2015, 04:48:42 pm
Talking of binge reading - in the last six months or so I've got through this lot (more or less all science fiction/fantasy - some of it pretty trashy):

Jennifer Government – Max Barry
How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe – Charles Yu
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World – Haruki Murakami
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
The Dark Side of the Earth - Alfred Bester
Frontera – Lewis Shine
Stealing Light – Gary Gibson
Nova War - Gary Gibson
Empire of Light – Gary Gibson
Jupiter War - Neal Asher
Zero Point - Neal Asher
The Departure - Neal Asher
The Engineer ReConditioned - Neal Asher
Cowl - Neal Asher
The Voyage 0f the Sable Keech - Neal Asher
The Skinner - Neal Asher
Orbus - Neal Asher
The Line War - Neal Asher
The Parasite - Neal Asher
The Gabble and other stories - Neal Asher
Snow in the Desert - Neal Asher
Dark Intelligence - Neal Asher
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
The Long Mars - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
The Long Utopia - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
Making Money - Terry Pratchett
Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
Ark - Stephen Baxter
Flood - Stephen Baxter
Titan - Stephen Baxter
Moonseed - Stephen Baxter
Space (Manifold) - Stephen Baxter
Time (Manifold) - Stephen Baxter
Origin (Manifold) - Stephen Baxter
Proxima - Stephen Baxter
Voyage - Stephen Baxter
Landfall – Stephen Baxter
The Second Ship - Richard Phillips
Immune - Richard Phillips
Wormhole - Richard Phillips
Once Dead - Richard Phillips
Dead Wrong - Richard Phillips
Dead Shift - Richard Phillips
The Martian – Andy Weir
Touch - Claire North
The Boy Who Fell From the Sky – Jule Owen
Silverwood – Jule Owen
Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell

Reading at the moment:
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – Claire North
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 28 December, 2015, 06:12:35 pm
Bloody hell -  that reads like Strava for bookworms.

;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 28 December, 2015, 06:47:14 pm
Bloody hell -  that reads like Strava for bookworms.

;)
It's what you do when you don't watch the tele.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 28 December, 2015, 09:14:03 pm
Jason Websters "The anarchist detective", 3rd in the Max Camara series, set in Spain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 December, 2015, 07:44:00 am
Jason Websters "The anarchist detective", 3rd in the Max Camara series, set in Spain.

Oooo, they look interesting. Shall have to check them out!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 29 December, 2015, 12:30:33 pm
Day After Night by Anita Diamant. It's set just after WWII, in a Palestine camp where European Jews who survived ended up waiting for Israel to be sorted out. They're quite rude about the British.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 December, 2015, 03:20:45 pm
A hundred pages into A Banquet Of Consequences by Elizabeth George and the only killin' has been a suicide >:(. Money back plz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eck on 29 December, 2015, 09:34:58 pm
Robert Harris' Pompeii  I'm on page 257, of about 350, and Vesuvius still hasn't erupted.

It's a bit like they used to say about films about the Titanic: how do you pass the time until they hit the iceberg?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 December, 2015, 09:37:30 pm
150 pages and another DETH which looks like natural causes but obviously isn't otherwise there wouldn't be a book at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 02 January, 2016, 02:10:19 pm
Just purchased SA Calverts first offering for the Kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 January, 2016, 04:47:58 pm
A hundred pages into A Banquet Of Consequences by Elizabeth George and the only killin' has been a suicide >:(. Money back plz.

Five hundred and fifty pages and only one murder?  Also, Ms George, no BRITON talks like that, or ever did.  It grates.  Stop it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 02 January, 2016, 04:51:20 pm
Hunted by Paul Finch, two chapters and seems very good, bit better than the choice I made as a Christmas book for Barbara, twas one she had just finished reading, oh unobservant oaf  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 02 January, 2016, 05:36:59 pm
Halfway through "The Year" by Citizenfish otp.  It is a Thing of Splendid.
That's on the pile over there -> awaiting my attention, along with Flesh Wounds by Christopher Brookmyre (although I see he's now Chris). Both books bestowed by loving offspring on their dear Papa following the application of Heavy Hints.

However, they'll have to wait until I've finished rereading Le Carré's The Night Manager.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 January, 2016, 07:16:00 pm
Mick Wall's Love Becomes A Funeral Pyre, being a biography of The Doors.  Early doors yet ha ha but the author seems to have a bit of a downer on Ray Manzarek and I'm only on page 41.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 02 January, 2016, 07:39:38 pm
Currently reading "Sacred Sierra" by Jason Webster, have ordered all 5 of his Max Camara books, which should arrive by the time I have finished this one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 02 January, 2016, 10:05:40 pm
I'm a chunk of the way into Tuf Voyaging (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging), a collection of short stories by George RR Martin about a slightly pedantic space captain who flies around the galaxy with his pet cats. He'd probably fit in here.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 02 January, 2016, 10:43:52 pm
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 January, 2016, 09:18:03 am
Just purchased SA Calverts first offering for the Kindle.


Ooh!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 January, 2016, 11:57:10 am
Currently reading "Sacred Sierra" by Jason Webster, have ordered all 5 of his Max Camara books, which should arrive by the time I have finished this one.

Glad you're enjoying them  :thumbsup:  I've no. 4 in the library pipeline.

Just started "The Fifth Floor" by a new-to- me Michael Harvey.  Pacy enough, though conventional Chicago PI story. Easy reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 03 January, 2016, 12:10:52 pm
Unorthodox Engineers by Colin Kapp. One of the better 60's SF authors. Long out of print, there's now a kindle edition.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 January, 2016, 03:14:23 pm
I'm a chunk of the way into Tuf Voyaging (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging), a collection of short stories by George RR Martin about a slightly pedantic space captain who flies around the galaxy with his pet cats. He'd probably fit in here.
SLIGHTLY pedantic? Still have a copy somewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 January, 2016, 05:38:40 pm
Just finished Catch 22. I first started it as a teenager after a friend raved about it, but never really got into it. Thought I might have better luck as a grown-up but I still found it a bit of a chore. And not as funny as I'd been led to expect, though a few bits did make me chuckle. At least I managed to finish it this time. But kind of wish I'd read some Vonnegut instead. He does it so much better.

Now started on All Quiet On The Orient Express by Magnus Mills. Thought I'd give it a try following recommendations here. So far, it's a much easier read than Catch 22, which is a blessed relief. I read a review somewhere that compared it to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful Of Dust and I think I can already see why. Hope it's as funny as that without being quite so bleak and nasty.

To follow, I've got Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel lined up. Looks interesting. And then if I feel up to it, A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James, which really appeals, though I'm not sure if that's because or in spite of the Booker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 03 January, 2016, 06:04:33 pm
I'm a chunk of the way into Tuf Voyaging (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging), a collection of short stories by George RR Martin about a slightly pedantic space captain who flies around the galaxy with his pet cats. He'd probably fit in here.
SLIGHTLY pedantic? Still have a copy somewhere.

Well "slightly" by YACF standards, anyway...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 03 January, 2016, 08:30:59 pm
At least I managed to finish it this time.

I've had two attempts over the years and have not managed to finish it. I never will now.

I read 'Number 11' by Jonathan Coe over New Year. What a disappointment! I was hoping all the strands were going to come together but it just felt by the end to be a few short stories cobbled together somewhat tenuously.

Now embarking on A Little Life. At 720 pages, I suspect I may be some time. Based on the first 40 pages, I think I'm going to like it. I've got Bleak House lined up after that so that's probably most of my fiction reading this year sorted.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 January, 2016, 09:20:37 am
The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu.  Unusual. Excellent.

'Twere bloody marvellous, and two sequels to look forward to.

Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon, my current read, plods in comparison.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 January, 2016, 10:12:31 am
Just finished Catch 22. I first started it as a teenager after a friend raved about it, but never really got into it. Thought I might have better luck as a grown-up but I still found it a bit of a chore. And not as funny as I'd been led to expect, though a few bits did make me chuckle. At least I managed to finish it this time. But kind of wish I'd read some Vonnegut instead. He does it so much better.

Now started on All Quiet On The Orient Express by Magnus Mills. Thought I'd give it a try following recommendations here. So far, it's a much easier read than Catch 22, which is a blessed relief. I read a review somewhere that compared it to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful Of Dust and I think I can already see why. Hope it's as funny as that without being quite so bleak and nasty.

To follow, I've got Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel lined up. Looks interesting. And then if I feel up to it, A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James, which really appeals, though I'm not sure if that's because or in spite of the Booker.

Catch-22 is another one of those meh books (like the aforementioned To Kill a Mockingbird). A few decent scenes padded out to (thankfully) modest book length. I normally avoid the Bookers, but I did read A Brief History of Seven Killings because it was on the rack in the train station (with notable exception like me, there are evidently some very erudite commuters around here). On the plus side, the characterisation is good in places (but in others it blurs, particularly all the male gangsters, in places you have to switch back and forth to figure out who we are today), the vernacular not too hard to get to grips with, but it goes on and on and I got a bit bored of the periodic I done some coke and I done some killing and oh how I lament (continue for another 20 dense pages). The overall narrative is contrived enough to bodge it together but it's mostly a vehicle for the individual parts and the result seems a bit disjointed (while the beginning in Jamaica is good, it wanders in later sections and to be honest, there's entire sections and characters that would have been better skipped). The violence is often discomfiting and I confess I skimmed a few sections.

Probably a tour de force, god knows I couldn't write anything that complicated or that well, but the kind of book that seemed aimed at 'literature' prizes rather than a good read. Currently available on the East Grinstead line.

I enjoyed Station Eleven more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 January, 2016, 10:46:59 am
Someone sent us wossname's latest in his Shardik series, the ones about the lawyer in Henry VIII's time. Lamentation. It's bloody heavy to hold. Plods, too: our hero just got a pea smeared on his shirt by an infant. Had to keep the trinitrin handy when I was reading that bit.

My sister-in-law gave me Dissolution (which I'm reading and enjoying) and one other (I think Revelation?) in Dead Tree Format for Christmas.  I picked up Dissolution after I ran aground with David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, and am enjoying it.  JdZ wasn't terrible and will probably be resumed at a later date (by which time I'll be totally confused with all the Dutch and Japanese characters!).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 January, 2016, 11:54:58 am
Catch-22 is another one of those meh books (like the aforementioned To Kill a Mockingbird). A few decent scenes padded out to (thankfully) modest book length.

I wouldn't call 544 pages modest - unless you're comparing it to Trollope or Dumas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 January, 2016, 12:19:21 pm
Blimey, was it that long? For some reason I thought it was shorter. It's been many years since I read it. I only remember the meh.

Currently continuing the David Mitchell theme with Black Swan Green. Given my age, I have to give a wry nod to the all the levered references to crispy pancakes, baked alaska, and Raleigh Choppers which makes it the distilled essence of my childhood, a sort of fuming, concentrated nostalgia. No idea where it's going – it's all a bit Adrian Mole at the moment – mind you I only started reading yesterday evening and it made me stay awake too late. Such is the pungency of a 1980s childhood. Ah the trauma of team selection in PE (definitive bottom quartile, but always before Donkey Derbyshire and his perennially effluvial nostrils).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 January, 2016, 12:30:20 pm
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw.
Sheesh, this governess is a drama llama.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 January, 2016, 12:35:18 pm
I read it on Kindle so page numbers don't mean much, but the current print edition is 544 pages. It felt much longer - I expect it's very small type. According to the internet, it's about 174,000 words, which makes it 35,000 words longer than A Tale Of Two Cities and Moll Flanders, neither of which are by authors known for being concise (ETA: although further research suggests ATOTC is very short by Dickens standards). And it's almost twice as long as 1984, which isn't exactly a pamphlet. Slaughterhouse Five comes in under 50,000 words.

it's all a bit Adrian Mole at the moment

Yes, first half is very Adrian Mole. Second half is... different. In a good way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 January, 2016, 12:56:21 pm
I'm pretty sure my sci-fi-for-a-bet effort comes in at close to a half million words, so best I don't criticise... Mind you, that was partly the purpose of the bet (though my ramblings about Jess the vampire aren't brief). But if you've read my rubbish here, you'll have noted that I have yet to be blessed with conciseness. I write them to keep my wife occupied during her long commute to the last station on the line. She should have read the small print footnotes I added to our extended marriage vows.

For that matter, A Brief History of Seven Killings isn't Brief and there's far more than Seven Killings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 January, 2016, 01:07:22 pm
Catch-22 is another one of those meh books (like the aforementioned To Kill a Mockingbird). A few decent scenes padded out to (thankfully) modest book length.

I wouldn't call 544 pages modest - unless you're comparing it to Trollope or Dumas.

I read it in the 60s when Vietnam was just getting under way.  Satirizing Unca Sam's Army after a steady diet of John Wayne & Bob Mitchum was a lot fresher back then.  Old hat now.  I still enjoy M.A.S.H. though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 January, 2016, 06:54:39 pm
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw.
Sheesh, this governess is a drama llama.

Miss von Brandenburg read it not long ago; she was not very complimentary about it.  And she had to keep looking words up in the dictionary, which she claims not to have had to do with anything she's read in English in about twenty years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 January, 2016, 06:57:44 pm
She hasn't read any of Mr S Donaldson's work, then. One of the very few times I have actually put a book down and said "This is bollocks, and pretentious bollocks, and it goes on for HOW MANY PAGES?"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 January, 2016, 07:02:35 pm
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw.
Sheesh, this governess is a drama llama.

Miss von Brandenburg read it not long ago; she was not very complimentary about it.  And she had to keep looking words up in the dictionary, which she claims not to have had to do with anything she's read in English in about twenty years.
It's not the words so much as the sentence construction. Why use one word when forty-seven will do?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 January, 2016, 10:16:53 pm
Mick Wall's Love Becomes A Funeral Pyre, being a biography of The Doors.  Early doors yet ha ha but the author seems to have a bit of a downer on Ray Manzarek and I'm only on page 41.

Jim Morrison was at least seven of the BRITISH Army's eleven officially recognised types of fucking idiot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 January, 2016, 09:34:06 am
The Sandman ~ "Lars Kepler".  Fourth of the Joona Linna Scandicrimething series.  After the first two chapters I was so convinced that I'd read this before that I actually got out of bed to search for the second copy, but there isn't one.  Must have been sneak preview chapters in the previous volume.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 January, 2016, 11:14:28 am
Not the Neil Gaiman thing then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 06 January, 2016, 11:36:14 am
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw.
Sheesh, this governess is a drama llama.

Miss von Brandenburg read it not long ago; she was not very complimentary about it.  And she had to keep looking words up in the dictionary, which she claims not to have had to do with anything she's read in English in about twenty years.
It's not the words so much as the sentence construction. Why use one word when forty-seven will do?

Dickens wrote sentences that went on for longer than Queen Victoria. Fielding could tot up a brace of eighty word plus sentences before breakfast. But the king was Mark Twain, who busts out a 236 whammy in Huckleberry Finn, temporarily exhausting the US noun supply. One of the biggest industries in the late Victorian period was comma manufacture.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 06 January, 2016, 12:33:51 pm
As above, I was also going to include Wilkie Collins, for his verbosity, but in delving for evidence to support this, came across this excerpt from A Woman in White, which is beautiful:

“Nothing in this world is hidden forever. The gold which has lain for centuries unsuspected in the ground, reveals itself one day on the surface. Sand turns traitor, and betrays the footstep that has passed over it; water gives back to the tell-tale surface the body that has been drowned. Fire itself leaves the confession, in ashes, of the substance consumed in it. Hate breaks its prison-secrecy in the thoughts, through the doorway of the eyes; and Love finds the Judas who betrays it by a kiss. Look where we will, the inevitable law of revelation is one of the laws of nature: the lasting preservation of a secret is a miracle which the world has never yet seen.”

So I retract my initial condemnation! Carry on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 January, 2016, 12:37:05 pm
I've finished The Turn of the Screw. What a load of bollocks. That governess needs a good shaking and a talking-to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 06 January, 2016, 12:40:58 pm
I am currently reading "How to Fail at Almost Everything" by Scott Adams, the Dilbert bloke.

It's ok, and will fill the void whilst I wait for my Max Camara books to arrive*

*I should have ordered them earlier, as the first is not due until today, whilst I am away from home, and they appear to be arriving in completely the wrong order, with the first book arriving last!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 06 January, 2016, 12:59:09 pm
I've finished The Turn of the Screw. What a load of bollocks. That governess needs a good shaking and a talking-to.

I misread that as 'shagging.' That would have been an entirely different book.

In other news, when I returned my copy of A Brief History of Seven Killings to the train station, the rack is now blessed by three volumes of the 50 Shades series (I'm distressed enough to find there's three, I daren't Google for more). I retract my comments on the erudition of East Grinstead line commuters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 06 January, 2016, 01:13:44 pm
The governess probably needed that too, it would have stopped her scaring the kids with her funny ideas.

However, it's one of my favourite books and EG has now been added to the burn list as a confirmed heretic  :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 January, 2016, 02:42:46 pm
 :P

I mean, really. You move to a new job in a big house in a part of the country where you don't know anyone, and then you see a man you don't know and a woman you don't know, and your first thought is "oh, they're evil ghosts come to corrupt the souls of the kids I'm supposed to be looking after"?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 January, 2016, 06:13:53 pm
Question to anyone who's read all the Stuart Macbride Logan Macrae series -
Is he just going through a Harry Potteresque phase of being a moaning whiny git that he's going to grow out of, or is that him for the duration?
(Should I give up now in other words)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 January, 2016, 06:38:20 pm
I've finished The Turn of the Screw. What a load of bollocks. That governess needs a good shaking and a talking-to.

That's pretty much what Miss von Brandenburg said.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 January, 2016, 06:42:56 pm
Question to anyone who's read all the Stuart Macbride Logan Macrae series -
Is he just going through a Harry Potteresque phase of being a moaning whiny git that he's going to grow out of, or is that him for the duration?
(Should I give up now in other words)

How far have you got?  I've stuck with them in spite of McRae being a miserable sod as his interaction with Steel amuses my tiny mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 January, 2016, 07:26:45 pm
Question to anyone who's read all the Stuart Macbride Logan Macrae series -
Is he just going through a Harry Potteresque phase of being a moaning whiny git that he's going to grow out of, or is that him for the duration?
(Should I give up now in other words)

How far have you got?  I've stuck with them in spite of McRae being a miserable sod as his interaction with Steel amuses my tiny mind.

I'm on Dark Blood - he's just given Rueben a bit of a going over.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 January, 2016, 08:38:27 pm
As Amazon have gotten their collective digits out, I have swapped from "A Death in Valencia" to "Or the Bull Kills You". 2 Murders, politics and life in Spain. It's really good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 January, 2016, 11:38:38 am
As Amazon have gotten their collective digits out, I have swapped from "A Death in Valencia" to "Or the Bull Kills You". 2 Murders, politics and life in Spain. It's really good.

If you're enjoying those, and the Spanish background, which is overshadowed still by the civil war, check out Mark Oldfield's "The Sentinel", which I though was excellent, and it's follow-up "The Exile" which was good, but less so. Ultimately there's meant to be final volume, but as it took three years between 1 and 2 I'm not holding my breath!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 January, 2016, 11:40:25 am
The third offering in Tim Weavers "David Raker" series of missing persons investigations. It's pacy enough light reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 12 January, 2016, 11:58:07 am
Really enjoyed Black Swan Green, I find 'proper' literature a bit of a slog these days, but it purred along and I found myself not turning off the light till the early hours. A relief to be honest after A Brief History of Seven Killings which seemed to go on for approximately forever (OK I only finished so I could attempt to obtain some credibility on here, that's why I keep mentioning it, I finished it so you have to hear about it). It did mutate from the eighties references and Adrian Mole-isms into something a lot richer. Captured the merciless atmosphere of the playground near perfectly with the 101 things a teenage boy must avoid so not to be labelled 'gay', and the terrors of a speech impediment where every conversation is a precipitous downhill littered with the rotten stumps of bad-words. That lovely fear of being made to read something out loud and knowing that you can't deploy the usual circumlocutions and verbal dodges, and the few teachers who gave a damn, the others who figured humiliation might prove a miracle cure, and the final bunch who got a kick, because they're what bullies grow up into.

Admittedly, it skipped over the playground trade in copies of Knave and Fiesta liberated from various fathers' bottom drawer viewing material collections. I suppose the internet has killed that like it did hedgerow delights.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 January, 2016, 01:04:16 pm
Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312. Whereas a lot of his stuff has been brilliantly original and well written, this feels as if he's retreading a lot of his old tyres both technical and political. The writing is clunky, too: flows like treacle with lumps.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 12 January, 2016, 01:21:06 pm
(This is too good to let fall through the gaps between threads:

For fans of Dickens and/or Janis Joplin (sic)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vjm5d
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 13 January, 2016, 11:38:09 am
Just purchased SA Calverts first offering for the Kindle.

And a damn good read Something To Declare was too.

Not my usual type of book and knowing the author steered my choice to check it out. I'm glad I did.

Well done Steph.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 13 January, 2016, 12:27:11 pm
Just started Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, and The Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry. Recently finished The Savage Garden by Mark Mills.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 January, 2016, 01:14:59 pm
Just started Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Have you been raiding my bookshelves? :)

I liked that one, too
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 13 January, 2016, 02:33:26 pm
Just purchased SA Calverts first offering for the Kindle.

And a damn good read Something To Declare was too.

Not my usual type of book and knowing the author steered my choice to check it out. I'm glad I did.

Well done Steph.

I thank you. Not crowing, but I don't think there are many similar books that include both the Dun Run and the French Ride!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 13 January, 2016, 10:00:10 pm
Just finished Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym.   Which was Peter's fault.

I'm going to have to read more of hers now.  I absolutely loved it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 13 January, 2016, 10:25:09 pm
Finished 1984, again

Now onto In the Days of the Comet, HG Wells.  I've read a few others of his, but this one is new to me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 January, 2016, 07:22:49 am
Question to anyone who's read all the Stuart Macbride Logan Macrae series -
Is he just going through a Harry Potteresque phase of being a moaning whiny git that he's going to grow out of, or is that him for the duration?
(Should I give up now in other words)

How far have you got?  I've stuck with them in spite of McRae being a miserable sod as his interaction with Steel amuses my tiny mind.

I'm on Dark Blood - he's just given Rueben a bit of a going over.

The new one has just plummeted out of the sky and onto my Kindle :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 January, 2016, 07:26:24 am
As Amazon have gotten their collective digits out, I have swapped from "A Death in Valencia" to "Or the Bull Kills You". 2 Murders, politics and life in Spain. It's really good.

Since then I have finished "Or the Bull Kills You" and "A Death in Valencia" and have moved onto "The Anarchist Detective"
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 January, 2016, 09:55:28 pm
Really enjoyed Black Swan Green, I find 'proper' literature a bit of a slog these days, but it purred along and I found myself not turning off the light till the early hours. A relief to be honest after A Brief History of Seven Killings which seemed to go on for approximately forever (OK I only finished so I could attempt to obtain some credibility on here, that's why I keep mentioning it, I finished it so you have to hear about it).

Well done you. I've decided I can't face it so have postponed it. What I want right now is another something as readable as Black Swan Green, please.

Might try another Magnus Mills - enjoyed All Quiet... very much. The payoff (if you can call it that) had me grinning out loud.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 January, 2016, 09:58:16 pm

Just finished Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym.   Which was Peter's fault.

I'm going to have to read more of hers now.  I absolutely loved it.

That Peter has a lot to answer for. I was happily oblivious of Pym until he recommended her but now I have to live with the frustration of not having read all her books yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 16 January, 2016, 12:34:41 am

Just finished Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym.   Which was Peter's fault.

I'm going to have to read more of hers now.  I absolutely loved it.

That Peter has a lot to answer for. I was happily oblivious of Pym until he recommended her but now I have to live with the frustration of not having read all her books yet.

Happy New Year, both!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 16 January, 2016, 07:39:44 pm
I've just finished reading 'What Goes Around' by Emily (once of these parts) Chappell.  A compelling read, I couldn't put it down. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 16 January, 2016, 11:05:53 pm
Could be another thread, What books did you start, but never finish?

I have
a Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth, dirge, pulp all copies now
The Silmarillion, on my third attempt, I will finish it.

Lurking on my shelf 1Q84, just need to work out how to take it on my travels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 17 January, 2016, 09:02:27 am
Moderately topical. War and Peace.  Was given a two volume, paperback, copy in 1979.  Tried _numerous_ times over the years to read it. Never got past chapter 3.  The books went to Oxfam about 4 years ago still unread and the second volume unopened from new

Likewise the Silmarillion, but have no intention of ever bothering with it again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 January, 2016, 10:53:28 am
I liked what I read of A Suitable Boy but that was many years ago and it was less than 100 pages. I shall try it again one day.

One I really must pick up again is David Simon's Homicide. I started it on holiday one year, got a bit over halfway then never picked it up again even though it's brilliant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 17 January, 2016, 01:31:01 pm
I liked A Suitable Boy (read it yonks ago) except at the very end I was appalled by a major plot decision by the heroine. Which spoiled it for me really. But I thought it was very well written, and I do like books about India anyway.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 January, 2016, 02:20:43 pm
Have now finished "The Anarchist Detective", so have moved on to a non fiction book, in this case "¡Guerra!", again by Jason Webster.

I am really enjoying the Max Camara books, if anyone wants to borrow any, or all, of the first three, let me know.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 17 January, 2016, 02:46:25 pm
Currently reading Home is Elsewhere by Heinz Stucke, a brief write up and selection of photos of 50 years on his bike travels. First impressions are :  the orange paper is hard work,  there are some good photos and some interesting snippets and he definitely has a germanic taste in shorts :-) Ill update this as I finish it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 17 January, 2016, 03:46:07 pm
Just finished The Man In The High Castle (and no, I haven't watched the Amazon series which is very loosely based on it).  Some good bits like when Mr Tagomi slips into an alternative reality for ten minutes, and a fairly clever denouement.  Howveer, it feels unfinished or at least rushed, and apparently there was going to be a sequel, which never quite got written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 17 January, 2016, 04:40:36 pm
The bit that has lived with me since reading 'High Castle' is the casual reference to 'the African Experiment' and the cigarette lighter proposal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 January, 2016, 06:51:33 pm
I liked A Suitable Boy (read it yonks ago) except at the very end I was appalled by a major plot decision by the heroine. Which spoiled it for me really. But I thought it was very well written, and I do like books about India anyway.

I love it and re-read it now and again. I kind of agree with you about the plot decision, but I think she was probably right in the long run.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 January, 2016, 07:57:19 pm
I liked what I read of A Suitable Boy but that was many years ago and it was less than 100 pages. I shall try it again one day.

One I really must pick up again is David Simon's Homicide. I started it on holiday one year, got a bit over halfway then never picked it up again even though it's brilliant.

When you've finished that, try The Corner, where he (with Ed Burns) flips sides, and gives the view of a Baltimore street corner, with the dealers and characters who populate it and a year in their lives. In a similar way it's acutely observed and non-judgemental. The frustrations of the authors occasionally comes through, but it never turns into a polemic, not even when it's truly deserved. Probably one of the most stunning indictment of the failed War on Drugs written. Yet it's not always bleak because it's filled with people who have hopes and dreams similar to the rest of us, but are a stuck in a world we wouldn't recognise. I'm not sure how much has changed in the last twenty years, but I suspect very little. I still occasionally get the train through Baltimore (which cuts by many of the less salubrious inner city suburbs) and while there some development, it's most a case of pulling the more dilapidated blocks of row houses down and building squat, glum apartment blocks, there's still people sitting around, houses decaying, but every here and there's a house or a block that's perfectly maintained (there's a nice blog article here (http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/09/06/ben_marcin_last_house_standing_is_a_study_of_solitary_row_houses_photos.html)).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 17 January, 2016, 08:28:47 pm
Moderately topical. War and Peace.  Was given a two volume, paperback, copy in 1979.  Tried _numerous_ times over the years to read it. Never got past chapter 3.  The books went to Oxfam about 4 years ago still unread and the second volume unopened from new

Likewise the Silmarillion, but have no intention of ever bothering with it again.

I did manage to get through War and Peace, but it was very slow in parts.

Similarly Moby Dick some long tedious passages and a bit of a whimper rather than a bang of an ending.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tigerrr on 18 January, 2016, 07:20:52 am
Just put down Cox's Human Universe. He writes science very well, esp the mind boggling stuff about expanding universes, quarks and stuff. The fragility of Homo sapiens survival is inescapable. And the thought that we may be superseded in due course by conscious self replicating and evolving machines is daunting, but makes sense.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 18 January, 2016, 11:15:05 am
Moby Dick, never finished. Back when reading groups where all the rage, I went on holiday with my mates and we all decided to read the same book, namely Moby Dick. On the holiday, bags got lost at airports, minor road accidents, and just a series of calamities. It was decided that Moby Dick was a cursed book, and we should not try and continue to read it (no one was really enjoying it anyway). All the copies of the book were left at at the cottage we stayed in. So if you're ever staying in a cottage in Tournon D'agenais and there are multiple copies of Moby Dick on the shelves, don't pick it up, it's cursed!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 January, 2016, 03:23:11 pm
One I never finished (and indeed, I can't even remember what prompted me to start it in the first place) was "The World According to Garp" by John Irving.  And I may or may not have not have finished Solzheniskyn's "The Gulag Archipelago", although I did manage "Cancer Ward".That was a laugh a minute!

These days there are many I don't bother to try and persevere with. I read mainly crime fiction now, and I read for entertainment (I always have) rather than education of great literary style, so if it doesn't flow and pull me in it gets dumped. That includes two recent Grishams, and several of the Nordic authors, though often the translations let them down I think.

Currently reading "Snow White must Die" by Germany's best selling crime author (I believe) Nele Neuhaus. It's nearly good. I shall persevere for now. Edit. I didn't, it's in the return bag.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 18 January, 2016, 04:21:06 pm
One I never finished (and indeed, I can't even remember what prompted me to start it in the first place) was "The World According to Garp" by John Irving.
There is fashion in such things, and John Irving is a bit out of fashion now, but I'd still say that was a pretty good book.

IQ84 is my latest abandoned masterpiece. Needed more (IQ?) from me than I had to give.
The Luminaries also required a greater luminary than me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 January, 2016, 08:22:44 pm
Miss von Brandenburg went through an Irving phase so I dutifully read the ones lying around the house but never engaged with them.

As to "The Gulag Archipelago", imagine my delight after struggling through two fat and tiny-printed volumes to find it ending almost in mid-paragraph.  "Ah," they said, "volume three hasn't benn translated yet".  That was some time in the 1970s and I never was tempted to seek out the third part.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 January, 2016, 03:34:28 pm
Now started the latest of Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae bokks "In The Cold Dead Ground".  They have just found a stiff with a tattoo on his shoulder.  Of a narwhal :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 20 January, 2016, 05:24:43 pm
Just started Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Finished it. Loved it. Beautiful and tragic.


Started The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 21 January, 2016, 02:41:59 pm
I never finished A Suitable Boy either - I got about halfway through.  I also didn't get very far in The Woman in White, which is weird because I've loved all the other Wilkie Collins I've read (No Name, The Moonstone and Armadale).  And I only got a few chapters into Leon Uris' Exodus.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 January, 2016, 02:56:06 pm
I also didn't get very far in The Woman in White, which is weird because I've loved all the other Wilkie Collins I've read (No Name, The Moonstone and Armadale).

The Woman in White is the only Wilkie Collins I've finished. Of course, it's also the only one I've started.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 22 January, 2016, 08:27:21 am
The Fault in Our Stars

ugh, that's a tear-jerker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 22 January, 2016, 09:10:24 am
The Fault in Our Stars

ugh, that's a tear-jerker.

Indeed, now watch the film...

Make sure you have a hanky at the ready.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 22 January, 2016, 09:55:27 am
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.

I saw MacBride on the Breakfast program earlier in the week and thought he came over very well, so bought his first book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 22 January, 2016, 09:58:08 am
The Fault in Our Stars

ugh, that's a tear-jerker.

Did you not find it, erm, sickly? I thought it was worse than Twilight in the teen-romance stakes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 22 January, 2016, 10:06:22 am
The Fault in Our Stars

ugh, that's a tear-jerker.

Did you not find it, erm, sickly? I thought it was worse than Twilight in the teen-romance stakes.
I've no intention of watching the film - that, I've heard, is fairly saccharine.

Not finding the novel sickly. It seems more grounded. The kids self-knowing acknowledgement of 'cancer perks' and how that informs their conversation and language. Uncontrolled emission of body fluids, non-compos mentis behaviour; the ugly business of slowly dying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 22 January, 2016, 10:19:38 am
As it's the new year, I traditionally indulge in a binge of self help or instructional books. Amazon must know this to be a fact as they tailor their special offer kindle books to entice me.

Quiet, The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain. Pretty interesting, but I think I'm an ambivert. Think I may have to pull the trigger and get the audio book version.
 
And some grammar text books for various foreign languages that I claim on my CV...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 January, 2016, 10:27:44 am
I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan

Yeah, so I'm a bit late to the party on this one. Thing is, I normally steer very wide of both celebrity autobiographies and TV comedy tie-ins, so this ought to be a perfect shitstorm of crapness, and by rights I should hate it. But I was listening to a Steve Coogan interview on a podcast the other day and it gave me a hankering for a bit of Partridge. And even though the book is exactly what you'd expect it to be, I don't hate it. A few lines have even made me LOL.

I got a few chapters in before deciding to enhance the experience by making an iTunes playlist of the tracklist at the back of the book, then went back and started from the beginning again, with music. And I'm glad I did - I can't stand Keane but it feels so right in the context. Brilliant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 January, 2016, 07:09:03 pm
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.

I saw MacBride on the Breakfast program earlier in the week and thought he came over very well, so bought his first book.

I'm still on In The Cold Dead Ground, which IIRC is the tenth in the series.  Even by his elevated standard McRae is having a really bad week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 22 January, 2016, 11:18:50 pm
I read both The Gulag Archipelago, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I blame my sister for those, she studied Russian.

1Q84 is on my shelf waiting to be started.

Just finished reading Casino Royale to my son, and now on A Study in Scarlet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 23 January, 2016, 12:07:36 am
Not quite reading yet, but I heard Helen Ellis on R4, and American Housewife sounds a good read. Except that at £7 (kindle more than hardcover) I think I'll wait.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 23 January, 2016, 12:39:47 pm
Something by Christopher Brookmyre who now seems to be a Chris (Dead Girl Walking says Google). I'm sure I enjoyed his earlier books but this one is just dull and as a consequence I've been inching from 30 to 40% for a week now. You know a book isn't going well when you keep looking at the percentage read (and normally I can chew through a couple of books when I'm travelling). I'm caught between the desire for completion and desire to fling it into the virtual bin because life is too short (and it only cost 99p).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 23 January, 2016, 01:10:33 pm
Something by Christopher Brookmyre who now seems to be a Chris

I believe that Chris is to Christopher as Iain was to Iain M Banks, a cypher denoting a different style of fiction.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 23 January, 2016, 01:55:39 pm
I may be misremembering, but I thought he always wrote crime-y stuff. Admittedly, I'm generally not big on crime books (which might be my mistake here), but he had a sassy sarcastic style that seems to be missing in his Chris incarnation. I'm forty per cent into a story that alternates between a moaning ex-journalist and a dull band member which despite the clearly signposted plot routing is failing to make much progress. It's a nice idea for a book, but I think the failing is the latter character, she gets fifty per cent of the billing but she's a quite boring and the writing of her is flatter than Norfolk. Those chapters are like being trapped in one of those party conversation with someone dull, you know how they go, your eyes frantically searching for an exit route. Unlike parties though, you can't get out of those chapters by claiming you need to use the loo. She's waiting with another ten pages when you get back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 23 January, 2016, 02:04:38 pm
I read both The Gulag Archipelago, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I blame my sister for those, she studied Russian.

1Q84 is on my shelf waiting to be started.

Just finished reading Casino Royale to my son, and now on A Study in Scarlet.

A day in the life is superb, as is the tv adaptation with Keith Baron as Denisovitch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 January, 2016, 10:01:20 pm
I read both The Gulag Archipelago, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I blame my sister for those, she studied Russian.

At least the latter is a nice slim volume and when Ivan goes beddy-byes at the end you know there isn't another thousand pages of "The Next Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich" glaring balefully from the shelf.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 January, 2016, 09:37:24 am
Weirdly, Chris(topher) Brookmyre must be reading this thread, because spurred by my razoring criticism, he built a time machine, travelled back in time, rewrote the book, and suddenly in the very next chapter all kinds of things were happening.

Still, it took 160 pages which is a bit of a laboured intro. But I'll forgive him as he's named one of the thugs the Gove-Troll which is, let's face it, rather aptly wonderful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 25 January, 2016, 02:10:52 pm
American Sniper- Chris Kyle ex SEAL and credited with the most kills of any US sniper (possibly any sniper ever).

I can see how some folk may think the book is him gloating and being indifferent to killing. I get his reasoning behind it though. He was killing to protect his fellow US servicemen, who he regarded as his family.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 January, 2016, 02:14:47 pm
American Sniper- Chris Kyle ex SEAL and credited with the most kills of any US sniper (possibly any sniper ever).

I can see how some folk may think the book is him gloating and being indifferent to killing. I get his reasoning behind it though. He was killing to protect his fellow US servicemen, who he regarded as his family.

I enjoyed that one, it is very good.  As you say he comes across, quite well I thought, as saying "I was protecting my family".

Just don't think that "Re-Depolyed" is in the same vein, it isn't!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 25 January, 2016, 02:17:05 pm
American Sniper- Chris Kyle ex SEAL and credited with the most kills of any US sniper (possibly any sniper ever).

I can see how some folk may think the book is him gloating and being indifferent to killing. I get his reasoning behind it though. He was killing to protect his fellow US servicemen, who he regarded as his family.
I have read a few like these - SAS, SEAL etc. What I liked about this (could have been more) is that we hear what the wife thinks too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 25 January, 2016, 04:43:23 pm
I enjoyed that one, it is very good.  As you say he comes across, quite well I thought, as saying "I was protecting my family".

For that to be OK you have to think protecting your family with weapons is OK.

I don't. Sorry kids, I'll take a bullet for you but I won't be raising the sights at strangers for you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 25 January, 2016, 04:45:41 pm
+1 boab
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 January, 2016, 08:54:56 pm
Ah, you see this is one of those occasions when others read something into what you say that isn't there.

I didn't say I agreed with the methods.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 25 January, 2016, 09:03:55 pm
The Naked and the Dead.

It's powerful stuff. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 25 January, 2016, 09:18:12 pm
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 January, 2016, 09:33:16 pm
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.

I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 January, 2016, 10:26:12 pm

I enjoyed Station Eleven more.

I *heart* Station Eleven. What a thoroughly beautiful thing it is.

New Julian Barnes next. Excited.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 25 January, 2016, 11:38:57 pm
I enjoyed that one, it is very good.  As you say he comes across, quite well I thought, as saying "I was protecting my family".

For that to be OK you have to think protecting your family with weapons is OK.

I don't. Sorry kids, I'll take a bullet for you but I won't be raising the sights at strangers for you.

+1 boab

Interested in the logic and/or morality of this one, I have to say - in its starkest terms, are you saying that you would prefer that a member of your family was killed rather than you kill their attacker?

(Actually, a literal interpretation of what you've typed suggests that defending your family with weapons is not OK no matter the result (so no use of the conveniently placed gun/knife/baseball bat to threaten without causing injury or to wound rather than killing the attacker, even if without your intervention they then go on to kill), while leaving open the option of intervening without a weapon, even if your hitherto unexpected expertise in unarmed combat does lead to you killing the attacker. But we can leave that nitpickery to another time.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 26 January, 2016, 12:17:51 am
For me, I couldn't pick up a weapon against another person. I just think it's wrong. Most of my morals are pretty slack, and I can be pretty darn aggressive, but picking up weapons and aiming them at other people just isn't something I can imagine doing in anything other than a blind rage- by which time you've pretty much lost anyway.

Anger leads to the dark side, and all that.

Where is this hypothetical situation where my children are all only saveable by use of weapons? I haven't actually come across that scenario in my 23 years of parenthood. It's fairly likely I'd do myself greater damage than I could inflict on anyone else, what with complete ineptitude and inexperience with, you know, death battles.

Thing is with the sniper, he signed up to the army. He already knew how to shoot things and chose to surround himself with a 'family' who were being fired at. You don't chose your family, isn't that the adage? But these are people and a situation he chose, and then self justified his actions by describing his motivation as saving his family. How handy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 26 January, 2016, 01:26:28 am
Oh, I know it's all purely hypothetical, and I've never been in a similar situation either, but I was just struck by the contrast with the oft-expressed view that "I'd do anything to save my babies" or the like.

(And I'm not intending to comment on sniper-man ... Feels, as you say, like a post-hoc justification.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 26 January, 2016, 03:56:49 am
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.

I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?

Quote from: Stuart McBride
I should probably thank the Aberdeen Tourist Board as well, for not having me lynched when the last book came out. If it's any consolation: at least this one's set in summer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 January, 2016, 06:50:42 am
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.

I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?

Return to usual levels of Grim in the latest one; starts with rain and turns into SNO.  And a rather angry Rueben.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 26 January, 2016, 09:10:28 am
While I'm working away for a couple of days I've taken a break from the stack of to-be-read paperbacks, dusted off my Kindle and loaded it up with The Man In The High Castle. The trailers for the new TV series look pretty good, but as I don't have Amazon Prime I'll have to 'make do'  ;) with the original.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 26 January, 2016, 06:14:19 pm
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.

I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?

Return to usual levels of Grim in the latest one; starts with rain and turns into SNO.  And a rather angry Rueben.

Nothing new there then....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 26 January, 2016, 06:58:46 pm
"Biggles of 266" and when I've finished that I shall read, "Biggles flies to work".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 26 January, 2016, 07:14:13 pm
...have now started "Bazaar Of Bad Dreams" by some unknown author with the unlikely name of Stephen King.
Does it get any better than Mile 81?  I enjoyed the characterisation but the storyline was really a bit pants.  In the preamble, Sai King says it's one of his favorites (sic), which, Constant Reader as I am, doesn't fill me with eagerness for the other 19 stories.  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 27 January, 2016, 07:09:23 am
"Biggles of 266" and when I've finished that I shall read, "Biggles flies to work".

Only about another 100 Biggles volumes to go then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 January, 2016, 10:17:48 am
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.

I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?

Return to usual levels of Grim in the latest one; starts with rain and turns into SNO.  And a rather angry Rueben.

Nothing new there then....

No there isn't. It's intermittently amusing, but seems to be getting ever more mired in caricature.  So, ok, but nothing more IMO.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 27 January, 2016, 10:39:59 am
Thing is with the sniper, he signed up to the army. He already knew how to shoot things and chose to surround himself with a 'family' who were being fired at. You don't chose your family, isn't that the adage? But these are people and a situation he chose, and then self justified his actions by describing his motivation as saving his family. How handy.
That last paragraph seems to me to be a pretty good summary.
I have known 3 long-term serving soldiers who ended up in war situations. Two out of the three managed to very carefully serve through conflicts without firing a shot at another person (the third went to vietnam and didn't like talking about it).
Anyone who chooses to be a sniper is very deliberately setting out to shoot people.

Something to consider; wounding enemy soldiers is more effective than killing them (the wounded soldier is a burden on resources). So a sniper who has the 'most kills in history' is not necessarily an uber-effective soldier. Maybe they just like killing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 January, 2016, 10:50:32 am
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  First of an SF trilogy recommended by nephew.  Good. Very.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 January, 2016, 11:26:42 am
...have now started "Bazaar Of Bad Dreams" by some unknown author with the unlikely name of Stephen King.
Does it get any better than Mile 81?  I enjoyed the characterisation but the storyline was really a bit pants.  In the preamble, Sai King says it's one of his favorites (sic), which, Constant Reader as I am, doesn't fill me with eagerness for the other 19 stories.  :-\

I liked them but then I have a low hokum threshold.  But the poems should be buried in an unmarked grave, at midnight, with a stake through the MS.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 27 January, 2016, 07:57:31 pm
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  First of an SF trilogy recommended by nephew.  Good. Very.

Yes, good stuff, sequels are OK as well.  (thought the last one a little anticlimatic...)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 27 January, 2016, 08:37:32 pm
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  First of an SF trilogy recommended by nephew.  Good. Very.

Pah I thought it was an awful trudge. Wasn't the one with about 53 chapters dedicated to buying a gun? And the annoyingly brain-muddling s/he?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 28 January, 2016, 09:03:37 am
...have now started "Bazaar Of Bad Dreams" by some unknown author with the unlikely name of Stephen King.
Does it get any better than Mile 81?  I enjoyed the characterisation but the storyline was really a bit pants.  In the preamble, Sai King says it's one of his favorites (sic), which, Constant Reader as I am, doesn't fill me with eagerness for the other 19 stories.  :-\

I liked them but then I have a low hokum threshold.  But the poems should be buried in an unmarked grave, at midnight, with a stake through the MS.
Batman & Robin Have An Altercation is good  :o  Things are looking up  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 February, 2016, 10:38:29 am
Well after Stuart MacBrides latest, which was ok,  I gave Bernard Minier's second Commandant Servaz outing a go, but gave up half-way through (as I did the first I recall). Like books translated from Italian (I've tried Camilleris Montalbano's without much success for instance), I find those translated from French often too "wordy". Plus it wasn't terribly gripping. So, then I tried Peter May's latest "Coffin Road".  I enjoyed Entry Island, and, although the "flashback" device got increasingly irritating, I got through the Lewis trilogy.  However Coffin Road is written in the continuous first person present (for want of the correct grammatical term) - I really can't (see what I did there?) be doing with that, plus I felt the writing florid, so that was junked 1/3 of the way through. I doubt I'll give him another go.

Next up is Barbara Nadel's latest Cetin Ikmen story, which are generally reliable reads and have touched on the recent political upheavals in Turkey as well. A kind of Turkish Brunetti I suppose - I've just reserved the latest offering from Donna Leon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 February, 2016, 03:31:20 pm
Ghostwritten - David Mitchell. Ever so slightly disappointed - it's very good but it's the first of his novels that I haven't totally fallen in love with, and I've read all of them except Slade House. Still, I'm only halfway through so maybe I'll change my mind.

Galapagos - Kurt Vonnegut. Very similar experience. I've read his first seven novels and this is the first of his later works I've tried. It's a good and faithful pastiche of 'A Kurt Vonnegut Novel' but it's missing whatever the magic ingredient is that makes it a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 February, 2016, 04:18:40 pm
I liked Ghostwritten, but I felt it tried a bit too hard and there's some overstretch, as a result some of the sections seem a little flatter, and it leans a little too heavily on contrivance. I did enjoy it though (it picks up the pace in the latter sections) and you can see how it sets up the style for future novels. My only gripe with his books is that some of his characters are too erudite, but that's a minor gripe, he has one hell of an imagination and way with words.

I felt a bit similar about Galapagos too. Probably not a book I'd read again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 February, 2016, 04:43:45 pm
you can see how it sets up the style for future novels

It did occur to me that I've probably spoilt myself by reading his later books first - especially Cloud Atlas, which is an awful lot more cleverer.

Having said that, I also read number9dream recently and totally adored it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 February, 2016, 06:46:14 pm
The Curious Map Book ~ Ashley Baynton-Williams.  100 interesting and/or entertaining maps dissected.  Too big and heavy to read in the bath though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 09 February, 2016, 01:24:23 pm
I'm approaching the end of Monsterous Regiment (Pratchett). I find, these days, that I can get too much TP (time was when I could read Discworld novels back to back). A couple of (or more) years between works better for me now, and I've quite enjoyed this one. Nice to see Vimes back in action, and Angua. 300 pages in and Death has only had a cameo so far, and that more out of respect than plot necessity.

It feels like a continuation of the theme raised in one of the Watch stories (discrimination in the workplace), but it's none the worse for that, and handled in the usual, insightfully off-handed way he has/had.

3.5 Galleons (out of a possible 5).

I recently finished How to Build a Girl. I enjoyed Raised by Wolves when it was on, so risked a few £s on this, and was well repaid. I was genuinely shocked by some of the content, but in a good way. It was a funny, serious, rude story about being a (female) teenager. The femaleness did not make the story inaccessible to me. I don't know whether that is because - despite sex differences - the experiences are largely the same, or because it was just written in a way that made it feel so. And maybe it doesn't matter.

It may have helped that many of the cultural references resonated with me, although I'm a Brummie and a few years older than Moran, and I'm not sure how well the story would work for someone without those connections.

4 Bill Murrays (out of 5)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 09 February, 2016, 01:32:10 pm
Joyland by stephen king

Really enjoyable, but not a stephen king horror/suspense novel.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 February, 2016, 01:55:28 pm
Well the Barbara Nadel was ok, it's always interesting to get the overview of the present political scene in Turkey. That was followed by the (nearly finsished) "Bruno, Chief of Police" story "The Dying Season". Nothing new, but nonetheless enjoyable.  That'll be followed by a new-to-me author Michael Koryta and his "Last Words". A mid-west set PI story.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 February, 2016, 01:02:21 pm
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  First of an SF trilogy recommended by nephew.  Good. Very.

Yes, good stuff, sequels are OK as well.  (thought the last one a little anticlimatic...)

First one great, the others less surprising but meaty.  Agree re the last one but enjoyed the trip all the same.  I got the impression that there'll be a next one along the lines of the Empire striking back.

Currently reading the sequel to The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest.  Only a few pages in and struggling to remember who was who.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 11 February, 2016, 01:10:28 pm
Now on to the third Ben Aaronovitch "Whispers Underground"
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 February, 2016, 11:13:55 pm
Number whatever in the series of books I really should have read years ago but have only just got round to, only to discover that they really are that good: Neuromancer by William Gibson

#chandleresque
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 February, 2016, 12:51:05 am
I, on the other hand, have just started reading Raymond Chandler viz. "The Big Sheep Sleep".

#gibsonesque.  Not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 12 February, 2016, 07:37:25 am
The Naked and the Dead.

It's powerful stuff.

Finished it.

Immediately started reading it again.

At first, it was difficult to keep track of the characters - they're all American soldiers.  By the end I was right there with each of them.  Norman Mailer is a fine storyteller, writing about what he knows.  For me to make it to the end of a war novel he must be pretty good!  It reminded me of the film The Thin Red Line - also a story by someone who'd lived war. 

In the preface, Mailer is dismissive of his own writing at this point in his career.  Next has to be one of his Pulitzer winners, to see what the difference is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 12 February, 2016, 08:29:39 am

Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.
I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?
I finished the third book - Broken Skin (Damp and drizzly) and think I'm McBrided out.

Moved on to The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross. I very much enjoyed it especially the way you can take bunkum and surround it with sufficient tech speak to make it seem reasonable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 February, 2016, 08:44:34 am
Europe in Autumn - David Hutchinson

A noir spy thriller set in the near future. Beautifully described locations. It's SF I guess but not of the spaceships and aliens kind, think more like China Miéville's The City and The  City.

Finished that and immediately dived into:

Europe at Midnight

A sequel with some of the same characters and also some really weird topography.

Both excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 February, 2016, 09:32:46 am

Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. It hasn't stopped raining yet.
Finished it. It stopped raining briefly before it started to snow.

Now moved onto book 2 - Dying Light. Set in the summer, it is only raining occasionally.
I am amused by some of the books set in the summer occasionally using words like sticky and sweltering. Did Mr Macbride get a bung from the tourist office?
I finished the third book - Broken Skin (Damp and drizzly) and think I'm McBrided out.

Moved on to The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross. I very much enjoyed it especially the way you can take bunkum and surround it with sufficient tech speak to make it seem reasonable.

If you enjoyed that you can try his short story A Colder War (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm) for free.  Similar theme, but not in the Laundry sequence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 February, 2016, 02:27:17 pm
I, on the other hand, have just started reading Raymond Chandler viz. "The Big Sheep Sleep".

#gibsonesque.  Not.

That's on my to-read pile along with The Little Sister, the two Marlowe novels I haven't read.

I started reading Neuromancer yesterday and it was immediately obvious from the opening line* that he owed a massive stylistic debt to Chandler, to the point where I had to look it up to check I wasn't having a brainstorm. And apparently, it seems that everybody already knew. Except me.

*"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 February, 2016, 08:45:54 pm
Now on to the third Ben Aaronovitch "Whispers Underground"

I enjoyed those, and was disappointed when the release of the latest one was postponed.  After a recommendation I tried "London Falling" & "Severed Streets" by Paul Cornell,  similar theme of police procedural mixed up with occult stuff, but far nastier & bleaker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 February, 2016, 06:06:16 pm
*"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

See, that's a fantastic line. I'd go big out an old copy but I suspect it's mouldering in the garage and for some reason (looks like the publisher is re-releasing them) it's not available on Kindle until sometime in 2016. Shame I would have ordered it from my sickbed.

Not having had enough punishment with the worthy but painful A Brief History of Seven Killings, I have been reading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (for some unspecified reason, Amazon gave me a free book and I thought this might make me cleverer and earn me yet more of the good and clever YACF respec'). I've thrown in the towel. You may go back to regarding me with disdain, the group's itinerant village idiot. Hide behind the sofa and pretend that like you're not there when I post. I don't mind. It's reminded me why I dislike literary fiction. If you've not had the misfortune to read it, it's basically five grievously entitled people whining and being annoying for 600-odd pages. Lots of reviews seem to think this is a stunning portrayal of a family breakdown and one that they so recognise. I'd hate to meet their families. If I did I think I'd tell them SHUT UP too. I wouldn't mind so much if it was a struggle against adversity, but all the adversity is of their own making. They're choking on their own indulgence. I don't want to hear them coughing up their rich, sludgy lives over one another.

I'll admit he's a clever writer. Some of it sparkles. But one simile follows another. And another. And another. So where Gibson paints a picture in a single, brief line that sets the tone for an entire three book series, you need to dig through four pages of Franzen's blizzard of description to get within viewing distance of whatever the hell he was trying to say, which turns out not to be much at all. And then he'll go off on tangent that appears to have little to do about anything, seemingly to prove that he's done lots of research.

I got to 67%. Basically there could have been an acerbic 200 page book somewhere in there but it's smothered under 400 pages of insufferably smug cleverness. And a couple of the grimmest most cringeworthy sex scenes ever.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 13 February, 2016, 06:07:48 pm
*"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

See, that's a fantastic line.

That the younger generations probably think refers to a deep primary blue...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 February, 2016, 06:09:49 pm
*"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

See, that's a fantastic line.

That the younger generations probably think refers to a deep primary blue...

Sadly, the unremittingly unmemorable awfulness of the Poltergeist remake means I can't remember how the girl-in-the-static scene was portrayed for audiences more attuned to digital reception.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 13 February, 2016, 10:07:15 pm
About to start the new one from Sophie Hannah in the Culver Valley series, The Narrow Bed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 February, 2016, 12:08:53 pm
Now on Farewell, My Lovely and if Len Deighton didn't read Chandler before writing any of his first-person spy novels then I'm giving up my fledgling career as a literary critic and going on the bins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 February, 2016, 05:48:23 pm
After tossing the towel on the splatter of pretentious wank that was The Corrections, I ended up reading Room, which I didn't realise was a movie (I'm right up there with Wow, mainlining the cultural zeitgeist). Actually, I did know there was movie called Room, I just didn't connect the two because rooms, like invisible elephants, are everywhere. Anyway, I've not seen the movie. I'm not sure why I bought the book since I don't like five-year-olds and the plot sounded a bit like something from the WH Smiths misery porn shelf. I read the first half in one sitting (one dubious benefit of sniffling my way toward armageddon is that it's an opportunity to get through a few books) and I suspect it won't survive the evening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 February, 2016, 06:21:02 pm
Room, eh?  Was there an (invisible) elephant in it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 14 February, 2016, 06:49:36 pm
I, on the other hand, have just started reading Raymond Chandler viz. "The Big Sheep Sleep".

#gibsonesque.  Not.

That's on my to-read pile along with The Little Sister, the two Marlowe novels I haven't read.

I started reading Neuromancer yesterday and it was immediately obvious from the opening line* that he owed a massive stylistic debt to Chandler, to the point where I had to look it up to check I wasn't having a brainstorm. And apparently, it seems that everybody already knew. Except me.

*"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
I love Chandler AND Gibson; for different reasons.
Yes, Gibson borrows some of the style; but he adds so much more (and he doesnt keep describing female body parts and their influence on the protagonist :P ).  In fact if all he did was use Chandler's words to describe stories set in his own vision of the near-future, his books would be great :). But that's *not* all he does.

His style gets a lot less Chandlery in later books (which may be a shame ... )

Crucially; there are worse criticisms you could make of a writer. Its like saying an author is inspired too much by DIckens. Or Will S.

(I really should read some Len Deighton one day ... )
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 February, 2016, 06:50:47 pm
Room, eh?  Was there an (invisible) elephant in it?

Reality, I've come to learn, is littered with invisible elephants.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 15 February, 2016, 10:16:16 am
Yet another police procedural (they're not generally too challenging, which suits me just fine), this one the fourth (I think) of the Cape Town set Benny Griessel ones from Deon Meyer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 15 February, 2016, 10:15:54 pm
Re-reading the Matarese Circle, my bedtime read, a few pages every night to help still the brain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 February, 2016, 09:21:14 am
Re-reading the Matarese Circle, my bedtime read, a few pages every night to help still the brain.

I loved the early Ludlum's.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 February, 2016, 11:05:46 am
Ludlum is still remarkably prolific, considering how dead he is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 February, 2016, 12:50:31 pm
Cixin Liu, The Dark Forest. Sequel to The Three Body Problem.

Feels diffuse at first, then the story emerges. Good.

Ludlum?  First one was good, second one was OK, third one was terminated with extreme prejudice.  From a distance now they all look the same.

I did learn something handy, though: the saying rest is also a weapon.  Or as TG put it, it's the recovery that makes you ride better.  Trotting that out is a great way of reining in jerks who are all agog to cut short your snooze time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 17 February, 2016, 12:42:38 pm
Robert Harris's Imperium. About Cicero – as told from his personal assistant Tiro. Political machinations in Rome and, initially, I was hesitating to start this but, having stuck with it, is proving jolly interesting and entertaining. Pompey's in there and Julius Caesar.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 February, 2016, 03:03:23 am
Hurrah: "The Damage Done", being the sixth novel of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series, has just touched down on my Kindle :thumbsup:

Bah: I'm only 15% through "The Lady In The CAEK Lake" and I can't just abandon poor Marlowe like that :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 25 February, 2016, 12:27:25 pm
Robert Crais latest Cole & Pike offering  "The Promise".  Next up Time Weaver's 4th David Raker offering. The protaganist seems indestructable!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 25 February, 2016, 01:13:27 pm
Number whatever in the series of books I really should have read years ago but have only just got round to, only to discover that they really are that good: Neuromancer by William Gibson

I've spent the last 4 days in the company of my daughter at Goldsmiths, in the studios and environs.
Then started re-reading Gibson's Spook Country and discovered a whole new depth of meaning in the novel, textures and riches I didn't notice before. Genius of a writer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redjeep! on 25 February, 2016, 05:03:37 pm
"Fooled By Randomness" by Nassim Nicolas Taleb.

Still trying to get into it and can't decide if it's "one of the smartest books of all time" , as it proclaims on the front cover, or just a pile of recycled, rehashed old sh!te.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 February, 2016, 07:24:06 pm
Christopher Isherwood's Berlin novels.

I had a hankering to read some Isherwood recently though I can't remember why. I'm glad I did, though. It's wonderful stuff. Funny and charming.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 February, 2016, 12:18:07 am
Christopher Isherwood's Berlin novels.

I had a hankering to read some Isherwood recently though I can't remember why. I'm glad I did, though. It's wonderful stuff. Funny and charming.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1489/24163510974_ce590988b9_o.png) (https://flic.kr/p/CPfiYb)

Isherwood & Auden (https://flic.kr/p/CPfiYb) by Martin Rowson (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 26 February, 2016, 10:58:29 am
They fall into my category of books I wished I hadn't read so I could have the fun of discovering them all over again. Which is possibly one of the most self-defeating categories ever invented.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Katie on 26 February, 2016, 03:00:41 pm
Some would argue it's pushing the definition of book but: Deadpool.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 February, 2016, 03:06:37 pm
Isherwood & Auden[/url] by Martin Rowson (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/)

The bit when he attends a Communist rally for Chinese peasants reminded me of when Bingo Little joins the Heralds of the Red Dawn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 February, 2016, 09:58:49 pm
Still Midnight by Denise Mina.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 February, 2016, 02:58:27 am
Hurrah: "The Damage Done", being the sixth novel of James Oswald's Inspector McLean series, has just touched down on my Kindle :thumbsup:

Bah: I'm only 15% through "The Lady In The CAEK Lake" and I can't just abandon poor Marlowe like that :(

Now finished "The Lady In The CAEK Lake".  Unsurprisingly, the butler didn't do it.

Over halfway through "The Damage Done".  The good news is that nothing has yet fallen from a great height on top of McLean's Alfa.  The bad news is that nowhere in Embra, Mr Oswald, is an office from whose windows you can see the Caledonian Canal, even on a clear day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 28 February, 2016, 06:35:02 am
Yesterday's ride was long enough to finally get to the end of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which at 33 hours listening time has been quite a commitment. I had times I wasn't sure I could be bothered, but I think on balance, yes, I'm glad I stuck it out. I can't imagine re-listening (see 33 hours, above) which is a bit of a shame, as if it were paper, and I could read, I'd probably dip in again occasionally for the pleasure of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 February, 2016, 08:21:01 am
Never felt like re-reading that, though it's a few years since I did.

Reading Ken Liu's "The Grace of Kings" and rather wishing I weren't. He translated "The Three-Body Problem" very competently, but his own opus falls into the "Yet Another Imaginary Mediaeval World" category, the main difference being that it has a Chinese flavour rather than European.  That's not enough to make it interesting so I'm reading it mostly to fall asleep at night and the rest of the time I'm reading the "Atrocity Archives" series on the tablet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 28 February, 2016, 08:53:09 am

Over halfway through "The Damage Done".  The good news is that nothing has yet fallen from a great height on top of McLean's Alfa.  The bad news is that nowhere in Embra, Mr Oswald, is an office from whose windows you can see the Caledonian Canal, even on a clear day.

That could be the editor, presumably the Union canal was what was meant?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 February, 2016, 12:06:26 pm
I am reading the latest Stuart Macbride - In the Cold Dark Ground (Logan McRae book 10), about 70% through it.

If Reuben gets his hands on the cat I will not be a happy camper....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 February, 2016, 08:34:30 am
Mrs McCutcheon's Cat makes it through "The Damage Done" unscathed if that's any consolation.  And some nice gruesome murrrrderrrrs.

Disposed of Val McDermid's "Splinter The Silence" - the ninth in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  A bit meh - not enough killin's or even policin'.  You don't expect much of either from Inspector Montalbano and "Game Of Mirrors", the eighteenth to have made it into English, does not disappoint.  No-one's been killed utterly to DETH at all yet and it's looking increasingly likely that no-one will be either.  Plenty of unread Scandiwegian noir on the shelf though, not to mention the rest of Raymond Chandler.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 February, 2016, 09:37:17 am

Disposed of Val McDermid's "Splinter The Silence" - the ninth in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  A bit meh - not enough killin's or even policin'. 

Agreed, definitely off the boil, and not a patch on Wire in the Blood.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 February, 2016, 10:29:25 am
Mrs McCutcheon's Cat makes it through "The Damage Done" unscathed if that's any consolation.  And some nice gruesome murrrrderrrrs.

Disposed of Val McDermid's "Splinter The Silence" - the ninth in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  A bit meh - not enough killin's or even policin'.  You don't expect much of either from Inspector Montalbano and "Game Of Mirrors", the eighteenth to have made it into English, does not disappoint.  No-one's been killed utterly to DETH at all yet and it's looking increasingly likely that no-one will be either.  Plenty of unread Scandiwegian noir on the shelf though, not to mention the rest of Raymond Chandler.

Sick of bloody Nordic Noir, all dark doom and misery with rain. At least Montalbano is sunny, with good food.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 29 February, 2016, 10:39:47 am
Stephen King's Revival. Always been a bit indifferent about King, I'll read them if they're in front of me. Actually really enjoyed this one, even though not a lot happens for 90% of the book, but it fails to happen in interesting ways.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 March, 2016, 11:36:19 am
Currently reading the one on the left, having finished the one on the right.  I shall then be reading the middle one...

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0Oi61bjAZR02pplsT_kk1SIChrTX_CvNi4vAo-UqWaP9xBv7RS9TU1NELSyltzhHK7-knT0S_ax30E8l2vIJJvFmIz0pkuw1nFTGrlt963wupYdRWPP6oRw4_uJocN0ND42rt4c5WWruYTF-Ebl-7veKBWsfo6LRHwaV4gV8P26t0713C002xJG_rqT4w78ewqFRD7mNw-fLOK6v7KP9J4SmIUFs-tle0cHsCkJujxxlhRUsHwnCNwSzUHBeNb6rSExzs1VIZD_Dq0Uz6ja2dUJ0v-HR5BUtXJJ2SXwi7lRiO7CO9uKx7UwHzkbrimTVGaP_CBVbhba1jgTaxiHanjsx_geSRH9VyrnP1VZTFS5QxuACltj22nHHiIYsycbS30SYbbbxB6FVA07XHuJ5gZ0vnZ0vrdZZz4yjF1DGFOd63uMcuqxIAMpc_UeWhQMoGgO3OU0mQctG4AwjAEi0ObFcrdYYtGP-DfnLKYsdZMkjU4D6SGp7_guIB91ayqsMTQZULENAjsjhArpW212m5zCrteixWRhBhjDx5Y2p2sS4ayf1IxoqHNoUOMtXuA=w1290-h967-no)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 02 March, 2016, 10:16:24 pm
Mrs McCutcheon's Cat makes it through "The Damage Done" unscathed if that's any consolation.  And some nice gruesome murrrrderrrrs.


No kittehs were harmed :)

Now that I'm finished binge-reading the Logan McRae books, I've started on Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong. Reading a bit like William Gibson so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 02 March, 2016, 10:28:01 pm
The Revenant - I haven't seen the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 02 March, 2016, 10:30:56 pm
Mrs McCutcheon's Cat makes it through "The Damage Done" unscathed if that's any consolation.  And some nice gruesome murrrrderrrrs.



Hasn't made it to the Tesco's book shelf in Stornoway yet. I've enjoyed the previous Inspector Mclean books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 March, 2016, 04:35:49 pm
Finished "Game Of Mirrors". Two killin's, and quite nasty ones too :thumbsup:  But what is this?  "Readers who bought this also bought"...

"Blade Of Light - An Inpector Montalbano Mystery". Bumskins!  That's the problem with e-books, you can even spend money while in the bath.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 March, 2016, 04:43:05 pm
Especially if you drop the device you're reading on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 March, 2016, 05:04:56 pm
That's the problem with e-books, you can even spend money while in the bath.

I don't usually spend more than a penny in the bath.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 03 March, 2016, 05:07:47 pm
Harry Harrison's Deathworld 1,2 and 3. My son gave them to me for my birfdy. I haven't read any of his stuff for donkey's years - I'd forgotten how entertaining he was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 04 March, 2016, 09:05:11 pm
Harry Harrison's Deathworld 1,2 and 3. My son gave them to me for my birfdy. I haven't read any of his stuff for donkey's years - I'd forgotten how entertaining he was.

That takes me back :thumbsup: Cracking little books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 March, 2016, 10:26:52 pm
The Girl With all the Gifts by M R Carey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 06 March, 2016, 10:03:43 am
Just finished Mark Thomas' Extreme Rambling - Walking The Wall.  Funny, yet disturbingly grim at the same time.

And started another, slightly different take on walking: Never Mind The Quantocks by Stuart Maconie.

On the side, I'm reading The World According To Noddy (Holder, that is).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 06 March, 2016, 10:20:22 am
I never finished A Suitable Boy either - I got about halfway through.  I also didn't get very far in The Woman in White, which is weird because I've loved all the other Wilkie Collins I've read (No Name, The Moonstone and Armadale).  And I only got a few chapters into Leon Uris' Exodus.

     I read Exodus when quite young, a few years later I met a Palestinian refugee who straightened a few facts out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 March, 2016, 11:01:36 am
On the side, I'm reading The World According To Noddy (Holder, that is).

That was a bit disappointing compared with his proper autobiography ("All Crazee Now" IIRC) not least because he comes out as a UKIP supporter :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 06 March, 2016, 11:10:28 am
I also didn't get very far in The Woman in White, which is weird because I've loved all the other Wilkie Collins I've read (No Name, The Moonstone and Armadale).

The Woman in White is the only Wilkie Collins I've finished. Of course, it's also the only one I've started.

Same here. I thought it was about 20% too long. However, that's probably unfair as it's not my sort of thing at all. A WC fan would probably wish it was 20% longer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 06 March, 2016, 11:16:06 am
I recently finished the Third Policeman*. Hugely enjoyable. Am now on the best of Myles; a collection of O Brien's columns. Also a lot of fun.

*I was surprised to discover that Robert Anton Wilson borrowed one of O Brien's characters for his Illuminatus books. Am considering re-reading them, but I'm afraid that, 30 years on, I won't 'get' them any more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 06 March, 2016, 12:25:25 pm
On the side, I'm reading The World According To Noddy (Holder, that is).

That was a bit disappointing compared with his proper autobiography ("All Crazee Now" IIRC) not least because he comes out as a UKIP supporter :sick:
Does he? :( :( :(

He does declare himself a Labour supporter, and even a socialist elsewhere.

I was a bit unhappy at the tale of bringing a POB to the ground with a stick in the spokes >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 March, 2016, 12:52:32 pm
I don't think I want to read either of them now. I don't want to dislike Noddy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 March, 2016, 01:22:15 pm
"All Crazee Now" is good, honest.  And it's just a coincidence brought about by the way I sort the Library that it's on the shelf next to Ian Kershaw's mountainous biography of Hitler.

James Holland's book about the Dambusters is on the other side.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 March, 2016, 01:54:33 pm
Harry Harrison's Deathworld 1,2 and 3. My son gave them to me for my birfdy. I haven't read any of his stuff for donkey's years - I'd forgotten how entertaining he was.

That takes me back :thumbsup: Cracking little books.

Oh, very yes, good stuff. What bothers me, though, is that Deathword and some of his other stuff is now available on Gutenberg.org.  Ditto Clifford Simak.  Copyrights seem to expire so quickly these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 07 March, 2016, 04:33:34 pm
Harry Harrison's Deathworld 1,2 and 3. My son gave them to me for my birfdy. I haven't read any of his stuff for donkey's years - I'd forgotten how entertaining he was.

That takes me back :thumbsup: Cracking little books.

Oh, very yes, good stuff. What bothers me, though, is that Deathword and some of his other stuff is now available on Gutenberg.org.  Ditto Clifford Simak.  Copyrights seem to expire so quickly these days.

This forum is getting to me. I just read your post and, as Deathworld is in italic font, it looked to be spelled wrong. My brane wants to read it as Dethworld ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 March, 2016, 06:00:57 pm
<cackle>

Too much YACF &/or too much Discworld?  Nah, both are impossible.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 08 March, 2016, 01:24:59 pm
Harry Harrison's Deathworld 1,2 and 3. My son gave them to me for my birfdy. I haven't read any of his stuff for donkey's years - I'd forgotten how entertaining he was.

That takes me back :thumbsup: Cracking little books.
Be aware there are two versions of D2 (The Ethical Engineer). The shorter one has Jason immediately sending the signal, rather than hanging around. And that is an attempt not to be a spoiler.

Oh, and Mikah remains a consummate knob in both versions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 16 March, 2016, 01:21:35 pm
Boneland by Alan Garner.

I had no idea this book existed. It is the third book in the 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' trilogy.

I loved the first book, read it to my children who also loved it.

Boneland is . . . Different. I didn't realise until I read up on the book that the main protagonist, Colin, is the Colin from the other two books.

Not sure I'd recommend it to fans of 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen'. Definitely not a children's book, there are themes of madness, redemption, therapy and loss. Quite gruelling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 March, 2016, 02:07:40 pm
I, on the other hand, have just started reading Raymond Chandler viz. "The Big Sheep Sleep".

#gibsonesque.  Not.

I'm reading that now. They left quite a lot of detail out of the film, didn't they?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 March, 2016, 03:00:52 pm
Onto The Establishment by Owen Jones.  God, it's depressing. :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 16 March, 2016, 03:02:08 pm
On the side, I'm reading The World According To Noddy (Holder, that is).

That was a bit disappointing compared with his proper autobiography ("All Crazee Now" IIRC) not least because he comes out as a UKIP supporter :sick:
I may have missed that bit, though he does espouse a number of populist policies, and expresses a mild antipathy towards immigrants.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 March, 2016, 06:20:20 pm
I, on the other hand, have just started reading Raymond Chandler viz. "The Big Sheep Sleep".

#gibsonesque.  Not.

I'm reading that now. They left quite a lot of detail out of the film, didn't they?

(Confesses Big Sheepishly to not having seen the film)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 16 March, 2016, 08:51:53 pm
Boneland by Alan Garner.

I had no idea this book existed. It is the third book in the 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' trilogy.

I loved the first book, read it to my children who also loved it.

Boneland is . . . Different. I didn't realise until I read up on the book that the main protagonist, Colin, is the Colin from the other two books.

Not sure I'd recommend it to fans of 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen'. Definitely not a children's book, there are themes of madness, redemption, therapy and loss. Quite gruelling.

It's been a common mistake over the years to pigeon hole Alan Garner as a "children's" author.  Whilst he's often written about children or young adults, they're not necessarily the target audience.  The Owl Service isn't a children's story - it's an old Welsh legend which is an adult story, and  Red Shift is a reworking of another old myth of a changeling. 

Have you read Thursbitch?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 March, 2016, 09:45:42 pm
(Confesses Big Sheepishly to not having seen the film)

It's a long time since I've seen it, tbh, but I remember it well enough to know that a lot of the detail is very toned down for the film - eg Carmen's state of dress when Marlowe finds her, and if there are any hints at Geiger's sexuality in the film, they're rather more oblique than in the book.

Still a great film though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 March, 2016, 10:56:09 pm
Boneland by Alan Garner.

I had no idea this book existed. It is the third book in the 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' trilogy.

I loved the first book, read it to my children who also loved it.

Boneland is . . . Different. I didn't realise until I read up on the book that the main protagonist, Colin, is the Colin from the other two books.

Not sure I'd recommend it to fans of 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen'. Definitely not a children's book, there are themes of madness, redemption, therapy and loss. Quite gruelling.
Ooh!
Ta!
The first book was read to my class in the RN Junior School, Johore Bahru, in 68. Bits remain with me now. The second I discovered myself. A girl, and a pony, that isn't, have also stayed with me. I need to look this one up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 16 March, 2016, 11:20:06 pm
Boneland by Alan Garner.

I had no idea this book existed. It is the third book in the 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' trilogy.

I loved the first book, read it to my children who also loved it.

Boneland is . . . Different. I didn't realise until I read up on the book that the main protagonist, Colin, is the Colin from the other two books.

Not sure I'd recommend it to fans of 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen'. Definitely not a children's book, there are themes of madness, redemption, therapy and loss. Quite gruelling.

It's been a common mistake over the years to pigeon hole Alan Garner as a "children's" author.  Whilst he's often written about children or young adults, they're not necessarily the target audience.  The Owl Service isn't a children's story - it's an old Welsh legend which is an adult story, and  Red Shift is a reworking of another old myth of a changeling. 

Have you read Thursbitch?
I've never thought of him as just a children's author. The Owl Service remains one of the most horrifically terrifying books I've ever read.
I don't think I've read Thursbitch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 March, 2016, 01:50:40 pm
Just finished "Ghost of Spain" by Giles Tremlett, which was a very interesting discourse on what drives the Spanish psyche.  Complex is not the world....

I have, now, moved onto "The Battle for Spain" by Antony Beevor.  Bet you can't guess what it's about :)  Lined up, after that, is The Revolt of the Catalans...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 29 March, 2016, 02:05:40 pm
I just finished 'An Astronaut's Guide to Life' by Chris Hadfield.

It's not really a guide to life, it's about his own approach to his own life, and why that has worked.  It's a good read, and he's a likeable man, which helps.  The most interesting bits are the about what it's actually live in space, and the preparation and background work for that.  It certainly made me reflect on my own approach to my professional life, and there are things I've taken on board from his approach.

It's not unputdownable, but I'm really glad I read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 March, 2016, 02:19:29 pm
Well I finished the latest James Oswald, and was a bit uderwhelmed. Now on to a new-to-me author, one Quentin Bates and his Iceland set police procedural Frozen Out.  Finding it a bit hard to keep track of the names, but it's ok for a genre book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 March, 2016, 06:03:39 pm
I have finally finished with Philip Marlowe.  Not sure I approve of the terrible fate1 of the hard-boiled PI in "Poodle Springs" but how much of that was Chandler and how much Robert B. Parker I know not.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 06 April, 2016, 08:34:01 pm
Cross Dog Blues (http://www.amazon.co.uk/CROSS-DOG-BLUES-Great-Story-ebook/dp/B00VQRVZHS) - by Richard M Brock


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 April, 2016, 08:52:27 pm
I have finally finished with Philip Marlowe.  Not sure I approve of the terrible fate1 of the hard-boiled PI in "Poodle Springs" but how much of that was Chandler and how much Robert B. Parker I know not.

(click to show/hide)

I'm still working my way through Farewell, My Lovely. It's taking ages. Partly because I've not been reading much lately. Partly because I have to keep stopping every couple of paragraphs to highlight yet another brilliant one-liner.

It's just as well Chandler is such a great writer - it distracts from the flimsiness of the plots.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 06 April, 2016, 10:04:47 pm
Galactic Pot healer by Philip K Dick

One of his best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 07 April, 2016, 07:46:02 am
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  Not exactly high literature, but it's a cracking story so far, and it's well told.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: clarion on 07 April, 2016, 09:30:56 am
Onto The Establishment by Owen Jones.  God, it's depressing. :(
Can't bear to read it in the current climate.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 April, 2016, 11:17:38 am
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Early days. A big thick brick of a book, like holding a chunk of granite.  I wish the missus would buy me paperbacks.

Galactic Pot healer by Philip K Dick

One of his best.

I liked that one too.  It, A Maze of Death, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich and Ubik are the best he wrote, I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 07 April, 2016, 12:31:43 pm
I have, now, moved onto "The Battle for Spain" by Antony Beevor.
How are you/did you find this? I read it a few years ago and was surprised by its readability, despite the size and occasional over detail. I suppose it helps to have an interest in the subject, but I thought it was well written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 07 April, 2016, 12:42:52 pm
Halfway through Capital by someone Lanchester - no idea what's going on, but quite enjoying it. Also just started The Fanatic by James Robertson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 April, 2016, 01:16:08 pm
Haven't got "Sudden Death" by Álvaro Enrigue (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sudden-Death-%C3%81lvaro-Enrigue/dp/1846558832/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460030545&sr=1-1&keywords=sudden+death) yet but we wants it, Precious, we wants it.

NYT review (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/15/books/review-in-alvaro-enrigues-sudden-death-a-farcical-duel-with-topspin.html).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 07 April, 2016, 01:18:40 pm
Halfway through Capital by someone Lanchester - no idea what's going on, but quite enjoying it. Also just started The Fanatic by James Robertson.
Capital is good - I read it a few years ago when I got it for £1 on Kindle.  It was made into a BBC miniseries (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qrqlf) a few months ago, with Toby Jones as Roger.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 April, 2016, 05:42:40 pm
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

NS has taken a bit of flack from reviewers who complain that there's too much engineering. No there isn't and it's fascinating.  Orbital mechanics makes a nice change from bike mechanics.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 April, 2016, 07:27:11 am
The Fun Factory by Chris England

Meh. Readable but unsatisfying piece of 'historical fiction' with more of an emphasis on the fiction than the history. It's a largely speculative take on the early career of Edwardian music hall artist Arthur Dandoe, who was a member of Fred Karno's company and a contemporary of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Jefferson (aka Stan Laurel). Not much is known about Dandoe's life but the author spins a modestly amusing yarn about a rivalry between him and Chaplin based on the flimsy evidence of a single throwaway line from Chaplin's autobiography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 26 April, 2016, 03:24:38 pm
Dead Level - Damien Boyd

Police who-dunnit set in the Somerset Levels. 5th book in DI Nick Dixon series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 27 April, 2016, 05:21:38 pm
I quite enjoyed the Nick Dixon books. They're all available on kindle unlimited and seem to be coming out at quite a pace.

The Albanians in Bristol seem to be a dodgy lot though...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 April, 2016, 07:00:28 pm
Holiday by Stanley Middleton

Early Booker winner, now mostly forgotten. I wouldn't have heard of either the book or the author if I weren't interested in the Booker prize. I'm very glad to have discovered it though. It's one of those very Bookerish books that is beautifully written, albeit in a very subtle way, nothing showy about it, but doesn't have much of what you'd call a story to it - some might think it a bit slow. I think it's acutely perceptive in its portrayal of people working their way through a crisis, albeit a humdrum, everyday kind of crisis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2016, 12:56:12 pm
Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles was knocking out "The Night Manager" for not much money so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  The first seventy-three pages have confirmed my prejudice.  There's something about Le Carré's style that that sets my teeth on edge.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 04 May, 2016, 01:02:49 pm
The Armageddon Rag by George RR Martin (yes, that RR Martin)

Ex hippie journalist takes road trip back into the counter culture. Quite a ride. Not at all game-of-thrones-alike.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 May, 2016, 02:04:51 pm
Am reading Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth at the moment.  High literature it ain't, and his dialogue attribution is very clunky (Ye gods! The adverbs!), but it's a heck of a yarn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 May, 2016, 12:37:34 pm
Just started Career of Evil, the latest Robert Galbraith Harry Potter spin-off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 May, 2016, 11:11:43 am
Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles was knocking out "The Night Manager" for not much money so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  The first seventy-three pages have confirmed my prejudice.  There's something about Le Carré's style that that sets my teeth on edge.

I finished this.  The TV version had a much more satisfactory ending.  Now on Jonas Jonasson's Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All.  Promising start.  Upbeat for a Swedish author too ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 11 May, 2016, 12:50:21 pm
Waiting for July.. https://literarydundee.co.uk/devil-cover/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 11 May, 2016, 01:09:34 pm
Primary Colors by Anon (Joe Klein)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 May, 2016, 02:00:36 pm
First of Pat Barker's "Life Class" trilogy.  Meh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 11 May, 2016, 05:49:08 pm
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

NS has taken a bit of flack from reviewers who complain that there's too much engineering. No there isn't and it's fascinating.  Orbital mechanics makes a nice change from bike mechanics.
I've just read that and I agree entirely. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 13 May, 2016, 07:36:37 am
I'm a big Stephenson fan, but (like I did with Anathem) I've bogged down about a third of the way in, mainly because it's such a massive tome to schlep about. This is where ebooks win, but my local library had a hardcopy. I will try and pick it up again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 13 May, 2016, 08:59:05 am
Book about some Romans fighting in Germania. Written by some chap.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 May, 2016, 09:12:06 am
I'm a big Stephenson fan, but (like I did with Anathem) I've bogged down about a third of the way in, mainly because it's such a massive tome to schlep about. This is where ebooks win, but my local library had a hardcopy. I will try and pick it up again.

Reading it is somewhat wearing on the wrists, but it's worth it.

Back in 1981 I read a heavy chunk of a book, holding it in a position that placed lateral strain on a tendon in my elbow.  The tendinitis became agonizing, I took it to the doc, he took a blood sample and diagnosed diabetes which had indirectly caused gout.

So don't knock heavy books, they're a valuable diagnostic tool. ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 16 May, 2016, 09:54:54 pm
Recently started 1Q84 as my home bedtime book, all three volumes in one. Another weighty ex tree. 

I think it will take a while, not least because of mybhabit of reading four or five books at a time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 17 May, 2016, 07:29:09 am
I gave up after 8 hours of listening. The other 22 hours of 1 & 2 shall remain Un downloaded.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 May, 2016, 11:48:04 am
Slade House, David Mitchell's latest(?) slim volume. Entertaining so far.

On phone & tablet, Stephen Baxter's Proxima.  It's OK.  No marks to the publisher for describing him on the cover as "Terry Pratchett's co-author on the Long Earth books".  That must be galling.

And in between, Alasdair Gray's short stories, all of them in a single vol. which I bought because me darling daughter walked off not with my ducats (well, them too) but my Penguin 60s copy of Five Letters from an Eastern Empire and it was the only place I could get it, short of chasing up a used copy.  Currently re-reading Five Letters, it's great.  Long live the garden of irrevocable justice, say I.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 May, 2016, 01:17:57 pm
The Devotion of Suspect X, by one Keigo Higashino. A Tokyo set detective story. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 May, 2016, 10:05:35 pm
"Moskva" by "Jack" (Jon Courtenay) Grimwood.  I found this chaps writing after a recommendation from Charles Stross for his "Arabesque" sequence, a trilogy of noirish thrillers set in an alternative future Alexandria.  Since then I've read all of his recent standalone novels and his "Assassini" trilogy set in an alternative history Venice.  All of the books have had a strong SF/Fantasy element. 

"Moskva" doesn't have this,  it's got his usual tortured & confused protagonist trying to solve a serial killer mystery in 80's Moscow.  Well written & with good characterisation and a good sense of "place".   

Not finished it yet, but so far pretty decent. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 20 May, 2016, 09:35:26 am
I've just started Victor Madeira's "Britannia and the Bear: The Anglo-Russian Intelligence Wars 1917-1929". It is absolutely fascinating.

Quote
Decades before the Berlin Wall went up, a Cold War had already begun raging. But for Bolshevik Russia, Great Britain - not America - was the enemy. Now, for the first time, Victor Madeira tells a story that has been hidden away for nearly a century. Drawing on over sixty Russian, British and French archival collections, Britannia and the Bear offers a compelling new narrative about how two great powers of the time did battle, both openly and in the shadows. By exploring British and Russian mind-sets of the time this book traces the links between wartime social unrest, growing trade unionism in the police and the military, and Moscow's subsequent infiltration of Whitehall. As early as 1920, Cabinet ministers were told that Bolshevik intelligence wanted to recruit university students from prominent families destined for government, professional and intellectual circles. Yet despite these early warnings, men such as the Cambridge Five slipped the security net fifteen years after the alarm was first raised. Britannia and the Bear tells the story of Russian espionage in Britain in these critical interwar years and reveals how British Government identified crucial lessons but failed to learn many of them. The book underscores the importance of the first Cold War in understanding the second, as well as the need for historical perspective in interpreting the mind-sets of rival powers. Victor Madeira has a decade's experience in international security affairs, and his work has appeared in leading publications such as Intelligence and National Security and The Historical Journal. He completed his doctorate in Modern International History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 29 May, 2016, 08:28:01 am
Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense by Francis Spufford

According to the blurb, this book takes on Dawkins's The God Delusion, and Hetchens's God Is Not Great.  I haven't read either, but I've read a fair bit of Dawkins and his writing style is usually clear and well argued, full of wonder at the world.

I'm afraid Spufford's writing doesn't come up to the same standard.  This is partly due to the subject matter:  In his works on evolution Dawkins is dealing with tangibles.  If they aren't tangible now, they've definitely been tangible in the past, before they were evolved out of existence.  Spufford is dealing with the transcendent yet immanent presence of the intent behind everything.  See?  See how you end up using airy-fairy language as soon as you try talking about this stuff?  It just happens!

That being said, Spufford's experiences of God (for want of a better word) are similar to my own, so I was with him, all the way.  He captures the Anglican mindset beautifully, and he says a lot of things I would like to say but CBA due to being shouted down by the forces of secularity, ie this forum and my friend Jane who thinks I'm a defective because I go to church.

So, if you want to know why people like me believe in God against all the opposing noise, then read this book.  Read it in a quiet, empty church if possible.  While you're there, just listen.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 May, 2016, 05:32:18 pm
"The Traitor" by Seth Dickinson (also published as The Traitor Baru Cormorant).
SF of the sociological type, reminds me a bit of Le Guin, which is no bad thing.
Only partway in, but so far it's good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 31 May, 2016, 05:35:51 pm
Dan Simmons, Black Hills.  I reckon he's been reading Hanta Yo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 31 May, 2016, 06:42:09 pm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Described as a 'space opera'.  I had to google that.

"Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities."
www.goodreads.com/genres/space-opera

It's sub teen-fiction high school drama set in space, basically.  It's awful.  New girl on the space ship grows up a bit as she encounters new life and new civilisations.

Seriously, don't bother.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 31 May, 2016, 07:21:48 pm
Oh if you want _awful_ space opera, with a capital "A", try any of the Lensman* series by E. E. (Doc) Smith.  I read them at a time** when I thought Asimov was a good writer and I was appalled at how crap they were.


*I've never read anything else by him. Wouldn't want to. The thing that astonishes me now is that I read more than one of the series.

**I.e. a sci-fi obsessed 14/15 year old prepared to read just about anything in that line pretty much regardless of quality.

And the reason I popped in here... "One Man and his Bike", Mike Carter. Again.  Keep thinking how much I'd like to do summat similar.

A bit of background.
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/articles/interviews/mike-carter-one-man-and-his-bike?page=all

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 June, 2016, 11:50:32 am
Currently reading the "Temeraire"  series by Naomi Novik. It's like Hornblower or Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books but with the addition of dragons. That is it set during an an alternative reality Napoleonic Wars where both sides have aerial corps that use dragons. Nonsense but fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Guy on 01 June, 2016, 12:59:58 pm
I've just started Victor Madeira's "Britannia and the Bear: The Anglo-Russian Intelligence Wars 1917-1929". It is absolutely fascinating.

It was well-worth the money.

Next up will be "The Death of Yugoslavia" by Allan Little & Laura Stilber. I'd not heard of the BBC series but the accompanying book looks rather interesting.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 01 June, 2016, 01:04:15 pm
And the reason I popped in here... "One Man and his Bike", Mike Carter. Again.  Keep thinking how much I'd like to do summat similar.

I thought this was one of the best cycling books I've ever read.

Just finished "Wings on my sleeve" by Eric Winkle Brown which was amazing.   Now on to my 1st Terry Pratchett and struggling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 June, 2016, 01:11:03 pm
Trials & Turbulence - the autobiography of Christopher Miles Boardman.

Pretty standard celeb life story fare, no great drama, not exactly a literary heavyweight, but a nice easy read, which is about as much as I can manage at the moment. There's some nice stuff about his rivalry with Obree - he seems to appreciate Obree's qualities much more with hindsight than he did at the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 01 June, 2016, 01:13:55 pm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Described as a 'space opera'.  I had to google that.

"Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities."
www.goodreads.com/genres/space-opera

It's sub teen-fiction high school drama set in space, basically.  It's awful.  New girl on the space ship grows up a bit as she encounters new life and new civilisations.

Seriously, don't bother.
Darn it. I was looking forward to that. Maybe it's got a good narrator and sounds better than it reads?
/clutches at straws
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 June, 2016, 01:17:05 pm
Speaking of cycling, when the post arrived the missus handed me a book entitled Escobar, "as told by" by his brother Roberto. Apparently Roberto was quite a cyclist, taking the mountain stage in a 1980s Tour of Colombia - there are photos of him in action, and working alongside a Colombian world champ of the time, whose name I've forgotten. Dunno if he used certain substances or not.

This last weekend I mentioned Pablo Escobar to my daughter and was rewarded with a "never heard of him".  She would have been in her mid-teens when he was killed. Imagine being 17 in the 30s and never hearing of Al Capone - it'd take determination.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 01 June, 2016, 01:20:24 pm
Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense by Francis Spufford

According to the blurb, this book takes on Dawkins's The God Delusion, and Hetchens's God Is Not Great.  I haven't read either, but I've read a fair bit of Dawkins and his writing style is usually clear and well argued, full of wonder at the world.

I'm afraid Spufford's writing doesn't come up to the same standard.  This is partly due to the subject matter:  In his works on evolution Dawkins is dealing with tangibles.  If they aren't tangible now, they've definitely been tangible in the past, before they were evolved out of existence.  Spufford is dealing with the transcendent yet immanent presence of the intent behind everything.  See?  See how you end up using airy-fairy language as soon as you try talking about this stuff?  It just happens!

That being said, Spufford's experiences of God (for want of a better word) are similar to my own, so I was with him, all the way.  He captures the Anglican mindset beautifully, and he says a lot of things I would like to say but CBA due to being shouted down by the forces of secularity, ie this forum and my friend Jane who thinks I'm a defective because I go to church.

So, if you want to know why people like me believe in God against all the opposing noise, then read this book.  Read it in a quiet, empty church if possible.  While you're there, just listen.

I read that a while ago.  I thought the first chapter was an excellent rant, but the subsequent chapters kind of drifted off into sounding like someone who doesn't know when to get down off the soapbox and is starting to repeat  himself.  Know what I mean?

It was worth it for gems such as this though:

"I don't know if there is a god.  And neither do you, and neither does Richard bloody Dawkins, and neither does anyone. It not being a knowable item. What I do know is that, when I am lucky, when I have managed to pay attention, when for once I have hushed my noise for a little while, it can feel as if there is one. And so it makes emotional sense to proceed as if he's there, to dare the conditionality." 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 01 June, 2016, 02:14:56 pm
Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense by Francis Spufford

According to the blurb, this book takes on Dawkins's The God Delusion, and Hetchens's God Is Not Great.  I haven't read either, but I've read a fair bit of Dawkins and his writing style is usually clear and well argued, full of wonder at the world.

I'm afraid Spufford's writing doesn't come up to the same standard.  This is partly due to the subject matter:  In his works on evolution Dawkins is dealing with tangibles.  If they aren't tangible now, they've definitely been tangible in the past, before they were evolved out of existence.  Spufford is dealing with the transcendent yet immanent presence of the intent behind everything.  See?  See how you end up using airy-fairy language as soon as you try talking about this stuff?  It just happens!

That being said, Spufford's experiences of God (for want of a better word) are similar to my own, so I was with him, all the way.  He captures the Anglican mindset beautifully, and he says a lot of things I would like to say but CBA due to being shouted down by the forces of secularity, ie this forum and my friend Jane who thinks I'm a defective because I go to church.

So, if you want to know why people like me believe in God against all the opposing noise, then read this book.  Read it in a quiet, empty church if possible.  While you're there, just listen.

I read that a while ago.  I thought the first chapter was an excellent rant, but the subsequent chapters kind of drifted off into sounding like someone who doesn't know when to get down off the soapbox and is starting to repeat  himself.  Know what I mean?

It was worth it for gems such as this though:

"I don't know if there is a god.  And neither do you, and neither does Richard bloody Dawkins, and neither does anyone. It not being a knowable item. What I do know is that, when I am lucky, when I have managed to pay attention, when for once I have hushed my noise for a little while, it can feel as if there is one. And so it makes emotional sense to proceed as if he's there, to dare the conditionality."

Yeah, that kind of thing, really.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 01 June, 2016, 02:16:05 pm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Described as a 'space opera'.  I had to google that.

"Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities."
www.goodreads.com/genres/space-opera

It's sub teen-fiction high school drama set in space, basically.  It's awful.  New girl on the space ship grows up a bit as she encounters new life and new civilisations.

Seriously, don't bother.
Darn it. I was looking forward to that. Maybe it's got a good narrator and sounds better than it reads?
/clutches at straws

There's a copy here you can have.  You might really like it!  Then we can have a battle of the book reviews.  Hopefully in person.  In a pub.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 01 June, 2016, 06:37:28 pm
O I can't read. Not books, anyway. I GAWI (http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Action-Adventure/The-Long-Way-to-a-Small-Angry-Planet-Audiobook/B00W8DPMZU) to read them to me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 01 June, 2016, 07:06:44 pm
I'm not reading it to you.  That would involve reading it again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: matthew on 01 June, 2016, 10:52:13 pm
I'm not reading it to you.  That would involve reading it again.

That's probably more telling than your first review and far ore succinct.   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 June, 2016, 10:57:17 pm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Described as a 'space opera'.  I had to google that.

"Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities."
www.goodreads.com/genres/space-opera

It's sub teen-fiction high school drama set in space, basically.  It's awful.  New girl on the space ship grows up a bit as she encounters new life and new civilisations.

Seriously, don't bother.

Sounds a wee bit like Divergent by Veronica Roth
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 01 June, 2016, 11:00:04 pm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Described as a 'space opera'.  I had to google that.

"Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities."
www.goodreads.com/genres/space-opera

It's sub teen-fiction high school drama set in space, basically.  It's awful.  New girl on the space ship grows up a bit as she encounters new life and new civilisations.

Seriously, don't bother.

Sounds a wee bit like Divergent by Veronica Roth

It is, but it's not as good as that.  And I didn't like Divergent enough to read any of the others in the series.  Buffy the Spaceman.  Fneh.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 June, 2016, 11:07:19 pm
Yes, I read the first one and decided I was 30 years too old to identify with the protagonist...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 02 June, 2016, 02:03:33 am
There should be a word for that sinking sensation you have when, at a merry ongoing vintage, you realise you've stumbled into the land of young adult fiction. It happened to me recently when I selected a movie called Fifth Wave, which with hindsight I should have realised, but it seemed mindless seatback entertainment. Don't bother, it's risible and awful. It's basically Twilight. Admittedly it didn't make quite as angry as Twilight because of what they did to vampires (and you shouldn't include Buffy as YA, because it wasn't), but it's dismally cynical fodder for teenage girls.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 02 June, 2016, 09:49:06 am
Strangely The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet got recommended in loads of top SF of the year lists. Presumably these were lists compiled by people who don't actually like SF.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 02 June, 2016, 09:53:22 am
I could be wrong, y'know.  I've been wrong before.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 June, 2016, 10:54:14 am
Speaking of YA fiction, The Knife of Never Letting Go & sequels were pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 02 June, 2016, 11:09:09 am
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Jobs really was a pretty horrible human being. Driven but unlikeable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mcshroom on 02 June, 2016, 11:25:35 am
I'm slowly working my way through Iain M Banks' Culture novels. Just finished Player of Games which had some interesting plot devices, and was a good read, but the finale felt a little forced to get to the end quickly IMHO.

Next up is Use of Weapons.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 02 June, 2016, 11:48:41 am
I could be wrong, y'know.  I've been wrong before.

No your not. I read it and it was mediocre and formulaic at best. The Guardian review praised its characterisation and called it "profound" .....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 02 June, 2016, 02:54:50 pm
I could be wrong, y'know.  I've been wrong before.

No your not. I read it and it was mediocre and formulaic at best. The Guardian review praised its characterisation and called it "profound" .....

Blimey  ???

Profoundly mediocre possibly.  It reads like it was written by a sixth-former.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 02 June, 2016, 06:09:54 pm
I could be wrong, y'know.  I've been wrong before.

You weren't though.  It was rather disappointing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 June, 2016, 01:16:53 pm
Victoria Pendleton's autobiography.

I know she's trying to make clear the difference between her small frame and the more muscular women, but I wish she'd stop describing them as "hulking."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 04 June, 2016, 08:06:31 pm
Yesterday's entertainment was the first trade paperback volume of Transmetropolitan. It's been on my bookshelf for a couple of years at least, but I hadn't got around to reading it. It really wasn't what I expected, but was excellent. I'll have to get the next couple of books ordered at some point.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 June, 2016, 08:26:19 pm
Stuart McBride's "Cold Granite". Really well written, it's still not stopped raining, though!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 06 June, 2016, 10:05:15 pm
It was raining when I read it too.  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 June, 2016, 10:55:49 pm
Die Of Shame ~ Mark Billingham

A not-Thorne offering from Mr Billingham, though I dare say the said DI will put in a cameo appearance.  His mate Phil Hendricks, the pathologist of multiple piercings, tattoos and boyfriends, has already shown up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 11 June, 2016, 11:17:05 pm
Flesh House - Stuart McBride
Logan McRae book 4

Must be one of the goriest books I've read. Mostly raining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 June, 2016, 12:11:13 am
You can always rely on Mr McBride for gore.

And rain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 June, 2016, 07:39:58 am
Bio of Pablo Escobar, written by his brother.  Mostly consists of "people say Pablo did X, but I never saw it" but interesting all the same.

Did old Joe Kennedy really make a fortune in illicit alcohol?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 12 June, 2016, 09:19:01 am
Yes, I think so - he was generally pretty mobbed up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 12 June, 2016, 12:33:22 pm
A bit of a many books couple of weeks here, holidays help:
Rob Lilwall: Cycling home from Siberia ... interesting so far, and the references to his companion's book make the narrative unusual.
Beside Myself: Ann Morgan ... getting weirder, good so far.
Nod: Adrian Barnes ... excellent, really touching take on the apocolypse.
The Signal and the Noise: Nate Silver ... good pop-science take on Bayes
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Morat on 12 June, 2016, 12:44:58 pm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bodyguard-Lies-Extraordinary-Story-Behind/dp/1599213834
Which is fascinating stuff. I don't know how all the conclusions stand up in the light of information which has since been declassified (it was written in 1975) but the history of the skullduggery behind the decisions made during WW2 is gripping.

It's very sobering to realise how close we were to losing the Normady campaign before it had even started. I'm also glad I'm not a general.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 June, 2016, 12:54:55 pm
Bio of Pablo Escobar, written by his brother.  Mostly consists of "people say Pablo did X, but I never saw it" but interesting all the same.

Did old Joe Kennedy really make a fortune in illicit alcohol?

Yes, I think so - he was generally pretty mobbed up.

According to Wiki, as soon as Prohibition was repealed he was over to Scotland to arrange deals with a handful of distilleries, so presumably he had the advantage of prior contacts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eck on 12 June, 2016, 06:04:56 pm
Flesh House - Stuart McBride
Logan McRae book 4

Must be one of the goriest books I've read. Mostly raining.
I'm on my third Logan McRae, (Blind Eye, previously read Flesh House and 22 Dead Little Bodies).
All borrowed from my local library.
 
Now, here's the thing: I've noticed that somebody has drawn a ring round the number of page 23 in each of them.  ???
Is this some secret to which I am not privy? Can't wait to check out the rest of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 12 June, 2016, 07:50:13 pm
Beside Myself: Ann Morgan ... getting weirder, good so far.

I finished it last night and found it, in the end, a bit disappointing.

[OT] Audible suggests at the end of a book, other options by that author. As this is computer-generated, I rather feel for Ann Morgan as her almost-name-sake Kelli Ann Morgan does appear to auth in a rather different genre (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kelli-Ann-Morgan/e/B008WFP6OK) [/OT]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 June, 2016, 09:28:23 pm
Flesh House - Stuart McBride
Logan McRae book 4

Must be one of the goriest books I've read. Mostly raining.
I'm on my third Logan McRae, (Blind Eye, previously read Flesh House and 22 Dead Little Bodies).
All borrowed from my local library.
 
Now, here's the thing: I've noticed that somebody has drawn a ring round the number of page 23 in each of them.  ???
Is this some secret to which I am not privy? Can't wait to check out the rest of them.
.

Drawing circles around page numbers seems to be a library system habit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 12 June, 2016, 10:06:40 pm
The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry

I only bought this book because of the cover, and it's one of the best things I've read.  Seriously. 

She's a writer who can write people, and life, and she puts the people in a place - and she can write place, too.  This book deserves to be kept on the 'classics' shelf, alongside Tolstoy and Penelope Lively and Hardy.  After reading some real dross lately it was like a glass of Perrier and some very good cheese with grapes, after a diet of nasty pizza and microwave carbonara. 

The Essex Serpent is a monster lurking under the waters of the Blackwater estuary.  As the monster breaks the water's surface change comes to the Blackwater people and they find themselves fearful and uneasy.  The presence of a newly-widowed bluestocking stirs things up even more.

Just read it.  I doubt you'll regret it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 13 June, 2016, 12:23:47 am
Flesh House - Stuart McBride
Logan McRae book 4

Must be one of the goriest books I've read. Mostly raining.
I'm on my third Logan McRae, (Blind Eye, previously read Flesh House and 22 Dead Little Bodies).
All borrowed from my local library.
 
Now, here's the thing: I've noticed that somebody has drawn a ring round the number of page 23 in each of them.  ???
Is this some secret to which I am not privy? Can't wait to check out the rest of them.
Whenever I read the dialogue of DI Insch, in my head I can only hear it said by Gene Hunt.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 June, 2016, 02:28:53 pm
Well I tried, I really did, but "six-four" by Hideo Yokoyama defeated me. I just couldn't get inside it.  Now onto "I'm Travelling Alone" by Samuel Bjork.  A new-to-me Norwegian writer, and so far, so good, but I'm easily pleased.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 June, 2016, 10:21:11 am
Now on Jonas Jonasson's Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All.  Promising start.  Upbeat for a Swedish author too ;D

This Unit hereby endorses this product and/or service.  That it took me so long to finish is entirely not the fault of Mr Jonasson.  Contains many a laugh-out-loud moment and is his best yet.

Die Of Shame ~ Mark Billingham

A not-Thorne offering from Mr Billingham, though I dare say the said DI will put in a cameo appearance.  His mate Phil Hendricks, the pathologist of multiple piercings, tattoos and boyfriends, has already shown up.

Not one of his better offerings, if you ask me.  Relentlessly grim; all the main characters except the coppers are recovering addicts bearing some remarkable resemblances to some of my fellow Zeks.  The coppers are pretty two-dimensional until, as predicted, Thorne rocks up on page 391.  Alas there are only twenty pages left by then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 June, 2016, 10:45:57 am
Someone gave me The Girl in the Spider's Web for me barfday so I'm foot-slogging through it with no great enthusiasm. Lacks the zip and sparkle of the real Girl who... series.

Bloody Swedish krimis, I'm sick of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 June, 2016, 11:47:45 am

A not-Thorne offering from Mr Billingham, though I dare say the said DI will put in a cameo appearance.  His mate Phil Hendricks, the pathologist of multiple piercings, tattoos and boyfriends, has already shown up.

Not one of his better offerings, if you ask me.  Relentlessly grim; all the main characters except the coppers are recovering addicts bearing some remarkable resemblances to some of my fellow Zeks.  The coppers are pretty two-dimensional until, as predicted, Thorne rocks up on page 391.  Alas there are only twenty pages left by then.
[/quote]

I've not enjoyed any of the non-Thorne offerings thus far. And I gave up on this one too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 14 June, 2016, 08:05:31 pm
Now on Jonas Jonasson's Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All.  Promising start.  Upbeat for a Swedish author too ;D

This Unit hereby endorses this product and/or service.  That it took me so long to finish is entirely not the fault of Mr Jonasson.  Contains many a laugh-out-loud moment and is his best yet.


Is that a sequel?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 14 June, 2016, 08:26:33 pm
Sarah Hall, The Wolf Border.  No-one writes about Cumbria, or anywhere else for that matter, like Sarah Hall does.  Her phrasing and descriptions are completely engrossing, just a paragraph or two and you're right there with the countryside swirling all around you.  Fiction's Robert Macfarlane, in a way.  Only different.

Big  :thumbsup: for this one from me, as for all her previous ones (although I never did quite get How to Paint a Dead Man.  Must give that another go).  Haweswater, her first, has left an indelible impression on me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 14 June, 2016, 09:03:09 pm
O, I've had that one. It was OK. (13 hours- probably most of a 200, and a few bus journeys)

I didn't know she'd done anything else.

Hmmm. Apparently Haweswater is narrated by Jilly Bond. I'm not sure I can stomach that. (Sorry Jilly).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 14 June, 2016, 09:24:04 pm
You might try The Electric Michelangelo?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 14 June, 2016, 09:30:00 pm
Narrated by Joe Jameson. We'll give it a go, ta.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 June, 2016, 03:46:04 pm
Now on Jonas Jonasson's Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All.  Promising start.  Upbeat for a Swedish author too ;D

This Unit hereby endorses this product and/or service.  That it took me so long to finish is entirely not the fault of Mr Jonasson.  Contains many a laugh-out-loud moment and is his best yet.


Is that a sequel?

No, 'tis a Thing in Its Own Right.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 15 June, 2016, 05:43:51 pm
 I see from Amazon that I have read another of that authors books. The Hitman reference was another author entirely:
The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning by Hallgrimur Helgason
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 June, 2016, 07:26:04 pm
Mr Jonasson is responsible for The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared (good) and The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden (not as good).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 16 June, 2016, 11:09:56 am
Mr Jonasson is responsible for The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared (good) and The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden (not as good).
Good to hear he's back on form.  I thought TGWSTKOS was hopelessly silly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eck on 16 June, 2016, 05:35:05 pm
Flesh House - Stuart McBride
Logan McRae book 4

Must be one of the goriest books I've read. Mostly raining.
I'm on my third Logan McRae, (Blind Eye, previously read Flesh House and 22 Dead Little Bodies).
All borrowed from my local library.
 
Now, here's the thing: I've noticed that somebody has drawn a ring round the number of page 23 in each of them.  ???
Is this some secret to which I am not privy? Can't wait to check out the rest of them.
.

Drawing circles around page numbers seems to be a library system habit.

Mystery solved: apparently lots of library customers write their initials inside the back cover of a book - allegedly so they can see that they've read it before.  :facepalm:
And one of the staff in the Finest Public Library in All of Kirriemuir reckons that ringing page number 23 is his / her unique way of noting that they've already read the book.
It concerns me more than a little that they seem to have the same taste in authors as I have.  :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 17 June, 2016, 11:46:28 am
Just finished The Girl On The Train (yes, I know that was SO 2015).  Just bought me some more Stephen King (Needful Things).  I think my wife will start thinking I'm addicted to his books, à la Misery or Finders Keepers
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 June, 2016, 08:37:05 pm
Just started Mr King's End of Watch, having just finished Gavin Extence's The Universe vs Alex Woods.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 June, 2016, 11:50:30 am
Just given up on Tim Weaver's "What remains". 600 pages is just too much to sustain for what is lightweight crime fiction IMO. And it still irritates that he refers to his car's "heaters". It's heater, singular. 

Now on to Parker Bilal's new Makana story.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 June, 2016, 01:27:19 pm
Unless it's a Rolls-Royce with separate aircon systems for driver & passenger ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 June, 2016, 01:34:33 pm
Unless it's a Rolls-Royce with separate aircon systems for driver & passenger ;D

It's an "18 year old BMW".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 June, 2016, 07:45:17 pm
You can't trust anyone who drives a pikey old Beemer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 20 June, 2016, 09:08:10 am
You can't trust anyone who drives a pikey old Beemer.

You've met my father then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 20 June, 2016, 03:36:05 pm
Just given up on Tim Weaver's "What remains". 600 pages is just too much to sustain for what is lightweight crime fiction IMO. And it still irritates that he refers to his car's "heaters". It's heater, singular. 

Now on to Parker Bilal's new Makana story.

Are you sure that isn't a Glock 17 in the glove box, a sawn off under the drivers seat and an AK47 in the boot?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 June, 2016, 04:56:48 pm
Started reading Lolita in bed last night. Blimey. One of those books whose reputation goes before it, which is part of the reason I've never got round to reading it sooner, but initial impressions are that it probably is as good as everyone says it is.

I've also been listening to the Radio 4 adaptation of The Remains Of The Day, which is reminding me why I loved the book so much when I read it some years ago. It's interestingly similar to Lolita in that it's beautifully written and the narrator is entirely unreliable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 24 June, 2016, 11:13:05 am
Now on to Parker Bilal's new Makana story.

Hmm, well that wasn't too good. The plot (Sudanese refugees trafficked for organ donation) was a bit hackneyed.

On to Martin Walkers newest "Bruno, Chef de Police" story. Undemanding, unlikely and generally enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 24 June, 2016, 06:42:03 pm
Germany Puts the Clock Back. Edgar Mowrer, 1933.  An interesting insight into the way that entire populations can be manipulated.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 June, 2016, 06:53:17 pm
An interesting insight into the way that entire populations can be manipulated.

See also: The Sun's front pages for the last month or so.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 25 June, 2016, 09:12:05 am
Just started Charlie Stross's latest, "The Nightmare Stacks".  Another Laundry novel.

Prior to that was "The Medusa Chronicles". Alistair Reynolds & Stephen Baxter continuing the story of the cyborged Howard Falcon from Arthur C Clarke's classic short "A Meeting With Medusa".  Pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 June, 2016, 10:30:31 am
Life is a little too stressful to settle on anything. Swanning about between trashy (L. Niven/G.Benford) and soporific (T. Holland) and fed up with both.  Need something engaging and meaty, preferably in several vols of non-wrist-spraining size.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 28 June, 2016, 01:44:30 pm
And the land lay still by James Robertson.  About half way through, which in itself is a fair achievement given the total length of some 650 pages.  But it is very readable - 50 years of Scottish history told through the lives of different characters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Land_Lay_Still

I thoroughly enjoyed The Testament of Gideon Mack by Robertson too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 June, 2016, 02:14:56 pm
Life is a little too stressful to settle on anything. Swanning about between trashy (L. Niven/G.Benford) and soporific (T. Holland) and fed up with both.  Need something engaging and meaty, preferably in several vols of non-wrist-spraining size.

Have you ever read any Robertson Davies? I always find him very easy to read but very satisfying. And funny. I would recommend the Cornish trilogy - The Rebel Angels, What's Bred In The Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus. About a thousand pages overall but divided into manageable chunks. They're thematically linked but each stands alone so can be read in isolation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 28 June, 2016, 02:54:39 pm
Just started Mr King's End of Watch, having just finished Gavin Extence's The Universe vs Alex Woods.
Any good?  I've not read Mr Mercedes nor Finders Keepers yet, so I won't be there for a while...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 June, 2016, 03:18:46 pm
Life is a little too stressful to settle on anything. Swanning about between trashy (L. Niven/G.Benford) and soporific (T. Holland) and fed up with both.  Need something engaging and meaty, preferably in several vols of non-wrist-spraining size.

Have you ever read any Robertson Davies? I always find him very easy to read but very satisfying. And funny. I would recommend the Cornish trilogy - The Rebel Angels, What's Bred In The Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus. About a thousand pages overall but divided into manageable chunks. They're thematically linked but each stands alone so can be read in isolation.

He's one of our favourites. Haven't read him for a long time, though.  Loved the scene (in "Fifth Business"?) during WW1 when the platoon sergeant orders "man on cross at 50 metres, 5 rounds rapid fire" or some such.

I might hunt up some Chaim Potok - I've only read a couple of his. In many ways he's similar to Davies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 June, 2016, 06:20:42 pm
Just started Mr King's End of Watch, having just finished Gavin Extence's The Universe vs Alex Woods.
Any good?  I've not read Mr Mercedes nor Finders Keepers yet, so I won't be there for a while...

I'm approaching the end of End Of Watch and it's OK if a little predictable.  Calling a female protagonist Frederica Bimmel Linklatter in a novel dedicated to Thomas Harris is a nice touch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 02 July, 2016, 04:30:14 pm
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, The CIA and the Rise of America's Secret Government. That man was one evil bastard. The world is still paying for his evil-doing, and will be for a while to come.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 02 July, 2016, 08:29:39 pm
All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka.  Now there's a title for our times, eh?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 02 July, 2016, 08:32:19 pm
The Spy with 29 Names, by Jason Webster. It is about the British double agent, during the second world war, known as Garbo. A fascinating story and well written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 02 July, 2016, 10:55:36 pm
The Motorcycle Diaries.  It's enjoyable but also quite melancholic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 July, 2016, 08:52:58 am
The Motorcycle Diaries.  It's enjoyable but also quite melancholic.

The film is great.

I'm reading Dan Simmons' The Fifth Heart.  The boy seems to have got a thing for the 19th century: after doing a job on Dickens and Crozier, he now has S. Holmes (of whom you may have heard) and Henry James plodding through a murder mystery in those United States.  Somewhat miasmal so far, borrows more from James than Doyle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 July, 2016, 08:58:06 pm
Just started Mr King's End of Watch, having just finished Gavin Extence's The Universe vs Alex Woods.
Any good?  I've not read Mr Mercedes nor Finders Keepers yet, so I won't be there for a while...

I'm approaching the end of End Of Watch and it's OK if a little predictable.  Calling a female protagonist Frederica Bimmel Linklatter in a novel dedicated to Thomas Harris is a nice touch.
It was ok, but it would have been better if it had stayed as a detective story rather than having supernatural stuff in it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 July, 2016, 09:49:30 pm
Just finished reading Birthdays for the dead by Stuart MacBride, an Ash Henderson novel rather than Logan McRae.
Uplifting it was not!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 July, 2016, 09:54:10 pm
Ash Henderson makes Logan McRae look like Inspector Clouseau.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 06 July, 2016, 10:09:09 pm
Le Carre's "The Russia House",  seen the film, hadn't read the book.

I had an email earlier telling me that the latest Ben Aaronovitch has been delayed yet again !   >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Graeme on 06 July, 2016, 10:49:39 pm
Just finished 'Ella Minnow Pea'. Very clever, but requires a degree of suspension of incredulity. Perhaps guilty of being driven by form over content. Brilliant read, but perhaps the cleverness is the interest rather than the character and story. Glad I read it. #recommended
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 July, 2016, 09:05:19 am
1½ chapters into David Mitchell's Ghostwriter. Bodes well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 08 July, 2016, 08:56:18 pm
Just finished Stross' latest, Nightmare Stacks
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 08 July, 2016, 09:14:15 pm
I think Charlie has a thing for Krads; wasn't there one in the first book? (Must actually catch up with the series - is this the one after the Vampires?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 July, 2016, 10:16:09 pm
Same one, Pinky & Brains return as well.  Yes , I thought the ending was a bit sudden.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 08 July, 2016, 11:18:51 pm
I think Charlie has a thing for Krads; wasn't there one in the first book? (Must actually catch up with the series - is this the one after the Vampires?)

Yes, it is. The central character is a PHANG (no spoiler, it's all over the preview)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 July, 2016, 08:36:48 pm
The first in a projected series of "The Vinyl Detective" by Andrew Cartmel, "Written in Dead Wax". Recommended (and rightly so IMO) by Ben Aaronovitch.  Enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 July, 2016, 08:19:02 am
1½ chapters into David Mitchell's Ghostwriter. Bodes well.

Duly promoted to excellent, fascinating, generally bloody marvellous and so neatly interwoven that my reading is punctuated by little "OK, gotcha" chuckles.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 July, 2016, 10:11:27 am
Whilst being stuck at home while I recover from my busted shoulder I have worked my way through nearly all of Ken MacLeod's novels.

Excellent hard SF and space opera with the twist that they all explore socialist, Trotskyiest and anarchist politics but with great sense of humour and often a distinctly Scottish twist.
If you haven't read any then I highly recommend them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 July, 2016, 10:48:43 am
I read some of his years ago, but I never really enjoyed them, mostly because I discovered Iain Banks' novels at the same time and they put KM's in the shade.  Consider Phlebas remains my favourite SF novel of all, I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 12 July, 2016, 11:26:29 am
Just started Charlie Stross's latest, "The Nightmare Stacks".  Another Laundry novel.

I read that on Sat night. Fun but not as good as I'd hoped.

I read some of his years ago, but I never really enjoyed them, mostly because I discovered Iain Banks' novels at the same time and they put KM's in the shade.  Consider Phlebas remains my favourite SF novel of all, I think.
His later SF was distinctly mediocre by comparison. I love Consider Phlebas and when a lent copy didn't return, I bought another. It is so gut-wrenchingly sad though. The Use of Weapons and The Player of Games are also so very good, with TUoW maybe edging it out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 13 July, 2016, 09:16:05 pm
Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood, short stories.  Three stories in so far, and very good.

 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 July, 2016, 12:27:56 pm
When The Music's Over ~ Peter Robinson.  Either the 23rd Inspector Banks novel, or else the first Superintendent Banks one.  Banks investigates historic child abuse by $SLEB.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 July, 2016, 12:48:18 pm
The novel David Mitchell wrote after Ghostwritten. Can't remember the title: it's in the next room but ICBA fetching it.

On the Android chopping-board I'm still reading Dan Simmons' The Fifth Heart.  Thus far (damn near 400pp in) Sherlock has rubbed shoulders with Henry James, Sam Clemens, Teddy Roosevelt, John Hay (Lincoln's old secretary) and divers other members of the American aristocracy. Moriarty's ugly head has appeared (or was it Jared Harris?), Watson & Doyle have been dismissed as fabulist hacks and the name of Hercule Poirot dropped.  The plot has thickened so far you could grow Herculean leeks in it, at that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 20 July, 2016, 10:04:49 am
Gloriana - Michael Moorcock. Been a long time since I read a Moorcock book.

I have 'Dancers at the end of time' and the 'Jerry Cornelius' series lined up too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 July, 2016, 10:28:18 am
When The Music's Over ~ Peter Robinson.  Either the 23rd Inspector Banks novel, or else the first Superintendent Banks one.  Banks investigates historic child abuse by $SLEB.

Not one of the better Bankses.  Perhaps the time approaches to kill him utterly to DETH like Graham Hurley did with Joe Faraday and start again with Annie Cabbot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 24 July, 2016, 12:13:41 pm
Ancient Evenings, N. Mailer (again).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 24 July, 2016, 12:25:37 pm
Having hit a hiatus on 1Q84, and with it too big for the suitcase I've done a couple of trashy Clive Cussler/Dirk Pitts

Picked up 1Q84 again, read another three pages and couldn't concentrate in the heat.  Now on Stephen King's The Stand (again)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 24 July, 2016, 12:50:08 pm
"In the Cold Dark Ground". Makes me realise that I should have read 7,8 and 9 of the Logan Mcrae series, first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 July, 2016, 01:06:35 pm
Finished Mr. Simmons' The Fifth Heart and am re-reading his Carrion Comfort on the tablet.  CC is, I think, one of the best horror stories ever written.

The David Mitchell book I'm on is Number 9 Dream.  Not as fascinating as Ghostwritten, but OK.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 26 July, 2016, 02:59:05 pm
Reading a bumper fun book compendium of M.R. James' stories. Dated, yes. Overemphasis on antiquarian pursuits, yes. Occasionally bloody terrifying, absolutely. The bit in "Abbot Thomas" where he tries to pull out the bag of... treasure....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 July, 2016, 10:08:55 pm
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and Blood in the Water by Gillian Galbraith.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 July, 2016, 12:21:04 pm
When The Music's Over ~ Peter Robinson.  Either the 23rd Inspector Banks novel, or else the first Superintendent Banks one.  Banks investigates historic child abuse by $SLEB.

Not one of the better Bankses.  Perhaps the time approaches to kill him utterly to DETH like Graham Hurley did with Joe Faraday and start again with Annie Cabbot.

I've got that lined up next. Just finished Peter Jame's latest Roy Grace. Again, possibly time to call time on them, they're getting more improbable and full of plot holes.  Currently Stephen Booths latest Cooper & Fry offering. They've always been a bit crap, so it's no change this time.

I recently  read my first Brian McGilloway - another police procedural, but set in (London)derry. Very enjoyable and will seek out some more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 31 July, 2016, 06:48:59 pm
When The Music's Over ~ Peter Robinson.  Either the 23rd Inspector Banks novel, or else the first Superintendent Banks one.  Banks investigates historic child abuse by $SLEB.

Not one of the better Bankses.  Perhaps the time approaches to kill him utterly to DETH like Graham Hurley did with Joe Faraday and start again with Annie Cabbot.

Agreed. At leat 100 pages too long.  And since when has a cracked shoulder blade been a clavicle?  Still he'll have to retire at 65, and must be at leat 60 now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jaded on 31 July, 2016, 11:42:44 pm
The spaces in between. Caroline Jones.

An eating disorder dissected.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 02 August, 2016, 08:29:25 pm
The Book of the Bivvy, by Ronald Turnbull   ;D   For inspiration, and cos I like his style
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: billplumtree on 02 August, 2016, 08:38:08 pm
And A Scots Quair, Lewis Grassic Gibbons, in the hope that the abysmal film Sunset Song (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6884.msg2049986#msg2049986) has a decent book behind it.  From the small amount I've read so far, it has.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 02 August, 2016, 09:14:54 pm
And A Scots Quair, Lewis Grassic Gibbons, in the hope that the abysmal film Sunset Song (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6884.msg2049986#msg2049986) has a decent book behind it.  From the small amount I've read so far, it has.

Brings back unhappy memories of Higher English. Death of A Salesman, Macbeth and Sunset Song. Talk about depressing!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 02 August, 2016, 09:48:46 pm
Apache by Ed Macy as recommended else where in this parish. A tale well told. A little disappointing that the last 20% was taken up with index and glossary.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 03 August, 2016, 03:00:23 pm
I've just seen a tweet saying that Paul Cornell's "London Falling" (Shadow Police 1) is on special offer at Amazon for £1.09

Think a much darker & grimmer version of the "Peter Grant" books by Ben Aaronovitch.     I'm currently 2/3rds of the way through the 3rd on, "Who Killed Sherlock Holmes".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 August, 2016, 03:12:25 pm
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 August, 2016, 06:14:54 pm
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."

WTF 8)  I hope that's a mispring ???

Edit: Publisher's webby SCIENCE still says August 25th.  2016.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 03 August, 2016, 08:57:50 pm
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."

WTF 8)  I hope that's a mispring ???

Edit: Publisher's webby SCIENCE still says August 25th.  2016.

I notice a tweet from the man from 4 days ago, consisting of many repeats of the word 'done'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 04 August, 2016, 08:25:04 am
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."

WTF 8)  I hope that's a mispring ???

Edit: Publisher's webby SCIENCE still says August 25th.  2016.

I notice a tweet from the man from 4 days ago, consisting of many repeats of the word 'done'.

'I've been done up like a kipper'- 'done in', 'done for'?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 04 August, 2016, 10:47:35 am
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."

WTF 8)  I hope that's a mispring ???

Edit: Publisher's webby SCIENCE still says August 25th.  2016.

Fantastic Fiction say "21st September 2107". They tend to be quite accurate. That's for Kindle and hardback. Oddly they have Jan '17 for paperback - but maybe that should be Jan '18.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 August, 2016, 04:03:34 pm
2107?  I'll be dead by then and so will Mr Aaronovitch, because I will have killed him utterly to DETH long before ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 August, 2016, 05:49:26 pm
The Booker long list is out, so I have started on the first on my list, "My Name is Lucy Barton"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 05 August, 2016, 05:21:12 pm
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."
Damn and blast. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 August, 2016, 01:05:29 am
A plane crashes in the Jura, leaving a sole survivor, a three month old girl.  Is she Lyse-Rose de Carville? Is she Emilie Vitral?  Do we actually give a shit?  If you are ever tempted to read After The Crash by Michel Bussi, do yourself a favour and read the Yellow Pages instead.  It may be just a piss-poor translation from the original French. Or not.  Oh, and the "delicious sting in the tail" that the Sunday Mirror's Deirdre O'Brien claims exists was so obviously telegraphed about a hundred pages from the end that Bussi might just have well have had one of the protagonists switching on a big neon sign reading "Guess which hackneyed thriller cliche he's gonna use next?"

Poor.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 August, 2016, 08:16:57 am
Black Swan Green, my third D. Mitchell in a row.  Might need to read the Adrian Mole canon for comparison, but DM's idea of how a 13-yr-old's mind works isn't far off how I spottily remember my early teens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 August, 2016, 08:34:03 am
Now on to the second book on the long list, Hystopia by David Means.

If you like The Chimes, from last years list, you will probably get on with this.  Set in an alternative 1970's Michigan, where Kennedy wasn't killed, rather was re-elected for a third term, the Viernam war drags on and 'Nam Vets are treated to a process called "enfolding" to try to counteract PTSD.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 09 August, 2016, 12:43:09 pm
The rather wordy titled 'The World at War: The Landmark Oral History from the Previously Unpublished Archives', condensed and edited by Richard Holmes. A great military historian and professor.

Condensed, it's still around 500 pages but very readable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 09 August, 2016, 06:28:02 pm
A plane crashes in the Jura, leaving a sole survivor, a three month old girl.  Is she Lyse-Rose de Carville? Is she Emilie Vitral?  Do we actually give a shit?  If you are ever tempted to read After The Crash by Michel Bussi, do yourself a favour and read the Yellow Pages instead.  It may be just a piss-poor translation from the original French. Or not.  Oh, and the "delicious sting in the tail" that the Sunday Mirror's Deirdre O'Brien claims exists was so obviously telegraphed about a hundred pages from the end that Bussi might just have well have had one of the protagonists switching on a big neon sign reading "Guess which hackneyed thriller cliche he's gonna use next?"

Poor.

So, not a fan . . . ?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 August, 2016, 06:30:32 pm
A plane crashes in the Jura, leaving a sole survivor, a three month old girl.  Is she Lyse-Rose de Carville? Is she Emilie Vitral?  Do we actually give a shit?  If you are ever tempted to read After The Crash by Michel Bussi, do yourself a favour and read the Yellow Pages instead.  It may be just a piss-poor translation from the original French. Or not.  Oh, and the "delicious sting in the tail" that the Sunday Mirror's Deirdre O'Brien claims exists was so obviously telegraphed about a hundred pages from the end that Bussi might just have well have had one of the protagonists switching on a big neon sign reading "Guess which hackneyed thriller cliche he's gonna use next?"

Poor.

So, not a fan . . . ?

Whatever gave you that impression ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 12 August, 2016, 02:43:55 pm
Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake...an old classic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 August, 2016, 04:16:41 pm
The Leapard - Tomasi di Lampedusa

though I am in Florence not Sicily
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 13 August, 2016, 03:56:41 pm
The rather wordy titled 'The World at War: The Landmark Oral History from the Previously Unpublished Archives', condensed and edited by Richard Holmes. A great military historian and professor.

Condensed, it's still around 500 pages but very readable.

Still have it to hand in a ...small...room to dip into now and again. I have the DVD set of the TV series, but I keep that elsewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 August, 2016, 09:51:18 pm
Just finished The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, about a man who goes to another planet as a Christian missionary. Really liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 18 August, 2016, 09:58:15 pm
About 3/4 of the way through Kim Stanley Robinson's "Aurora" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(novel)  which is a depressing tale of a failed attempt at interstellar colonization & should be mandatory reading for people who think we can fuck this planet up & then move elsewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 August, 2016, 08:41:01 am
In any case, (time left to total fuck-up) << (time to develop interstellar mass transit) without a now-tell-me-professor-level event.

Black Swan Green continues droll but conventional by Mitchell standards, and my re-read of Carrion Comfort feels like eating slice after slice of boiled ham, i.e. pleasurable enough but somewhat flat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 August, 2016, 09:57:27 am
Damn and blast Waterstones for not opening until 09:30.  Do I want to hang around a bleak shopping centre for twenty minutes before coming in to look for light fiction for my upcoming holibobs?  No.  No, I do not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 19 August, 2016, 11:14:50 am
Just finished Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (again).  It doesn't get any better, does it?   :'(
Hmm, having just started this for the first time, and searched here for views, I wonder if -  having turned 50 last year (and therefore presumably having less time left than I've already had) - I should drop it now and read something else

 I'm only reading it now because

1. it was one of the very small selection at the camp site;
2. it was 50p, and;
2. several people have recommended it to me over the years.

That said, it's okay so far (page 50 or so), and far better than I remember Hardy: I was required to read Far From The Madding Crowd at secondary school. What idiot thought that long descriptive passages of the countryside and weather would turn teenage boys on to literature? It's a wonder I ever picked up another book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 19 August, 2016, 01:15:08 pm
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (http://www.bernardcornwell.net/books/the-last-kingdom-2/).

The tale of a young boy of noblish birth, captured by Vikings.

Not a bad read so far for an Amazon freebie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 19 August, 2016, 01:36:06 pm
Has that been televised?  I read the overview and thought I'd watched it on tv.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 19 August, 2016, 03:54:17 pm
I understand that I has. Not seen it though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 19 August, 2016, 04:27:17 pm
Why God's name would anyone ever re-read a book that they'd not enjoyed the first time, when there are so many new and different books to read?  The mind boggles...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 August, 2016, 05:05:07 pm
That said, it's okay so far (page 50 or so), and far better than I remember Hardy: I was required to read Far From The Madding Crowd at secondary school. What idiot thought that long descriptive passages of the countryside and weather would turn teenage boys on to literature? It's a wonder I ever picked up another book.

Hah.  We read "Woodlanders" in Eng. Lit., and when we reached the first such passage the master said "we'll skip the next bit, it's just Hardy blathering on about nothing much".  As it happens, the whole book is just Hardy blathering on about nothing much.  Fortunately we were never examined on it because it was remarkably hard to discern a story or remember anything that happened.  That was the first and last Hardy book I ever read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 September, 2016, 04:18:20 pm
Ronnie Wood's autobiography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 03 September, 2016, 04:34:47 pm
That was the first and last Hardy book I ever read.

(You might yet take him up later... "The Woodlanders" might be worth leaving aside though.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 September, 2016, 04:39:38 pm
The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend.

I really liked it, having effectively gone to bed for about four months earlier this year myself.  It's a lovely book, easy to read.  The central characters are all recognisable as types from reality, hyperbolised for the sake of the story.  Funny and sad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 September, 2016, 04:42:21 pm
Oh, and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.  He wrote the screenplay first, and this is a final draft/novel version of the TV series.  Never having seen the TV series I don't know whether the book is as good, but in a world without Terry Pratchett this was a cracking, comforting read, absorbing and imaginative, distorting the everyday world and making it into another place in a strange time.  Very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 03 September, 2016, 04:52:05 pm
The man from Beijing by Henning Mankell, it started off quite well then slowly but surely the main character a woman judge started doing things no one would do that had half an ounce of sense let alone things a mature experienced judge would do, it became completely implausible by half way through so it goes back to the Cancer Research shop on Monday.
         Now starting Paul Torday "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" a promising start which had me chuckling which is something after three sleepless nights, we shall see.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 September, 2016, 05:18:24 pm
Noonday by Pat Barker. 3rd in her war artist trilogy.  Not far into it yet, OK so far.  2nd in trilogy, Toby's Room, was excellent.

On the tablet, Peter Watts' Firefall. Great if you're into biochem, neurology, genetics & space opera, which I'm not (apart from space opera) but it's readable enough and it's still fascinating. Next bit's sort of a spoiler so

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 September, 2016, 05:26:04 pm

         Now starting Paul Torday "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" a promising start which had me chuckling which is something after three sleepless nights, we shall see.

I absolutely adored that book, however, for the first and only time ever, I prefer the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 05 September, 2016, 09:20:19 am
On the tablet, Peter Watts' Firefall. Great if you're into biochem, neurology, genetics & space opera, which I'm not (apart from space opera) but it's readable enough and it's still fascinating.

Is it as cheery and life-affirming as the rest of his oeuvre? I think he'sa great writer with some fantastic ideas, but don't pick his stuff up if you're a bit down in the dumps...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 September, 2016, 09:40:56 am
This was the first of his I've read. I found it more intriguing than depressing - after all, all SF that claims to take a [semi-]realistic look at the next 100 years is depressing.  As is all the literature that takes a realistic look at the last 100.


(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 September, 2016, 07:19:54 pm
Ronnie Wood's autobiography.
Not as good as Keef's, but made me laugh when he described being at an awards show and asking a young girl if she was lost or needed help to find her parents. She was Kylie Minogue.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 September, 2016, 07:33:40 pm
Why God's name would anyone ever re-read a book that they'd not enjoyed the first time, when there are so many new and different books to read?  The mind boggles...

People change as they get older, acquire more life experiences and perhaps become more world weary. I can think of plenty of books that I would have hated when I was younger but love now. I've also had the opposite experience where I've reread books that I enjoyed when I first read them as a callow youth but not so much the second time when more mature and maybe even a little wiser.

There are also books that you enjoy in a different way at different times of life. I loved the Adrian Mole books when I was 13, I loved them in a completely different way when I rediscovered them in my 20s, and I loved them in yet another way again in my 40s when I introduced my son to them. In fact, I'd say they've got better as I've got older.

Also I have very poor memory for details in books, so I've usually forgotten most of what I did or didn't like about any book I read more than a year or two ago.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 05 September, 2016, 09:35:34 pm
Why God's name would anyone ever re-read a book that they'd not enjoyed the first time, when there are so many new and different books to read?  The mind boggles...

If this is a response to

Just finished Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (again).  It doesn't get any better, does it?   :'(

I think you might be misinterpreting CathH. I suspect she was talking about the cruelty of Tess's fate rather than the quality of the book, or her enjoyment of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 06 September, 2016, 10:19:36 am
Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male. After listening to countless repeats of the radio adaption of the book narrated by the superb Michael Jayston, I came across a second-hand book of it. All I can say chaps, is "Excellent."

Most 'similar' to it would be John Buchan's 'The 39 Steps' I suppose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 06 September, 2016, 12:20:58 pm
About time for a new TV adaptation I'd have thought.

I read that years ago and meant to read more but forgot. I might try 'Watcher in the Shadows'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 06 September, 2016, 01:20:10 pm
Just finished Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (again).  It doesn't get any better, does it?   :'(
Hmm, having just started this for the first time, and searched here for views, I wonder if -  having turned 50 last year (and therefore presumably having less time left than I've already had) - I should drop it now and read something else

 I'm only reading it now because

1. it was one of the very small selection at the camp site;
2. it was 50p, and;
2. several people have recommended it to me over the years.

That said, it's okay so far (page 50 or so), and far better than I remember Hardy: I was required to read Far From The Madding Crowd at secondary school. What idiot thought that long descriptive passages of the countryside and weather would turn teenage boys on to literature? It's a wonder I ever picked up another book.

Okay, done. I don't regret seeing it through. It was easy to read (I love the short chapters). There wasn't as much (unnecessary) description as I remember from FFTMC. Tess' decisions are odd from 21 C perspective, maddening, even. But probably credible at the time. The story moves along at a reasonable pace and held me well enough. For 50p, it was good. However, I don't feel the need to read any more Hardy just yet.

Oh, and

(click to show/hide)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: haydenw on 06 September, 2016, 01:34:14 pm
Going to Sea in a Sieve - the Danny Baker autobiography.

Well written, laugh out loud funny with great anecdotes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 06 September, 2016, 02:03:46 pm
Lords and Ladies from the Discworld series.

I have just finished Small Gods and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that read :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 06 September, 2016, 02:18:42 pm
Why God's name would anyone ever re-read a book that they'd not enjoyed the first time, when there are so many new and different books to read?  The mind boggles...

If this is a response to

Just finished Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (again).  It doesn't get any better, does it?   :'(

I think you might be misinterpreting CathH. I suspect she was talking about the cruelty of Tess's fate rather than the quality of the book, or her enjoyment of it.
Mebbe.  I can't remember.  Maybe I was subconsciously imposing some of my judgment of Hardy (execrably turgid), borne only of GCSE FFTMC, into my interpretation of CathH's comment?

(I got an A* in GCSE English Lit - and got full marks on my coursework - despite only having read a handful of pages of FFTMC.  Among other things, I compiled a list of about 40 adjectives to describe each of Bathsheba, Troy, Oak, Boldwood and Fanny Robin and I inscribed them in tiny handwriting on the insides of the covers.  I suppose I must have paid attention in the lessons to compensate for not doing the reading.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 06 September, 2016, 10:06:28 pm
Danish Girl. Not impressed at all by the writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 20 September, 2016, 09:30:50 pm
In Order to Live, by Yeonmi Park - autobiography of a North Korean girl who defects with her family.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 20 September, 2016, 10:03:58 pm
Re-reading Moonraker with my son, just got to the point where Bond is about to destroy Drax at cards.

Also reading Miss Smilla's feeling for Snow, one of my charity shop £2 purchases of things I wouldn't normally pick.  Makes me want to go to Greenland. I'm, surprisingly engaged despite my prejudice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 21 September, 2016, 10:31:44 am
Finally got round to reading Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. Thought it was very well done - can see why it won all those awards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 21 September, 2016, 11:04:59 am
The Drift by Chris Thrall. Bought because it was 99p and had 30 five star ratings* on Amazon. I can only assume Mr Thrall has 30 good friends! The writing is somewhat naive in style, has technical errors in the sailing descriptions. Oh and has any one ever heard of a sea lion taking up residence in Plymouth Sound?

I do wonder about how people rate books. If you think truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet - should rate at 5 stars, most other stuff should surely only rate three stars.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 September, 2016, 11:10:43 am
Just finished "Salmon fishing in the Yemen", thoroughly enjoyable, am now reading "The girl who played with fire" I also managed to get from The Cancer Research shop in Banbury Antony Beevor D-DAY, I've had a quick peek inside and it looks ver good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 21 September, 2016, 11:14:45 am
The Drift by Chris Thrall. Bought because it was 99p and had 30 five star ratings* on Amazon. I can only assume Mr Thrall has 30 good friends! The writing is somewhat naive in style, has technical errors in the sailing descriptions. Oh and has any one ever heard of a sea lion taking up residence in Plymouth Sound?

I do wonder about how people rate books. If you think truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet - should rate at 5 stars, most other stuff should surely only rate three stars.


Well, you can pay someone to do it. There's loads of help-for-hire microtask sites. Plus a lot of people have no sense. I've read some dross that comes with endless good reviews and I have to think 'how?'

I always read the one and two-star reviews, they tend to give an honest and candid opinion even if you don't agree with them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 21 September, 2016, 11:31:05 am
....
I do wonder about how people rate books. If you think truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet - should rate at 5 stars, most other stuff should surely only rate three stars.





Well, you can pay someone to do it. There's loads of help-for-hire microtask sites. Plus a lot of people have no sense. I've read some dross that comes with endless good reviews and I have to think 'how?'

I always read the one and two-star reviews, they tend to give an honest and candid opinion even if you don't agree with them.
[/quote]

One star:

"Sorry, I cannot review this item, safe to say I sent it as a present for someone and they seemed to be pleased with it."

 ;D

I think the reviewer thought the stars related to the value of his/her input.  Honest,candid but not useful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 September, 2016, 11:38:35 am
The Drift by Chris Thrall. Bought because it was 99p and had 30 five star ratings* on Amazon. I can only assume Mr Thrall has 30 good friends! The writing is somewhat naive in style, has technical errors in the sailing descriptions. Oh and has any one ever heard of a sea lion taking up residence in Plymouth Sound?

I do wonder about how people rate books. If you think truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet - should rate at 5 stars, most other stuff should surely only rate three stars.

       To me if a book is excellent is dictated by the pictures in my head that reading it produces, Embers by Sandor Marai is one, Riddle of The Sands by Erskine Childers another, my personal description of authors like these is "word artists" as they mentally take you to where and what they are writing about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 September, 2016, 10:01:22 pm
truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet

I think you've answered your own question there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 September, 2016, 10:04:39 pm
I've read some dross that comes with endless good reviews and I have to think 'how?'

Well, I know for example that I tend not to share the opinion of Richard and/or Judy on what makes a good book, so I avoid basing a decision to buy on a positive review from them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ian H on 21 September, 2016, 10:22:14 pm
On Google books I am reading The Builder's Pocket Manual Containing the Elements of Building, Surveying & Architecture   by A. C. Smeaton

On Kindle I'm reading On The Road

In physical ink on paper I have several on the go or lined-up.   Having just visited the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, H Mantel (The assassination of Margaret Thatcher) has to be amongst them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 21 September, 2016, 10:23:12 pm
Just finished "Salmon fishing in the Yemen", thoroughly enjoyable, am now reading "The girl who played with fire" I also managed to get from The Cancer Research shop in Banbury Antony Beevor D-DAY, I've had a quick peek inside and it looks ver good.

It is, his usual thorough research and no holding back from the truly gruesome nature of war.  No holds barred when discussing the fuckups of the commanders either
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 21 September, 2016, 10:25:23 pm
The Drift by Chris Thrall. Bought because it was 99p and had 30 five star ratings* on Amazon. I can only assume Mr Thrall has 30 good friends! The writing is somewhat naive in style, has technical errors in the sailing descriptions. Oh and has any one ever heard of a sea lion taking up residence in Plymouth Sound?

I do wonder about how people rate books. If you think truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet - should rate at 5 stars, most other stuff should surely only rate three stars.

       To me if a book is excellent is dictated by the pictures in my head that reading it produces, Embers by Sandor Marai is one, Riddle of The Sands by Erskine Childers another, my personal description of authors like these is "word artists" as they mentally take you to where and what they are writing about.

Seen the film Riddle of The Sands, excellent, but not read the book.  I have read the 39 Steps though, which was also very good.

Most of my favourite music artists also tend to be very lyrical, Moody Blues for example
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 September, 2016, 01:42:02 am
Revisiting pTerry's Discworld canon for the first time in about twenty years.  Just started Witches Abroad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 September, 2016, 07:45:52 am
The Drift by Chris Thrall. Bought because it was 99p and had 30 five star ratings* on Amazon. I can only assume Mr Thrall has 30 good friends! The writing is somewhat naive in style, has technical errors in the sailing descriptions. Oh and has any one ever heard of a sea lion taking up residence in Plymouth Sound?

I do wonder about how people rate books. If you think truly great writing - Dickens, Shakespeare, Pratchet - should rate at 5 stars, most other stuff should surely only rate three stars.

       To me if a book is excellent is dictated by the pictures in my head that reading it produces, Embers by Sandor Marai is one, Riddle of The Sands by Erskine Childers another, my personal description of authors like these is "word artists" as they mentally take you to where and what they are writing about.

You should go back and dig up our critical discourse of Dan Brown somewhere hereabouts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 September, 2016, 10:45:50 pm
Well it won't be "The Hanging Tree" by Ben Aaronovitch anytime soon. A not from our library reservations system yeserday. My bold  :-\

"Reservation for The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch has been cancelled as we have been informed that publication has been delayed until at least September 2017. A new order will be made once we have a confirmed publication date."

WTF 8)  I hope that's a mispring ???

Edit: Publisher's webby SCIENCE still says August 25th.  2016.

I notice a tweet from the man from 4 days ago, consisting of many repeats of the word 'done'.

Quote from: Gollancz Blog
Gollancz is delighted to announce the publication of THE HANGING TREE, the sixth book in Ben Aaronovitch’s bestselling Peter Grant series, on November 3rd 2016.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 September, 2016, 10:54:52 pm
Zomg, says the same on his Twitter feed too so maybe it is true!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 29 September, 2016, 07:42:40 am
A George RR Martin Not GOT/ASOIAF book- Tuf Voyaging. I are enjoying it. Kitty content FTW.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 September, 2016, 09:23:25 am
Zomg, says the same on his Twitter feed too so maybe it is true!

Oooh, I'll have to chase up the local library as they're still not listing it as available for reservation (having cancelled my earlier one)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 October, 2016, 05:55:04 pm
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and Drinking Water: a History by James Salzman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2016, 09:13:52 pm
Literary quiz - who are they?

Ayesha
Emma Rouault
Dolores Haze
Eva Beaver
Anne Catherick
Miss Woodhouse
Shen Te

Supplementary question: can you suggest three more suitable names for me so I have a full round of 10 questions for the pub quiz?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 October, 2016, 09:33:40 pm
SWMBO rides again, unless you meant that rather contrarian bloke who inhabited the CTC forum a while back.
T'others, dunno.

Additionals:

Christabel Cowper (http://www.marrickpriory.co.uk/about/history/dissolution.html) in The Man on a Donkey
Harriet Vane (too easy?)
Heyatawin (Hanta Yo)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 03 October, 2016, 09:41:46 pm
Literary quiz - who are they?

Ayesha
Emma Rouault
Dolores Haze
Eva Beaver
Anne Catherick
Miss Woodhouse
Shen Te

Supplementary question: can you suggest three more suitable names for me so I have a full round of 10 questions for the pub quiz?

Delores Haze was Lolita.  Don't know about the others.

Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2016, 09:48:57 pm
SWMBO rides again, unless you meant that rather contrarian bloke who inhabited the CTC forum a while back.
T'others, dunno.

Ayesha is indeed She [WMBO] but you'll need to work out some of the others to get the correct link/theme...

No, it's not CTC forum members - that might be slightly too obscure for the local pub quiz. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2016, 09:52:00 pm
Delores Haze was Lolita. 

Correct. So you've got She and Lolita, which should be a clue to the theme...
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2016, 09:56:06 pm
Just thought of another: Lisbeth Salander

Amy Dunne is another.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ian H on 03 October, 2016, 10:11:27 pm
P.C. Fox might be another.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2016, 10:57:11 pm
P.C. Fox might be another.

Ooh, don't know that one.

Rather than drag this out, seeing as it's strictly OT, here are the answers in full:
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2016, 11:05:45 pm
P.C. Fox might be another.

Ooh, don't know that one.

Tell a lie...

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 October, 2016, 09:40:53 am
Here's a treble for you:

Yu-fang
Bao Qin
Yung Chang

Three names, one title
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 04 October, 2016, 09:58:43 am
That'll be wild swans. The author used to teach at SOAS, where apparently all the chinese language staff after reading her book thought her family had it easy. Chinese can get very competitive about suffering.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 October, 2016, 10:49:33 am
 :D

Loved Wild Swans.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 October, 2016, 11:04:58 am
Akasha**




** thank-you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 October, 2016, 11:56:27 am
Needing something to offset the relentless grimness of sixteen straight Discworld books today I are mostly reading Ann Cleeves' latest, Cold Earth, book seven of the increasingly inaccurately-named "Shetland Quartet".  A bit subdued so far - the only killin' to date has taken place off-camera - but I'm still liking it.  It's just confusing coz in the distascopic adaption Jimmy's daughter Cassie is a Penniless Student Oaf while here she's about seven and dressing up as a princess and making terrible jam tarts.  Of course there's no reason why Penniless Student Oaves shouldn't do that too, but has there ever been a TV adaption of a series of crime novels where the scriptwriters have sat down and said "no, we're sticking to the books?"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 07 October, 2016, 12:29:38 pm
The nearest adaptation I have seen was Silas Marner (a few years back on tv) I so enjoyed it I read the book (a thing you should never do either way) I enjoyed the book as well and was surprised at the closeness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 07 October, 2016, 12:34:34 pm
P.C. Fox might be another.

Ooh, don't know that one.

Rather than drag this out, seeing as it's strictly OT, here are the answers in full:
(click to show/hide)
Ruth Cole
Rachel Watson
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 October, 2016, 12:44:35 pm
The TV version of Iain Banks' The Crow Road was also close enough not to have me shouting "Butbutbut that's WRONG" at the haunted fishtank but usually with a series based on a, er, series of books the first one is a reasonably faithful adaptation, the second one has a Several of (grating) tangents and the third is based on characters created by.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 07 October, 2016, 12:49:24 pm
Well do not watch "The Poison Tree" I found the book very good but my wife was actually ranting at the tv adaptation it was that far out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 October, 2016, 01:27:32 pm
The nearest adaptation I have seen was Silas Marner (a few years back on tv) I so enjoyed it I read the book (a thing you should never do either way) I enjoyed the book as well and was surprised at the closeness.

I loved the book, but I don't recall any TV adaptation, so I just looked it up on imdb...

Ah, ok! When you said 'a few years back', I didn't realise you meant as long ago as 1985!  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 07 October, 2016, 01:48:58 pm
Sorry, time flys  :facepalm:
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 October, 2016, 01:36:15 pm
Ruth Cole

I must confess I've never even heard of the book but it sounds intriguing. Not sure I've ever read any John Irving at all, come to think of it.

Quote
Rachel Watson

Another good one, and extra points for topicality. I've not read the book but I'm going to see the film this evening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 08 October, 2016, 02:02:36 pm
The Communist Manifesto, my aim is to try to understand why it all went so wrong, I do feel there is a big clue on the first page "Karl Marx born Prussia"  and
  " Freidrich Engels born Prussia".
                     William Shirer in his books explains the Prussian mentality of that period as being bred to command unswervingly or if a subordinate to obey unswervingly which of course leads to inevitable conflict. (I might well be wrong of course).

                     As Wolfie used to say "Come the revolution brother"

                                                                        ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 09 October, 2016, 08:07:39 am
P.C. Fox might be another.

Ooh, don't know that one.

Rather than drag this out, seeing as it's strictly OT, here are the answers in full:
(click to show/hide)

Smilla Jaspersen - MIss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

perhaps a little easy, but a great boook nonetheless
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 09 October, 2016, 02:38:51 pm
Shut Up Legs, by Jens Voigt and Triumphs and Tribulations by Chris Boardman, back to back.

Jens' is stream of consciousness, dictated to a ghost writer, and unsurprisingly good fun, although in truth he doesn't reveal a great deal that isn't already known about most things. The Boardman book is generally better written and gives equal weight to the three main stages of his career, including some interesting insights into the early days of British Cycling and Team Sky. He's also refreshingly candid about his time racing in Europe and how hard he found it.  Both enjoyable reads and you can pick them up for well below RRP at the moment.

Next up is Nick Clegg's new book - once Mrs Redlight has finished it.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 24 October, 2016, 12:13:47 pm
Started reading Lolita in bed last night. Blimey. One of those books whose reputation goes before it, which is part of the reason I've never got round to reading it sooner, but initial impressions are that it probably is as good as everyone says it is.

Absolutely.  Just started reading this at the weekend - it's interesting reading so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 October, 2016, 12:42:54 pm
Started reading Lolita in bed last night. Blimey. One of those books whose reputation goes before it, which is part of the reason I've never got round to reading it sooner, but initial impressions are that it probably is as good as everyone says it is.

Absolutely.  Just started reading this at the weekend - it's interesting reading so far.

I still haven't finished it - up to about 80% on the Kindle. This is partly because I haven't done much reading at all in the last few months - well, not reading for pleasure. I've done plenty of reading for work, which is why I don't have the energy/enthusiasm for other reading.

It's also partly because I find it so uncomfortable to read. At times, it's even more uncomfortable than American Psycho.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 24 October, 2016, 01:23:18 pm
I was toying with using the word 'uncomfortable' in my earlier post, but was wondering what kind of reflection of my personality is given off by my feeling uncomfortable.  :-\  Maybe I'm feeling uncomfortable that I find Humbert quite charming?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 October, 2016, 02:38:17 pm
Maybe I'm feeling uncomfortable that I find Humbert quite charming?

That is Nabokov's genius. As I understand it, a lot of the historical controversy around the book has arisen from the belief that Nabokov intended him to be a sympathetic character. He certainly comes across as very plausible... up to a point.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 24 October, 2016, 04:13:18 pm
I really didn't expect it to be as funny as it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 24 October, 2016, 04:40:59 pm
I always assumed Nabokov did it on purpose. You're suppose to be caught between the man and his actions. The genius is Nabokov's sleight of writing that lets the dilemma effectively sneak up on you. Quite a few of his books follow a similar theme, though Lolita is most brilliant observed and given the rise of Pedobear-fear it's has a perfect pitch for current generations. Sadly, so many people won't read it just because of the subject matter. I don't think it's going to turn anyone into a paedophile any more than reading a book about a murderer will have you getting stab-happy with the neighbours.

It's also brilliantly written sharp and witty prose, no mean feat considering he did it in English, probably his third language after Russian and French.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 October, 2016, 04:54:24 pm
A few days ago I finished Death's End, the third book in Cixin Liu's Three-Body Problem trilogy.  As the missus remarked after reading a third of it, this is a weird story. Worthy of the first two, though.

He has a rather sad but accurate view of humanity.  See under Brexit, inter alia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 25 October, 2016, 12:47:14 pm
I've just finished KSR's Science in the Capital trilogy.  Astounding how datedly optimistic it seems after so little time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 October, 2016, 03:56:33 pm
He'll be really chuffed when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses.  Told ya so!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 October, 2016, 12:40:48 pm
Armadale by Wilkie Collins, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by whoever wrote it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 26 October, 2016, 12:53:49 pm
Armadale by Wilkie Collins, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by whoever wrote it.
Armadale is great, particularly Lydia Gwilt
(click to show/hide)
  You might need to draw a family tree or spider diagram to keep track of who the characters are
(click to show/hide)
I didn't think is was quite in the same league as No Name or The Moonstone, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2016, 05:05:46 pm
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by whoever wrote it.

I remember when I read that thinking it felt more like the story for a Radio 4 afternoon play than a novel. Turns out that whoever wrote it does in fact write afternoon plays for Radio 4.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 October, 2016, 05:14:02 pm
Revisiting Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Something and nothing, really, but good bedtime reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 October, 2016, 08:42:19 pm
I love Good Omens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 26 October, 2016, 09:01:29 pm
I do have a problem with 4" thick books whilst reading in bed. George Martin 'Dance with Dragons'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 26 October, 2016, 10:52:45 pm
I really didn't expect it to be as funny as it is.

It really is.  Even the darkest of the dark scenes.  Genius. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 October, 2016, 05:16:18 pm
I love Good Omens.

Miss von Brandenburg reckons she has read this more times than any other bok in the history of all things ever and not, I think, because she keeps forgetting how it ends.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 27 October, 2016, 05:28:26 pm
Well they.... weird.  Maybe I should read it again?


Anyway, this Heathrow expansion thing makes a lot more sense when you realise Crowley is involved...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 October, 2016, 05:39:20 pm
S'funny, I can remember very little of any T.P. book I've read.  Same goes for the Potter saga.**

Good Omens: it's fun enough. Maybe I haven't read it before. Two splutters & a guffaw so far. Pant-y-Gyrdl indeed.

**and that other thing... the one with all the begats. Wossname again?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 October, 2016, 05:44:20 pm
**and that other thing... the one with all the begats. Wossname again?

The Authorised Version of the Bible?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 28 October, 2016, 03:17:40 pm
I do have a problem with 4" thick books whilst reading in bed. George Martin 'Dance with Dragons'.
You wake up with a bruised nose?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 October, 2016, 03:55:00 pm
**and that other thing... the one with all the begats. Wossname again?

The Authorised Version of the Bible?

That's the one. Couple of good films in there, I shouldn't wonder.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 28 October, 2016, 08:36:17 pm
Armadale by Wilkie Collins, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by whoever wrote it.
Armadale is great, particularly Lydia Gwilt
(click to show/hide)
  You might need to draw a family tree or spider diagram to keep track of who the characters are
(click to show/hide)
I didn't think is was quite in the same league as No Name or The Moonstone, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 28 October, 2016, 10:01:25 pm
 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 31 October, 2016, 04:47:21 pm
I am contemplating subscribing to Audible books for, well, audible books. Can the great hive mind of YACF (and especially Fboab) recommend any good ones that specifically benefit from being read aloud? So not good reads per se, but rather ones that take advantage of the spoken word. I am thinking Alan Partridge's Nomad might be a good start.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 31 October, 2016, 05:32:27 pm
Sign up for the 12 (or 24) books at once offer, it represents better value than the monthly subscription. I've been going through the Max Hastings books on WW2, they're very good*, and all over 24 hrs*

http://audible-uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5527/~/what-are-the-different-membership-plans-audible-offers%3F


*Well at first they grated on me, as when quoting WW2 era people, one of the narrators would put on accents and do voices

**Yes, I factor in how long a book takes to be read to you when ordering, along with the normal review.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 November, 2016, 09:21:34 am
I am contemplating subscribing to Audible books for, well, audible books. Can the great hive mind of YACF (and especially Fboab) recommend any good ones that specifically benefit from being read aloud? So not good reads per se, but rather ones that take advantage of the spoken word. I am thinking Alan Partridge's Nomad might be a good start.
Smiley's People


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 November, 2016, 09:27:22 am
Just finished Cory Doctorow's 'Homeland'.

A good read, v. heavy on the paranoia and makes me think Cory really needs to try living somewhere other than a really huge city like London or LA.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 04 November, 2016, 10:00:58 am
Kindle deal of the day (4th Nov) has a bunch of Neil Gaiman books at 99p

https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=lp_4725112031_gbps_img_s-3_4987_8d7efe5d?rh=i%3Adigital-text%2Cn%3A4725112031%2Cn%3A4725112031&ie=UTF8&smid=A1G3UP32AZJ14F&node=4725112031 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=lp_4725112031_gbps_img_s-3_4987_8d7efe5d?rh=i%3Adigital-text%2Cn%3A4725112031%2Cn%3A4725112031&ie=UTF8&smid=A1G3UP32AZJ14F&node=4725112031)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 November, 2016, 10:11:04 am
Just starting Chaga, an Ian McDonald that I missed for some reason.  I enjoyed the opening, felt like home.

Missus is chortling over Jean-Paul Sartre's Carnets de la Drôle de Guerre, about his experiences as a conscript in WW2. I'll have a go at that when she's done, I enjoy low comedy. Snippet: when French soldiers were stringing barbed wire across the bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl, German soldiers came out to natter with them, and even set up lights to help them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 November, 2016, 10:33:11 am
Miss von Brandenburg, the ["Uncle Monty" - Ed.], sent me a gloatingly illustrated e-mail yesterday.  A copy of "The Hanging Tree" has already landed on her Kindle.  This means war.

Edit:

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5654/30136620073_3ef7135050_c.jpg)

This had better be worth the wait, Aaronovitch, or I will send the BEAR round to yours to kill u utterly to DETH.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Thing2 on 04 November, 2016, 01:59:08 pm
It could be worse Mr L. My kindle is registered in the US and I'm not going to receive The Hanging Tree until next July! :-(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 04 November, 2016, 02:10:43 pm
 A Dance with Dragons. Book is a bit heavy for bedtime reading at 1000 plus pages.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 04 November, 2016, 07:28:44 pm
This had better be worth the wait, Aaronovitch, or I will send the BEAR round to yours to kill u utterly to DETH.

So, what's the verdict? Hoping to have some blessed free time this weekend, so may try and grab a copy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2016, 12:17:15 am
This had better be worth the wait, Aaronovitch, or I will send the BEAR round to yours to kill u utterly to DETH.

So, what's the verdict? Hoping to have some blessed free time this weekend, so may try and grab a copy.

Well up to the expected standard :thumbsup:  This Unit thoroughly endorses this product and/or service.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 November, 2016, 01:20:47 am
Rather Be The Devil ~ the new Rebus.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 November, 2016, 11:40:46 am
Just given up on the latest Scarpetta outing. Fully deserving of the poor review on Amazon. Being parsimonious I'm waiting for the library system to deliver up the latest Rebus and Bosch, as well as the new Grisham and Aaronovitch. Meantime I'm starting Peter May's "Chinese" series that have just been reissued (no doubt on the back of the success of the Lewis trilogy and following novels) with The Fire Maker. So far so readable. I just wish Mo Hayder would pen a new Jack Caffery.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 06 November, 2016, 02:25:52 pm
Picked up a digital copy of Tony Morgan's book 'Remember Remember the 6th November' as suggested in this place. Enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 06 November, 2016, 02:26:52 pm
Armadale by Wilkie Collins, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by whoever wrote it.
Armadale is great, particularly Lydia Gwilt
(click to show/hide)
  You might need to draw a family tree or spider diagram to keep track of who the characters are
(click to show/hide)
I didn't think is was quite in the same league as No Name or The Moonstone, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
Lydia Gwilt is brilliant. I am unconvinced by
(click to show/hide)
though. And Miss Milroy is a total sap.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 06 November, 2016, 06:52:04 pm
I am contemplating subscribing to Audible books for, well, audible books. Can the great hive mind of YACF (and especially Fboab) recommend any good ones that specifically benefit from being read aloud? So not good reads per se, but rather ones that take advantage of the spoken word. I am thinking Alan Partridge's Nomad might be a good start.
Sorry, I just caught this.
Chris says: The Martian, because RC Bray. I don't entirely concur, but, thought it fair to pass it on.

I have (checks) 617 books on audible.

Harry Potter is better read by Stephen Fry than by me.
A Walk In The Woods is better read by William Roberts. He reads Bill Bryson better than Bill Bryson does. (Sorry Bill)
Michael Jayston reads John Le Carre pretty blimmin well.
I cannot imagine me doing a better job of We Are Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler than Katherine Mangold does
The Chaos Walking Series (Patrick Ness, young adult trilogy) is read brilliantly by Humphrey Bower.
Kobna Holbrook Smith does a fantastic job for Ben Aaronovitch- he *is* Peter Grant.
The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins) is read by a trio of women who really really bring the characters to life.
Nicholas Hoult (who I cannot bear on screen) does a great job on Nick Hornby's Slam
Gone Girl - Julia Whelan & Kirby Heyborne make it incredibly funny,

Helen MacDonald does an appalling job of Hawk. Bill Bryson mangles his own books. Generally, getting an actor in is a much better idea.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 06 November, 2016, 07:29:09 pm
tony robinson reads the disc world books very .  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 06 November, 2016, 09:34:54 pm

A Walk In The Woods is better read by William Roberts. He reads Bill Bryson better than Bill Bryson does. (Sorry Bill)
...
Helen MacDonald does an appalling job of Hawk. Bill Bryson mangles his own books. Generally, getting an actor in is a much better idea.

Agreed, I like bill brysons books, but am not a fan of him reading them.
I downloaded a book from audible and it plays just fine on my iPod with headphones, but when I play it through the car stereo it sounds like pinky and perky. Its way too fast and high pitched. Ive tried downloading in different formats, with no luck.  Anyone else found this and got a fix ?

Book: Need to hurry up and finish an adrian mole book and get started on Tim moore, "The cyclist who went out in the cold"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 07 November, 2016, 09:57:43 am
There's a speed control on the audible app that allows you to play at different speed, check its on the correct speed
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 09 November, 2016, 08:11:32 pm
Just finished the last of the Glasgow Trilogy -'Sudden Arrival of  Violence' by Malcolm Mackay (a Stornoway author) a very enjoyable series.

Now on 'Moon over Soho' by Ben Aaronocitch
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 09 November, 2016, 09:57:14 pm
There's a speed control on the audible app that allows you to play at different speed, check its on the correct speed

Bryson does have a rather squeaky voice.  It's one of those voices that sounds as though it's been put in the wrong body.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: red marley on 09 November, 2016, 10:58:44 pm
I remember being somewhat surprised the first time I heard Julie Birchill speak.  It's not a voice you'd associate with her writing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 09 November, 2016, 11:14:41 pm
I'm reading The Quiet War by Paul Macauley. Not sure under whose recommendation I bought it but I'm not really enjoying it.
I'm finding there's a lot of description of random stuff just for the sake of it. Having just looked up the reviews of it on Goodreads it seems like it annoys a lot of other people too.
Although it's anathema I might give up and read something more interesting instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 November, 2016, 08:03:12 am
The March by E. L. Doctrow. W.T. Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea and north into the Carolinas.  Nasty as expected, but magnetic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 10 November, 2016, 10:14:58 am
Just finished Politics by Nick Clegg.

It was better than expected - pleasingly light on self-justification (actually, there's a fair bit of self-flagellation, which is odd given that he isn't a Tory) but candid about some of the challenges of being the junior party in a coalition.

He's resisted the urge to do a kiss and tell but there are some illuminating anecdotes about the in-fighting and, in particular, some of the ways in which the LibDems were shafted by (in particular) Osborne and Cameron.

Unfortunately, towards the end there's a little too much hand-wringing about how we fix what he sees as a broken political system, but the intentions seem good. 

Probably one to wait to come out in paperback unless you're a political junkie. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 November, 2016, 10:28:09 am
I think I'll wait for the illuminated version on vellum with Morocco bindings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Dibdib on 10 November, 2016, 03:47:37 pm
More Discworld, because what I need the most right now is kindness and silliness with my satire.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 11 November, 2016, 04:41:27 pm
My local library had a copy of the latest Tim Moore on their new books shelf, so I grabbed it. If you've enjoyed any of his previous books you'll enjoy this, though I did find the pose of mechanical incompetence a little silly at times; if you're going to ride 10,000 km across Europe on a bike, wouldn't you try and learn the skills to keep you going? Still, fair play to him for doing that kind of distance on a small-wheeled shopper...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 11 November, 2016, 07:01:09 pm
I remember being somewhat surprised the first time I heard Julie Birchill speak.  It's not a voice you'd associate with her writing.

Grating and unpleasant? Fits for me!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 November, 2016, 07:31:07 pm
The Hanging Tree.  :D :D :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 11 November, 2016, 09:15:43 pm
Just beginning to explore electronic books when daughter No 2 introduced me to this!

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 11 November, 2016, 09:21:35 pm
The Hanging Tree.  :D :D :D

Tis good.  I was worried that it would be crap after the delays...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 14 November, 2016, 09:08:56 am
I still haven't finished [Lolita] - up to about 80% on the Kindle. This is partly because I haven't done much reading at all in the last few months - well, not reading for pleasure. I've done plenty of reading for work, which is why I don't have the energy/enthusiasm for other reading.

It's also partly because I find it so uncomfortable to read. At times, it's even more uncomfortable than American Psycho.

You're closer to the end than you may realise - the Penguin Kindle version I've got finishes at 93% - the remainder is Nabokov's notes and afterword guff.  It's worth persevering!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 14 November, 2016, 09:17:58 am
Before Watchmen
The prequel to the 'Watchmen' graphic novel. It's quite grim and depressing.
I had to follow it by watching the watchmen film. It's v odd when the most likeable person in a film is a psychotic sociopath.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 November, 2016, 10:27:09 am
Rather Be The Devil ~ the new Rebus.

Finished this now.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 14 November, 2016, 12:48:18 pm
The Hanging Tree.  :D :D :D

Tis good.  I was worried that it would be crap after the delays...
It was good. I want the next one now please!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: peliroja on 14 November, 2016, 12:52:06 pm
Coffin Road by Peter May. I'm a bit addicted to his books at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 November, 2016, 02:26:36 pm
Before Watchmen
The prequel to the 'Watchmen' graphic novel. It's quite grim and depressing.
I had to follow it by watching the watchmen film. It's v odd when the most likeable person in a film is a psychotic sociopath.

From what I've read of it, DC are building themselves a Watchmen industry, and Alan Moore is muchly offgepissed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 November, 2016, 02:41:16 pm
The Hanging Tree.  :D :D :D

Tis good.  I was worried that it would be crap after the delays...
It was good. I want the next one now please!

It was ok, I'd file it under "pleasant, more of the same".  Perhaps as I've read all of them in the last 18 months it didn't seem quite as fresh. I shall certainly read the next.

Another I am waiting eagerly for is the second in the "Vinyl detective" series by Andrew Cartmel.  They've all been written already (I can't find out how many) and are being released one a year. The first was "Written in dead wax", and the second, due next year, is "The run-out groove"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 14 November, 2016, 02:43:57 pm
Before Watchmen
The prequel to the 'Watchmen' graphic novel. It's quite grim and depressing.
I had to follow it by watching the watchmen film. It's v odd when the most likeable person in a film is a psychotic sociopath.

From what I've read of it, DC are building themselves a Watchmen industry, and Alan Moore is muchly offgepissed.
I can imagine him being pissed, but, they've done one (reasonably good) film and that's it. What is planned? The film kept the tone of the novel extremely well, if it did play around a little with the plot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 14 November, 2016, 03:09:28 pm
The Hanging Tree.  :D :D :D

Tis good.  I was worried that it would be crap after the delays...
It was good. I want the next one now please!

It was ok, I'd file it under "pleasant, more of the same".  Perhaps as I've read all of them in the last 18 months it didn't seem quite as fresh. I shall certainly read the next.

Another I am waiting eagerly for is the second in the "Vinyl detective" series by Andrew Cartmel.  They've all been written already (I can't find out how many) and are being released one a year. The first was "Written in dead wax", and the second, due next year, is "The run-out groove"

Not read those,  might take a look.   For more police/ magic crossover try Paul Cornell's "Shadow Police" series.    But only if you have a tolerance for grim & nasty....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 November, 2016, 03:16:49 pm
The Hanging Tree.  :D :D :D

Tis good.  I was worried that it would be crap after the delays...
It was good. I want the next one now please!

It was ok, I'd file it under "pleasant, more of the same".  Perhaps as I've read all of them in the last 18 months it didn't seem quite as fresh. I shall certainly read the next.

Another I am waiting eagerly for is the second in the "Vinyl detective" series by Andrew Cartmel.  They've all been written already (I can't find out how many) and are being released one a year. The first was "Written in dead wax", and the second, due next year, is "The run-out groove"

Not read those,  might take a look.   For more police/ magic crossover try Paul Cornell's "Shadow Police" series.    But only if you have a tolerance for grim & nasty....

Thank you, both, shall look into them!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 November, 2016, 03:20:04 pm
I did try London Falling (Cornell) but for some reason didn't get on with it.  The Vinyl Detective isn't police based, the protagonist is a "reluctant private eye" I guess you could say, and a vinyl buff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 14 November, 2016, 08:41:14 pm
I just re-read A Stitch In Time by Penelope Lively.  It's a children's book without a bum note.  Outstanding.  How can a grown woman evoke so brilliantly, a child's inner voice?

So after that I'm re-reading Moon Tiger (by Penelope Lively).  I first read it thirty years ago, and it's even better now when I've lived somewhat.  It's about time, and memory, and loss, and it's just beautiful.  One hell of a writer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 14 November, 2016, 08:49:50 pm
I just re-read A Stitch In Time by Penelope Lively.

Cor, I think I read that one before I worked out how to pronounce 'Penelope'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 14 November, 2016, 11:23:51 pm
Reading "It Can't Happen Here" by SInclair Lewis. A 1930's novel on the fascist takeover of the US, which reads remarkably like a parody of the current day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 November, 2016, 10:37:45 pm
Walking past my local Forbidden Planet I notice that there are a couple of "graphic novels" available featuring Peter Grant.   The signage is amusingly "Beverley Brooks Cop"  :D

(http://zenoagency.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/RiversOfLondon-NightWitchTPB-FPExc-Blog.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 November, 2016, 10:38:13 am
Reading "It Can't Happen Here" by SInclair Lewis. A 1930's novel on the fascist takeover of the US, which reads remarkably like a parody of the current day.

I read that on a Lewis kick years ago. I don't think I could stand it now, real life is imitating it a bit too closely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 November, 2016, 11:50:37 am
I've just fiunished the latest Michael Connelly Harry Bosch "The wrong side of goodbye". It was ok. Just started the latest Rebus, so far so good.  Next up will be Grisham's latest, followed by the new Jack Reacher.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 20 November, 2016, 06:11:42 pm
Have been working my way through various classic cycling books of late, and have just finished Geoffrey Nicholson's _The Great Bike Race_. It's his account of the 1976 TdF, and is every bit as good as everyone says. I'm not a huge watcher of cycling on TV, but I enjoy reading good accounts of it, and Nicholson describes both the grand sweep of the Tour and the smaller dramas of the individual stages very evocatively, as well as explaining the history and (then-)current non-cycling aspects (such as the influence of commerce and advertising). Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 20 November, 2016, 06:20:51 pm
The Last Days of Patton.  According to the book, he went through a fairly loopy phase just after the war ended, with some thinking he was building his own private army (mainly comprising Waffen-SS POWs) to take on the USSR, but he seems to have got it back together just before he broke his neck in a car crash.  Sadly this deprived the world of what would have been the most interesting memoirs of any soldier, but "War As I Knew It", some of his diary entries and other scribblings, is well worth a read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 26 November, 2016, 12:02:36 am
A signed copy of 101 Damnations by that Ned off of ITV 4's Tour coverage.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 26 November, 2016, 01:46:12 pm
The Liar's Gospel by Naomi Alderman, and Tracey Thorn's autobiography.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 26 November, 2016, 11:14:02 pm
Picked up my half-read copy of John Lanchester's _Capital_ and am powering through again. Very enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 November, 2016, 10:54:51 am
Peter Carey: The True History of the Kelly Gang.  Read it years ago but the missus bought me a new copy for some reason so I'm reading it again.

On the tablet, Ben Aaronson's Rivers of London series and thank you Mr. L for the heads-up.  For the price of a coffee & croissant it's a decent bargain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 27 November, 2016, 10:59:45 am
I did try London Falling (Cornell) but for some reason didn't get on with it.  The Vinyl Detective isn't police based, the protagonist is a "reluctant private eye" I guess you could say, and a vinyl buff.

I read Dead Wax, and enjoyed it.

Currently on London Falling. It is really grim, isn't it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 November, 2016, 03:44:57 pm
Just finished John Grisham's The Whistler. Lord he's just phoning the novels in now. Not a patch on The Pelican Brief or The Client. In fact not worth bothering with. I missed out a lot of the middle period Grishams, but I've read the last three, and that's enough I think.

Now on to the latest Jack Reacher outing, Night School.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 November, 2016, 05:04:43 pm
Taking another break from Discworld for Ian Rankin's The Travelling Companion, a non-Rebus short offering which was just a bit too long to polish off before lunch and the Grand Prix.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 27 November, 2016, 05:17:46 pm
Peter May, "The Blackhouse". Life, startlements, atmosphere, survival.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 27 November, 2016, 06:37:59 pm
And a very elegant batsman, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 27 November, 2016, 07:07:59 pm

Ah, the memorable P B H May!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 27 November, 2016, 07:10:14 pm
The very one!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 06 December, 2016, 03:54:16 pm
Just finished:

Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey’s first novel in the now TV series - the Expanse. Jolly good SiFi I say both as telly and book fodder.
http://www.jamessacorey.com/books/leviathan-wakes/

And ...

The Cleaner by Mark Dawson. A good read I think for some escapism into the world of spies and hit men. http://markjdawson.com/the-cleaner

Oh on a side note, it will be my claim to fame, if there is ever a red carpet, there is talk about Hollywood want to do something. I drank a few pints with this fella about 20 years ago when he dated a good friend of mine. Even helped them move and read a first draft of his first book. Not seen or heard anything about him since they split up, never close enough to be exchanging contact details. But farcebook kept nagging with ads a few months ago that I had to read this book. One day out of boredom I clicked the link to see what this was. And when I saw his ugly mug I remembered who he was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 10 December, 2016, 05:22:25 pm
The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker. I'm really enjoying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 12 December, 2016, 03:56:18 pm
In the Cold Dark Ground - Stuart McBride's latest adventure for Logan McRae. February and there is lots of snow.
Some story lines get tied up in this book, but others are left hanging. In fact I'm not sure where the story can go with the way this book has finished. It will be interesting to see.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 12 December, 2016, 09:40:24 pm
Gorky Park.

Loving it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 December, 2016, 10:00:22 pm
Gorky Park.

Loving it.

That's an old one!  First of a series as I recall.    Try "Moskva" by "Jack" Grimwood. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-crime-and-thriller-novels-of-2016/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 12 December, 2016, 10:50:00 pm
Gorky Park.

Loving it.

That's an old one!  First of a series as I recall.

I was surprised to learn recently that Martin Cruz Smith has written eight Renko books (I've got the first four - Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square and Havana Bay).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 12 December, 2016, 11:02:59 pm
Think I've read the first three. 

A good piece here on Jon Courtnay Grimwood in which he cites the Cruz Smith novels & also another old favourite of mine, "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley. Annoyingly I never saw the TV adaptation.  It's never officially been released on DVD, though I've just found a few sites selling what must be transfers from VHS.....

http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/on-banks-of-moskva-with-jack-grimwood.html
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 13 December, 2016, 03:35:11 pm
Blitzed by Norman Ohler. It's about the German Army's use of Crystal Meth for the Blitzkrieg in WW2. The second half of the book is about the drugs Hitler took, and it's mind-boggling stuff!

The translation is a little bit ropy in places but the subject matter is fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 13 December, 2016, 04:39:50 pm
Think I've read the first three. 

A good piece here on Jon Courtnay Grimwood in which he cites the Cruz Smith novels & also another old favourite of mine, "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley. Annoyingly I never saw the TV adaptation.  It's never officially been released on DVD, though I've just found a few sites selling what must be transfers from VHS.....

I always liked 'Running Blind' but I think my favourite was always High Citadel. Would make an incredible film, if done well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 14 December, 2016, 12:34:45 am
A Boy Called Christmas. It's a different christmas book with a novel (I think) take on the origin of FC. The boys are 7 and 10 now. Louis (10) still gets a kick from bedtime stories, but they have to be good. This one is.

(click to show/hide)

Happily, there's already a follow-up and it's sitting next to my bed ready when we finish the first one - in a day or two.

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 December, 2016, 08:07:44 pm
Finisterre (Wars Within) ~ Graham Hurley.  His first standalone novel in ages.  Set in 1944, partly at Los Alamos and partly in Spain.  Contains killin's, Nazis and the obligatory U-boat captain who is not a Nazi but does Nazi things at the behest of Nazis anyway.  Probably while wearing his hat backwards.  The lead SS man is straight out of the Bumper Book of Nazi Clichés too, but he's already dead so it doesn't matter quite so much.  Cautious approval so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 15 December, 2016, 09:40:56 pm
Think I've read the first three. 

A good piece here on Jon Courtnay Grimwood in which he cites the Cruz Smith novels & also another old favourite of mine, "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley. Annoyingly I never saw the TV adaptation.  It's never officially been released on DVD, though I've just found a few sites selling what must be transfers from VHS.....

I always liked 'Running Blind' but I think my favourite was always High Citadel. Would make an incredible film, if done well.

They'd make the pilot an American though,  saving his passengers from damn commies... or muslim terrists..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 16 December, 2016, 01:35:57 pm
Die Trying- Jack Reacher the Second.

An enjoyable read so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 16 December, 2016, 02:02:12 pm
Think I've read the first three. 

A good piece here on Jon Courtnay Grimwood in which he cites the Cruz Smith novels & also another old favourite of mine, "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley. Annoyingly I never saw the TV adaptation.  It's never officially been released on DVD, though I've just found a few sites selling what must be transfers from VHS.....

I always liked 'Running Blind' but I think my favourite was always High Citadel. Would make an incredible film, if done well.

They'd make the pilot an American though,  saving his passengers from damn commies... or muslim terrists..

It is something like 3.5 decades since I read the book, but I seem to recall that the plane it attacked because it is carrying a socialist south american leader. Plucky brit and ex-Korean war US veteran pilot risk all, together with the other passengers, to save him.
So you are probably right, that would get written out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 December, 2016, 02:05:10 pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-crime-and-thriller-novels-of-2016/

Interesting list and new authors to me, just reserved three of them in the library system  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 16 December, 2016, 05:17:36 pm
Think I've read the first three. 

A good piece here on Jon Courtnay Grimwood in which he cites the Cruz Smith novels & also another old favourite of mine, "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley. Annoyingly I never saw the TV adaptation.  It's never officially been released on DVD, though I've just found a few sites selling what must be transfers from VHS.....

I always liked 'Running Blind' but I think my favourite was always High Citadel. Would make an incredible film, if done well.

They'd make the pilot an American though,  saving his passengers from damn commies... or muslim terrists..

It is something like 3.5 decades since I read the book, but I seem to recall that the plane it attacked because it is carrying a socialist south american leader. Plucky brit and ex-Korean war US veteran pilot risk all, together with the other passengers, to save him.
So you are probably right, that would get written out.

I recall improvised crossbows & other stuff, built by a medieval historian or somesuch  :D     My omnibus copy went to the charity shop about the same time as you last read it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 17 December, 2016, 12:39:28 pm
I read High Citadel again a couple of months back.

It's a rope-roaring yarn although the communist terror seems weird, plus the fact that female characters are all fairly helpless. But the ingenuity in the story makes it great fun!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jock Stewart on 18 December, 2016, 11:19:47 am
Niccolo Machiavelli's 'The Prince'. Never read it before.

My eldest is studying it for his Politics' A level and left it lying around.

The Marriott translation, pub 1992.

I like the forthright confident style but it's a bit preachy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 December, 2016, 01:00:14 pm
Niccolo Machiavelli's 'The Prince'. Never read it before.

My eldest is studying it for his Politics' A level and left it lying around.


Quote from: Jock's Eldest

Oh, Daaaaaaad! That's, like, so embarrassing :-[

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jock Stewart on 18 December, 2016, 01:14:26 pm
He doesn't know I'm reading it. He had to read the first six chapters as weekend homework (I know because the bookmark is there) and then left it on the dining table.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mcshroom on 18 December, 2016, 02:00:33 pm
Peter May, "The Blackhouse". Life, startlements, atmosphere, survival.
I read that book, and the other two in the Lewis Trilogy while I was riding round the NW Highlands and Western Isles with Ruthie last year. It seemed to match well being in the sort of landscape described in the books, and also explained some of the things we were seeing :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 December, 2016, 07:14:35 pm
A Place Of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
Cracking good read. I do like the way she humanises the great figures of the French Revolution. Not nearly as polished as Wolf Hall though.

Persuasion - Jane Austen
Re-reading after a looooong interval. Feels a bit more flimsy than I remembered. And the ending is rushed and unconvincing - almost like she knew she had to finish it before she died. I've always loved Austen but I think my tastes in literature might have matured a bit in the last 20 years. Feels a bit old-fashioned now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 21 December, 2016, 12:41:43 pm
I just finished The Good Mother by A L Bird. It was absolutely fucking shit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 December, 2016, 01:26:10 pm
A Place Of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
Cracking good read. I do like the way she humanises the great figures of the French Revolution. Not nearly as polished as Wolf Hall though.

A good bit earlier than Wolf Hall, though.  Great book.  What stuck me most was the appalling ease with which a mild difference of opinion could result in a trip to the guillotine - that, and the way Danton became d'Anton and then Danton again as the wind changed.

Andrej Wajda's film Danton was great.


I'm reading The Year of Living Dangerously for the first time.  Much more analytical than the film, of course.  Noticed too that while the narrator in the book is called Cook the author was Christopher J. Koch; according to Wiki the book is based on the experiences of his brother, Philip Koch, in Indonesia at the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 December, 2016, 01:33:53 pm
Just starting Ulysses
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 21 December, 2016, 02:09:33 pm
Just starting "Who Killed Sherlock Holmes" by Paul Cornell.

I have enjoyed the previous two books but took a break from the series by reading three of the Garry Disher books, which I enjoyed,also.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 21 December, 2016, 02:40:36 pm
Very slowly reading 'Odysseus Abroad' by Amit Chaudhuri

It's enjoyable, but I get most pleasure reading the descriptions of the interactions between characters. Endless descriptions of which London streets the character could have walked along but didn't, or did, then found he'd been walking a long way round, isn't enthralling and I don't find it 'wildly comedic' as described.

The cover also describe it as 'an uncle and nephew share a summer's day'. Well, I'm less than halfway through the book and the events so far have taken place over months. Not sure about a single summer's day. He's gone through his relationship with 3 tutors so far. That's some day. Maybe those reviewers didn't get past the first chapter. Sure, the book starts in one day, and flips back to what is happening in that day, but the book is describing events taking place over months, not in one day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 December, 2016, 05:37:33 pm
I just finished The Good Mother by A L Bird. It was absolutely fucking shit.
:thumbsup:

EG, reviewing books so you don't have to :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 22 December, 2016, 11:35:16 pm
I just finished The Good Mother by A L Bird. It was absolutely fucking shit.

Why did you finish it? Was it shit all the way through? I started not finishing books in my twenties. Not many. Just 2, or 5, I think. I used to think it was because I wasn't reading it right but these days I settle for incompatibility.

It's still hard not to finish a book though. Like leaving the cinema part way through a film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 23 December, 2016, 12:42:37 pm
Well, it was billed as a psychological thriller, so I kept expecting the twists to be good, but they turned out to be stupid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 25 December, 2016, 09:29:21 am
The first in a projected series of "The Vinyl Detective" by Andrew Cartmel, "Written in Dead Wax". Recommended (and rightly so IMO) by Ben Aaronovitch.  Enjoyable.

Thanks, 40% through this and enjoying it :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 27 December, 2016, 11:43:14 am
Re the recent Gorky Park comment: Polar Star,  Red Square, Havana Bay Three Stations and Stalins Ghost are on Kindle today for 99p.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 27 December, 2016, 11:53:08 am
The first in a projected series of "The Vinyl Detective" by Andrew Cartmel, "Written in Dead Wax". Recommended (and rightly so IMO) by Ben Aaronovitch.  Enjoyable.

Thanks, 40% through this and enjoying it :-)


Just finished that & enjoyed it as well,  especially as a chap with a turntable, valve amp & vinyl collection, some recognisable stereotypes amongst the cast  :D   Though my voyages around charity shop & used record dealers never involve meeting gorgeous blondes  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 27 December, 2016, 12:39:52 pm
Viv Albertine's autobiography. I'm really not a fan of The Slits, but it's part of my "read more books by women" resolution.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 27 December, 2016, 01:08:17 pm
Alice. Wonderland is to be followed by Looking Glass.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 27 December, 2016, 01:19:09 pm
Got SAS Rogue Heroes by Ben MacIntyre for Christmas, dipped into it and now over halfway through, very good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 December, 2016, 09:50:22 pm
I was reading Johnny Herbert's autobiography, but it seems to have driven off somewhere ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 29 December, 2016, 01:25:17 pm
Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed. Interesting and intriguing first novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 29 December, 2016, 01:35:19 pm
Viv Albertine's autobiography. I'm really not a fan of The Slits, but it's part of my "read more books by women" resolution.
Finished it. Liked it. About to start Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 December, 2016, 01:17:50 am
Slade House - David Mitchell

Cracking good read, as I've come to expect from Mitchell. A bit slight, perhaps, but works well as a gripping supernatural yarn. The ending comes as no surprise if you've read The Bone Clocks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 December, 2016, 09:41:12 am
Enjoyed that one, although thicker would have been nicer.  It'd make a good film, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 December, 2016, 05:20:00 pm
I'm sure I noted this morning that I've just started Adrian Tchaikovsky's Arthur C Clarke Award-winning Children Of Time but something's et the post chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 30 December, 2016, 05:23:58 pm
"Post Chiz" - sequel to "Down With Skool", or possibly a Polish stagecoach?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 December, 2016, 10:01:07 pm
Think I've read the first three. 

A good piece here on Jon Courtnay Grimwood in which he cites the Cruz Smith novels & also another old favourite of mine, "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley. Annoyingly I never saw the TV adaptation.  It's never officially been released on DVD, though I've just found a few sites selling what must be transfers from VHS.....

http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/on-banks-of-moskva-with-jack-grimwood.html (http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/on-banks-of-moskva-with-jack-grimwood.html)


I bought the DVD of "Running Blind" and have only just watched it.  70's tastic!  Snorkel parkas, sheepskin jackets, people smoking!  The cast was like a "UFO" reunion, Alex Sewell, Vladek Shaybal & Ed Bishop  :-D


It's not a wonderful transfer from VHS, but it gets the job done. Lots of Icelandic landscape. 


If anyone wants to borrow it drop me a PM.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 January, 2017, 09:19:08 am
Just started The Glamour by Christopher Priest. Dunno how the story's going to shape, but the pleasure of reading pre-Internet grammar is already immense. Nothing fancy, just well-built English prose with none of the PC-sanctified pratfalls and inanities of current authors.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 01 January, 2017, 10:46:46 am
Priest does give good sentence!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 02 January, 2017, 11:27:12 am
Just finished a vintage Le Carre.  "Call For The Dead".  I first read that over 30 years ago & still remembered dialogue & descriptions. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 04 January, 2017, 09:15:05 pm
the Atrocity archives by charles stross

A right laugh, especially for anyone who has worked in IT
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 January, 2017, 08:10:25 am
Recently reached the end of that series.  I got a bit browned off in the middle then picked them up again when I ran out of Ben Aaronovitch. Stross needs remedial English lessons, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 05 January, 2017, 09:53:16 am
I've just finished "Himself" by Jess Kidd. Not my normal fare - this is "a blend of the natural everyday and the supernatural, folklore and mystery, and a healthy dose of quintessentially Irish humor" set in 1970's Mayo. Enjoyable enough.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 January, 2017, 10:03:28 am
Currently reading Chasing Embers by James Bennett. (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Embers-Ben-Garston-Novels/dp/0356506649/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483610497&sr=8-1&keywords=chasing+embers)

A modern day fantasy novel about magic, dragons etc

Enjoyable, but the writing style grates a little, especially after reading the Shadow Police trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 09 January, 2017, 11:21:00 am
Just finished "Europe in Winter" the latest in Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series of novels. There will be a fourth and final book in the series apparently but no release date as yet.
The whole series is brilliant. Fantastic writing. Set in a near future Europe where the EU has broken up into micro states. No SF gizmos really but more of a feel of John le Carrie novel with some weird stuff about topology and maps. Oh and lots about restaurants and food. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 09 January, 2017, 11:35:36 am
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  Very promising so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 January, 2017, 02:46:41 pm
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  Very promising so far.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 10 January, 2017, 08:47:00 am
Currently reading Chasing Embers by James Bennett. (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Embers-Ben-Garston-Novels/dp/0356506649/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483610497&sr=8-1&keywords=chasing+embers)

A modern day fantasy novel about magic, dragons etc

Enjoyable, but the writing style grates a little, especially after reading the Shadow Police trilogy.

It gets better, I finished it last night.  I have gone from "Well, ok, I'll just read this one" to "I am quite looking forward to the next one.

Trouble is, now, I am Telford and my copy of The Hanging Tree is in NTR :(  I shall have to resort to the e-book tonight and start the aforementioned book tomorrow night.

Now I am looking forward to the next:
Shadow Police
Inspector Logan
Rivers of London (even though I haven't read Hanging Tree yet)
The ones about the Police guy in Edinburgh wherein supernatural things play a part (or is that Logan? In which case I mean the ones set in Aberdeen, too!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 January, 2017, 12:38:12 pm
Just finished a Christmas present book "SAS: Rogue Heroes - The Authorized Wartime History" Ben MacIntyre.

What a bunch of nutters ! Miles behind enemy lines in occupied Europe with only 40 troops and a ragtag bunch of partisans and escaped Russian troops, what do you radio back to the UK to have airdropped to help the situation why a piper of course. And even more amazingly HQ says what a good idea and parachutes one in !
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 January, 2017, 05:41:46 pm
Just started Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue. It all fits into a real-tennis match between a Spaniard and an Italian but involves Henry VIII, beheadings and the slitting of throats.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 16 January, 2017, 05:54:44 pm
Tiermat, Logan is Aberdeen, Inspector McLean is Embra.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 16 January, 2017, 05:57:16 pm
I've just finished The Hanging Tree and before that I read the last Shadow Police book. Not quite sure what to read next but I'm on holiday so I better pick something good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 16 January, 2017, 06:01:48 pm
Anyone read the Inspector Hobbes books by Wilkie Martin?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 January, 2017, 08:24:02 pm
Tiermat, Logan is Aberdeen, Inspector McLean is Embra.

Thanks for that

Now on The Hanging Tree.  Did you wonder just WTF he is on about haunted BMWs? If you did you need to read the graphic novel.

Should I have a look at the Inspector Hobbes?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 17 January, 2017, 06:55:04 am
Should I have a look at the Inspector Hobbes?

I'll tell you when I've read a bit more of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 17 January, 2017, 08:39:10 am
Currently reading Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre.

Also lined up Rivers of London.

I have to say how much I appreciate this thread for expanding my reading choices.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 17 January, 2017, 05:33:15 pm
Just finished Guy Martin's latest autobiographic tome "Worms to catch" which covers a year in his life after his last bad road race crash where he broke his back again.
Very good section on riding the Tour Divide.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 17 January, 2017, 09:46:49 pm
re-reading The Russia House by Le Carre,

Also Reading Jack Welch's Autobiography

Just started reading The Philosophy of Mathematics, first two chapters so far and I'm hooked, I'm very surprised at the humour in the subject and I've learned the proof of Pythagoras theorem, very elegant.  Picked this one up on a whim thinking "that sounds interesting"

Reading James Bond with my son, just done Octopussy

Given up on 1Q84 for now
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 January, 2017, 10:32:03 pm
I've just seen that Kent Anderson, author of "Sympathy For The Devil" and "Night Dogs", has a new novel out in August.  "Green Sun" , the further adventures of Hanson as he joins the police in Oakland.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 January, 2017, 11:14:54 am
Just started Carl Hiaasen's latest, "Razor Girl".  Looks promising so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 18 January, 2017, 11:35:58 am
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  Very promising so far.

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You bugger, I didn't look at the spoiler earlier lest it give anything away!  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 18 January, 2017, 11:39:51 am
Just started Carl Hiaasen's latest, "Razor Girl".  Looks promising so far.

By "promising", you mean "twisted as hell", don't you?  :demon:  ;D ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 January, 2017, 06:56:36 pm
Just started Carl Hiaasen's latest, "Razor Girl".  Looks promising so far.

By "promising", you mean "twisted as hell", don't you?  :demon:  ;D ;)

Think on what she might be shaving, and that's just the start of it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 18 January, 2017, 07:24:54 pm
Just started Carl Hiaasen's latest, "Razor Girl".  Looks promising so far.

By "promising", you mean "twisted as hell", don't you?  :demon:  ;D ;)

Think on what she might be shaving, and that's just the start of it...

<Thinks>

I know the NFF* story that quite likely provides the inspiration for what you refer to: http://keysnews.com/node/21349   ;D


* Normal For Florida
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 18 January, 2017, 07:54:02 pm
Just finished a Christmas present book "SAS: Rogue Heroes - The Authorized Wartime History" Ben MacIntyre.

What a bunch of nutters ! Miles behind enemy lines in occupied Europe with only 40 troops and a ragtag bunch of partisans and escaped Russian troops, what do you radio back to the UK to have airdropped to help the situation why a piper of course. And even more amazingly HQ says what a good idea and parachutes one in !

                             Brilliant book made better by it's truth. My Uncle (commando not SAS) took part in the Dieppe commando raid and lost a hand throwing grenades back at the German/nazi troops, bonkers. He became a legend in the 60's by saying to a mate who was helping me with my Mum moving some stuff when he said "Want a hand son" (imagine gruff East End accent) my mate without thinking "yes please Joe" with a wry smile my Uncle Joe passed him his hook and burst into a fit of laughter at my mates face.

                              BTW Have you read about Billie Millin the piper, now that was insane.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 18 January, 2017, 09:32:58 pm
Just finished a Christmas present book "SAS: Rogue Heroes - The Authorized Wartime History" Ben MacIntyre.

What a bunch of nutters ! Miles behind enemy lines in occupied Europe with only 40 troops and a ragtag bunch of partisans and escaped Russian troops, what do you radio back to the UK to have airdropped to help the situation why a piper of course. And even more amazingly HQ says what a good idea and parachutes one in !

                             Brilliant book made better by it's truth. My Uncle (commando not SAS) took part in the Dieppe commando raid and lost a hand throwing grenades back at the German/nazi troops, bonkers. He became a legend in the 60's by saying to a mate who was helping me with my Mum moving some stuff when he said "Want a hand son" (imagine gruff East End accent) my mate without thinking "yes please Joe" with a wry smile my Uncle Joe passed him his hook and burst into a fit of laughter at my mates face.

                              BTW Have you read about Billie Millin the piper, now that was insane.

Apparently captured Germans when interviewed said they didn't shoot him because they thought he'd gone mad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 19 January, 2017, 09:40:59 am
Just read The Buried Giant by Izzywizzy-let's-get-busy. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. The latest John Connolly novel, and halfway through the latest James Lee Burke novel Light of the World.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 19 January, 2017, 12:14:20 pm
I tend to agree but I feel there is an invisible line in situations like that between insanity and that special brand of bravery.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 January, 2017, 12:29:04 pm
Just finished a Christmas present book "SAS: Rogue Heroes - The Authorized Wartime History" Ben MacIntyre.

What a bunch of nutters ! Miles behind enemy lines in occupied Europe with only 40 troops and a ragtag bunch of partisans and escaped Russian troops, what do you radio back to the UK to have airdropped to help the situation why a piper of course. And even more amazingly HQ says what a good idea and parachutes one in !

                             Brilliant book made better by it's truth. My Uncle (commando not SAS) took part in the Dieppe commando raid and lost a hand throwing grenades back at the German/nazi troops, bonkers. He became a legend in the 60's by saying to a mate who was helping me with my Mum moving some stuff when he said "Want a hand son" (imagine gruff East End accent) my mate without thinking "yes please Joe" with a wry smile my Uncle Joe passed him his hook and burst into a fit of laughter at my mates face.

                              BTW Have you read about Billie Millin the piper, now that was insane.

Apparently captured Germans when interviewed said they didn't shoot him because they thought he'd gone mad.

 That was on "QI" ane other week and must therefore be 100% Trufax.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 January, 2017, 01:59:58 am
Just started Carl Hiaasen's latest, "Razor Girl".  Looks promising so far.

By "promising", you mean "twisted as hell", don't you?  :demon:  ;D ;)

Think on what she might be shaving, and that's just the start of it...

Well up to his usual standards with the usual cast of oddballs, convoluted plots and general mayhem.  Skink's not in it but if anyone deserves to make a comeback in a Trump administration it's a former Governor of Florida turned eco-warrior.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 23 January, 2017, 07:56:27 pm
Just finished reading Dead Girl Walking. worth it just for the following description of a baddie:
Quote
He was troll-like, both facially and in build, resembling a squat and steroid-pumped Michael Gove. It was a truely horrible vision, but on the plus side, it would make it a lot easier if Parlabane ended up having to punch the guy really hard in the face. Indeed, remembering to stop and run off would be the main hazard.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 23 January, 2017, 09:23:25 pm
Just started reading 'Laid back around the world in 180 days'.

It's cracking so far, not even through the prologue and it's had me laughing out loud twice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 January, 2017, 08:23:34 am
Finished Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrique, it's bloody brilliant.  Read it on a tablet and kept popping out into Wikipedia to look up all the folk and events he was describing: ranges from real tennis to Hernán Cortés to Henry VIII to Caravaggio, various popes & cardinals, battles, seductions, duels & beyond. Wondrous.

Now reading Chris. Priest's The Adjacent, which ain't bad at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 24 January, 2017, 10:56:30 am
With a "Okay, finished that one," my wife has handed me Pincher Martin by William Golding, to read. Never read it before.

^
Day two of reading it. It's hard going.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 January, 2017, 07:12:56 pm
Should I have a look at the Inspector Hobbes?

I'll tell you when I've read a bit more of it.

So, I've finished it. It's cheap on Kindle, easy to read and I quite like the weird characters in it, though the narrator got on my tits somewhat. This reviewer pretty well sums up my feelings, though the word 'hate' is a bit strong for me:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R342PSNO6AGSS3/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00G9MXDZ2&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=266239&store=books

Though even discounting Andy Caplet, it's no Mclean or McRae novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 26 January, 2017, 12:53:04 pm
Been travelling so got through a couple of novels.

Another Charles Stross Laundry novel. They are good for passing the time.

Pat Barker Life Class
Engrossing, sad. Made me feel old and jaded.

Currently reading Paper Towns by John Green, as sort of coming-of-age novel in Orlando, USA. A very normal teenager deeply emotionally involved with a totally bonkers persistent runaway teenager he's grown up with - who finally runs away leaving not sure whether she is dead or not. This isn't a tear-jerker like 'The fault in our stars' but all through the book you can feel the tragedy and pain building up, just waiting to happen.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 27 January, 2017, 12:55:17 pm
With a "Okay, finished that one," my wife has handed me Pincher Martin by William Golding, to read. Never read it before.

^
Day two of reading it. It's hard going.

If you can resist, don't read till you finish or give up
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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 27 January, 2017, 02:03:54 pm
With a "Okay, finished that one," my wife has handed me Pincher Martin by William Golding, to read. Never read it before.

^
Day two of reading it. It's hard going.

If you can resist, don't read till you finish or give up
(click to show/hide)


Nuncers, guess what:
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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 27 January, 2017, 02:26:03 pm
From memory, I think you can skip to the last sentence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 30 January, 2017, 08:42:02 am
From memory, I think you can skip to the last sentence.


^  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 30 January, 2017, 01:09:25 pm
Jens Voight's Shut Up Legs!

I got it this morning with cards and tea in bed (actual birthday today). Looks like it will be a good read.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 04 February, 2017, 06:53:17 pm
Max Leonard's _Lanterne Rouge_, a history of and meditation on the position of the last man in the TdF. In the wrong hands this would just have been a list of potted biographies, but Leonard does something far more interesting. What does it mean to carry on turning yourself inside out for hundreds or thousands of kilometers when you've no chance of winning a jersey or a stage? He looks at how the perception of the Lanterne has changed across the years, and the Tour organisers' relationship to the position - mainly indifference or hostility. Leonard is clear-eyed but sympathetic about how cycling's respect for history often shades into myth-making; he also writes beautifully. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: HeltorChasca on 04 February, 2017, 07:03:06 pm
Another bikey-type-book by Steven Primrose-Smith. I've just ordered this after reading all his other humorous, originally written books. Can't wait to get reading.

"Route Britannia, the Journey South: A Spontaneous Bicycle Ride through Every County in Britain"

http://greatdestinationsradioshow.com/2017/02/02/fancy-getting-on-your-bike-to-see-britain/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Route-Britannia-Journey-South-Spontaneous-ebook/dp/B01MTYZ3MO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486156397&sr=1-1&keywords=route+britannia
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 04 February, 2017, 07:42:25 pm
To send me to sleep, on a night, Lisa's Story by Stephen King. So far, so King.

For the train, to work, Mrs T has found my copy of "Body Work", Monday has suddenly got a lot more appealing!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 06 February, 2017, 12:27:05 pm
Another bikey-type-book by Steven Primrose-Smith. I've just ordered this after reading all his other humorous, originally written books. Can't wait to get reading.

"Route Britannia, the Journey South: A Spontaneous Bicycle Ride through Every County in Britain"

http://greatdestinationsradioshow.com/2017/02/02/fancy-getting-on-your-bike-to-see-britain/ (Hello!!?)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Route-Britannia-Journey-South-Spontaneous-ebook/dp/B01MTYZ3MO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486156397&sr=1-1&keywords=route+britannia

"During his ride, he says he found that many towns in modern Britain were all very similar – what he calls ‘anytowns’ in the book. “They were just replicated. They had exactly the same shops – so Stafford was the same as Taunton – and that’s really dull.” But he told me there were still plenty of highlights on the route too. “The towns that stand out are the ones that had some originality. My favourite was Brighton. You get this sense that you can be as weird as you want in Brighton and no one would bat an eyelid because in a minute you’ll see someone weirder. I liked that bravado.”


Yes … get in!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Robh on 06 February, 2017, 12:39:50 pm
I recently finished 'The Englishman's Boy' by Guy Vanderhaeghe. It's been around for a while, apparently, and I only picked up on it as a staff recommendation in my local bookshop. Highly recommended - a good story, well written, with plenty to ponder on when you're finished.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 23 February, 2017, 07:26:28 pm
Ooh, ooh, the new Inspector McLean was released and delivered to my kindle today which was a nice surprise :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 23 February, 2017, 09:40:26 pm
"Gut" by Giulia Enders
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 23 February, 2017, 10:54:27 pm
finished The Russia House

now on After the Flood by Margaret Atwood after a conversation with a client, liking it so far
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2017, 09:46:19 am
Ooh, ooh, the new Inspector McLean was released and delivered to my kindle today which was a nice surprise :)

I can't remember whether I pre-ordered this but if I did it won't have been delivered to my Kindle as it decided that wifi was beneath its dignity.  Time for more mucking around with cables & Calibre.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 February, 2017, 06:14:33 pm
I am currently reading The Miniaturist, after a Goodreads recommendation from that Eccentrica Gallumbits.  It's very good :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 26 February, 2017, 09:10:31 pm
Ohhhh !  There's a new Easy Rawlins book out  :D   "Charcoal Joe" by Walter Mosley. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 February, 2017, 09:52:44 pm
Ooh, ooh, the new Inspector McLean was released and delivered to my kindle today which was a nice surprise :)

Just this minute finished it.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 06 March, 2017, 12:21:45 pm
Just finished The Long Walk as part of my Stephen King-athon.

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Having a bit of a break from Constant Reading with The Devil of Nanking (aka Tokyo) by Mo Hayder.  So far so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 06 March, 2017, 12:34:44 pm
The Shepherd's Crown (Terry Pratchett). TP is enjoying a renaissance with me, after a gap of about 10 years.

Some are better than others (I still think Going Postal was the one I enjoyed most), but this one is doing very nicely for the moment.

Except,

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Nevertheless -  :thumbsup: so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 06 March, 2017, 12:42:46 pm
Rekindling my techno thriller junkie mode and starting Tom Clacy again with The Hunt For Red October.

I know Patriot Games is firswt in the timeline but THFRO was the first Jack Ryan novel I believe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 March, 2017, 08:54:16 am
The Land Where Lemons Grow - Helena Attlee

A history of citrus fruit in Italy, Utterly fascinating and makes me want to go to Sicily in the spring.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 07 March, 2017, 01:58:24 pm
Blackass by A Igoni Barrett.

Nigerian man has a job interview, wakes up on the morning of the interview to discover he is suddenly white.

I am currently reading The Miniaturist, after a Goodreads recommendation from that Eccentrica Gallumbits.  It's very good :)
I am hoping for a sequel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 March, 2017, 02:53:15 pm
The Mechanical by one Ian Tregillis.  Alternate history: Dutch Empire vs New France with clockwork golemish automata and epoxy. Intriguing and well-written, though brought up short occasionally by interweb-age grammatical horrors of the lay/lie variety.

The missus is reading a bio of Darwin, whose English is delightful.  Those Victorian chappies' English was really elegant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 07 March, 2017, 05:37:25 pm
The Mechanical by one Ian Tregillis.  Alternate history: Dutch Empire vs New France with clockwork golemish automata and epoxy. Intriguing and well-written, though brought up short occasionally by interweb-age grammatical horrors of the lay/lie variety.

The missus is reading a bio of Darwin, whose English is delightful.  Those Victorian chappies' English was really elegant.


I read his "Milkweed" trilogy, English characters in a WW2 setting, he doesn't quite get the use of British English right.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 07 March, 2017, 05:45:31 pm
I'm reading the 2nd in the Vera Stanhope series of crime novels by Ann Cleeves  (her wot also writes the Shetland novels).

After that I may read the new Inspector McLean...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 07 March, 2017, 08:48:28 pm
Francis Spufford's _Golden Hill_: mysterious young stranger with a credit note for huge riches turns up in 18th-c. New York. Took me about 30-40 pages to get into it, but as I really rate Spufford's non-fiction I persevered, and am now greatly enjoying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 08 March, 2017, 07:06:17 pm
Blackass by A Igoni Barrett.

Nigerian man has a job interview, wakes up on the morning of the interview to discover he is suddenly white.

I am currently reading The Miniaturist, after a Goodreads recommendation from that Eccentrica Gallumbits.  It's very good :)
I am hoping for a sequel.

Sort of 'Watermelon Man' but in reverse . . .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 10 March, 2017, 06:28:38 pm
Just finished reading book 2 of the inspector McLean series and have book 3 cued up.
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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 March, 2017, 07:40:45 pm
Just finished reading book 2 of the inspector McLean series and have book 3 cued up.
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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 15 March, 2017, 01:26:46 pm
Just finished "Europe in Winter" the latest in Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series of novels. There will be a fourth and final book in the series apparently but no release date as yet.
The whole series is brilliant. Fantastic writing. Set in a near future Europe where the EU has broken up into micro states. No SF gizmos really but more of a feel of John le Carrie novel with some weird stuff about topology and maps. Oh and lots about restaurants and food. Highly recommended.


On Hutchinsons Twitter..



So, the Europe books have been been acquired by film director Anand Tucker’s UK TV production company Seven Stories, backed by All3 Media.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 21 March, 2017, 01:09:44 pm
"Darktown" by Thomas Mullen. Set in Atlanta in 1948, and based on the true story of the cities first 8 black police officers, the eponymous darktown being their beat. Well written, and historically interesting, albeit sickening in it's depiction of casual racism, some of which no doubt remains today.  One interesting (to me) snippet, the local politicians were Democrats, the Republicans being the party of Lincoln, emancipator of slaves.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eck on 21 March, 2017, 06:21:00 pm
Just finished reading book 2 of the inspector McLean series and have book 3 cued up.
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Even better than that dear, I read my first Val McDermid recently, The Distant Echo. Set initially in St Andrews, where I spent an unhappy year at uni, featuring four guys from Kirkcaldy High School, where I spent six years, some of the action in Glenrothes, where I grew up. Even Kirriemuir, where I live now, gets a mention.
No, it's not biographical.  :hand:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 March, 2017, 07:05:18 pm
Just finished "Europe in Winter" the latest in Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series of novels. There will be a fourth and final book in the series apparently but no release date as yet.
The whole series is brilliant. Fantastic writing. Set in a near future Europe where the EU has broken up into micro states. No SF gizmos really but more of a feel of John le Carrie novel with some weird stuff about topology and maps. Oh and lots about restaurants and food. Highly recommended.


On Hutchinsons Twitter..

       Thank you for that, I have just ordered the first in the series, and thank you to everyone who contributes on here lots of very valued reviews


So, the Europe books have been been acquired by film director Anand Tucker’s UK TV production company Seven Stories, backed by All3 Media.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 March, 2017, 07:32:35 pm
Just finished reading book 2 of the inspector McLean series and have book 3 cued up.
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Even better than that dear, I read my first Val McDermid recently, The Distant Echo. Set initially in St Andrews, where I spent an unhappy year at uni, featuring four guys from Kirkcaldy High School, where I spent six years, some of the action in Glenrothes, where I grew up. Even Kirriemuir, where I live now, gets a mention.
No, it's not biographical.  :hand:

Oh, I might give that one a look when I run out of books again then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 31 March, 2017, 08:42:26 am
Having a bit of a break from Constant Reading with The Devil of Nanking (aka Tokyo) by Mo Hayder.  So far so good.
Finished last night.  Highly recommended.  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 March, 2017, 10:27:34 am
Currently re-reading William Gibson's "The Peripheral"

"Reality television. It merged with politics. Then with performance art." .......
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 April, 2017, 12:46:28 pm
Tennison ~ Lynda LaPlante.  This has been sitting on the "to-read" pile since well before ITV announced the existence of "Prime Suspect 1973", so I'm not sure which came first.  Ms LaPlante's prose thuds like AC/DC's Phil Rudd on Valium.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 04 April, 2017, 09:21:22 am
Dodgers, by Bill Beverly.

"a literary thriller" Bit different to the last few I've read, mainly due to the language style, and am enjoying it more because of that I think. Makes me go slower and I find Im getting more of a picture of things
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 April, 2017, 06:02:40 pm
Out Of Bounds ~ Val McDermid.  Fourth in the Karen Pirie series, which Thick Boy here didn't realise was a series until yesterday.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 06 April, 2017, 10:07:09 pm
About to start A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms George RRRRRRRR Martin book set before GoT, telling tales of Aegon 'Egg' Targaryan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 April, 2017, 08:45:54 am
Sapiens, A brief history of humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

Excellent it should be required reading in all secondary schools. Covers what is real and imaginary in society as well as gender and racial politics. How the human race got here from being an upright ape in Africa.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 April, 2017, 08:58:17 am
Second volume of that fellow's Clakkers trilogy.  Entertaining: Christian Huygens invented alchemical clockwork robots and C17 Dutch imperialism took it from there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Aidan on 09 April, 2017, 09:10:15 am
Just finished Guy Martins  Worms to catch.

Its quite interesting, in particular the chapters on his ride of the tour divide.  He mentions Mike Hall who gained alot of time on him to break the record that year, and he also purposefully didnt film it and rode under a pseudonym as he was doing for himself, not to be a TV wanker.

An enjoyable read , written pretty much how he talks. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 April, 2017, 05:03:51 pm
Out Of Bounds ~ Val McDermid.  Fourth in the Karen Pirie series, which Thick Boy here didn't realise was a series until yesterday.

Thick Boy is starting to suspect that he may have bought the e-books of this 'ere series and then not read them because I just (re-)read the first one (The Distant Echo) and remember absolutely none of it, and am now just starting A Darker Domain, of which I have zero eecollection either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 10 April, 2017, 11:51:24 am
Finally getting around to reading The Life of Pi.

He's in the lifeboat now. V entertaining.  The first part of the book, where he is comparing religions, is hilarious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 10 April, 2017, 04:30:22 pm
.... awaiting further news with interest!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 10 April, 2017, 04:34:18 pm
Continuing my Stephen King marathon, I'm giving myself the willies with Pet Sematary now....  :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 11 April, 2017, 10:07:46 am
Finally getting around to reading The Life of Pi.

He's in the lifeboat now. V entertaining.  The first part of the book, where he is comparing religions, is hilarious.

And finished.

Very satisfying ending. I do like an author who doesn't wimp out. Will not spoil things for anyone else who wants to read the book (however, it is not for the squeamish). The end is also very funny and quite delightful, teasing the reader and the author.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 11 April, 2017, 10:12:36 pm
OMG, have just discovered a new Andrey Kurkov book was released last summer and I never knew!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 11 April, 2017, 11:01:08 pm
I'm having some nice Scotsmen read His Bloody Project (http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/His-Bloody-Project-Audiobook/B01LZ0NL8I?source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011Z).
I'm Bloody loving it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 April, 2017, 07:53:08 am
I'm having some nice Scotsmen read His Bloody Project (http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/His-Bloody-Project-Audiobook/B01LZ0NL8I?source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011Z).
I'm Bloody loving it.

I enjoyed that one, it was on the Booker prize long list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 April, 2017, 08:16:10 am
I'm having some nice Scotsmen read His Bloody Project (http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/His-Bloody-Project-Audiobook/B01LZ0NL8I?source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011Z).
I'm Bloody loving it.

And goddamnazon redirects me to audible.fr as if I don't know what I want. :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 12 April, 2017, 08:30:20 am
I'm having some nice Scotsmen read His Bloody Project (http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/His-Bloody-Project-Audiobook/B01LZ0NL8I?source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011Z).
I'm Bloody loving it.

I enjoyed that one, it was on the Booker prize long list.
That's on my Kindle, waiting...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 April, 2017, 07:38:06 pm
2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson

As with all his books it says more about the human condition and society than almost all "literary fiction", and oh yes his prose is absolutely beautiful. If the literary world didn't look down on anything labelled SF he should win loads of awards. There are several other anthers that do societal and political stuff really well in an SF context (eg Ken MacLeod on left wing politics) but I don't think there is another author whose prose can match.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tonyh on 13 April, 2017, 01:15:28 pm
Finally getting around to reading The Life of Pi.

He's in the lifeboat now. V entertaining.  The first part of the book, where he is comparing religions, is hilarious.

And finished.

Very satisfying ending. I do like an author who doesn't wimp out. Will not spoil things for anyone else who wants to read the book (however, it is not for the squeamish). The end is also very funny and quite delightful, teasing the reader and the author.

Thanks MrC, interesting!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 13 April, 2017, 08:42:54 pm
2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson

As with all his books it says more about the human condition and society than almost all "literary fiction", and oh yes his prose is absolutely beautiful. If the literary world didn't look down on anything labelled SF he should win loads of awards. There are several other anthers that do societal and political stuff really well in an SF context (eg Ken MacLeod on left wing politics) but I don't think there is another author whose prose can match.

You remind me of a friend's comments, way back in the days of my callow youth, that SF was never literature. Summing up his argument in dismissing my suggested examples of literary SF, his circular reasoning was "SF Isn't literature. If a book can be described as literature, it isn't SF because SF sin't literature"

I am further reminded of the adulation that flows towards 'literary' authors when they come up with 'original' ideas that have been done to death by SF writers. 'Time's Arrow' was preceded by Dick's 'Counterclock World', and 'Children of Men' by Aldiss' 'Greybeard'.

And there is the story of George Lucas, in the middle of trying to sue 'Battlestar G' for plagiarism, receiving a call from the SFWA.

"Hi, George, it's the SF Writers of America here. How's the lawsuit going?"
"Why are you interested?"
"Well, if you win, we'll sue you for the same thing"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 April, 2017, 08:46:26 pm
The first of Mick Herron's "Slough House" spy thrillers. Promising.

Edit: It's the "Slow horses". And it's pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 13 April, 2017, 09:01:42 pm
Finished the latest Insp McLean book. Hurrah for Mrs McCutcheons cat, again.

Looking for something new and exciting to read. Until then, more Vera.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 13 April, 2017, 09:04:16 pm
Just finished Tram 83, which is odd in the way that books written in French can be (I didn't read it in French, I read a translation).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 April, 2017, 08:59:38 pm
John Connolly's "A game of ghosts", the latest Charlie Parker story.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 18 April, 2017, 09:52:10 pm
Finished the latest Insp McLean book. Hurrah for Mrs McCutcheons cat, again.

Looking for something new and exciting to read. Until then, more Vera.


Jo Walton's "Small Change" trilogy was pretty good, an alternate history with Britain sliding into Fascism in the 1940's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Change_trilogy
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 April, 2017, 11:26:29 am
pTerry and Stephen Baxter's "Long Earth" series, when my increasingly decrepit Kindle will let me.  Bloody thing's got droid rot and will be off to Silicon Heaven in the not too distant future.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 April, 2017, 01:20:35 pm
Having watched the flim with Mad Monk Mel, Harold G. Moore & Joe Galloway's "We were soldiers once, and young".  Not exactly lyrical, but absorbing. Haven't run across Mel's industrial strength godism yet: rather suspect I won't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 20 April, 2017, 12:56:33 pm
'The Forensic Records Society', the new Magnus Mills.  So far so good.  About a club meeting at the back of a pub to listen to records on vinyl. The rules of the society have been set. I'd be very surprised if they're not about to be challenged and broken.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 20 April, 2017, 03:54:21 pm
Franco Moretti's _Graphs, Maps, Trees_. This kind of quantative literary history may not be quite so revolutionary these days, but it's still very interesting and readable stuff. I've had this on my shelves for years (quite possibly the best part of a decade...) and only just got round to reading it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 20 April, 2017, 04:35:53 pm
Continuing my Stephen King marathon, I'm giving myself the willies with Pet Sematary now....  :o
EEK!
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 April, 2017, 05:10:53 pm
Continuing my Stephen King marathon, I'm giving myself the willies with Pet Sematary now....  :o
EEK!
(click to show/hide)

Pretty, pretty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 20 April, 2017, 09:28:58 pm
I'm currently binge reading Ed James' DC Scott Cullen series, up to book 6 so far. I don't seem to be able to get away from Edinburgh detectives.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob on 21 April, 2017, 07:37:48 am
I was trying to read The Bourne trilogy.  I gave up. I am really impressed that they managed to make 2 good and 1 decent movie out of that material, because it's absolutely awful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 21 April, 2017, 07:51:30 am
Continuing my Stephen King marathon, I'm giving myself the willies with Pet Sematary now....  :o
EEK!
(click to show/hide)

Pretty, pretty.
;D

"darling"...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 21 April, 2017, 09:29:59 am
I was trying to read The Bourne trilogy.  I gave up. I am really impressed that they managed to make 2 good and 1 decent movie out of that material, because it's absolutely awful.

I mangaed book one. Couldn't face any more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 April, 2017, 12:13:37 pm
Ludlum was definitely an author who would have benefited from the services of a determined editor.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 April, 2017, 01:33:57 pm
Preferably pre-conception.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 21 April, 2017, 02:43:33 pm
Here seems more appropriate than the rant thread...

There's a lovely bit in Steven Gould's Jumper[1] where the protagonist gets annoyed with a particularly poorly times scam call, so teleports into the scammers' building after-hours and re-programs the dialer robot with the employee phone directory.


[1] A YA science fiction story from the 1990s which is notable for attempting to do teleportation properly, as well as an unusually frank depiction of parental abuse.  I re-read it recently, after discovering a whole series had been written (and a disappointing film made) while I wasn't paying attention.

The film is crap

The book is rather brilliant, mostly for its portrayal of personal relationships, and the effects of domestic violence.

That's the one.  The whole series had a compelling combination of taking the teleportation ability to logical conclusions (the sort of thing that will be familiar to anyone who knows the SMBC peak superman comic (http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305) and the laws of thermodynamics), fucked-up personal relationships[1], and the ethical decisions that stem from those things.  And a much less compelling plot to keep things moving along.  Sadly the makers of the film picked up mostly on the latter, though there are plenty of subtle references to things from the books that are left completely unexplored.


[1] Impulse's handling of Cent's upbringing as the child of paranoid teleporting adults hiding from a well-resourced evil organisation is as good as Davy's relationship to his parents in Jumper.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Graeme on 21 April, 2017, 09:00:04 pm
Sapiens, A brief history of humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

Excellent it should be required reading in all secondary schools. Covers what is real and imaginary in society as well as gender and racial politics. How the human race got here from being an upright ape in Africa.

I'm reading this too. I love the pace of the writing and the humourous insights : 'new niches for imbeciles', but the relentless quoteability is beginning to grate. It it's starting to feel like a book of one liners - which it isn't - but managed to feel like anyway. Is it perhaps an existentialists handbook? I've found no room for love in it, beyond the biochemical. I need to read further.

My favourite bit so far was the observation that wheat has domesticated homo sapiens rather than the other way round.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 April, 2017, 12:55:04 am
"A Dark So Deadly", the latest offering from Stuart MacBride.  Not a Logan McRae but it still rains all the time.  Loadsa killin's.  We approve of this book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 April, 2017, 08:16:45 am
My favourite bit so far was the observation that wheat has domesticated homo sapiens rather than the other way round.

We're headed for the last Roundup.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 24 April, 2017, 08:51:26 am
The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison by Warren Fellows.  Remind me not to go heroin trafficking in Thailand any time soon, eh?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 24 April, 2017, 11:22:24 am
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/26/landskipping-painters-ploughmen-and-places-review-anna-pavord-constable-hardy

Only just started but seems enjoyably readable so far.  It probably helps if, like me, you have a reasonable knowledge of the landscapes in different bits of the U.K.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: arabella on 24 April, 2017, 09:58:42 pm
Have you come across Hoskins' 'the making of the english landscape'?

Meanwhile I am reading up on how to be a tudor.  The bit on rush floor coverings was fascinating 6" thick the layer was so comfy for sleeping on!, as was the bit on washing (précis: change the inside-most layer and wipe yourself down daily; actual washing is overrated.  I might try it next time im on a multiple day ride :-))
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 24 April, 2017, 11:40:01 pm
Youngest has come home from school this aft proudly clutching a copy of H2G2 from the school library. This after listening to most of the radio series on the journey to & from France.

As someone else said on here, I don't think we've done badly as parents . . .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 April, 2017, 01:51:33 am
"A Dark So Deadly", the latest offering from Stuart MacBride.  Not a Logan McRae but it still rains all the time.  Loadsa killin's.  We approve of this book.

Finished.  Magnumly DETHY and rainy even by Mr MacBride's elevated standards; also contains a dog called "Penguin" and the word "wankbadger".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 25 April, 2017, 10:51:46 am
Have you come across Hoskins' 'the making of the english landscape'?

Meanwhile I am reading up on how to be a tudor.  The bit on rush floor coverings was fascinating 6" thick the layer was so comfy for sleeping on!, as was the bit on washing (précis: change the inside-most layer and wipe yourself down daily; actual washing is overrated.  I might try it next time im on a multiple day ride :-))

No, I've not read Hoskins [quick Google] Sounds very interesting.
Re swabbing ones self, a read of some of the tales from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration reveals all sorts of stories about turning underpants inside out half way to the south pole, and changing them for the journey home etc. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 April, 2017, 11:33:31 am
"A Dark So Deadly", the latest offering from Stuart MacBride.  Not a Logan McRae but it still rains all the time.  Loadsa killin's.  We approve of this book.

Finished.  Magnumly DETHY and rainy even by Mr MacBride's elevated standards; also contains a dog called "Penguin" and the word "wankbadger".

Duly culled?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 April, 2017, 09:28:53 pm
"A Dark So Deadly", the latest offering from Stuart MacBride.  Not a Logan McRae but it still rains all the time.  Loadsa killin's.  We approve of this book.

Finished.  Magnumly DETHY and rainy even by Mr MacBride's elevated standards; also contains a dog called "Penguin" and the word "wankbadger".

Is that another Stonecastle one?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 April, 2017, 09:19:59 am
It's set in "Oldcastle" but doesn't have Ash Henderson.  In it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 27 April, 2017, 02:22:33 pm
The Crimson Petal And The White by Michel Faber.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 28 April, 2017, 01:57:30 pm
Having read a handful of Pterrys output I decided to do an alternating Pterry/ Tom Clancy marathon. Currently on Patriot Games. Next is Feet of Clay.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 28 April, 2017, 02:11:44 pm
In which Jack Ryan accidentally foils an assassination attempt on the Patrician, and joins the city watch to track down the leaders of a Provisional Golem Republican Army cell who attack his family?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 28 April, 2017, 02:17:59 pm
Thats the one :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 April, 2017, 10:11:49 pm
It's set in "Oldcastle" but doesn't have Ash Henderson.  In it.

Soz, getting Oldcastle confused with Stonemouth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jasmine on 04 May, 2017, 10:54:37 am
Perfect People by Peter James

Thinking of reading it based on quite good Amazon reviews? Just don't.  I don't know what book the reviewers on Amazon read, but sweet baby cheeses, that was shite. I persevered to the end, in the hope that there was an almighty plot twist that would forgive the frankly shocking writing style, stilted dialogue and stupid, irritating characters.  I was rewarded with a plot twist so obvious that a 5 year old could have guessed it - I'd seen it coming about 200 pages before it arrived.  I had, in a way, hoped that there might be a massacre at the end, given how completely un-relatable the main characters were. It was not rewarding.

I was particularly baffled by the number of times something bad happened where the solution to feel better about it was for the main characters to have sex.  An example of this includes: you find out that something has gone horribly wrong with your pregnancy. Perhaps I live on a different planet, but WTF - leave the gynae doctor, go home, sex it out? Really?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 May, 2017, 11:40:31 am
The whole "Enzo Files" series is pretty dire and not a little formulaic.  I think I commented on them somewhere up there ^^^^.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 04 May, 2017, 12:49:56 pm
The Power by Naomi Alderman.

All over the world, teenage girls are discovering they have a strip of muscle across their collarbones which generates electricity, which they can use to shock people with. Eventually they realise that all girls are born with this and they teach each other how to use it. Behold, a world where men are still (generally) bigger and stronger, but women have a way to fight back. Repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia are overthrown, governments set up male/female segregated schools to protect the boys, men complain at what they see as a reversal of the natural order of things...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 May, 2017, 01:33:07 pm
We are soldiers still - Hal Moore & Joe Galloway.  Their return with others to the field of a battle in Vietnam that convinced both sides that they could win the war.  We were soldiers describes the battle.  Both fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 04 May, 2017, 02:37:22 pm
I, Partridge. So many current comics/comedians these days cite it as the funniest book they have read, when I saw it in the library, I decided to give it a go.

It is very, very funny. It reminds me a little of Sue Townsend's style in the Adrian Mole books - which is entirely fitting - but it is all Partridge.

Recommended (if you find AP funny).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 04 May, 2017, 07:51:04 pm
The whole "Enzo Files" series is pretty dire and not a little formulaic.  I think I commented on them somewhere up there ^^^^.

That's Peter May  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 May, 2017, 09:05:04 am
So it is.  I hereby confess to teh Stupidz.

Currently revisiting the Logan McCrae series.  I'd forgotten just how nastily DETHY they are :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 May, 2017, 07:52:41 am
Just finished Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson. Second of a trilogy beginning with Europe in Autumn and ending with Winter, only I hope he adds more.  Really excellent near-future SF/espionage, very satisfying to read - they aren't long but by the end of Midnight I felt as if I had just read a 500-page Le Carré.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 May, 2017, 08:43:57 am
Stuart MacBride's 8th Logan McRae book (think it is Shatter The Bones).

It's sunny! Mostly!

This is after reading the latest Oldcastle one and then #7 of this series, as I realised I had missed a couple (I somehow managed to read 1,2,3,4,5,6,9)

As Mr L says, very deathy!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 17 May, 2017, 01:24:47 pm
No Picnic on Mount Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Picnic_on_Mount_Kenya)

Good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 17 May, 2017, 07:07:21 pm
Finished Homicide a year on the illing streets.  What became Homicide life on the streets and then the writer wrote the Wire.

Anyone want it?

Going to start on the martian...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 May, 2017, 10:35:42 am
No Picnic on Mount Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Picnic_on_Mount_Kenya)

Good read.

I read an article derived from that in Eagle, back in the 50s.  Escape to Climb it was called. It must have been inspired by the English translation of this book coming out.  Apparently there's a film, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 18 May, 2017, 10:38:38 am
No Picnic on Mount Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Picnic_on_Mount_Kenya)

Good read.

I read an article derived from that in Eagle, back in the 50s.  Escape to Climb it was called. It must have been inspired by the English translation of this book coming out.  Apparently there's a film, too.
So there was !  The Ascent (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109157/)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 May, 2017, 10:57:24 am
All of Iain Bank's Culture novels again, in order. Just finished "Matter"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 May, 2017, 11:15:01 am
No Picnic on Mount Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Picnic_on_Mount_Kenya)

Good read.

I read an article derived from that in Eagle, back in the 50s.  Escape to Climb it was called. It must have been inspired by the English translation of this book coming out.  Apparently there's a film, too.
So there was !  The Ascent (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109157/)

"Highly fictionalized" - I suppose it's inevitable.  In that line I liked North Face (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844457/?ref_=nv_sr_1).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 18 May, 2017, 11:28:09 am
Inconceivable by Ben Elton.
I'd kind of gone off Ben Elton books for a bit, he was getting a bit insufferable.
This had me sniggering to myself.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 18 May, 2017, 03:18:01 pm
Jerusalem by Simon Teabag Monticristo (or something like that), and gosh, what a historically-weighty book! Full of foreign names (obvs!) but peppered with tons of * and subsequent ‡ and †. Doing my head in!


^ I think that endorsement should have been on the back cover.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 18 May, 2017, 03:32:59 pm
All of Iain Bank's Culture novels again, in order.

+1

I'm doing a lot of reading at the moment, on account of it not involving bearing weight on my road rash.  Seems like as good a time as any to get round to the Culture series...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 18 May, 2017, 04:02:19 pm
Inconceivable by Ben Elton.
I'd kind of gone off Ben Elton books for a bit, he was getting a bit insufferable.
This had me sniggering to myself.

Made in to a film with Hugh laurie.  The sex scene on hampstead is funny.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 May, 2017, 10:30:01 pm
For fans of Charles Stross's "Laundry Files" the first chapter of "The Delirium Brief" is available at http://io9.gizmodo.com/read-the-entire-first-chapter-of-charles-stross-new-lau-1795171364


Novel released on 13/07/17


(http://www.antipope.org/charlie/pix/TDB/delirium_brief-tor-400w.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 19 May, 2017, 11:21:40 pm
Ooh!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 20 May, 2017, 11:04:10 pm
Having just finished 'Feet Of Clay' (An good bit of writing by Ptrerry), I am now on to 'Cardinal of The Kremlin' by Mr Clancy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 21 May, 2017, 04:15:11 pm
Re reading The ragged trousered philanthropist just to remind me why I vote the way I do.   8)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 22 May, 2017, 09:37:24 am
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/26/landskipping-painters-ploughmen-and-places-review-anna-pavord-constable-hardy

Only just started but seems enjoyably readable so far.  It probably helps if, like me, you have a reasonable knowledge of the landscapes in different bits of the U.K.

Finally finished this last night.  It's in three sections
* The first is mainly of interest if you're fairly clued up about literature and the history of art, otherwise it's a bit of an exercise in name dropping but still interesting if you happen to know the places they painted (Scottish Highlands, Snowdonia, The Lakes etc.)
* The second is all about how farming has shaped our landscape.  Interesting to me, but the author has particular views which I didn't necessarily agree with.
* The third appears to be a dull persona diatribe about the landscape of Dorset where the author lives and how bloody wonderful it is.

Summary, 6/10.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 23 May, 2017, 08:55:19 am
Ah, Kindle, you've changed something about our relationship with books. This probably ought to be in the "feckin' div" place....

I'm in a "not much time for reading" phase atm. Last thing at night I read a little, at the moment and for quite a while I've been reading what seemed to be a very well written book, as good as stuff written by le Carre. Last night I thought I'd check to see just what it was I was reading. A most wanted man, by Le Carre  :facepalm:

And then I remembered, that choice was spurred on by the reading of Absolute Friends, a masterpiece of a book by  le Carre that, amongst other characteristics, presages the blurring of lines between public and private militia and quasi governmental bodies, touching on the consequences of mixing patriotism and profit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 May, 2017, 06:15:40 pm
Dark Side Of The Sun ~ Terry Pratchett.  pTerry takes a stab at a Culture novel, misses.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 23 May, 2017, 06:29:01 pm
Currently reading "Cowboys and Indians" by Ed James, due to a lack of any other crime fiction.

Don't know why I bother, though, Stuart MacBride he ain't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 23 May, 2017, 07:15:39 pm
Dark Side Of The Sun ~ Terry Pratchett.  pTerry takes a stab at a Culture novel, misses.

Which implies that pTerry had the gift of the second sight, as well as the gab, because The Dark Side of the Sun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Sun) was published 11 years before Consider Phlebas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas).   :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 23 May, 2017, 09:31:34 pm
Consider Phlebas[/url]

Which, incidentally I've just finished.

It wasn't terrible, but I can't help the feeling I've grown out of that sort of thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 May, 2017, 08:00:04 am
Have you tried The Wasp Factory?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 May, 2017, 08:06:22 am
Dark Side Of The Sun ~ Terry Pratchett.  pTerry takes a stab at a Culture novel, misses.

Which implies that pTerry had the gift of the second sight, as well as the gab, because The Dark Side of the Sun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Sun) was published 11 years before Consider Phlebas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas).   :demon:

A mere trifle ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 24 May, 2017, 08:22:26 am
Patriot Games by Tom Clancy.

It's set in the era of IRA terrorism and in that aspect it brings back the paranoia and fear of that era very well. Supporting roles by Charles and Di back in the day. It's all a bit blokey really. Alpha males trying to protect the pack, technical specs from fighter plane manuals, that sort of thing. Mildly diverting if you're looking for some procrastination aids.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 24 May, 2017, 01:54:55 pm
Patriot Games by Tom Clancy.

It's set in the era of IRA terrorism and in that aspect it brings back the paranoia and fear of that era very well. Supporting roles by Charles and Di back in the day. It's all a bit blokey really. Alpha males trying to protect the pack, technical specs from fighter plane manuals, that sort of thing. Mildly diverting if you're looking for some procrastination aids.

My kinda book really (I finished it a few weeks ago as part of my blokey/ Pterry alternating book marathon)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 24 May, 2017, 07:09:08 pm
The new Jo Nesbo Harry Hole, The Thirst
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 May, 2017, 08:47:05 am
The new Jo Nesbo Harry Hole, The Thirst

It's been sitting on the kitchen table for weeks now.  Definitely up next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 26 May, 2017, 12:46:23 pm
Today's Graun has an extract from the coming prequel to His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 May, 2017, 02:08:01 pm
:thumbsup:

Shame they buggered up the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 28 May, 2017, 06:53:24 am
just finished re-reading The Bourne Identity, a good airport/flight distraction. May add the next two onto my fondleslab as well

Whilst in Sweden last week I read a Ray Mears - The Real Heroes of Telemark - a cracking yarn, and well written with the obvious focus on the outdoorsness. 
At the moment reading another Ray Mears - His autobiog, and have another couple on the shelf at home (second hand copies of beautiful hardbacks bought for pennies)
Also reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A Heinlein - I love the old 50s/60s SF

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 May, 2017, 07:16:20 pm
The new Jo Nesbo Harry Hole, The Thirst

Just finished this, having spent the last couple of hundred pages convinced that person X was heavily involved in the killin's and it turned out to be person Y.  I just hope Bjørn's Volvo is OK.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 31 May, 2017, 10:17:45 am
Finally got round to reading 'Regeneration'.

Hmm. Pretty lightweight compared to most of Pat Barker's other novels (of which I am a fan). Usually her novels leave me feeling emotionally wrung out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 31 May, 2017, 11:51:05 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Cups_of_Tea

Three Cups of Tea by David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortensen. 

Enjoyable so far, but apparently controversial.  See Wiki link above.

[Edit: finished it.  V good.  Interesting, topical, discussion about how good reliable, balanced education helps fight the well funded radical schools propped up by the Saudis and is a far better use of taxpayer dollars than warmongering.]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 31 May, 2017, 12:03:36 pm
Let the Right One In.  Only just beginning.  Enjoying it!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 31 May, 2017, 03:43:02 pm
"My Cross to Bear" Gregg Allman's autobiography.

He doesn't pull any punches and seems to be pretty honest about his own failings. His love of the music shines through though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 05 June, 2017, 03:41:21 pm
Well it was Peter Jame's latest Roy Grace outing, "Need you dead". But only for 120 pages where I found I really didn't care, too much personal drama and not enough detection, and skipped to the end to see who did it, and discover the next drama that affect his personal life  ::-).  Now onto Jeffery Deavers latest Lincoln Rhyme, "The burial hour".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 June, 2017, 07:25:33 pm
Woo-hoo!  I haz "Love Like Blood", the latest from Mark Billingham, cued up.  And yes, it's a proper Thorne :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 June, 2017, 07:49:02 pm
The second part of Andrew Cartmel's Vinyl Detective trilogy, The Run-out Groove.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 16 June, 2017, 08:30:16 am
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

very different to the film.
 
When I was reading it in a restaurant last week (on my own) the waitress asked me what I was reading.

 Cue brief exchange, blank look from her. 

Me: you know the film Blade Runner, it was based on this

Cue more blank looks.  Am I getting old?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 16 June, 2017, 09:01:59 am
Woo-hoo!  I haz "Love Like Blood", the latest from Mark Billingham, cued up.  And yes, it's a proper Thorne :thumbsup:

Holiday read sorted then :-)
Is it the sequel to the last one about the support group ?  That gripped me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 June, 2017, 11:51:18 am
The support group stuff does get a mention in passing but this one's about so-called "honour killin's".  Two so far (though the boyfriend of victim #2 is unlikely to turn up safe and well) but I'm only on page 99.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 June, 2017, 10:32:49 pm
The second part of Andrew Cartmel's Vinyl Detective trilogy, The Run-out Groove.

Ooh good, it must be out then :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 18 June, 2017, 10:44:10 pm
Re reading The ragged trousered philanthropist just to remind me why I vote the way I do.   8)

Acquired a replacement copy myself recently. How relevant it is today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 18 June, 2017, 11:28:41 pm
Yes, the politics is sound.  Regrettably, it's also my style of decorating.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 18 June, 2017, 11:44:30 pm
I've been reading the Sharpe books in chronological order, and have read the first twelve. Sort of ground to a halt as the next one (Sharpe's Company) has the reappearance of Hakeswill, a baddy so evil that he has no redeeming features at all (except he was played by Peter Postlethwaite in the TV series) that I'm going to struggle to read it.
Just lined up The Flame Bearer, the latest in the Last Kingdom series, Total Control by David Baladacci and Midshipman Bolitho and the 'Avenger'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 June, 2017, 07:01:43 am
Justin Cronin having added a third book to his The Passage opus, I'm re-reading the first one and searching our shelves, sofas & sundry horizontal surfaces for the second. It's in there somewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 June, 2017, 10:03:49 am
Justin Cronin having added a third book to his The Passage opus, I'm re-reading the first one and searching our shelves, sofas & sundry horizontal surfaces for the second. It's in there somewhere.

I was just thinking it was about time I checked on thr progress of vol. 3.  Spook!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 June, 2017, 10:01:42 am
Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles lacked the latest volume by Mr Cronin so I am now on "Into The Black", Rowland "Vulcan 607" White's account of the birth of the Space Shuttle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 21 June, 2017, 10:46:12 am
The Midnight Gang by David Walliams. 

A bit beneath my reading age tbh but my 8 year old insisted I read it.  Good so far - easy reading and gently humorous.  If nothing else, I'll be able to have sensible discussions with MicroQ about it.

Edit - finished it.  Very good.  Not overly complex.  Good for 8 year olds.
Plot
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 23 June, 2017, 12:48:52 pm
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

very different to the film.
 
When I was reading it in a restaurant last week (on my own) the waitress asked me what I was reading.

 Cue brief exchange, blank look from her. 

Me: you know the film Blade Runner, it was based on this

Cue more blank looks.  Am I getting old?

No you aren't getting old. The waitress has been spectacularly fialed by those that brought he rup.

No.1 Son has stolen my copy of the soundtrack and watches the film regularly.

No.2 Son watches the film and spends money on things like replicas of Deckards handgun as decoration for his room. he even bought a naked resin version of the gun and spent hours painting it up. Did a good job as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 24 June, 2017, 07:40:48 pm
I do hope he's seen Adam Savage's Youtube spot about how he built his replica by buying the Mannlicher and Ruger weapons on which the original was based, and butchering them as per the prop?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 26 June, 2017, 01:50:05 pm
I don't know if he has so I shall bring it to his attention :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 28 June, 2017, 09:29:36 am
Finally finished Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy. Been meaning to do this for a long time.

That's grim. So grim.

Need to get hold of her Union street books now, and I'll have read all of her books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 28 June, 2017, 12:49:25 pm
Coincidence. I've just started re-reading Regeneration. First time round it affected me considerably. I expect to be finishing it next week on a beach in Thassos - not sure if that will make it more bearable or ruin my holiday.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 29 June, 2017, 12:13:36 pm
Just started No cunning plan - Tony Robinson's memoirs. £1.79 on kindle at the moment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 04 July, 2017, 11:58:08 am
The library didn't have any of the Union Street books, so I read The Martian instead (finally). That's a good lightweight read.

Now reading 'The rapture of the nerds', a collaboration between Charles Stross and Cory Doctrow. Its just as daft and silly as you might expect, or require.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 04 July, 2017, 05:54:21 pm
I've just pre ordered the next Damian Boyd, Heads or Tails. No doubt more detective work on the Somerset Levels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 04 July, 2017, 05:55:55 pm
Just started No cunning plan - Tony Robinson's memoirs. £1.79 on kindle at the moment.

Missed it :(. Its now more expensive than the paperback edition!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 04 July, 2017, 09:26:54 pm
Two thirds of the way through KSR's Red Mars - not read this one before though I did read either Blue or Green about 15 years ago, not sure which.

I know I have Blue Mars on the bookcase but I'm not sure if I have Green.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 07 July, 2017, 10:30:35 am
I recently finished Clover Moon by Jacqueline Wilson at the insistence of my 8 year old.  It was very good, and ties win the the Hetty Feather books too, in case you're after something an 8 year old girl might like.

Onto more adult subjects I'm currently 80% of the way through The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz.  It's very good, and tells the story of, er, a long walk to escape the soviet labour camps of Siberia.  However, a quick Google suggests it's all a load of balls.  Nonetheless, the guy spent an interesting life:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/may/05/guardianobituaries
BUT (from Wiki)
"The missing link came through documents discovered by an American researcher, Linda Willis, in Polish and Russian archives. One, in Rawicz's own hand described how he was released from the gulag in 1942, apparently as part of a general amnesty for Polish soldiers. These are backed up by his amnesty document and a permit to travel to rejoin the Polish Army. These papers make it almost impossible to believe that Rawicz escaped, unless there is a case of mistaken identity. However, the name and place and date of birth all match. The documents also show that rather than being imprisoned on trumped-up charges as he claimed, Rawicz was actually sent to the gulag for killing an officer with the NKVD, the forerunner of the Soviet secret police, the KGB. "
There is some thought that Rawicz essentially re-told another person's story of a long walk to freedom.  Either way, it is an engagingly written story, even if it is probably fiction.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 07 July, 2017, 01:56:16 pm
I read The Long Walk as a teenager, probably not that long after it came out.  Even with almost zero knowledge of the USSR at the time, it seemed a bit unlikely, to me.  But it was a very gripping read, especially to one who loved Jack London and real life tales such as that of Shackleton, whose tale also seems unlikely but is verifiable.  I seem to remember reading a similar story about an overland escape from Russia a little later, which seemed plausible, but I can't remember the title!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 July, 2017, 04:06:15 pm
I've wanted to read that ever since noted primatologist John Napier gave its credibility a thorough shoeing for, among other things, Rawicz' description of his encounter with a couple of Yetis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 July, 2017, 04:59:02 pm
I read that years ago. Good read.

I should think that if Rawicz had killed an NKVD officer they'd had given him one in the back of the head rather than sending him to the gulag. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: De Sisti on 07 July, 2017, 05:38:42 pm
Music Theory for Dummies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 July, 2017, 08:25:10 pm
Justin Cronin having added a third book to his The Passage opus, I'm re-reading the first one and searching our shelves, sofas & sundry horizontal surfaces for the second. It's in there somewhere.

Having now ploughed through all 800 pages of "The City Of Mirrors" I'm rather afraid I'm going to have to re-visit vols 1 & 2 just to get the cast straight in my head-branes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 July, 2017, 09:35:48 am
I re-read the first two first. Just finished tCoM. Liked it overall, but I'm still mulling over whether I liked the end or not.

After reading the whole saga I now feel somewhat bereft. WFT am I going to do for a book?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 12 July, 2017, 11:01:04 am
How to be good by Nick Hornby.

I found it on the bookshelf and Mrs Q denies any knowledge of it so it's getting a read before a visit to the charity shop.  It's okay, vaguely funny and it poses some interesting questions on whether the kind of middle class lives people lead are good only in terms of the protagonists' own indoctrinated expectations but not in terms of providing soul developing fulfillment.  Maybe that's enough for most people, who just want to go to work, provide for their families and occasionally complain to their MP rather than actually Do Something About It.
The book provides entertainment.  I'm hoping for something more enlightening but not expecting to find it therein.
Marks: 3 out of 5.

edit: craftily ambiguous ending but otherwise nothing exciting.  Now reading The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 24 July, 2017, 11:33:03 am
Currently re-reading the excellent English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. It's an enjoyably funny historical novel set in the early to mid 19th century. Sadly, it also charts the destruction of the Tasmanian aboriginals and they terrible treatment by the white man.
4/5. Well worth a read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 July, 2017, 12:36:52 pm
Aye, but at least they died Christian so really they were blessed. Bloody missionaries.

Anyway, I'm on another of Seb Faulks's war novels, Where my Heart Used to Beat.   WW2 this time. Up to scratch.  Reminded me a bit of The Magus at first, but only superficially.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 24 July, 2017, 01:10:43 pm
For reasons as noted elsewhere I have started re-reading Simon Bond's Monsieur Pamplemousse books on my kindle, I was wondering how they would survive the close on 30 year gap since I last made their acquaintance.

First the backdrop: 30 years ago I was a foodie francophile with an adoration (in no particular order) for Paris, dogs, writing of PG Wodehouse & T Pratchett, cars, bikes. It was no wonder that the author of the Paddington books would draw me in with books set in Paris, around food, with a lead character who had a dog and a 2CV.

Pamplemouse is an ex-surete inspector for "Le Guide", a fictional competitor of Michelin and Gault Millau, who travels France with his companion and partner in establishment evaluation and crime solving: a bloodhound called Pommes Frites. They stumble from incident to incident, and can be guaranteed to go from dans la merde to unexpected success, often without realising either.

How would the books age? Well, on re-reading critically, five books in, I can say that the writing improves from the first volume as the series develops. They are never going to be great literature, but they are jolly good lighthearted fun, still. Pamplemousse is a composite Clouseau-Wodehouse-Paddington Bear figure, the perfect foil for Michael Bond's uncanny ability to build a custard pie scene to a crescendo. Bond weaves in fascinating food and wine related knowledge which, as far as I know, was based on his own interests, along with the Parisian and French backdrop.

I've just about reached the point where I probably stopped reading the series first time out, although to be fair the detail isn't that memorable and I can re-read them happily as if for the first time. My verdict? Perfect holiday reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 24 July, 2017, 03:08:29 pm
Hmm, interesting - hadn't heard of these, but they sound like just the thing for the holidays...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 25 July, 2017, 08:09:40 am
The War with Cape Horn by Alan Villiers. An amazing account of a world that has long passed us by, that of tall ships making their living (just) by trading between Europe and the West coast of the Americas at the turn of the last century.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 July, 2017, 08:59:45 am
The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby deals with the end of that world.  Although, according to Wiki, tall ships still plied the route in 1948/49.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Grain_Race
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 25 July, 2017, 10:31:05 am
:-)  That's one of the few books I've read to the point of its falling apart.

My current read is built from many sources and gives some idea of the scale of the losses and sheer heroism of some of the people involved. Staggering.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 25 July, 2017, 12:00:53 pm
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.  Intriguing so far...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 July, 2017, 01:33:32 pm
:-)  That's one of the few books I've read to the point of its falling apart.

My current read is built from many sources and gives some idea of the scale of the losses and sheer heroism of some of the people involved. Staggering.

My father would have been away to sea as a lad if he hadn't had lousy eyes. I think the entire sailing section of the Belfast Central Library must had passed through our house, and he often hauled me over of an evening to have my ear bent. Some of it rubbed off, but not to that extent.  He didn't like the Newby book, though - thought the bloke was a facetious lightweight or some such.  I mostly remember the bit about the handkerchief in the underground.

Come to think of it, we did have at least one real sailor in the family.  He was master of the barque Roma, out of Derry to Nova Scotia in the 1890s, I think. Got himself embayed on a lee shore, refused help to avoid salvage claims, and went down with his ship and all hands. Stubborn idiot.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 14 August, 2017, 11:15:03 am
Fahrenheit 451.  Covertly ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 August, 2017, 12:51:17 pm
Seveneves ~ Neal Stephenson.  Early doors yet, but it's difficult to believe this is from the same author wot done "Cryptonomicon" :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 August, 2017, 01:11:23 pm
Or even Anathem. That was good.

I've been reading The 100-year old man who climbed out of his window and disappeared by Snorri Sturluson or some other such Scandahoovian chronicle-monger*. A jolly, sunny, optimistic romp, unlike most Nordics. Enjoyable.

*Jonas Jonasson, that's the bloke.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 14 August, 2017, 01:21:10 pm
Yes.  If you're looking for more of the same, I think The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden was just a little bit too silly, but nonetheless amusing in many parts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 August, 2017, 07:06:23 pm
Mr Jonasson's third offering is as good as his first, but I can't remember the title because Miss von Brandenburg still has it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 14 August, 2017, 08:22:09 pm
:-)  That's one of the few books I've read to the point of its falling apart.

My current read is built from many sources and gives some idea of the scale of the losses and sheer heroism of some of the people involved. Staggering.

My father would have been away to sea as a lad if he hadn't had lousy eyes. I think the entire sailing section of the Belfast Central Library must had passed through our house, and he often hauled me over of an evening to have my ear bent. Some of it rubbed off, but not to that extent.  He didn't like the Newby book, though - thought the bloke was a facetious lightweight or some such.  I mostly remember the bit about the handkerchief in the underground.

Come to think of it, we did have at least one real sailor in the family.  He was master of the barque Roma, out of Derry to Nova Scotia in the 1890s, I think. Got himself embayed on a lee shore, refused help to avoid salvage claims, and went down with his ship and all hands. Stubborn idiot.

I liked Newby's account; he had a foot in both worlds so probably did irritate some people. 'Two Years Before the Mast' by Dana is hard to beat IMO. What a life!

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4277/pg4277.html
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 14 August, 2017, 09:24:08 pm
Got a copy of 'Narrow Dog To Carcassone' by Terry Darlington.

It's a stream of conciousness narrative that includes many witty observations (and some damning indictments of modern British society) telling the story of an epic crossing of the Channel in a narrowboat, beginning from Stone in Staffs and traversing France & Belgium, ending on the Canal du Midi.

Can't decide whether it was brave or foolish. Or both. Very entertaining so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 August, 2017, 11:01:02 am
I am actually combining work and pleasure by reading "The Phoenix Project" by Gene Kim et al.

It's no work of literary excellence, but it is very good at explaining what DevOps is trying to fix.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 August, 2017, 11:17:35 am
:-)  That's one of the few books I've read to the point of its falling apart.

My current read is built from many sources and gives some idea of the scale of the losses and sheer heroism of some of the people involved. Staggering.

My father would have been away to sea as a lad if he hadn't had lousy eyes. I think the entire sailing section of the Belfast Central Library must had passed through our house, and he often hauled me over of an evening to have my ear bent. Some of it rubbed off, but not to that extent.  He didn't like the Newby book, though - thought the bloke was a facetious lightweight or some such.  I mostly remember the bit about the handkerchief in the underground.

Come to think of it, we did have at least one real sailor in the family.  He was master of the barque Roma, out of Derry to Nova Scotia in the 1890s, I think. Got himself embayed on a lee shore, refused help to avoid salvage claims, and went down with his ship and all hands. Stubborn idiot.

I liked Newby's account; he had a foot in both worlds so probably did irritate some people. 'Two Years Before the Mast' by Dana is hard to beat IMO. What a life!

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4277/pg4277.html

Yes, I liked that one. I remember reading somewhere that Dan's enthusing about riding horses on the beach was a euphemism for riding something that sounds a bit like horse but more like Aubry's bankers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 August, 2017, 11:20:18 am
Yes.  If you're looking for more of the same, I think The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden was just a little bit too silly, but nonetheless amusing in many parts.
Mr Jonasson's third offering is as good as his first, but I can't remember the title because Miss von Brandenburg still has it.

Ta. Will take a gander. 

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 August, 2017, 11:30:27 am
Got a copy of 'Narrow Dog To Carcassone' by Terry Darlington.

It's a stream of conciousness narrative that includes many witty observations (and some damning indictments of modern British society) telling the story of an epic crossing of the Channel in a narrowboat, beginning from Stone in Staffs and traversing France & Belgium, ending on the Canal du Midi.

Can't decide whether it was brave or foolish. Or both. Very entertaining so far.

This Unit also recommends "Narrow Dog To Indian River", in which Mr and Mrs Darlington and Jim have the Phyllis May shipped across the Atlantic and cruise the Intracoastal Waterway from the bottom end of Cheesypeas Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

Sadly, not long after the completion of the above trip the Phyllis May burned to the waterline while moored back at Stone.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 17 August, 2017, 12:15:49 am
Like I said, some damning indictments of modern British society . . .  >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 August, 2017, 07:59:47 pm
I am reading The Bickford Fuse by Andrey Kurkov.

Normally I like his books, however this one is so deadly dull in that existentially 'worthy' sort of manner. I found myself looking at the % read bit on the Kindle last night and groaned. I normally try and power through, but fuck it, I'm not at work, I'm on holiday!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 21 August, 2017, 09:11:24 pm
Expeditionary Force - Craig Alanson:

http://www.audible.co.uk/series?asin=B01N1NWMX6&source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011X

Only on audiobook, because: R C Bray.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nightrider on 21 August, 2017, 09:39:11 pm
The very hungry caterpillar. This book has excellent ecological ethos but also has a surprising twist in its tail. I don't want to elaborate so you will just have to read it yourself.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 22 August, 2017, 09:29:42 am
Non-violence. The history of a dangerous idea by Mark Kurlansky.
I'm re-reading this.  It tells a repeating tale of religion being usurped for the purposes of warmongering. (Are you listening Tony Blair? ::-))  The book has its flaws but is an interesting discussion on how non-violence is not the same as complete pacifism, with examples - most of whom got killed by violet people :facepalm:

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 22 August, 2017, 09:51:21 pm
Non-violence. The history of a dangerous idea by Mark Kurlansky.
I'm re-reading this.  It tells a repeating tale of religion being usurped for the purposes of warmongering. (Are you listening Tony Blair? ::-))  The book has its flaws but is an interesting discussion on how non-violence is not the same as complete pacifism, with examples - most of whom got killed by violet people :facepalm:



It's all that purple prose.

(Wasn't it Terry Pratchett who said " the only thing more dangerous than people seeking the truth are those who think they have found it?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Deano on 22 August, 2017, 10:02:06 pm
A Dog in a Hat, an American Bike Racer's Story of Mud Drugs, Beauty in Betrayal in Belguim by Joe Parkin.

About a quarter of the way in, and so far, brilliant. Most cycling autobiographies are quite anodyne, but he's far enough down the tree that it doesn't matter, and he just tells it like it was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 24 August, 2017, 03:17:24 pm
"The light of future days" by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter

Near the beginning it has this:
Quote
In 2010, social unrest and climatic collapse forced Britain out of the European Union, and United Kingdom fell apart, Scotland going its own separate way.

The book was released in 2000

Prophetic?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 August, 2017, 03:46:13 pm
^^^OTOH I read one recently in which many countries had left the EU but the UK had remained steadfast and held the rest together.

Or was that Cameron's manifesto...?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 27 August, 2017, 06:55:55 pm
"The light of future days" by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter

Near the beginning it has this:
Quote
In 2010, social unrest and climatic collapse forced Britain out of the European Union, and United Kingdom fell apart, Scotland going its own separate way.

The book was released in 2000

Prophetic?

Not prophetic but a fabulous read nevertheless.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 27 August, 2017, 09:18:58 pm
Just finished Kim Stanley Robinsons latest New York 2140. Set in a NYC flooded after catastrophic climate change has flooded Manhattan & turned it into a new Venice. It took me ages to finish this, I don't know why because it's well done (apart from the 2 cute urchins  :sick: ) and has a lot going on that's relevant. Another disaster hits, thousands homeless, entire blocks of homes empty & guarded by goons protecting property  >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 27 August, 2017, 09:30:34 pm
So pretty much current UK SOCIETY . . .
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 30 August, 2017, 08:20:57 am
Sorry to bring this up again but Stephen Baxter's 'Flood' is scary near-future post-apocalypse scariness par excellence  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 August, 2017, 09:26:13 am
And then there's KSR's 40 Days of Rain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 30 August, 2017, 11:43:27 am
Moon Dust by Andrew Smith. 'In search of the men who fell to Earth'

Published in 2005 when 9 of the 12 Moonwalkers survived. In the book, Smith tries to track down and interview the remaining Moonwalkers and find out how the experience left them.

So far I have read about Edgar Mitchell, Buzz Aldrin and neil Armstrong. I am currently reading about Alan Bean.

For a child of the Apollo years, this is a good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 30 August, 2017, 01:11:31 pm
Having finished reading 'Narrow Dog to Carcassonne ' I have ordered the other two books, 'Indian River' and 'Wigan Pier'

Terry Darlington writes superbly if a little chaotic in style. His lack of quotation marks often means having to re-read passages if you didn't get the sense first time round. This is not a criticism and, for someone used to reading Douglas Adams, neither is it unusual.

I have also finished a book about cycling authored by one of our own parishioners. No. Not that one. Yes, I do have a copy and no, you'll have to wait until it's published*


*Pretty sure that it's the only book that includes me in the narrative but don't let that put you off!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 30 August, 2017, 01:34:54 pm
Fanny Hill.

I can't decide whether I like it or not. The sex is okay, but I find it weird reading about the supposed exploits of a young girl, written by a man.

It's also unsettling that she's supposed to be 14 or 15. Does that matter if it was all made up and written in 1748? I don't know what the age of consent was then, but my 21st C sensibilities are uncomforted by her age.

I borrowed it because they didn't have Bleak House in the library on the day I went, then I spotted FH and remembered hearing a little bit* of it being read by someone on tv recently.

(*Nearly wrote 'snatch')
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 August, 2017, 04:46:40 pm
It was what you might call biologically determined - once you were capable that was it.  FWIW the age of consent in France is 15. Is it still 16 in the UK?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 30 August, 2017, 04:58:24 pm
I read The Long Walk as a teenager, probably not that long after it came out.  Even with almost zero knowledge of the USSR at the time, it seemed a bit unlikely, to me.  But it was a very gripping read, especially to one who loved Jack London and real life tales such as that of Shackleton, whose tale also seems unlikely but is verifiable.  I seem to remember reading a similar story about an overland escape from Russia a little later, which seemed plausible, but I can't remember the title!

Read it at school, still have a copy on my bookshelf, but not yet persuaded daughter to read it.  I imagine, much as Papillon or Banco, there is some level of artistic interpretation

Kim Stanley Robinson - I have Sixty Days and Counting on my bookshelf, read the first 2 chapters, gave up, not in the mood.  May try again later.

Recently for me
1) Antony Beevor's Ardennes write up
2) The Third World War, The Untold Story - a 1980's set and written book by a British ex-general and others, fascinating as I was living in Germany with my dad in the RAF at the time
3) Dead Or Alive  - Tom Clancy - America Saves the World, again, OK for a holiday read and killing time after work while away
4) almost finished HMS Ulysses with my son, still a cracking read and boy's own stuff
5) Now Reading Surface Detail by Iain M Banks, on of the few of his I've not read before, typically brilliant and recommended to someone I was working with last week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 August, 2017, 05:25:38 pm
The latest Parker Bilal "Makana" story, Dark Water.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 30 August, 2017, 05:26:40 pm
Apocalypse Baby - Virginie Despentes

To continue my tradition of reading a novel from the country I am on holiday in (last year in Italy it was Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa's "The Leopard") I tried this French novel.
Was interesting, it's been described as a nihilst feminist read trip which is probably about right. I thought it was trying a little too hard at times but maybe that was just the translation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 August, 2017, 05:25:18 am
I have finished Seveneves.  Very poor, Mr Stephenson.  Go back and re-read Cryptonomicon and then tell me this is in any way better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 31 August, 2017, 08:09:10 am
Harry Turtledove's Supervolcano: Eruption.  Not bad but a bit light on the geology, though not misleading or inaccurate.  The Beeb's Supervolcano does the geology more thoroughly, but HT has two sequels about what happens to the world afterwards.

Found myself wondering what the effect might be if NK managed to lob a nuke into Yellowstone's tender parts. As a Doomsday Machine it'd be hard to beat, given a big enough nuke.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 31 August, 2017, 10:14:41 pm
I'm guessing the Third World War one was Sir John Hackett's thingy - I think I've only read his first one (which IIRC has the same plot; the untold story one is an expanded version.) I remember it being interesting, though it was obviously written to lobby for bolstering NATO conventional defences.

On Fanny Hill; I recall from _One More Kilometer and we're in the Showers_ (in just one of its many entertaining digressions) that the Oxford historian Christopher Hill called his daughter Fanny. At the time (1930s/40s) this remained his private joke, as he was one of the few people in the country to have read the book; it wasn't available in print, but he'd read the Bodleian's copy...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 01 September, 2017, 12:38:52 pm
The idiot brain : a neuroscientist explains what your head is really up to by Dean Burnett. So far, it's good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 September, 2017, 03:40:49 pm
It's Numskulls, isn't it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 02 September, 2017, 11:24:05 am
Jay MacInerney's "Bright Precious Days ".  Angst & infidelity amongst the  New York elite.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 September, 2017, 12:31:24 pm
It's Numskulls, isn't it?

No, that's a biography of D Trump.

Take THAT, NSA!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 02 September, 2017, 12:58:44 pm
It's Numskulls, isn't it?

No, that's a biography of D Trump.

Take THAT, NSA!

Nah, in Il Douche's case, instead of homunculi, there's one of those clockwork monkeys bashing cymbals together.  :demon:

https://media.giphy.com/media/BBkKEBJkmFbTG/giphy.gif
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 03 September, 2017, 09:30:00 pm
I'm guessing the Third World War one was Sir John Hackett's thingy - I think I've only read his first one (which IIRC has the same plot; the untold story one is an expanded version.) I remember it being interesting, though it was obviously written to lobby for bolstering NATO conventional defences

Yes that's the one.

Now finished Surface Detail, as with most Iain m Banks stuff, I think I will need to reread it at some point t.

Also finished HMS Ulyses this evening, need to think of what to read to/with my son next
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jack Standish on 05 September, 2017, 08:07:46 am
tried reading Mickey Spillaine. lauged so hard my sided hurt. And people were into this kind of stuff? it's not even pulp. Chandler is pulp, Mike Hammer's wank fantasies are just supid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 September, 2017, 10:03:05 am
Now finished Surface Detail, as with most Iain m Banks stuff, I think I will need to reread it at some point t.

One of my favourites, that.  I'll maybe do the Banks canon again soon, if I can find them all. I think my daughter half-inched a couple.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 07 September, 2017, 10:25:05 am
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/legacy-of-spies-john-le-carre-review


A new le Carre novel.  Sounds like revisiting "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" might be a good idea before reading this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 07 September, 2017, 11:23:14 am
Having finished Moon Dust which I found quite interesting and revealing in relation to the personailties of the remaining moonwalkers, I am now on to Carrying the Fire by Apollo 11 Command Module pilot Michel Collins. This is his account of what it took for him to become an astronaut and what he got up to. A good read so far. It was written in 1974- 1975 and in places, this is apparent. It is not (thankfully) to heavy on the SCIENCE but more about the gut feelings and interaction between him, his fellow rocket jockeys, test pilots, engineers, beuraucrats and the public. A good find in my astronomical societies library.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 07 September, 2017, 01:59:10 pm
Carrying on the Stephen King marathon with The Dark Half.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 07 September, 2017, 02:41:34 pm
Jim Al-Khalilis new book on the chances of alien life. Only edited by J A=K but there is an impressive list of scientists contributing.

On kindle at 2.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KADZ21S/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KADZ21S/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 07 September, 2017, 07:55:26 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/legacy-of-spies-john-le-carre-review


A new le Carre novel.  Sounds like revisiting "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" might be a good idea before reading this.

I read somewhere that there's a film of A Perfect Spy in the offing, which is one of my JLC faves

Carrying on the Stephen King marathon with The Dark Half.  :thumbsup:

Good one, I reread The Stand a few months back, his stuff still stands up fairly well.

I'm now reading Puckoon to my son
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 07 September, 2017, 09:17:18 pm
Having finished Moon Dust which I found quite interesting and revealing in relation to the personailties of the remaining moonwalkers, I am now on to Carrying the Fire by Apollo 11 Command Module pilot Michel Collins. This is his account of what it took for him to become an astronaut and what he got up to. A good read so far. It was written in 1974- 1975 and in places, this is apparent. It is not (thankfully) to heavy on the SCIENCE but more about the gut feelings and interaction between him, his fellow rocket jockeys, test pilots, engineers, beuraucrats and the public. A good find in my astronomical societies library.

I keep re-reading Moondust, or rather, dipping into it.  It's excellent.  It's also strange to think that even somone as old as I is likely to be still alive when there are no moonwalkers left on earth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 08 September, 2017, 01:15:45 am
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/legacy-of-spies-john-le-carre-review


A new le Carre novel.  Sounds like revisiting "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" might be a good idea before reading this.

I read somewhere that there's a film of A Perfect Spy in the offing, which is one of my JLC faves

Really?  I always thought it read a bit like he self-consciously tried to write his major work, and let his pen run away with itself.  Then again, I think much the same thing about The Honourable Schoolboy. 

I haven't heard of a film of APS, but I read that his son's film company had optioned the rights to his biography, which obviously shares a lot of content with the novel.  Then again, they're probably buying it to prevent anyone else making it!  What is definitely in the offing is a BBC series of The Spy who Came In, which I'm very much looking forward to, as tbh I wasn't such a fan of the Richard Burton film.  In other exciting news, the Smiley's People follow-up to the TTSS film has been greenlit and is in pre-production (http://film.britishcouncil.org/smileys-people). 

Needless to say, I'm a fair chunk through ALOS already.  Liking it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 September, 2017, 07:11:41 am
Ah. That explains the workname...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 08 September, 2017, 10:24:21 am
[realises his cover is blown and makes a run for the wall]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 September, 2017, 10:52:25 am
In other exciting news, the Smiley's People follow-up to the TTSS film has been greenlit and is in pre-production (http://film.britishcouncil.org/smileys-people). 

I reckon the TTSS film would have been difficult to follow if you hadn't read the book or seen the BBC series.  In fact, if they could wave a magic wand over the Beeb's tapes and turn them into HD, the films wouldn't get a look-in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 08 September, 2017, 11:57:07 am
Plenty of people who weren't familiar with the story have said that the film was hard to follow, so you don't need to guess about that.  The BBC series is pretty dated though: it was basically a lot of shots of old men talking in rooms,  and they didn't take the golden opportunities to cut any scenes that desperately needed cutting, e.g. Roddy Bloody Martindale.  The screenplay seemed to be lifted lock stock and Walther PPK from the pages of the book.  Essentially, they played it very straight and made programs about how George Smiley caught a spy.  Where the film triumphed, apart from the gorgeous visuals, was that it looked deeper and made a film about office politics, complete with plots, power-plays, allegiances, betrayal, greed, bad judgement, coercion and counter-coercion.  The new book has a lot of material about old Circus politics, casting a different light and a broader context on many of the actions that you experienced through various individuals' eyes in the early novels.  It's especially delicous to see all this through Thomas Alfredson's lens, considering the new revelations through the picture of the Circus that he painted in the film.

Now the BBC series of Smiley's People, that's where they really hit their stride and that's a truly excellent series, one of my all-time favourites.  I'm still looking forward to the film though  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 September, 2017, 01:18:42 pm
One of the catch-phrases in our family for a while after seeing SP was "you fool, Grigoriev!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 08 September, 2017, 02:34:58 pm
Not a book in the sense of being a book but a book in the sense of containing words (and many excellent pictures).  Do have a look.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=15379&v=B1
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 11 September, 2017, 08:38:44 pm
https://newrepublic.com/article/144719/happens-science-fiction-genius-starts-blogging


A new (non fiction) book from the wonderful Ursula Le Guin.   Hat tip to our old friend Flying Monkey (@murakamiwood)  who just tweeted about it
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 14 September, 2017, 09:58:30 am
A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston.

I'm re-reading this (so it's not the updated re-released version.)  It's a brief history of Scott and his Antarctic endeavours from 1901 until his death.
It's not a detailed technical history like works by Rolund Huntford or Fridtjof Nansen, but includes some original research on private letters between Scott and his wife.

Readable, and a good introduction to polar exploration literature, but probably not as critical of Scott as some of the more recent analyses although some of his shortcomings are clearly exposed.

Interesting to reflect that there must still be some people alive who were born before Amundsen and Scott reached the south pole in 1911/12. 
Next read will be Apsley Cherry-Garrard's "The Worst Journey in the World", which was undoubtedly pretty bad, but "Mawson's Will" probably takes the biscuit for polar hardship.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 September, 2017, 04:35:42 pm
Starship Troopers. Possibly the most preposterously dull book I've ever tried to read. I'd like my 99p back.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 15 September, 2017, 05:33:12 pm
I don't remember it being that dull, but a lot of 50s SF hasn't aged very well.

I am currently enjoying James Holland's _The War in the West_, having had it recommended to me by a trusted friend. I'd rather assumed Holland was a pop-hist lightweight in the Dan Snow mould, but he's actually drawn on a lot of recent scholarship, and weaves the various strands of his story very skillfully.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 September, 2017, 06:18:36 pm
It seems mostly mainly dull lists of military ranks, just the one character (seriously, everyone else in the book is literally passing through) who's dull, unlikable, and frankly bit of a dimwit, and padded with endless, endless pages of waffle on military 'morality'. And no it hasn't aged well, which I could forgive it, but for being supermassively yawnworthy, I can't.

It's awful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 15 September, 2017, 06:40:24 pm
I suspect (like a lot of Heinlein tbh) it benefits from having been read at an impressionable age; though there are quite a lot of rabid Heinlein fans, I don't think I've ever met any under the age of 55...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 September, 2017, 10:23:00 pm
I've never read any, it popped up on the Kindle 99p thing and the movie was quite satirical fun and involved fighting big bugs, so I thought I'd give it a punt. Let's not even mention the objectionably fascistic posturings, because the terminal utterly unengaging dullness is far more objectionable than the juvenile right wing politics.

Mind you, I was reading proper intellectual stuff at an impressionable age (so I don't have to do it now). Anyway, in other bad book news, I have one more chapter and my final draft of the best vampire book not yet published will be complete. I'd don't care if it's shit, Jess is quite positively the best undead library south London has ever had or will have, and I'm completely in love with her. My wife rolls her eyes, but then she's neither dead nor a redhead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 September, 2017, 12:39:14 pm
Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw. Post-war lesbians. Or possibly one lesbian, one bisexual, as I do not wish to be party to the erasing of bisexual peeps.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 19 September, 2017, 06:02:28 am
"What Happened", Hilary Clinton's account of her 2016 presidential campaign. All the negative press about the book (and about Ms Clintin) made me decide to read it and see for myself what the fuss was about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 21 September, 2017, 08:50:46 am
The End of Empire (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VET7AIQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) by Martin Bell (former BBC War Correspondent) written after much material was released under the Official Secrets Act rules.

The author did his National Service in Cyprus 1957-59 as a humble squaddie.  Surprisingly (for the Army) they put him in military intelligence!
Having myself been there as a child at that time (father was a Colonial Officer) it's a most interesting read, especially as Mr Bell kept the letters he wrote home and is of course a very good writer anyway.  It tells me about the people my father worked for including Sir George Sinclair (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/oct/12/guardianobituaries.obituar) and the wonderfully named General Darling (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-general-sir-kenneth-darling-1184316.html) who was not just a character in Blackadder!  Father kept a number of letters and reports (he shouldn't have but he wanted 'insurance' I suspect) about his involvement and this book is explaining a lot in an entertaining way not devoid of humour and empathy.






Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 22 September, 2017, 01:27:18 pm
Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah, and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 September, 2017, 08:55:15 am
Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond, as recommended upthread by someone - I believe it was Ham but CBA to check. I've lost my reading mojo lately so wanted something not too challenging to ease myself back into the habit and Ham's description made this sound just the ticket - and so it has proved to be. Delightfully silly but very well written with it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 26 September, 2017, 01:46:35 pm
Boy's Life by Robert R McCammon

Very good. It's filed in the 'fantasy' section, but it is only fantasy in the sense that it is written from a young boy's point of view, seeing a world from a mind filled with imagination.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 September, 2017, 05:03:52 pm
Reamde, Neal Stephenson, second time around.

Thinking of re-embarking on the Baroque Trilogy, but can't decide whether to read Cryptonomicon before or after.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 September, 2017, 04:26:27 am
Thinking of re-embarking on the Baroque Trilogy, but can't decide whether to read Cryptonomicon before or after.

YMYA.  I finished Seveneves on the way to USAnia, re-read Cryptonomicon to remind myself what Stephenson's like when he's on form and am now on The Baroque Cycle for the third time of asking and liking it a lot more this time round.  Possibly because it's on my Kindle and not in fat, small-printed and coming-unstuck-at-the-seams paperback form.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 September, 2017, 08:33:31 am
We have the hardbacks, which are wretchedly heavy for reading in bed and make a bloody great thump on the floor if you fall asleep. So would a tablet, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 27 September, 2017, 03:40:50 pm
Boy's Life by Robert R McCammon

Very good. It's filed in the 'fantasy' section, but it is only fantasy in the sense that it is written from a young boy's point of view, seeing a world from a mind filled with imagination.

I've heard good things.  Maybe the next thing on my Kindling list...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 29 September, 2017, 04:29:47 pm
Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond, as recommended upthread by someone - I believe it was Ham but CBA to check. I've lost my reading mojo lately so wanted something not too challenging to ease myself back into the habit and Ham's description made this sound just the ticket - and so it has proved to be. Delightfully silly but very well written with it.

It was I, indeed, glad you're enjoying. I'm still working my way through the stack, interspersed with other stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 05 October, 2017, 09:47:00 pm
Origin by Dan Brown

After picking the novels of Dan Brown for my Mastermind Specialist Subject, I realised that for that one day of filming, I was perhaps the nation's foremost expert on Dan Brown novels (or at least in the top 10). If I don't continue to read his works, I won't have a claim of being in the nation's top ten at anything.

I think he's getting better at writing, I'm a few pages in, and haven't snorted derisively once. However I may have just addled my brain by over exposure to his literary style and techno babble/"academic" research.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 06 October, 2017, 12:16:25 pm
You should read the one where Sophia Langoustine, the renowned art collector, well-known literary critic, and daughter of the Prince of Homardy, and I – with the help of my assistant Trieste Bouffant Bunny-Pillow – gallop around Britain from Didcot to Bootle chasing a mystery that will change the world. The truth comes out in a climactic scene in a Doncaster Travelodge. I won't be giving too much away by saying it involves clowns.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 07 October, 2017, 12:51:40 am
Shame you couldn't find a plot twist to include Honeysuckle Weekes, which has to be one of the most preposterous stagenames of all time...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 October, 2017, 03:46:38 am
I have news.  It's her real name.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 October, 2017, 09:57:35 am
IIRC her sibling(s) had odd names as well.

<google google google>

Rollo and Perdita. And she's married to one Lorne Stormont-Darling so nothing's going to change much.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 07 October, 2017, 08:11:49 pm
Well having called Mr. Aaronovitch a slacker only a month or so ago I have to at least, in part*, retract that.  The latest Peter Grant story "The Furthest Station".  Good fun as always.

*It's not a full retraction because it's only 120 pages or thereabouts so more of an amuse-gueule than an entrée and certainly not a plat principal, but one is grateful that it appeared this year and not two years hence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 07 October, 2017, 08:26:06 pm
Shame you couldn't find a plot twist to include Honeysuckle Weekes, which has to be one of the most preposterous stagenames of all time...

Her real name is even weirder - but not as weird as her husband's!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle_Weeks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 07 October, 2017, 11:55:16 pm
Kat Arney - Herding Hemmingways Cats.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 09 October, 2017, 12:44:48 pm
Well having called Mr. Aaronovitch a slacker only a month or so ago I have to at least, in part*, retract that.  The latest Peter Grant story "The Furthest Station".  Good fun as always.

*It's not a full retraction because it's only 120 pages or thereabouts so more of an amuse-gueule than an entrée and certainly not a plat principal, but one is grateful that it appeared this year and not two years hence.
I laughed all the way to Glasgow on the train reading it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 09 October, 2017, 12:49:21 pm
'Voyage' by Stephen Baxter

Alternative history book. Astronauts going to mars in the 80s using Saturn rockets etc.

Long on the NASA issues and Astronaut training, I keep thinking it is dragging but can't put it down easily.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 09 October, 2017, 12:52:12 pm
I have news.  It's her real name.

My god, she's so posh her name alone needs a large stately home. When she dies her corpse will be subject to a tussle between English Heritage and the paramilitary wing of the National Trust. And she'll have her own tea room.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 October, 2017, 01:27:55 pm
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

If anyone were coming to Vonnegut as a new reader and asking for a recommendation, this would not be the one I would suggest. It's good though, in a very Vonnegutian way. Ting-a-ling!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 October, 2017, 05:07:43 pm
I must have read it, along with the rest of his, but I can't remember it.  SIG.

I think my favourites are Mother Night and Cat's Cradle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 October, 2017, 05:52:59 pm
I think my favourites are Mother Night and Cat's Cradle.

Cat’s Cradle is unequivocally my favourite but God Bless You, Mr Rosewater is the one that has made me laugh out loud the most.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 09 October, 2017, 06:12:24 pm
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

If anyone were coming to Vonnegut as a new reader and asking for a recommendation, this would not be the one I would suggest. It's good though, in a very Vonnegutian way. Ting-a-ling!

Not read that one, I think the first I read was a short story collection The Bagombo Snuff Box, I think 2 Be Or Not 2 Be was one of his as well,  followed by Slaughterhouse 5.


Stephen Baxter - I have one of his on my shelf - Anti Ice, was thinking about rereading it as my next home-based real life book, rather than travelling electrons
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 12 October, 2017, 10:46:01 am
Just about to embark on Battlefield Earth by the legendary L. Ron Hubbard, fully expecting it to be totally shit.  I detest nearly all sf, but I found this doorstop of a book at my in-laws and thought that the first couple of chapters wouldn't be a complete waste of very much of my time.  I've looked at some of the reviews online, and the only positive ones seem to be from Scientologist fruitcakes.  Watch this space.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 12 October, 2017, 11:32:41 am
Just about to embark on Battlefield Earth by the legendary L. Ron Hubbard, fully expecting it to be totally shit.  I detest nearly all sf, but I found this doorstop of a book at my in-laws and thought that the first couple of chapters wouldn't be a complete waste of time.  I've looked at some of the reviews online, and the only positive ones seem to be from Scientologist fruitcakes.  Watch this space.

I guess somebody had to so that the rest of us are spared the experience. ;D :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 12 October, 2017, 12:46:26 pm
Just read two detective thrillers set in Edinburgh - Perfect Remains and Perfect Prey by Helen Fields. Lots of gruesome killings, a sexy French-Scottish detective, sexual tension between him and another DI, grumpy Scots polis with attitude. Next one, Perfect Death, should be released next year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 12 October, 2017, 03:44:49 pm
Just about to embark on Battlefield Earth by the legendary L. Ron Hubbard, fully expecting it to be totally shit.  I detest nearly all sf, but I found this doorstop of a book at my in-laws and thought that the first couple of chapters wouldn't be a complete waste of very much of my time.  I've looked at some of the reviews online, and the only positive ones seem to be from Scientologist fruitcakes.  Watch this space.

Suddenly the film makes sense:  It's so you don't waste the time involved in reading it.   :hand:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 12 October, 2017, 03:58:13 pm
On a whim, I've just finished re-reading Rama 2.  Everything everyone says about overly forced character development[1] is true, but you know what?  I don't care.  At least it's not as dry as the original.  The second half was fucking awesome when I was 11, and it totally holds up.  People making bad decisions in space is a long-standing bugbear (see film thread posts about Alien sequels passim), but it more than makes up for that by being interesting.  You just have to try not to snigger at "Do you have a tape recorder?" and other bits where Clarke drops the technological ball.

Maybe I should re-read Asimov's Nemesis?


[1] From a 21st century viewpoint, it's hard to tell where deliberate multiculturalism ends and racial sterotyping begins, but at least the main character is a black woman with agency.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 12 October, 2017, 04:21:31 pm
Just about to embark on Battlefield Earth by the legendary L. Ron Hubbard, fully expecting it to be totally shit.  I detest nearly all sf, but I found this doorstop of a book at my in-laws and thought that the first couple of chapters wouldn't be a complete waste of time.  I've looked at some of the reviews online, and the only positive ones seem to be from Scientologist fruitcakes.  Watch this space.

I guess somebody had to so that the rest of us are spared the experience. ;D :demon:
I enjoyed it so much that I've read it three or four times now.

I'll concede that's it's probably not actually a good book per se but it's fun bombastic space opera.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 12 October, 2017, 04:22:12 pm
In a similar vein I'm just starting a fifth or sixth read through of the Ender's Game books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 12 October, 2017, 04:38:32 pm
After my recent Heinlein experience, I'd rather jump down a well that has been filled with poo. Old school sci-fi seems near universally dire.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 October, 2017, 04:43:12 pm
Just about to embark on Battlefield Earth by the legendary L. Ron Hubbard, fully expecting it to be totally shit.  I detest nearly all sf, but I found this doorstop of a book at my in-laws and thought that the first couple of chapters wouldn't be a complete waste of very much of my time.  I've looked at some of the reviews online, and the only positive ones seem to be from Scientologist fruitcakes.  Watch this space.

Be advised that my chum Mrs Hague nominated it as the book she'd most like to throw out of a car window.  And she, judging by her posts on the matter on FB, reads anything.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 12 October, 2017, 05:30:05 pm
After my recent Heinlein experience, I'd rather jump down a well that has been filled with poo. Old school sci-fi seems near universally dire.
I liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land. Think that's all of his I've read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 12 October, 2017, 05:38:11 pm
It was Starship Troopers. I was under the misapprehension it would be a big bug fight. It wasn't. I thought all the fascistic military fetishisation would be, well, ironic. It wasn't. What it was, was a dull survey of military ranks and someone's time at boot camp (where we learned about the food and other exciting things). I did slug through to the end when finally there was a bug fight. Which lasted a paragraph about about sixteen pages droning on about how the troopers were deployed. I mean seriously, wtf?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 12 October, 2017, 05:39:41 pm
On a whim, I've just finished re-reading Rama 2.  Everything everyone says about overly forced character development[1] is true, but you know what?  I don't care.  At least it's not as dry as the original.  The second half was fucking awesome when I was 11, and it totally holds up.  People making bad decisions in space is a long-standing bugbear (see film thread posts about Alien sequels passim), but it more than makes up for that by being interesting.  You just have to try not to snigger at "Do you have a tape recorder?" and other bits where Clarke drops the technological ball.



I have to decide who my heroes are for a church thingy. I think she might be it.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 October, 2017, 06:26:27 pm
Just read two detective thrillers set in Edinburgh - Perfect Remains and Perfect Prey by Helen Fields. Lots of gruesome killings, a sexy French-Scottish detective, sexual tension between him and another DI, grumpy Scots polis with attitude. Next one, Perfect Death, should be released next year.

I shall put them on my list, ta. Have you read the Rhona Macleod books by Lin Anderson? I'm currently bingeing my way through them...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 12 October, 2017, 06:31:38 pm
After my recent Heinlein experience, I'd rather jump down a well that has been filled with poo. Old school sci-fi seems near universally dire.
I liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land. Think that's all of his I've read.

I've recently read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as well, quite liked it myself
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 October, 2017, 07:02:37 pm
I’ve just embarked on the near 600 page Six-Four by Hideo Yokoyama. How far I get will I think depend on the quality of the translation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 October, 2017, 11:04:46 am
After my recent Heinlein experience, I'd rather jump down a well that has been filled with poo. Old school sci-fi seems near universally dire.
I liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land. Think that's all of his I've read.

I've recently read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as well, quite liked it myself

It's a regular on my list of books to be read repeatedly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 13 October, 2017, 11:18:48 am
Thinking about it I think The Number of the Beast was Heinlein too. That I've read a few times as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 13 October, 2017, 02:18:45 pm
The Oddessy. Not as good as The Iliad.

Second album syndrome?

For light relief, a marvel comic where Ms Marvel is a 16 year old Muslim girl was a very good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 October, 2017, 03:02:54 pm
I’ve just embarked on the near 600 page Six-Four by Hideo Yokoyama. How far I get will I think depend on the quality of the translation.

Which I swiftly realised I’d already read. Tried an Arne Dahl but couldn’t stand it, so now onto Jussi Adler Ohlsens “Guilt”. Better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 October, 2017, 04:24:06 pm
Oh look, The Martian is 99p on Kindle. I didn't even survive the sample. Do I dare deliberately annoy myself by reading the rest? Or do I go back to Inferno. I have better support from Sophia Langoustine and not-entirely-able assistant Trieste Bouffant Bunny-Pillow this time. Though I'm not entirely sure Sophia wants to climb back between those pages.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 October, 2017, 06:20:37 pm
Oh look, The Martian is 99p on Kindle. I didn't even survive the sample. Do I dare deliberately annoy myself by reading the rest? Or do I go back to Inferno.

I very nearly bought The Da Vinci Code when it was 99p on Kindle recently. By the time I decided it probably was worth reading at that price, it had gone back up again. Lucky escape.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 October, 2017, 06:41:33 pm
I did read the Da Vinci Code and didn't recall it being that bad. That may be a fault of my recall, of course. It was that that led to me trying to read Inferno the first time, just to puncture all that literary snobbery that attaches itself to books. My assistant, Trieste Bouffant Bunny-Pillow, already has a book deal for instance – on account her mother knows someone 'in the industry' – and Trieste can't even write a shopping list.

I'd dig out my copy of Da Vinci Code and fill the bath and settle down to some sudsy transeuropean symbol chasing, but I can't find it (I, erm, moved the books to the garage so I could make more room for the gin collection, priorities).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 October, 2017, 06:46:31 pm
I’ve just embarked on the near 600 page Six-Four by Hideo Yokoyama. How far I get will I think depend on the quality of the translation.

Which I swiftly realised I’d already read. Tried an Arne Dahl but couldn’t stand it, so now onto Jussi Adler Ohlsens “Guilt”. Better.

But not by much, or maybe it’s my mood. Now trying Le Carre’s A Legacy of Spies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 October, 2017, 12:36:17 pm
The Oddessy. Not as good as The Iliad.

Second album syndrome?

For light relief, a marvel comic where Ms Marvel is a 16 year old Muslim girl was a very good read.
Am reading Lysistrata.

And The Muse by Jessie Burton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 18 October, 2017, 10:59:25 pm
The Oddessy. Not as good as The Iliad.

Second album syndrome?

For light relief, a marvel comic where Ms Marvel is a 16 year old Muslim girl was a very good read.
Am reading Lysistrata.

What do you think? I hadn't read anything Greek before, but it's okay. Different. I thought I'd just be reading the Iliad out of a sense of Ought To, but I finished it because I wanted to. I'm not feeling the same way about the Odyssey (which I remember now just has the one 'd' :facepalm:), but I'm not very far in, so will give it a bit more of a chance.

Having googled Lysistrata, I suspect your choice might be funnier than mine.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 October, 2017, 08:35:22 am
Saw a Beeb production of Lysistrata back in the 60s that had my dad tut-tutting, but we watched it because it was Beeb and classical and had to be OK.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Chris S on 20 October, 2017, 04:37:20 pm
On recommendation from #2 son, I'm listening to Ready Player One. I'm working hard at it, but I may have to borrow some more Geek from someone in order to make it to the end.

My geek-overdose antidote is the other book I have on the go - American War. Depressingly believable. And so far, mostly just depressing.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 21 October, 2017, 12:57:20 am
Finished Dan Brown's Origin.
(click to show/hide)

Classic Dan Brown!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 October, 2017, 08:32:31 am
Any day now he'll be appointed National Security Advisor to El Donaldo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 24 October, 2017, 08:40:13 am
Tell me how it ends (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/22/tell-me-how-it-ends-valeria-luiselli-mexican-migrant-children-us-border)... on Kindle @ 99p at the mo https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0739S6L4B/

(To be accurate, I'm not reading it yet, but it sounds fascinating and I thought others might like the 99p-ness at the mo, just from the write up)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 27 October, 2017, 12:59:15 pm
I just finished reading “Guards! Guards!” again. Sybil Ramkin’s concise and reasonable explanation on the difference between ‘value’ and ‘worth’ ought to be compulsory reading in schools and universities and colleges and Facebook.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Robh on 30 October, 2017, 12:03:58 pm
I've just finished 'The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal' by David E Hoffman. Highly recommended. Meticulously researched, well put-together, and full of insight into how both sides operate. Also, it's a very sympathetic portrait of the main character, from a difficult vantage point.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 30 October, 2017, 01:33:29 pm
Just about to embark on Battlefield Earth by the legendary L. Ron Hubbard, fully expecting it to be totally shit.  I detest nearly all sf, but I found this doorstop of a book at my in-laws and thought that the first couple of chapters wouldn't be a complete waste of time.  I've looked at some of the reviews online, and the only positive ones seem to be from Scientologist fruitcakes.  Watch this space.

I guess somebody had to so that the rest of us are spared the experience. ;D :demon:
I enjoyed it so much that I've read it three or four times now.

I'll concede that's it's probably not actually a good book per se but it's fun bombastic space opera.
There truly is no accounting for taste.  I survived 7 pages of execrable tosh and never want to see it again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 31 October, 2017, 10:41:28 am
I just finished reading “Guards! Guards!” again. Sybil Ramkin’s concise and reasonable explanation on the difference between ‘value’ and ‘worth’ ought to be compulsory reading in schools and universities and colleges and Facebook.

There is a comment from Sam Vimes in 'Jingo', which is something that should be broadcast generally.

Sam is a police chief, and is in a cabinet meeting of army commanders discussing a possible war. One of them complains to him that he is talking like a civilian.

"That is the whole point", says the policeman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 01 November, 2017, 01:56:32 pm
Tim Moore's Gironimo! And has had me laughing at some of the incidents! And too, it's a big fat book – so plenty to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 02 November, 2017, 02:32:54 am
The Italian ride, on the antique bike? Got it on kindle, to dip into every so often
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 02 November, 2017, 01:01:45 pm
The Italian ride, on the antique bike? Got it on kindle, to dip into every so often

Yes it is Steph, and jolly funny I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 02 November, 2017, 01:12:26 pm
Tell me how it ends (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/22/tell-me-how-it-ends-valeria-luiselli-mexican-migrant-children-us-border)... on Kindle @ 99p at the mo https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0739S6L4B/

(To be accurate, I'm not reading it yet, but it sounds fascinating and I thought others might like the 99p-ness at the mo, just from the write up)

Well, I won't be able to tell you how this book ends, at least for a while, having ground to a 75% halt. All very interesting and worthy stuff I'm sure, as I didn't know the problem of child migrants from central America existed. All capable of being condensed into a couple of thousand word article. I'll probably finish it sometime, just because, but it is a bit turgid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 02 November, 2017, 03:25:17 pm
Trying to read Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer but its out of print and silly prices second hand.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 November, 2017, 03:32:40 pm
Trying to read Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer but its out of print and silly prices second hand.

One to buy and resell perhaps?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 02 November, 2017, 04:16:11 pm
WH Smith have indicated a new print soon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 03 November, 2017, 01:34:04 pm
Trying to read Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer but its out of print and silly prices second hand.

Intrigued by this, I looked it up and thought, this might deserve a read! Comparisons are made between this and Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, which I thought I'd read (but hadn't) and was confusing it with one I have! Which is White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke. A superb story woven around the time of the American Civil War. I won't go into detail about it. Chaps can have more fun looking it up for themselves!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 November, 2017, 11:36:08 am
After finally getting through all three thousand pages of The Baroque Cycle, a little light relief in the form of What Does This Button Do?, the autobiography of poet, soldier of fortune, airline pilot, swordsman and part-time Met'l Mayhem Merchant Bruce Dickinson.  Quite an entertaining read, though I am mortified by his opinion that Samson drummer Barry "Thunderstick" Purkiss wasn't actually very good, and diskard his view that "Shock Tactics" is a better album than "Head On", because it isn't.

Note to self: get new Stuart MacBride before embarking on journey saaarf of the river this evening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 22 November, 2017, 02:01:22 pm
The Oddessy. Not as good as The Iliad.

Second album syndrome?
And finished.

Actually, it got brilliant. The last third or quarter turns into high noon and culminates in a massive scrap.

Really very worthwhile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 22 November, 2017, 05:54:31 pm
The last two posts, from Mr L and Paul, oddly, both involve axes...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 23 November, 2017, 09:25:10 am
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster.  It's great (so far, although I'm only 67 pages in and there's 1003 to go...

(It's unusually long for an Auster novel but I gather that the story structure justifies the length) 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 November, 2017, 09:27:41 am
The Celts - Alice Roberts

A good up to date round up on the Celts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harvey on 24 November, 2017, 11:42:53 am
Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

Should be a textbook for American white kids; and required reading by their parents
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 24 November, 2017, 01:53:17 pm
The last two posts, from Mr L and Paul, oddly, both involve axes...
Sharp of you to pick up on that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 November, 2017, 12:29:06 am
New Stuart MacBride - Now We Are Dead - is shaping up quite nicely as an everyday story of policing Furryboottoon.  The weather is good too, but it's all Steel.  Logan McCrae wanders in from time to time, realises he's in the wrong book and buggers off again, and not many killin's, and no Reuben Kennedy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 November, 2017, 08:09:38 pm
Insidious Intent, number ten in Val McDermid's Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  1/3 of the way though and only one killin' but there's another one imminent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 November, 2017, 03:55:45 pm
Insidious Intent, number ten in Val McDermid's Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  1/3 of the way though and only one killin' but there's another one imminent.

Well, that was a bit unexpected, but La McDermid says in the Afterword that I'm not allowed to say any more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: harvey on 04 December, 2017, 12:25:55 pm
Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie

Interesting and well written modern, loosely remake of Sophicle's Antigone in British Muslim twist.
Good read!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 04 December, 2017, 12:58:11 pm
Quote
the autobiography of poet, soldier of fortune, airline pilot, swordsman and part-time Met'l Mayhem Merchant Bruce Dickinson

... who will be on your tv screen in a couple of weeks time, representing Queen Mary, London on Xmas University Challenge
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 December, 2017, 01:08:07 pm
Insidious Intent, number ten in Val McDermid's Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  1/3 of the way though and only one killin' but there's another one imminent.

Well, that was a bit unexpected, but La McDermid says in the Afterword that I'm not allowed to say any more.

I heard her interviewed about that and am intrigued. Do I need to read the preceding 9 for number 10 to make sense?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 December, 2017, 05:26:49 pm
#10 does contain quite a lot of references pertaining to events in #9 and so on back to the beginning.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 December, 2017, 06:55:03 pm
Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World - Alice Roberts

Very good so far on dogs.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 07 December, 2017, 12:44:36 pm
More Than This by Patrick Ness. Weird but good. Good but weird.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 07 December, 2017, 05:58:52 pm
Funny old thing. I have a Kindle habit, have had for years now. But increasingly I find myself drawn to stuff I've read, and is somewhere in my real bookshelves - or at least was at one time. Mainly to avoid disappointment I think. Just loaded up the Alexandria Quartet. Ages since I've read it, but it's one of those that forces you to its own pace and rhythm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 07 December, 2017, 11:03:11 pm
Beowulf.

S'alright. I suspect JRRT read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 08 December, 2017, 10:21:39 pm
Which translation? I remember the Seamus Heaney version being quite gripping.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 December, 2017, 09:49:04 am
Having laboured through King père et fils' weighty "Sleeping Beauties", which was so-so, now on "The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye", David Lagercrantz' second continuation of Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  He's a better writer than Larsson (or at least has a better editor and/or translator) but I'm still not convinced.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 09 December, 2017, 03:20:08 pm
Which translation? I remember the Seamus Heaney version being quite gripping.
That's the one. I'm still getting the hang of reading very old things. My 20th C brain expects more things to happen faster in stories, so I think I need to find a different gear for this stuff.

So, having read The Iliad, The Odyssey and Beowulf, what would the panel recommend?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 09 December, 2017, 07:14:34 pm
ISTR I read the Heaney version one winter afternoon and evening; sat in the warm with a drink by my side and a gale blowing outside was probably good for getting into the mood.

As for other stuff - the epic of Gilgamesh? The Ramayana? Or something mediaeval?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 09 December, 2017, 10:13:16 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid   for the story of the Trojans who escaped the Greek massacre.  Can't remember which translation I read.    The Viking sagas ?     


I've got a 2 volume set of Robert Graves "Greek Myths" I keep meaning to start....  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 December, 2017, 04:37:59 am
Professor Larrington done a translation of The Poetic Edda a few years back which, to my everlasting shame, I have still not read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 December, 2017, 09:12:49 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid   for the story of the Trojans who escaped the Greek massacre.  Can't remember which translation I read.    The Viking sagas ?     

Gawd. We did some of it in Latin class when I was 14. Can't remember a word. My daughter's beau refers to a prominent episode as Dildo, Queen of Carthage and Anus son of Primark.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 10 December, 2017, 07:35:56 pm
I read it in Latin many, many years ago. It's first line was nicked by Shaw as the title of a play we did at school.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 December, 2017, 07:46:21 am
I've forgotten even that - and all the Shaw plays I can remember were written by Oscar Wilde.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 11 December, 2017, 10:46:52 am
Which translation? I remember the Seamus Heaney version being quite gripping.
That's the one. I'm still getting the hang of reading very old things. My 20th C brain expects more things to happen faster in stories, so I think I need to find a different gear for this stuff.

So, having read The Iliad, The Odyssey and Beowulf, what would the panel recommend?
A decent dose of fresh air.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 11 December, 2017, 11:13:16 am
Which translation? I remember the Seamus Heaney version being quite gripping.
That's the one. I'm still getting the hang of reading very old things. My 20th C brain expects more things to happen faster in stories, so I think I need to find a different gear for this stuff.

So, having read The Iliad, The Odyssey and Beowulf, what would the panel recommend?
A decent dose of fresh air.
;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 December, 2017, 01:28:59 pm
Les droits et devoirs du citoyen (no, not OTP).  Excellent soporific.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 December, 2017, 08:24:22 pm
Holding off reading my Christmas pressie until it's really Christmas, but have found a copy of China Miéville's "Kraken" in the to-read pile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 13 December, 2017, 10:30:25 pm
Reading The Player of Games for the fourth or fifth time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 December, 2017, 10:28:15 pm
Holding off reading my Christmas pressie until it's really Christmas, but have found a copy of China Miéville's "Kraken" in the to-read pile.

Well, that was a struggle but I got there in the end.  Now on La Belle Sauvage which is an altogether easier thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 25 December, 2017, 10:36:39 pm
I finished Armistead Maupins “Logical Family” yesterday, now starting Mievilles “ Last Days of New Paris”.  I think it might help if I knew a bit more about Surrealism...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 December, 2017, 08:26:54 am
Empty Space, the last of M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. His usual pessimistic view of humanity and other sentients.

Holding off reading my Christmas pressie until it's really Christmas, but have found a copy of China Miéville's "Kraken" in the to-read pile.

Well, that was a struggle but I got there in the end.  Now on La Belle Sauvage which is an altogether easier thing.

I thought Kraken was a barrel of crap, and I usually like Miéville's stuff.  I can forgive an author the odd bad book, though, if it helps them survive long enough financially to write the next good one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 December, 2017, 09:57:23 am

Holding off reading my Christmas pressie until it's really Christmas, but have found a copy of China Miéville's "Kraken" in the to-read pile.

Well, that was a struggle but I got there in the end.  Now on La Belle Sauvage which is an altogether easier thing.

I thought Kraken was a barrel of crap, and I usually like Miéville's stuff.  I can forgive an author the odd bad book, though, if it helps them survive long enough financially to write the next good one.

Professor Larrington says she'll lend me King Rat at New Year, which she thinks I may find a bit more palatable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 26 December, 2017, 11:46:21 am
Kraken didn't work for me either, and I like Mieville. I remember King Rat being fairly enjoyable - I think it was his first novel? - and straightforward compared to his later stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 December, 2017, 06:07:37 pm
La Belle Sausvage didn't take long, alas, and I don't anticipate Ben Aaronovitch's The Furthest Station is likely to occupy much of my time either.  And then there'll be months to wait for the next instalment of either series :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 26 December, 2017, 06:36:21 pm
I just started La Belle Sauvage last night. I refuse to buy the Aaronvitch novellas, the full length books don't last long enough as it is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 26 December, 2017, 07:13:47 pm
Thankfully my local library had a copy of The Furthest Station on their shelves; alas, they don't seem to have the comic books, which I gather may fill in various plot details.

Possibly of interest: this year, Ben Aaronovitch is going to be one of the guests at Picocon (https://www.union.ic.ac.uk/scc/icsf/picocon/ ), the Imperial SF society's annual mini-convention. I'm hoping to be there to catch up with old mates.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 26 December, 2017, 07:22:32 pm
I did find the latest Aaronovitch books a bit dull. Sorry, I know. Seemed to be a lot of treading water and no sharks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 December, 2017, 10:05:40 am
I just started La Belle Sauvage last night. I refuse to buy the Aaronvitch novellas, the full length books don't last long enough as it is.

Novellas?  You mean there's more than one? Anyway, "The Furthest Station" had plenty of LOLZ in it and Abigail is shaping up nicely as a sidekick.

Now I have to choose between trying to finish some fat sci-fi thing by an Adrian Tchaikovsky that has made a permanent nest in the bottom of my rucksack, or the splendidly-monikered Edward Brooke-Hitching's "The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies And Blunders on Maps".  I am tending towards the latter.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 27 December, 2017, 10:14:31 am
That one sounds up Pingu's street.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 27 December, 2017, 10:20:11 am
A Legacy of Spies, Le Carre.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: professor palindrome on 04 January, 2018, 06:33:17 am
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford, which conjures up a long-vanished New York (burnt by Brits), weaves a tale of a mysterious stranger who has a bank draft for a worryingly large sum of money.  "A life crowded with incident" ?  Not one that would have given Lady Bracknell anything other than severe displeasure.  And all the better for it.

The most fun I've had in the historical line since Pure by Andrew Miller (boneyard clearance in 18th century Paris: as in how did the city get Montrouge, Montparnasse and the one with the Moulin ?).

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 January, 2018, 08:54:57 am
Coming to the end of my M. John Harrison kick with Climbers, being about an unlovable bunch of Yorkshire rock-climbers. He never says so, but I can't not think of them as being smelly, too. Full of jargon but that's what reading on tablets is for, only Google Books have simply knocked out any accented characters so that looking for their version of arête took me to a Franco-German TV station. "Enjoying" isn't quite the right word for it. "Ploughing through", maybe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 04 January, 2018, 11:06:46 pm
The Essex Serpent (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01AWUTMHY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1), Victorian Essex, not my normal fare, but very enjoyable.  Going from that to Blindsight (https://www.amazon.co.uk/BLINDSIGHT-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515107111&sr=8-1&keywords=blindsight+watts), vampires in space, what's not to like?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 04 January, 2018, 11:11:59 pm
WTF by Robert Peston, very very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 05 January, 2018, 09:14:06 am
A Column of Fire, the latest in Ken Follett's Kingsbridge historical fiction series.  Nothing too taxing, quite entertaining in a low-brow kind of way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 January, 2018, 09:49:11 am
Nice to see old Follicle's still alive.  I always mix him up with Leslie Thomas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 05 January, 2018, 10:28:38 am
Wikipedia says he's only 68.  I don't think there's much threat of imminent daisy-pushing for him, though of course you never can tell.

Never heard of Leslie Thomas.  Was wondering how you could get Follett mixed up with Leslie Ding Dong Phillips, who I'm surprised (and happy) to see is still with us.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 January, 2018, 01:49:51 pm
LT is worth a look-up. A lot of his stuff was on the best-seller lists of the 60s. The Dearest and the Best was my favourite.

Which reminds me of Home Fires Burning by Robert Inman, about a small town in the southern US during WW2. Some lovely bits in that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 05 January, 2018, 08:59:27 pm
Spain to Norway on a bike called Reggie by Andrew Sykes was top of the christmas present pile of books. Gentle touring in Europe, makes me want to ride again.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 05 January, 2018, 10:29:25 pm
I'm most of the way through "Winston's War",by Max Hastings. Excellent portrait of Winston Churchill during the war years.

After reading the reviews and a few excerpts, I downloaded "Fire and Fury" to my kindle, and am really looking forward to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 05 January, 2018, 11:22:33 pm
Gibraltar- The greatest siege in British history by Roy and Lesley Adkins.

What it says on the tin.

I am enjoying reading about a far away place (which I love) back in a far away time where many of the places mentioned are still there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 January, 2018, 11:52:33 am
I'm most of the way through "Winston's War",by Max Hastings. Excellent portrait of Winston Churchill during the war years.

Try "War Diaries" by Alan Brooke who was CIGS during WWII. Very illuminating on Churchill. Brooke was a fan but Churchill still drove him potty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 January, 2018, 02:12:26 pm
Years ago I ploughed through WC's own "Second World War" series. Interesting, but as he said himself "History will treat me well as I shall write it."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 08 January, 2018, 01:21:12 pm
Just finished Vixen by Rosie Garland. Set in SW England in the 1300s during an outbreak of The Pestilence (plague), with priests, abuse, lesbians, hypocrisy, relics of saints and lots and lots of horse piss.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 09 January, 2018, 08:11:52 am
David Reynolds' _In Command of History_ is all about the writing of Churchill's _The Second World War_, it's fascinating to see just how he shaped his reputation, as well as the other factors that influenced the books (WC's need to pay his bills, mainly...)

On a related note, _No More Champagne_ by David Lough is an economic and business historian's biography of Churchill via his finances. This sounds dull, but is actually really interesting; a lot of the things Churchill ended up doing were driven by his habit of living far beyond his not inconsiderable means.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 10 January, 2018, 02:38:05 pm
Reading The Player of Games for the fourth or fifth time.

That's my favourite Banks book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 10 January, 2018, 10:07:50 pm
It was the first one of his I read and whilst I haven't read everything yet it's definitely near/at the top of my list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 January, 2018, 08:23:02 am
Consider Phlebas for me, I think.  Got a soft spot for Espedair Street, too.

Damn. I wish he hadn't died.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 11 January, 2018, 01:34:59 pm
Fire and Fury Michael Wolff.

Listened to this as a download and a good listen it is too: the reader of the book does an excellent job in the way they present the material.

As to the material, the book doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know: Trump is not capable of being POTUS while his team are a bunch of amateurs/ family members  as anyone with half a brain has gotten out or been sacked but its worth a read to help put some of the matters together in a logical order.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 11 January, 2018, 02:29:42 pm
I collected my copy today from the local bookshop and am looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm impressed that they have already managed to get someone capable of reading it all the way through without having to run out of the studio and be sick or double over laughing. Does he/she do the voices too?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 11 January, 2018, 02:33:00 pm
I collected my copy today from the local bookshop and am looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm impressed that they have already managed to get someone capable of reading it all the way through without having to run out of the studio and be sick or double over laughing. Does he/she do the voices too?

Yes he does...  There are several sections which are laugh out loud funny  ;D and one or two.... Trump in Russia...which mind bleach is required for.   :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 12 January, 2018, 02:49:27 pm
Been busy reading!

George Orwell- The Road to Wigan Pier.

Written in the 1930’s and considering the rise of fascism and the failure of socialism to take advantage of the woeful conditions many people faced at the time (poor housing/lack of social housing/ poor pay and conditions and a restrictive social support service), along with the major differences between book learnt socialist and those who actually live it, this book may seem a little dated (certainly in some of the terms used) but there are direct parallels  between the world then and now thus, despite being 80 years old, it should be read by anyone who has an interest in such things….it is a major shame on my part that I have not read it previously.

Orwell does not like vegetarians or sandal wears!!!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 14 January, 2018, 07:50:54 pm
I just finished The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka. If you like the late Sue Grafton's alphabet series with Kinsey Millhone, you might like this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: robgul on 18 January, 2018, 07:54:44 pm
I collected my copy today from the local bookshop and am looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm impressed that they have already managed to get someone capable of reading it all the way through without having to run out of the studio and be sick or double over laughing. Does he/she do the voices too?

Yes he does...  There are several sections which are laugh out loud funny  ;D and one or two.... Trump in Russia...which mind bleach is required for.   :sick:

I'm about a quarter of the way through and my reaction so far is that you couldn't make it up . . . if only half is true/accurate then it's worrying to say the least.

My daughter works for the UK publisher and has seen the "cease and desist" letter ... 20 pages of waffle.  And of course Trumps threats to sue aren't going to come to anything as his questioning and defence would mean releasing a lot of information and even, heaven forbid, his tax returns that he doesn't want to be in the public domain.

I see that Michael Wolff has sold the film rights today - guessing at the cast will be fun - although I suppose the guy that does him on SNL would be a strong candidate.

Rob
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 18 January, 2018, 08:22:54 pm
Just starting Charles Stross' Empire Games. Enjoying it so far, even if it does tax my remembering names skills.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 January, 2018, 08:23:13 pm
Daemon Voices: Essays On Storytelling ~ Philip Pullman.  An anthology of lectures and essays on, er, writing stories.  Apparently a deeply unfashionable thing to do if you aspire to write "literary fiction" these days but, by his own admission, the good Mr Pullman has no such aspirations, so that's alright then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 21 January, 2018, 10:08:48 pm
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult was brilliant.  Slightly soft ending but really excellent throughout.  Onto Chris Boardmans bio now, an Xmas present.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 January, 2018, 08:18:32 am
Can't settle into a book at present. Having just finished David Brin's Existence I'm having trouble finding anything to match it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hillbilly on 22 January, 2018, 04:56:34 pm
I'm grappling with "Infinite Jest" at the moment.  It's the first book I've had to look up instructions for and to use two bookmarks (one for the main text and one for footnotes). 

To be honest it's hard work and it isn't making much sense at the moment.  I suspect it may be another one of those highly regarded books that are endured rather than enjoyed.  Endured because I'm under the impression that this is a "challenge" and that my intellectual price is at stake.  I'm hoping the enjoyment will come though (online comments are positive, although I do wonder if this is because people want to appear smart rather than because it's actually a pleasure to read - much like, say, Ulysses or War and Peace, the former of which I eventually appreciated on my fourth attempt to read it and the latter which I thought was fine but vowed never to read it again due to the shortness of life).

I've set myself the goal of completing Infinite Jest by the summer, hopefully with an understanding of what it is about.  I'm 100 pages in but thinking of starting again with a notebook so I don't lose track of the story (in part because I'm reading other books in parallel).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 31 January, 2018, 01:30:31 pm
Anyone else dabbled with Orhan Pamuk? I'm 150 pages into A Strangeness in My Mind (translated from Turkish by the author) and am enjoying it in a cosy, comfort-reading kind of way. It's about Istanbul over the last 50 years or so, mainly through the eyes of an ingenue who moves there from the Anatolian countryside and becomes a street vendor of yoghurt and boza, like his dad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 31 January, 2018, 01:49:19 pm
Trigger Mortis James Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz, that a chum has lent me. Can't remember when I did last read a Bond book, but I've only read one other.

This one, apparently, has original un-seen Ian Fleming material stuffed in it somehow/somewhere.

The story begins in the lethal world of Grand Prix and an attempt by the Russians to sabotage a race at Nürburgring, the most dangerous track in Europe. Bond is in the driving seat but events swiftly take an unexpected turn, pitching him into an entirely different race with implications that could change the world.

Even through the first few pages, it pretty evident Bond should quit smoking! Smokes like a bloody chimney.

Pussy Galore's in it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 31 January, 2018, 03:08:34 pm
Just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

My god it's odd, not as odd, maybe as Odd Thomas, but still...

I asked one of the guys at work, this morning, if the TV series is weird and he replied with "Well I managed to struggle through 4 episodes then gave up, as it was so odd"

That'll be yes, then...

BTW I am enjoying it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 31 January, 2018, 03:12:01 pm
Trigger Mortis James Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz, that a chum has lent me. Can't remember when I did last read a Bond book, but I've only read one other.

This one, apparently, has original un-seen Ian Fleming material stuffed in it somehow/somewhere.

The story begins in the lethal world of Grand Prix and an attempt by the Russians to sabotage a race at Nürburgring, the most dangerous track in Europe. Bond is in the driving seat but events swiftly take an unexpected turn, pitching him into an entirely different race with implications that could change the world.

Even through the first few pages, it pretty evident Bond should quit smoking! Smokes like a bloody chimney.

Pussy Galore's in it.

I read Magpie Murders (by AH) from my sickbed over Christmas, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've heard him speaking on the wireless about Trigger Mortis, The Word Is Murder, and a few other things, and am keen to read more of his stuff...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 31 January, 2018, 08:39:11 pm
Just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

My god it's odd, not as odd, maybe as Odd Thomas, but still...

I asked one of the guys at work, this morning, if the TV series is weird and he replied with "Well I managed to struggle through 4 episodes then gave up, as it was so odd"

That'll be yes, then...

BTW I am enjoying it...

It's a brilliant book!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 31 January, 2018, 10:10:06 pm
The Oddessy. Not as good as The Iliad.

Second album syndrome?

For light relief, a marvel comic where Ms Marvel is a 16 year old Muslim girl was a very good read.

Also written a long time apart by different Homers

Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

Also reading A book on Pranayama techniques by Gregor Maehle as my serious read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 31 January, 2018, 10:11:48 pm
Consider Phlebas for me, I think.  Got a soft spot for Espedair Street, too.

Damn. I wish he hadn't died.

I still haven't read everything he wrote.  I started with Iain M Banks, and have only recently moved to Iain Banks.

I have an intention to get a copy of everything he wrote and read them all from start to finish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 January, 2018, 10:34:28 pm
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 31 January, 2018, 11:07:31 pm
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.

So not his best output then?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 31 January, 2018, 11:23:48 pm
You think...?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 February, 2018, 09:13:43 am
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.

So not his best output then?

It's the only one I've read, but I'm not about to try another. Putting aside the offputting fascistic militarism (with none of the tongue-in-cheek irony of the movie) that is expounded over many, many dull pages and achieves the considerable feat of making Ayn Rand seem almost interesting, it's just dull. Endless pages detail the minutia of military bureaucracy and ranks. And frankly, the protagonist is dull. He's the sort of person you'd climb out of the toilet window to avoid talking to at a party. A party on the top floor of a tower block.

Still, finally at the end (where the finallys usually do happen), there's an actual encounter with the enemy (the only encounter, iirc). Could there really be some excitement?

No.  Most, most definitely no.

Unless you're excited, of course, by a couple of the pages detailing troop disposition and patrol patterns. Then they caught an alien and went home for tea and scones or somesuch. The end.

The worst 99p I've ever spent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 February, 2018, 09:33:02 am
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis,* being the second vol. of the trilogy† begun with Bitter Seeds.  The boy‡ can write and his characters are excellent, but his command of 1940s English English is poor, he being from Over There.  One does not view Buckingham across Green Park, nor does one turn onto Shaftesbury. Nor did one turn onto in 1944, one turned on to. Small things and ignorable enough - you build a sort of mental callus over your critical blisters - that don't stop the books being very enjoyable. Alas, I'll have finished them all by Monday.

*  he of the Clakkers
† only they call it a triptych; it's, like, posher. Ask Mr. Bell.
‡ age 44 or thereabouts
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 01 February, 2018, 10:22:59 am
Quote
...and achieves the considerable feat of making Ayn Rand seem almost interesting

Not a Rush fan either, then?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 01 February, 2018, 02:04:04 pm
'The Cackle of Cthulhu'


"Elder Gods worship for the non-inbred". And Elvis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 February, 2018, 02:31:30 pm
After we read "La Trace de Cthulu", Cthulu became a household word chezz nouze for a certain substance. "There's still a trace of cthulu there, get another tissue".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 February, 2018, 04:49:51 pm
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis,* being the second vol. of the trilogy† begun with Bitter Seeds.  The boy‡ can write and his characters are excellent, but his command of 1940s English English is poor, he being from Over There.  One does not view Buckingham across Green Park, nor does one turn onto Shaftesbury. Nor did one turn onto in 1944, one turned on to. Small things and ignorable enough - you build a sort of mental callus over your critical blisters - that don't stop the books being very enjoyable. Alas, I'll have finished them all by Monday.

*  he of the Clakkers
† only they call it a triptych; it's, like, posher. Ask Mr. Bell.
‡ age 44 or thereabouts

I read those a while back,  well written but not the most cheerful of books!   Yes, he doesn't get the language quite right....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 01 February, 2018, 05:57:33 pm
I remember reading a horror story set somewhere on the Murcan frontier, before the Civil War, in which a character's response to being offered a hot drink is "I'm good, thanks"

Go and learn some period language!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 01 February, 2018, 08:28:25 pm
I enjoyed (IYSWIM) the Tregillis, but also found the various slips grated; surely it's not impossible for the publisher to find a UK copyeditor? I've found the same in other US-authored UK-set novels; just because you're an Anglophile doesn't mean you're going to be able to get it right (though I suppose the same is true of UK authors setting their stories in the US...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 02 February, 2018, 07:07:33 am
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.

So not his best output then?

It's the only one I've read, but I'm not about to try another. Putting aside the offputting fascistic militarism (with none of the tongue-in-cheek irony of the movie) that is expounded over many, many dull pages and achieves the considerable feat of making Ayn Rand seem almost interesting, it's just dull. Endless pages detail the minutia of military bureaucracy and ranks. And frankly, the protagonist is dull. He's the sort of person you'd climb out of the toilet window to avoid talking to at a party. A party on the top floor of a tower block.

Still, finally at the end (where the finallys usually do happen), there's an actual encounter with the enemy (the only encounter, iirc). Could there really be some excitement?

No.  Most, most definitely no.

Unless you're excited, of course, by a couple of the pages detailing troop disposition and patrol patterns. Then they caught an alien and went home for tea and scones or somesuch. The end.

The worst 99p I've ever spent.

Having persevered so far I'd agree with you.

I've read several of his that were much better, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is much better, for example.

I'm seeing the current example as an anti commie tirade of the time. We can't trust people with voting who aren't indoctrinated to do it the right way etc. I wonder whether it was entirely intended as tongue in checks but is either too subtle at it, or missed it entirely and ends sledgehammerring it into you until your brain is numb
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 February, 2018, 08:50:32 am
I remember reading a horror story set somewhere on the Murcan frontier, before the Civil War, in which a character's response to being offered a hot drink is "I'm good, thanks"

Go and learn some period language!

My favourite was the TV Cesare Borgia hollering "medic!"

Maybe he meant Medici.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 02 February, 2018, 10:10:37 am
I'm seeing the current example as an anti commie tirade of the time. We can't trust people with voting who aren't indoctrinated to do it the right way etc. I wonder whether it was entirely intended as tongue in checks but is either too subtle at it, or missed it entirely and ends sledgehammerring it into you until your brain is numb

I did persevere in the hope there would be a twist where the protagonist might come to question his beliefs, but like you say it mostly got worse, so I think it was it was rather than a clever subversion.

But mostly it was immensely dull. I only got to the end because it was short and it's not actually badly written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 02 February, 2018, 01:22:12 pm
Re-reading Ursula le Guin's "The Dispossessed" and reading for the first time "The Last Englishman" a biography of Arthur Ransome. The latter is quite interesting but I've only just got to the really interesting bit (the Russian Revolution).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 February, 2018, 11:13:43 am
I enjoyed (IYSWIM) the Tregillis, but also found the various slips grated; surely it's not impossible for the publisher to find a UK copyeditor? I've found the same in other US-authored UK-set novels; just because you're an Anglophile doesn't mean you're going to be able to get it right (though I suppose the same is true of UK authors setting their stories in the US...)

Had a right cackle last evening: his bloke went into a pub and drank several pints of bitters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 05 February, 2018, 01:28:48 pm
It's been out for a few years so many have already appeared in the three, but I've just finished a very enjoyable, light read, called One Man and His Bike by Mike Carter.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11745460-one-man-and-his-bike (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11745460-one-man-and-his-bike)

In brief, Mr Carter has a good idea one morning on his commute to work in London, which is that it would be interesting to turn right at the northern end of Blackfriars Bridge, rather than continuing on to his office near Kings Cross, and to follow the river out to the sea and then continue around the entire coastline of Britain. A few weeks later, he does just that.   It takes him the best part of 6 months.

He's a travel journalist so has a good eye for small details, although reading between the lines I suspect that some of his "encounters" were pencilled in ahead of the trip.  That said, it's easy reading, in that Brysonesque way, and effectively balances: an account of the cycle ride itself, various encounters along the way, a bit of local history and personal observations.  A good one for a train journey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 11 February, 2018, 08:30:49 am
I'm seeing the current example as an anti commie tirade of the time. We can't trust people with voting who aren't indoctrinated to do it the right way etc. I wonder whether it was entirely intended as tongue in checks but is either too subtle at it, or missed it entirely and ends sledgehammerring it into you until your brain is numb

I did persevere in the hope there would be a twist where the protagonist might come to question his beliefs, but like you say it mostly got worse, so I think it was it was rather than a clever subversion.

But mostly it was immensely dull. I only got to the end because it was short and it's not actually badly written.

Just got to the end of it, thank DOG,  at least it served the purpose of getting me to sleep
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 February, 2018, 11:16:54 am
Still Tregillising, now on Something More than Night. Angels channel Sam Spade to maintain the Mantle of Ontological Consistency and the 20th decimal place of the Fine Structure Constant.  A bit of a romp with nary a shadow of corkscrewed English English idiom.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 12 February, 2018, 01:14:59 pm
Guilty pleasure; the first of the Clifton Chronicles by Perjuror-in-Chief, Lord Mr Archer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 12 February, 2018, 07:01:56 pm
1971 - Never a dull moment by David Hepworth.

Took about two hours to read. I've done it so that you needn't bother. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 February, 2018, 09:45:28 pm
A History of the Arab Peoples -    Albert Hourani

Has good reviews and its huge. Just starting so no real verdict as yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 February, 2018, 09:41:03 pm
Just started the new James Oswald which, contrary to previous reports, is an Inspector McLean.  And, so far, rather DETHY :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 13 February, 2018, 09:47:25 pm
1971 - Never a dull moment by David Hepworth.

Took about two hours to read. I've done it so that you needn't bother.

He is sort of right though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 14 February, 2018, 02:51:20 pm
1971 - Never a dull moment by David Hepworth.

Took about two hours to read. I've done it so that you needn't bother.

He is sort of right though.

To a degree - I think picking one year (the one in which the author just happened to be 21) makes for a good pitch idea but I don't think there's enough substance for an entire book. I suspect that he was hoping to get a TV series off the back of it, but there can't be that much decent footage from that era that hasn't been seen over and over already.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 February, 2018, 07:27:20 pm
Just started the new James Oswald which, contrary to previous reports, is an Inspector McLean.  And, so far, rather DETHY :thumbsup:

Oh good. It’s waiting in my library pile once I’ve finished Robicheaux.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 14 February, 2018, 09:48:05 pm
Just started the new James Oswald which, contrary to previous reports, is an Inspector McLean.  And, so far, rather DETHY :thumbsup:
Oh, jolly good! That awaits after the last in the Peter May Lewis trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 February, 2018, 11:59:56 am
Mind you, you have to get a third of the way through before anything even vaguely supernatural starts happening.  There's more about his shiny new Alfa1 than there is about Things Which Man Was Not Meant To Know ;D

1: Old one still a pile of wreckage after the events of episode 7.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 February, 2018, 12:05:45 pm
Alfanatics will be pleased to know that McLean's Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde makes it to the end unscathed.

Just started "Islander: A Journey Round Our Archipelago" by Patrick Barkham, in which the author visits British Isles of progressively smaller size and population until he reaches rural Essex.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 16 February, 2018, 12:48:04 pm
A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys someone or other. Enjoying it. Mormon family in Southport, tragedy, faith, humour, grief, sin, guilt.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 16 February, 2018, 09:46:44 pm
Just chewed my way through the Pillars of the Earth trilogy by Ken Follett.

As ever he is a good storyteller but this opus straddles the years before history with our first vestiges of authoritative record and charts a path for the tensions and clashes between authority, religion and the masses. Would it be very bad of me to say he brings the Black Death to life? So much happened in those years from the Norman Conquest to now that still affects us. You can read these books as a ripping yarn, equally you may find that they are astonishingly thought provoking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 February, 2018, 02:51:27 pm
Atomised - Michel Houellebecq,translated by Frank Wynne

One of the stash of French novels I got for our summer holidays last year but I never got round to this one.

God its depressing but I've started so I will finish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 19 February, 2018, 03:02:11 pm
A new William Gibson, discovered in the library

The Peripheral

Only 40 pages in so far. It has all the gibson stuff, so I'm enjoying it. Who cares what the story is about. Sit back and enjoy the words.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 February, 2018, 03:19:17 pm
A new William Gibson, discovered in the library

The Peripheral

Only 40 pages in so far. It has all the gibson stuff, so I'm enjoying it. Who cares what the story is about. Sit back and enjoy the words.

It's excellent , though quite depressing when you ponder the implications of his future.   I think a sequel of sorts is in the pipeline for April. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wascally Weasel on 21 February, 2018, 02:04:04 pm
A big stack of books on music and music history (rock & pop) mostly from the 70s & 80s.  It's research!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 21 February, 2018, 04:10:32 pm
Recently, a couple of cycling bios: Wm. Fotheringham's Fauso Coppi book, and Richard Moore's _Slaying the Badger_; the first was good, the second excellent. And now, a book on plywood... (https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/plywood-a-material-story-148486.html)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 22 February, 2018, 01:27:09 pm
Jingo, by Terry P. It's cracking, and light relief after so much ancient Greek.

Vimes, Carrot, Angua, Nobbs, Colon, Detritus: the gang's all here.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 23 February, 2018, 12:04:10 pm
Counting Sheep by Philip Walling. 
https://www.worldofbooks.com/counting-sheep-a-celebration-of-the-pastoral-heritage-of-britain-by-philip-walling-gor006644714.html?keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIttXyq_672QIVa7HtCh3txQdXEAQYAiABEgKrmPD_BwE

It's very good.  The Quisling family keep a small flock and this book is useful in understanding the breeding and lineage of different sheep types but is also an excellent history of the British countryside, the vast wealth made from wool and the transition from wool to meat production to feed the increasingly urban workforce.  For an alternative point of view read George Monbiot's "Feral" in which he argues that sheep have destroyed our natural wilderness. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 23 February, 2018, 12:36:48 pm
"The Traitor" by Seth Dickinson (also published as The Traitor Baru Cormorant).
SF of the sociological type, reminds me a bit of Le Guin, which is no bad thing.
Only partway in, but so far it's good.

I've just seen that a sequel to this is being published in October. "The Monster Baru Cormorant"   

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/seth-dickinson-answers-5-questions-monster-baru-cormorant/

Edit - a review of the previous book.   I'll have to give it a re-visit before I get the new one.

http://sfreviews.net/dickinson_traitor_baru_cormorant.html
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 27 February, 2018, 03:50:31 pm
A natural history of the hedgerow, and ditches, dykes and dry stone walls - by John Wright, that chappie off River Cottage.

https://profilebooks.com/a-natural-history-of-the-hedgerow.html

Recommended for anyone with an interested in natural history and, er, boundaries.  I'm enjoying it a lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 February, 2018, 06:17:00 pm
Yorkshire ~ Richard Morris.  Subtitled, with typical Tyke understatement, "A Lyrical History Of England's Greatest County".  A bit of a scattergun approach so far, but still entertaining.  So far I have learned that Whitby whaling skipper and Arctic explorer William Scoresby later entered the Church, and as the Reverend Doctor William Scoresby, is about to clean up Bradford.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 27 February, 2018, 06:24:56 pm
Many have tried...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 28 February, 2018, 08:19:19 am
Just chewed my way through the Pillars of the Earth trilogy by Ken Follett.

As ever he is a good storyteller but this opus straddles the years before history with our first vestiges of authoritative record and charts a path for the tensions and clashes between authority, religion and the masses. Would it be very bad of me to say he brings the Black Death to life? So much happened in those years from the Norman Conquest to now that still affects us. You can read these books as a ripping yarn, equally you may find that they are astonishingly thought provoking.

I've read these in the past few years, finishing with A Column of Fire a couple of weeks ago.  They are exceptionally thoroughly researched (I thought The Pillars of the Earth was a bit architecture-heavy, mind) and very enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 February, 2018, 12:26:56 pm
Atomised - Michel Houellebecq,translated by Frank Wynne

One of the stash of French novels I got for our summer holidays last year but I never got round to this one.

God its depressing but I've started so I will finish.

I read what he describes as his first novel (eh?) and rather liked it

"HP Lovecraft Contre le Monde, Contre la Vie"

It is a sort of biography of HPL concentrating on his aversion to sex and deeply racist world-view.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 28 February, 2018, 12:39:12 pm
The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier. He really was a hippy. He's just got to Cape Horn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jack Standish on 02 March, 2018, 09:14:14 am
Reading Frank Herbert again. I keep coming back to his dry, rugged style.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 March, 2018, 05:39:11 pm
Dragon in the Sea was always a fave.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 March, 2018, 09:14:46 am
I liked that one too.  And the one with the real Jasper's - Santaroga Barrier?

In fact, I liked all his stuff until he started cranking out sequels to Dune.  They weren't bad, they were just bandwagon, and introduced too many factors that hadn't been mentioned in the main book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 March, 2018, 09:32:57 pm
Santaroga Barrier is the Jaspers one indeed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 05 March, 2018, 01:16:04 pm
Anyone else dabbled with Orhan Pamuk? I'm 150 pages into A Strangeness in My Mind (translated from Turkish by the author) and am enjoying it in a cosy, comfort-reading kind of way. It's about Istanbul over the last 50 years or so, mainly through the eyes of an ingenue who moves there from the Anatolian countryside and becomes a street vendor of yoghurt and boza, like his dad.
Finished, eventually. V good. After the first 150 pages I was keen to visit Istanbul. By the end I felt I didn't need to.

And with an abrupt change of pace, now on to 1974 by David Peace, the first of the Red Riding series. No chance of visiting Yorkshire in the 70s now, thank goodness. It was very grim oop North.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 March, 2018, 08:13:51 am
I started one of Pamuk's years ago, but was beset by too many oughts at the time and couldn't settle to it.

Right now I'm reading Dan Simmons's The Abominable, with Whymper's The Ascent of the Matterhorn on the side for background. Simmons' version of idiomatic 1924 English causes the odd wince, but since his narrator is an American it's tolerable.  Whymper's prose is very easy on the eye.

Assuming that Simmons' research is accurate and that he's not embroidering (aye, sure), the expedition to Everest on which Mallory & Irvine died took along 60 tins of quail in foie gras, 300 hams and several dozen bottles of champagne.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 March, 2018, 12:49:21 pm
Assuming that Simmons' research is accurate and that he's not embroidering (aye, sure), the expedition to Everest on which Mallory & Irvine died took along 60 tins of quail in foie gras, 300 hams and several dozen bottles of champagne.

It's been a while since I read Walt Unsworth's "Everest: A Mountaineering History", but those numbers sound abiut right ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 March, 2018, 12:55:12 pm
Nowadays they'd have PETA after them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 March, 2018, 06:16:07 pm
Mick Herrons latest Slough House / Slow horses opus, London Rules. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: David Martin on 25 March, 2018, 07:32:23 pm
Just read 'Raven Black' - You know the initial suspect didn't do it but the real culprit was a bit of a surprise.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 March, 2018, 08:27:01 pm
I have just re-read the increasingly badly named Shetland Quartet, mostly to determine exactly how Wrong the TV series of the same name has become.  I am expecting at least one more book, with the word "Fire" in the title.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 March, 2018, 09:39:57 pm
I really like the Shetland books.  The BBC series of the same name appears to be unrelated apart from the character names. Though it's a darn site better than the ITV series of the same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 27 March, 2018, 10:24:46 am
Green Alternatives to Globalisation: A Manifesto by Michael Woodin and Caroline Lucas.
Slightly out of date (at least the version that I have is) but still an excellent primer for those wishing to understand why neocon' politics isn't ideal.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18fscgj for more info.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 March, 2018, 11:57:49 am
I really like the Shetland books.  The BBC series of the same name appears to be unrelated apart from the character names. Though it's a darn site better than the ITV series of the same.

Earlier series did use the books at least as a basis for the story, but they soon shot off at right-angles to reality with their ageing Cassie by about twelve years and not bothering to include Fran at all.  And while Dougie Henshall is a fine actor, having him play a dark swarthy Mediterranean type is Just Wrong :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 March, 2018, 12:05:00 pm
Dougie Henshall is a fine actor

Is he? If you say so.

I've not read the books so wasn't aware of the discrepancy, though I did note that "Perez" is not what you'd call one of the classic Highland clans.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 March, 2018, 12:08:14 pm
The backstory is that a distant ancestor of DI Perez was a Spanish sailor washed ashore after the Duke of Medina-Sedonia failed to listen to the shipping forecast.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 27 March, 2018, 07:39:11 pm
I really like the Shetland books.  The BBC series of the same name appears to be unrelated apart from the character names. Though it's a darn site better than the ITV series of the same.

Earlier series did use the books at least as a basis for the story, but they soon shot off at right-angles to reality with their ageing Cassie by about twelve years and not bothering to include Fran at all.  And while Dougie Henshall is a fine actor, having him play a dark swarthy Mediterranean type is Just Wrong :demon:

Didn't realise there had been previous series...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 28 March, 2018, 11:48:23 am
I really like the Shetland books.  The BBC series of the same name appears to be unrelated apart from the character names. Though it's a darn site better than the ITV series of the same.

Earlier series did use the books at least as a basis for the story, but they soon shot off at right-angles to reality with their ageing Cassie by about twelve years and not bothering to include Fran at all.  And while Dougie Henshall is a fine actor, having him play a dark swarthy Mediterranean type is Just Wrong :demon:

Didn't realise there had been previous series...

The current one (just finished) is series 4.  5 to follow next year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 29 March, 2018, 07:19:20 pm
Doc Hutch's Re:Cyclists; very enjoyable, though as ever, descriptions of post-war touring make me wish I had been able to experience it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 April, 2018, 10:23:28 am
Revisiting Greg Iles' Penn Cage series.  I never noticed before that in spite of all the personal stress he was under, in the couple of days between the end of "The Devil's Punchbowl" and the start of "The Death Factory" Mr Cage found the time to trade his Saab for an Audi S4.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 09 April, 2018, 10:08:12 am
Having finished A Dark So Deadly and The Gathering Dark I tried some other detective novels, none of which appealed.  They are (in no particular order):

Dark Skies and High Force by LJ Ross - Total and utter pants, might work for someone only just starting our reading detective novels as everything is in HUGE signposts, but way to noddy for me (and the writing style is horrid)
A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George - A Lynley book, might return to this later

Now on Macbeth by Jo Nesbo.  Not convinced, at the moment, it contains the motorbike gang, some idiot polis but no Harry Hole.

I will just have to keep looking, I guess, or start reading Lean Organisations, a work related book and I really really don't want to do that....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 April, 2018, 11:04:17 am
A Charlie Stross potboiler called Glasshouse. Quite amusing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 09 April, 2018, 11:38:43 am
Currently: "Adults in the Room" - Yanis Varoufakis.  A first hand account his battles with the EU, ECB and IMF while trying to renegotiate Greece's debt as the Finance Minister of a new government.  Fascinating insight into the internals of the European financial authorities, and emphasises just how screwed the UK probably is if the folks negotiating Brexit are half as clownish as they appear to be.

Queued for afterwards: "Stories of the Law and How It's Broken" - The Secret Barrister.  I have very much enjoyed this guy's Twitter and blog articles, so stuck the book on pre-order a while ago.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 April, 2018, 01:08:17 pm
The second of Nick Petrie’s “Peter Ash” series, Burning Bright. The character owes a debt to Jack Reacher, but it’s entertaining and diverting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 April, 2018, 03:24:48 pm
Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard

Very good but... Would it be sacrilege to say I preferred the film? Very rare that this is the case, I just think the story works better told visually rather than verbally.

I liked the bit when Harry Zimm is talking to Chili Palmer about actors he's considering for the lead in the film he's making. One of the names mentioned is Gene Hackman, who played Harry Zimm in the film.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 09 April, 2018, 08:11:57 pm
Having finished A Dark So Deadly and The Gathering Dark I tried some other detective novels, none of which appealed.

Some others for you to try, if you've not already:
Stuart MacBride's Logan Mcrae books
The Shetland books by Ann Cleeves. The Vera Stanhope books by the same author are a bit closer to home.
The Lewis trilogy by Peter May.

On the weird shit front (rather more weird than the Mclean books)
Shadow Police series by Paul Cornell
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 10 April, 2018, 08:43:28 am
Having finished A Dark So Deadly and The Gathering Dark I tried some other detective novels, none of which appealed.

Some others for you to try, if you've not already:
Stuart MacBride's Logan Mcrae books
The Shetland books by Ann Cleeves. The Vera Stanhope books by the same author are a bit closer to home.
The Lewis trilogy by Peter May.

On the weird shit front (rather more weird than the Mclean books)
Shadow Police series by Paul Cornell
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

Thanks for the suggestions, Mrs Pingu. The only ones I haven't tried, so far (but are waiting on my Kobo) are the Ann Cleeves ones. I will get to them after The Death Messenger by Mari Hannah.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 April, 2018, 10:13:11 pm
Having finished A Dark So Deadly and The Gathering Dark I tried some other detective novels, none of which appealed.

Some others for you to try, if you've not already:
Stuart MacBride's Logan Mcrae books
The Shetland books by Ann Cleeves. The Vera Stanhope books by the same author are a bit closer to home.
The Lewis trilogy by Peter May.

On the weird shit front (rather more weird than the Mclean books)
Shadow Police series by Paul Cornell
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

Thanks for the suggestions, Mrs Pingu. The only ones I haven't tried, so far (but are waiting on my Kobo) are the Ann Cleeves ones. I will get to them after The Death Messenger by Mari Hannah.
You could also try the Rhona McLeod books by Lin Anderson. She's supposed to be a forensic rather than a detective but it's fairly police procedural.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 April, 2018, 11:08:47 am
This Unit recommends Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday series, though they are pretty grim most of the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 11 April, 2018, 09:22:26 pm
This Unit recommends Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday series, though they are pretty grim most of the time.

Blimey, he’s (Faraday) dead now! The Jimmy Suttle sequels are good too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 April, 2018, 06:58:36 am
This Unit recommends Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday series, though they are pretty grim most of the time.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

FWIW I gave up on Macbeth and moved onto Perfect Remains, another series set in Embra. Good so far, two kidnappings and two deaths (though not the same two!). Think I will follow this one through.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: robgul on 12 April, 2018, 07:07:03 am
Not quite reading yet but as I've been following the "Tales of the petulant child" being played out in the White House I've ordered Mr Comey's upcoming book due out on 19 April - the Michael Wolff "Fire & Fury" was interesting . . . if only half is true it's frightening.

Rob  [I'm hoping to read this before Trump starts WW3]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 April, 2018, 08:05:52 am
This Unit recommends Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday series, though they are pretty grim most of the time.

Blimey, he’s (Faraday) dead now! The Jimmy Suttle sequels are good too.

Don't need to read them then, do I?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 18 April, 2018, 12:06:40 pm
Trigger Mortis James Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz, that a chum has lent me. Can't remember when I did last read a Bond book, but I've only read one other.

This one, apparently, has original un-seen Ian Fleming material stuffed in it somehow/somewhere.

The story begins in the lethal world of Grand Prix and an attempt by the Russians to sabotage a race at Nürburgring, the most dangerous track in Europe. Bond is in the driving seat but events swiftly take an unexpected turn, pitching him into an entirely different race with implications that could change the world.

Even through the first few pages, it pretty evident Bond should quit smoking! Smokes like a bloody chimney.

Pussy Galore's in it.

I read Magpie Murders (by AH) from my sickbed over Christmas, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've heard him speaking on the wireless about Trigger Mortis, The Word Is Murder, and a few other things, and am keen to read more of his stuff...
The Word Is Murder in Kindle format is 99p at the Big River Place.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 April, 2018, 12:23:24 pm
Just started Jo Nesbo's "Macbeth".  I suspect a greater familiarity with The Scottish Play would help me understand WTF is going on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 18 April, 2018, 12:27:16 pm
Judging by a review I read of it, I don't think that would help at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 April, 2018, 01:19:28 pm
Thanks to M. Citoyen OTP, a series of 3 Raylan Givens novels by Elmore Leonard. At 5€ on Google Books for 750+ pp it should last a week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 April, 2018, 02:05:42 pm
They had that Jo Nesbo on "Meet The Author" last night.  The fact of his "Macbeth" being one of eight specially-commissioned reworkings of characters created by W Shakespeare does not make it any easier going.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 April, 2018, 02:10:04 pm
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carré

I first read this as a teenager and remember liking it very much, but don't remember anything else about it... Wow! It's brilliant. Didn't end how I was expecting at all.

Thanks to M. Citoyen OTP, a series of 3 Raylan Givens novels by Elmore Leonard. At 5€ on Google Books for 750+ pp it should last a week.

Eh? Oh, because I mentioned Get Shorty? Will be interested to know what you think of those.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 April, 2018, 02:30:53 pm
Good reading. The last volume of the 3-book collection I picked up was all short stories, which I didn't notice at first.  I was about a third of the way through and wondering how he was going to fit so many different characters into the dénouement - and if I'd be able to remember them all - before I twigged. It was the bit about San Juan Hill that did it.

I've just picked up a second such collection, and the first story is Get Shorty. I can't get Gene Hackman's phyzog out of my mind's eye.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 April, 2018, 01:16:00 pm
So: out the other end of Get Shorty the book, and watched Get Shorty the film last night for the second time. Liked the ending of the film more than that of the book, didn't like Danny de Vito as Michael/Martin Weir (agreed with Chili, he's too short). Otherwise, the film felt rushed second time around but didn't when I saw it the first time a couple of months back.

All taken together, I'd probably watch the film a 3rd time but I doubt if I'll re-read the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 April, 2018, 01:43:42 pm
So: out the other end of Get Shorty the book, and watched Get Shorty the film last night for the second time. Liked the ending of the film more than that of the book...

Glad it's not just me.

Currently re-reading The Long Goodbye and loving it. This prompted a conversation with my wife about the similarities between Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse, which I think we've discussed here before. On the back of that, I found this quiz, which had me laughing so hard I couldn't speak:
https://www.sporcle.com/games/ZYX/wodehouse-or-chandler
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 April, 2018, 04:07:37 pm
I got 21/30 on that one.  Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 25 April, 2018, 04:18:48 pm
Now on the third of Helen Fields' Perfect series. DI Callanach is still very French, bodies are still turning up everywhere and it is now winter.

Got two Paul Finch books to move on to after this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 26 April, 2018, 08:36:44 am
I got 21/30 on that one.  Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.
I got 26/30, despite never having read any Chandler and it being probably 25 years since I saw a Wodehouse...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 30 April, 2018, 01:23:30 pm
Back onto Stephen King for a couple of days - just a short one: Carrie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jsabine on 30 April, 2018, 10:36:36 pm
I got 21/30 on that one.  Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.
I got 26/30, despite never having read any Chandler and it being probably 25 years since I saw a Wodehouse...

I got 21, mostly by dint of about four Chandler quotes coming from a short story I'd read just a few days before: my guesswork on the rest was poor.

This, however, I thought was in amusingly poor taste: https://www.sporcle.com/games/jr637/tolkien-character-or-antidepressant
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 April, 2018, 10:50:28 pm
I got 21/30 on that one.  Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.
I got 26/30, despite never having read any Chandler and it being probably 25 years since I saw a Wodehouse...

I got 21, mostly by dint of about four Chandler quotes coming from a short story I'd read just a few days before: my guesswork on the rest was poor.

I got 26, mostly ones I recognised, and I'm supposed to be some kind of Wodehouse aficionado.

(By contrast, I got full marks on this one, on Wodehouse titles, filling in all the blanks in around 80 seconds: https://www.sporcle.com/games/MSUKent/Robinson_names - and what's more, I've read all of them)

Quote
This, however, I thought was in amusingly poor taste: https://www.sporcle.com/games/jr637/tolkien-character-or-antidepressant

That is genius.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Cunobelin on 01 May, 2018, 06:37:08 am
I am re-reading Holidays In Hell by PJ O Rourke, as in the following quotes.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'Rourke

Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.
P. J. O'Rourke





Good choice, I read that in Melbourne in 1990, must dig it out. It's gotta be showing it's age though, Belfast is very different now.

The changes in a city and are part of the fun....

Not really reading, but dipping in and out as I plan

Findlay Muirhead's Blue Guide to Southern Spain and Portugal from 1929

These are my chosen reference books when travelling and I always buy the 1926 edition, or if not available the 1929

They are very informative guides and it is interesting to investigate a city from a historical perspective and see what is still there and what has gone.

It also helps narrow row accommodation as often the Hotels that are recommended are still not only there, but reasonably priced.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 02 May, 2018, 09:22:10 pm
I am reading the bicycle and the Bush by Jim Fitzpatrick about the use of bicycles in Australia . Very enjoyable . Available on kindle  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 02 May, 2018, 10:25:04 pm
I'm currently re-reading Damian Boyd's Somerset Levels series of crime novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 02 May, 2018, 11:00:47 pm
I'm re-reading Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space series.  The first time I read them, I read them out of sequence, and whilst they stood up well as individual books, I find on reading them in sequence, that I missed some of the detail carried from one book to another.

There's something about the experience of reading a book for the first time that isn't reproduced on re-reading it though.  The first time I read Absolution Gap, I had a sense of how terrifying the whole Revelation Space world was.  On re-reading, that fear isn't there any more.  Its all become a bit too comfortable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 03 May, 2018, 06:03:05 am
Just started "The Hanging Club" by Tony Parsons.

Just for a change, another series about polis, this time in The Big Smoke.  I read one of his short stories, which I quite enjoyed, so have started on this one where the bodies that are piling up all have done something wrong in the past.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 May, 2018, 09:55:27 pm
Swotting up for this year's Leftpondian odyssey with The Milepost, a seven-hundred page travel guide to Alaska and NW Canuckistan.  Which now looks like it's been attacked by a feeding swarm of Post-ItTM notes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 05 May, 2018, 10:26:08 pm
Stuart Maconie's 'Pies and Prejudice'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 May, 2018, 08:44:45 am
M. Citoyen having got me hooked on noir, I'm on James Ellroy's Black Dahlia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 May, 2018, 06:57:40 pm
The latest of John Connoly’s Charlie Parker stories, The Woman in the Woods. Excellent as always.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 08 May, 2018, 04:11:19 pm
Just finished The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.  Very good, nice twist in plot, marred by two things...

(click to show/hide)

and

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 08 May, 2018, 06:58:39 pm
Back onto Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne.  Gorry, this dialect is going to take some getting used to...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Alismed on 12 May, 2018, 07:31:13 pm
Ooo, just discovered the yacf culture section! Today I finished 'the Confabulist' by Steven Galloway. A very unusual read about Houdini and the people in his life, friend and foe. Probably a Lionel Shriver next or one of my library pile (working part time in a library is dangerous!)  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 May, 2018, 11:09:04 am
The Big Nowhere, next one of Ellroy's LAPD/LASD opi.  Striking vocabulary.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 13 May, 2018, 05:24:14 pm
I think Ellroy's LA quartet are brilliant and probably his best books, but they're a claustrophobic headspace to be in - I found I had to take a break after reading more than one in a row. After _American Tabloid_ he got too big to edit IMO; the later books are just sprawling messes. I still have a charity shop copy of _Perfidia_ on the shelf, mind; I just need a long holiday to get round to it (so maybe in a decade or so...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 23 May, 2018, 10:30:25 am
99p for the Kindle version of Adolph Hitler, my Part in his Downfall

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A8TUXTG/

It's be wrong to say I'd forgotten how funny he was, but it is just as good on re-reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 May, 2018, 01:05:37 pm
I think Ellroy's LA quartet are brilliant and probably his best books, but they're a claustrophobic headspace to be in - I found I had to take a break after reading more than one in a row. After _American Tabloid_ he got too big to edit IMO; the later books are just sprawling messes. I still have a charity shop copy of _Perfidia_ on the shelf, mind; I just need a long holiday to get round to it (so maybe in a decade or so...)

Sorry to hear I'm starting with the best of them: downhill from here, then.

Currently into LA Confidential, reading out choicer bits of non-PC to the missus. Never mind the Dambusters' dog, if they'd used the real text in the film there'd have been cinemas on fire right across the US.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 23 May, 2018, 10:02:18 pm
Re-reading “Farthest North” by Fridtjof Nansen. Very readable account of his multi year exploration of the polar region starting in 1893.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 May, 2018, 04:31:51 am
Having finally put Jo Nesbo's "Macbeth" to bed, it's the turn of Arnaldur Indridason's "Reykjavík Nights".  No killin's as such yet but it's still early.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 24 May, 2018, 08:09:47 am
Back onto Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne.  Gorry, this dialect is going to take some getting used to...
That was awesome - not one of his higher-acclaimed works but one of my favourites.

Now I'm plugging through Ken Follicle's Century trilogy.  Lots of coalmining, espionage, and bodice-ripping so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 24 May, 2018, 11:46:04 am
I am enjoying another foray into the paranormal romance genre.

Mr Smith I suspect is enjoying it somewhat less.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 May, 2018, 10:46:44 pm
Inglorious Empire: what the British did to India, by Shashi Tharoor is on my kindle at the moment.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 26 May, 2018, 12:30:38 am
Soon to be filmed by Tarantino as Inglourious Brit-tards.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 June, 2018, 01:54:02 pm
I've just bought The Colour of Magic as it was on offer from the big river place. The odd snippets of Pratchett I've read over the years have never made me want to investigate further, but for 99p, I'm prepared to give him a chance.

To balance that, I also bought something with more intellectual heft: William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 16 June, 2018, 07:28:41 pm
I've just bought The Colour of Magic...

The first of the main Discworld books, but by a long way not the best. YMMV, of course.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 17 June, 2018, 08:27:35 am
The Blood Road Logan Mcrae #11.

It's still raining

Only one person has died, so far

Lots of other stuff has happened, in between books, like Logan joining Professional Standards, and buying a house, and finding a new squeeze.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 17 June, 2018, 12:17:55 pm
Just finishe “Love like Blood” by Mark Billingham.  I’m a bit of a billingham fanboy and this book was one of his best I think.

Now getting into “The Crow Girl” by Victoria Bergmans Svaghet which is shaping up very nicely.
It’s transllated from Swedish and I sometimes think translated books can be tough going but I don’t find that at all with this book
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 June, 2018, 12:53:20 pm
I've just bought The Colour of Magic...

The first of the main Discworld books, but by a long way not the best. YMMV, of course.

Would I lose anything by not reading them in order? I thought I ought to start at the beginning.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 June, 2018, 01:11:30 pm
Some of them, in particular the Watch novels, form a series within the series, but otherwise I think you'd be OK with reading them out of sequence. I am not an expert, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 17 June, 2018, 01:21:32 pm
The Colour Of Magic (and the second half of the story, The Light Fantastic) was an antidote to fantasy novels when it first came out, back before the rest of the Discworld novels had been written.  It's not a terrible place to start, as long as you do so with the understanding that if you don't enjoy it, you shouldn't dismiss the entire Discworld because of it.  If nothing else, it would be a shame to miss out on The Luggage.

There are several series-within-a-series, chiefly the City Watch (start with Guards Guards), The Witches (start with Equal Rites) and Death (start with Mort), which are all much stronger stories than TCOM/TLF.  The various new-technology-comes-to-the-Discworld stories could also be considered as a series, though I reckon you need some prior Discworld experience to fully appreciate them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 June, 2018, 08:44:48 pm
The Blood Road Logan Mcrae #11.

It's still raining

Only one person has died, so far

Lots of other stuff has happened, in between books, like Logan joining Professional Standards, and buying a house, and finding a new squeeze.

Ooooh goodie!  Somethings to look forward to on my return from Northern Climes!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 June, 2018, 12:36:26 pm
I just finished The Craftsman by SJ Bolton. Loved it. Police, murders, Pendle witches, double-crossing, human sacrifices, and an overall atmosphere of creepy chilling menace.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 June, 2018, 04:19:29 pm
The Blood Road Logan Mcrae #11.

It's still raining

Only one person has died, so far

Lots of other stuff has happened, in between books, like Logan joining Professional Standards, and buying a house, and finding a new squeeze.

Ooooh goodie!  Somethings to look forward to on my return from Northern Climes!

Now finished it. It is very good. All his best characters are in it.

Now reading Garnethill by Denise Mina. Completely different pace.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 19 June, 2018, 04:49:43 pm
I've just bought The Colour of Magic...

The first of the main Discworld books, but by a long way not the best. YMMV, of course.

Would I lose anything by not reading them in order? I thought I ought to start at the beginning.

As others have said, though not critical, in order is generally good but not essential.

I've been reading the odd one as they come up reduced on Kindle, just finished The Light Fantastic. I find it interesting how his writing develops. As Kim says, those early books are based in the Fantasy genre of the period, written by someone who had been doing a Sarah Huckabee for the Nuclear Generating Board, and had been tinkering with the similarities between nuclear and magic for years. The ideas fizz out at a rate of knots because, why not? The later books develop ideas more fully, some feel like a sentence turned into a volume. They are often much more about the people, and the parallels to the normal universe are closer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 June, 2018, 07:33:56 am
Fatal Passage ~ Ken McGoogan.  Biography of John Rae who, unlike the vast majority of Victorian Arctic explorers, seems not to have been a total berk.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 June, 2018, 08:07:40 am
I've just bought The Colour of Magic...

The first of the main Discworld books, but by a long way not the best. YMMV, of course.

Would I lose anything by not reading them in order? I thought I ought to start at the beginning.

As others have said, though not critical, in order is generally good but not essential.

I've been reading the odd one as they come up reduced on Kindle, just finished The Light Fantastic. I find it interesting how his writing develops. As Kim says, those early books are based in the Fantasy genre of the period, written by someone who had been doing a Sarah Huckabee for the Nuclear Generating Board, and had been tinkering with the similarities between nuclear and magic for years. The ideas fizz out at a rate of knots because, why not? The later books develop ideas more fully, some feel like a sentence turned into a volume. They are often much more about the people, and the parallels to the normal universe are closer.

In the 70s Larry Niven published an article about the structure of the Ringworld, and also discussed other kinds of macrostructures such as Dyson spheres and a world where all the matter in a system had been formed into a disc with gravity perpendicular to the surface. Unlike TP, he had the sun bobbing up and down through a hole in the middle (thus obeying physics) but he also commented that such a world, with its long shadows, would be a great setting for a swords and sorcery novel.  When the first Discworld novel appeared I thought "aye aye, someone else reads Larry Niven".

...

They'e not Diskworld in the US, are they?  :sick:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 24 June, 2018, 04:08:17 am
I remember the Niven essay. And I have checked: the works remain discworld in USA nia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 June, 2018, 08:08:10 am
I rather suspected they did.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 June, 2018, 03:08:08 pm
The Adjustable Spanner: History, Origins and Development to 1970 - Ron Geeslin

Sounds like the dullest book in the world but its really quite brilliant if you have any interest at all in tools or just want an insight into one man's obsession.
As well as having over 3000 adjustable spanners Ron is a a composer, arranger and sound artist who has been heavily involved with Pink Floyd amongst others.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 24 June, 2018, 08:03:42 pm
Just finished Adam Rutherford's rather entertaining book on genetics "A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived" and I'm now getting stick into the updated edition of Misha Glenny's "McMafia", a deep dive into transnational organised crime networks, with a few names cropping up in the early parts of the book that I'm already passing familiar with courtesy of reading up on that Trump-Russia thing over the last couple of years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 June, 2018, 11:19:09 am
The Blood Road Logan Mcrae #11.

It's still raining

Only one person has died, so far

Lots of other stuff has happened, in between books, like Logan joining Professional Standards, and buying a house, and finding a new squeeze.

Ooooh goodie!  Somethings to look forward to on my return from Northern Climes!

Now finished it. It is very good. All his best characters are in it.

Shaping up nicely, but no sign of Reuben Kennedy yet chiz chiz.

Edit: Finished, no Reuben but I look forward to Rebecca joining the polis in about fifteen years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 July, 2018, 07:19:27 pm
The Killing Habit ~ Mark Billingham.  Thorne #15.  I am expecting killin's.

Edit: contains a derogatory comment about colossal bellend Piers "Morgan" Moron, but points lost for not actually referring to the colossal bellend as a colossal bellend.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 July, 2018, 08:37:06 am
American Tabloid by James Ellroy. So far: Bad-Back Jack's election, Hoffa, Cuba, Cammies, Hoover, Hughes, da Mob and a guest appearance by Officer J. D. Tippit. Alfred A. Knopf's legal dept must have been running red-hot prior to publication.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 July, 2018, 08:58:11 pm
The latest Tom Thorne from Mark Billingham. Then I have Donna Léon, Barbara Nadel AND Stuart Macbride waiting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 09 July, 2018, 01:12:04 am
The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund
Very highly recommended. A very dark scandi-noir thriller, dealing with some very disturbing subjects.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 09 July, 2018, 01:05:03 pm
I just finished The Craftsman by SJ Bolton. Loved it. Police, murders, Pendle witches, double-crossing, human sacrifices, and an overall atmosphere of creepy chilling menace.
Have now nearly finished Blood Harvest by the same author. Moors, police, churches, child deaths, vicars, psychiatrists, goitres, ancient harvest rituals and an overall atmosphere of creepy chilling menace.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 09 July, 2018, 04:15:14 pm
American Tabloid by James Ellroy. So far: Bad-Back Jack's election, Hoffa, Cuba, Cammies, Hoover, Hughes, da Mob and a guest appearance by Officer J. D. Tippit. Alfred A. Knopf's legal dept must have been running red-hot prior to publication.

You can't libel the dead; I've heard Ellroy say in an interview that he's switched to clean(er?) livin' in the hope that he'll get to write a novel about the Clinton administration...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pumpkin on 10 July, 2018, 02:15:14 pm
My 8 yr old has just read and enjoyed The Hobbit
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 July, 2018, 03:18:24 pm
American Tabloid by James Ellroy. So far: Bad-Back Jack's election, Hoffa, Cuba, Cammies, Hoover, Hughes, da Mob and a guest appearance by Officer J. D. Tippit. Alfred A. Knopf's legal dept must have been running red-hot prior to publication.

You can't libel the dead; I've heard Ellroy say in an interview that he's switched to clean(er?) livin' in the hope that he'll get to write a novel about the Clinton administration...

That explains a lot.  I do hope I'll be around for his novel about Trumpton.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 11 July, 2018, 05:58:41 am
American Tabloid by James Ellroy. So far: Bad-Back Jack's election, Hoffa, Cuba, Cammies, Hoover, Hughes, da Mob and a guest appearance by Officer J. D. Tippit. Alfred A. Knopf's legal dept must have been running red-hot prior to publication.

You can't libel the dead; I've heard Ellroy say in an interview that he's switched to clean(er?) livin' in the hope that he'll get to write a novel about the Clinton administration...

Indeed. my profoundly unpleasant (in places) novel about child abuse, 'Sweat and Tears', features the late arsehole John Money. I made sure I was safe before including him, even though he remains 'off-screen'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 13 July, 2018, 03:43:08 pm
Insidious Intent, number ten in Val McDermid's Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series.  1/3 of the way though and only one killin' but there's another one imminent.

Well, that was a bit unexpected, but La McDermid says in the Afterword that I'm not allowed to say any more.

I heard her interviewed about that and am intrigued. Do I need to read the preceding 9 for number 10 to make sense?

#10 does contain quite a lot of references pertaining to events in #9 and so on back to the beginning.

#1-#10 all done now.  Yes, unexpected. I think I would have given up at #4 were it not for the the promise of a surprise at #10, but the books did become less formulaic as the series progressed and you can rattle through them quickly. I never watched Wire in the Blood but the knowledge that Robson Green played Tony Hill spoiled the character a little for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 13 July, 2018, 04:22:04 pm
Consuming Passions by Judith Flanders; a history of 18th- and 19th-c. consumption, leisure, and popular culture. It got great reviews when it came out over a decade ago, and I can see why - Flanders draws together many seemingly disparate threads to show how the Victorians shopped and entertained themselves, and how they created modern consumer culture in the process. She's a very entertaining guide, with fascinating tidbits on almost every page. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 15 July, 2018, 03:24:37 pm
Read recently as well as reading now-

Ian Banks - Transition Took ages to read and definitely comes with an award for bad sex descriptions.  Interesting book though.  Wont read again.

You are awful but I like you - Tim Moore -Round awful place in the UK with a maestro.  Interesting bits of history.

I travel alone - Scandagwegian crime drama - In the mould of Dan Brown with short chapters and simple language.  Good read bit predictable Will be made in to a film or TV series.

Patience of the spider - Andrea Calmieri - Fun read in english really should read them in Italian- see if it makes more sense.

Last bus to coffeeville - J Paul Henderson Great book, fascinating and fun bit sad in the end.  Picked up for 99p in a bookshop but a really good read.  Might see if I can find other things he has written.

Currently

La bella figura (Insiders guide to the Italian Mind) Beppe Servino -Translated in to Engish interesting take and seems quite a good read.  Maybe look up the original.

Coming up

Castelli di Rabbia - Alessandro Baricco - No idea what it is about, going to read it in Italian to see if I can improve my written language.

Tricks of the Mind Derren Brown - Interesting book that shows people how he does his magic.  well hints and shows you were to go next for more information.

One flew over the cuckoos nest - As I want to read it and after being inside decided that I should read it.  May be help write about my experience.

Happy Derren Brown- The anti self help book????

A study in Scareltt - Conan Doyle - In french as thought I would see how it would help me speak and think french

High fedelity  Nick Hornby - In french as read the english and liked the film.  So help me expand my mind or at least a little excercise.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 15 July, 2018, 07:50:01 pm
Dead Lock by Damien Boyd. Next in the series of DI Nixon in the Somerset Levels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 July, 2018, 10:04:45 am
Anger Is An Energy ~ John Lydon.  Rotten explains why he hates the world and everything in it except butter*.

* Haven't actually reached that bit yet; he's still firing Wobble from PiL.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 22 July, 2018, 02:40:18 pm
Well I uncharacteristically gave up on Mark Billinghams latest Tom Thorne novel, “The Killing Habit” I just didn’t engage with it. Now devouring Stuart McBrides latest Logan Macrae “The Blod Road”. Up to his usual high standard.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 25 July, 2018, 10:29:50 pm
Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge. Heartbreaking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 July, 2018, 09:11:38 pm
Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 28 July, 2018, 09:34:55 pm
just finished One Summer in America 1927, will pass that on to my day, cracking read by Bryson as always, if a little Americocentric.

Next I Am Legend - can't wait to see how close it is to the fillum as a bit of 60's sci-fi
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 July, 2018, 10:47:19 pm
just finished One Summer in America 1927, will pass that on to my day, cracking read by Bryson as always, if a little Americocentric.

Next I Am Legend - can't wait to see how close it is to the fillum as a bit of 60's sci-fi
There are three film versions, starring Vincent, Charlton and Will. The first is the closest.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 28 July, 2018, 10:55:57 pm
I've seen Heston and Smith,

Vincent? Price? The last man on earth?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 29 July, 2018, 12:05:59 am
I've seen Heston and Smith,

Vincent? Price? The last man on earth?
Yes
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 July, 2018, 10:02:16 am
Pretend You're In A War ~ Mark Blake. The tale of The 'orrible Who.  No Moon, blood or otherwise, yet though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 30 July, 2018, 07:27:42 pm
Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.

Now a chicken or pork parmo, bar the deep fried breadcrumb bit, sounds like a meal that I love. The al' pizzalaio.

Not sure how I felt about the book.  Think it was what was going on in my life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jack Standish on 01 August, 2018, 10:12:57 am
Getting into Dostoevsky.
How very Russian everything is.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 August, 2018, 10:21:11 am
Like Chris Froome, according to one cycling comic's "Climb and Punishment" headline.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 01 August, 2018, 02:11:09 pm
Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.

WTF. Parmo is the manna provided by Teh Lord to make living round here bearable.

Anti-Parmo snobbery at work. I need to read the original to see if I disagree with you both on this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 01 August, 2018, 07:33:01 pm
Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.

WTF. Parmo is the manna provided by Teh Lord to make living round here bearable.

Anti-Parmo snobbery at work. I need to read the original to see if I disagree with you both on this.

Did sound like an awful version of a parmo.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 01 August, 2018, 09:36:11 pm
Ken Follett - Triangle

Would it be an easy read in French?  Is the original book a low reading age?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 01 August, 2018, 09:37:07 pm
Natives, by Akala.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 01 August, 2018, 09:59:04 pm
The railway navvies by Terry Coleman. Have discovered an ancestor was in Paris in the 1840s doing railway things. Most interesting. These guys built the wealth of GB and were generally despised, nothing new there then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 August, 2018, 03:02:04 pm
Because they were generally Irish.

When my future Inlaw Maw was told that her daughter was going to marry an Irishman they had to send out for smelling-salts.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 August, 2018, 10:08:01 am
Careless Love ~ Peter Robinson.  The latest Banks.  Very annoying ending, because I'll have to wait a year for the denouement.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 06 August, 2018, 11:26:46 am
Because they were generally Irish.

When my future Inlaw Maw was told that her daughter was going to marry an Irishman they had to send out for smelling-salts.

       When my (now) wife told her parents she was seriously involved with me (Seamus) they thought it  was an Asian name,
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 06 August, 2018, 12:46:27 pm
The railway navvies by Terry Coleman. Have discovered an ancestor was in Paris in the 1840s doing railway things. Most interesting. These guys built the wealth of GB and were generally despised, nothing new there then.

A very good book.  There are all the canals, too.  The civil engineering in the era of the industrial revolution was stupendous and must have been slightly frightening to have lived through (see "Dombey and Son") - and that's before you consider the navvies!  A fascinating period.

Peter
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 15 August, 2018, 08:22:16 pm
Various holiday books: just finished re-reading McPherson's magisterial _Battle Cry of Freedom_ and whizzed through Mark Miodnowik's _Stuff Matters_. Found a hardback of SS-GB in the local charity shop, so am halfway through that; though I watched the Beeb's recent adaptation, it's been years since I read the novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 16 August, 2018, 07:37:32 am
Trying to read more non fiction at the moment, so recently

The Haynes Manual to the Chieftain Main Battle Tank
Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927, quite fascinating
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, took this on my Scottish tour

On the go right now
South by Shackleton
H is for Hawk
A book on the Vikings by Neil Oliver - not really got into ths one yet

and ficton - Rule Britannia by Daphe Du Maurier
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 August, 2018, 08:05:00 am
Fell off the end of James Ellroy's Underworld Trilogy and started From Here to Eternity, but the style of the latter was such a contrast I baled out and found J.E.'s Perfidia. Once that's done I'll be stuck until the sequel comes out. Hope the man doesn't die first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 August, 2018, 08:10:12 am
Finally got hold of a copy of "Terminal", the fifth novel in Marshall Karp's Lomax & Biggs series.  Approximately 1/10 as good as "The Rabbit Factory".  Spend a few years churning out potboilers in collaboration with James Patterson and this is probably to be expected :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 16 August, 2018, 09:04:11 am
Trying to read more non fiction at the moment, so recently

The Haynes Manual to the Chieftain Main Battle Tank
Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927, quite fascinating
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, took this on my Scottish tour

...
I heard BB talking on the radio about 1927 a few months back and it sounded really interesting...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 16 August, 2018, 10:16:35 am
Trying to read more non fiction at the moment, so recently

The Haynes Manual to the Chieftain Main Battle Tank
Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927, quite fascinating
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, took this on my Scottish tour

...
I heard BB talking on the radio about 1927 a few months back and it sounded really interesting...

I can't give you my copy I'm afraid, I've left it with my dad, along with "Don't Tell Mum I work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 August, 2018, 10:23:05 am
Monsieur Pamplemousse On The Spot by Michael Bond

Number three in the series. I fancied something light, started reading Pratchett's Mort but found it irritating, so downloaded another Monsieur Pamplemousse to the Kindle. It's reassuringly exactly the same as the two I've already read. Thanks again to Ham for tipping me off to the existence of the Sûreté's leading gastronome.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Von Broad on 16 August, 2018, 11:33:15 am
[complete fraud coming to this thread, but..]
Prompted by the 2018 TDF thread I've just read [the first book in what must be 15 years or so] - David Millars 'Racing Through the Dark'
Meeting Brailsford obviously had a big impact on him, he was still doping at the time, but ready to come clean, then he got nicked. He starts the book brilliantly - the opening chapter reads like a novel.
Ironic is the fact that had he not been lured over to the murky world of doping this book would not have come about, and had it been written, would probably have been utterly dull. Not sure exactly why, but I'm very drawn to the whole history of doping in cycling.
Enjoyed it immensely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 16 August, 2018, 11:37:08 am
New York 2142 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Excellent
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 16 August, 2018, 11:39:04 am
I have got about 10 minutes of "Not Alone" by "Craig A Falconer" left and frankly, unless there is a major twist, this has got to be one of the worst, most predictable and overlong book I have read since I once read a..... embarrassed to say this... a Dan Brown book. :facepalm:


God...what a pile of rubbish although it started off okay but then just went on, and on, and on. Indeed, at 730 pages long, a good editor would have deleted at least 400 pages and cut out all the guff. And... I have no doubt that the author has seen "Close Encounters" and most episodes of the X Files....the crap ones.... as they nicked the the story lines from there.

Strangely, most reviewers on Amazon seemed to like the book so I am likely to be wrong but I really think this is rubbish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 August, 2018, 12:56:34 pm
Prompted by the 2018 TDF thread I've just read [the first book in what must be 15 years or so] - David Millars 'Racing Through the Dark'
...Enjoyed it immensely.

Next up you should read The Secret Race, Tyler Hamilton's story. It's even more jaw-dropping than Millar's account.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 August, 2018, 01:09:51 pm
New York 2142 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Excellent

Now that sounds like a good idea...  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 16 August, 2018, 04:30:19 pm
Prompted by the 2018 TDF thread I've just read [the first book in what must be 15 years or so] - David Millars 'Racing Through the Dark'
...Enjoyed it immensely.

Next up you should read The Secret Race, Tyler Hamilton's story. It's even more jaw-dropping than Millar's account.

Thanks for the tip, I've read David Millars book a while ago now

I'd also recomment Fallen Angel about Fausto Coppi

and non-cycling, The Ghost Runner.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Von Broad on 16 August, 2018, 11:04:17 pm
Next up you should read The Secret Race

Ok thanks,ordered that. Reporting back in due course.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 August, 2018, 09:54:23 am
I have got about 10 minutes of "Not Alone" by "Craig A Falconer" left and frankly, unless there is a major twist, this has got to be one of the worst, most predictable and overlong book I have read since I once read a..... embarrassed to say this... a Dan Brown book. :facepalm:


God...what a pile of rubbish although it started off okay but then just went on, and on, and on. Indeed, at 730 pages long, a good editor would have deleted at least 400 pages and cut out all the guff. And... I have no doubt that the author has seen "Close Encounters" and most episodes of the X Files....the crap ones.... as they nicked the the story lines from there.

Strangely, most reviewers on Amazon seemed to like the book so I am likely to be wrong but I really think this is rubbish.

Hmmm, a self-published book with many, many five stars reviews...

I forget what it was, but when I first got a Kindle, I downloaded some freebie in this category as a test. It was, without a doubt, the worst thing I've ever read. Not just bad, but astonishingly, brain-achingly bad. Not Dan Brown bad, at least that might have been written by a grown-up, this read it was written by someone who still writes a vulgar fraction after their age.

By-the-by, you can buy the five star reviews.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 August, 2018, 10:10:13 am
Hmmm, a self-published book with many, many five stars reviews...

Cynic.

I have a friend who self-publishes and isn't all that bad. He writes 'dark fiction' which isn't really my bag but I read one of his books* and it was quite enjoyable - not what you'd call fine writing but perfectly readable, and a well-conceived if not hugely original story. I also applaud his work ethic - he really does churn the stuff out, and puts a lot of effort into marketing it - whereas I have yet to even start my novel that I've been threatening to write for at least 20 years.

I have some sympathy for self-published authors - it's often not the quality of their writing that stops them getting published more conventionally. And when you look at the likes of Dan Brown, you can see that being able to write isn't a requirement of getting published conventionally anyway.

However, on the whole, the heaving morass of self-published landfill available on Amazon does roundly disprove the old adage about monkeys and typewriters.



*This one, if anyone's interested: http://amzn.eu/aIzHdz2 - I'd say it's worth 99p of anyone's money, and Chris is a good bloke, so do him a favour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 August, 2018, 10:36:27 am
Oh it's true and I didn't mean to demean every self-published author. Getting published through the conventional pathway of getting an agent and a publisher is hard work (I'm learning the hard way, heh heh, I have three and I'm starting on a fourth) – the literary (and I use that loosely) world is rather incestuous and it helps to know someone who knows someone. And not everyone knows someone who knows someone.

Of course everyone has a great novel inside and it would often be better if they stayed inside. *cough*

That said, the one I read was awful in ways Dan Brown couldn't even comprehend. Kudos for writing it and getting to the end, but really, it was awful. Not everyone can write – and even if you can, you still need a good editor. At least DB can string together a pacy story and a semblance of characters. But anyway, you can buy reviews en masse, a practice Amazon doesn't seem to have stopped, presumably because they have a percentage off anything they distribute, so it's all good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 17 August, 2018, 11:17:21 am
I didn't realise that it was self published.... it figures as frankly (I must stop using that word; it shows a lack of ability to write proper) I doubt a publisher would have picked this up. As I said in my review, its basically a re-writing of Close Encounter and X Files.

Now, you may ask, why I read it...well, actually it was top of my list on Youtube so listened to it for free: the reviews on Youtube were positive so in I went. I would have been most disappointed if I had actually paid for it.

Now "reading" Starship Troopers" by Robert A Heinlein. While the book is nearly 60 years old and a little dated in places, it's a far better "read" than Not Alone.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 August, 2018, 11:29:56 am
Ah, but I hated Starship Troopers. Awful. I have no idea how that got published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 August, 2018, 01:54:27 pm
It was aimed at juveniles at the end of the 50s and reflects the attitudes of its time: basically, USA vs the Darkness.  I read somewhere back then that US soldiers in the Far East were discouraged from referring to the enemy as "little red brother" because it suggested kinship, and told to use "gook", "monkey" & similar instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 19 August, 2018, 08:34:27 pm
LAt weekend I read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - I enjoyed it and it explained aspect of the film that i didn't understand in the film and put right things that didn't fit right in the film. 

This weekend I read Perfection by Kathleen Wade. This is the story of 10 years of a woman's life as she enters a convent. It follows her through her Noviciate year, temporary vows and permanent vows against the back drop of the tied of eclesatical change, brought about by Vatican II, and the social change, facilitated by the American Civil rights movement, Kennedy's and King's assassinations and the Vietnam war.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 20 August, 2018, 08:44:32 am
Just finished "Starship Trooper" and actually quite enjoyed it. I could see how it linked into the wars the US were fighting at the time but felt that the story of the trooper was interesting without being too gung ho.

Also read "Around the World in 80 days" by Mark Beaumont. Enjoyable but.... got up, went for a ride, felt knackered and in pain, fell asleep.... does get a bit repetitive. Perhaps next time he could do it a bit quicker to save some time and some reading.....  ;D

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 20 August, 2018, 09:47:06 am
Also read "Around the World in 80 days" by Mark Beaumont. Enjoyable but.... got up, went for a ride, felt knackered and in pain, fell asleep.... does get a bit repetitive. Perhaps next time he could do it a bit quicker to save some time and some reading.....  ;D
And stop and look at things instead of racing by. OK I haven't read the book, but cycling around the world that fast he might as well have driven. The enjoyment of cycling for me is that you get the see/smell/hear things, that you definitely don't get to do with train, planes and automobiles. oh well each to their own :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 August, 2018, 09:48:57 am
Aurore ~ Graham Hurley.  Second of his "Wars Within" novels, which are loosely connected via a couple of common characters.  An actor-turned-conscientious-objector-turned-Lancaster-wireless-operator ends up on a SEEKRIT disinformation mission in occupied France.  So far without hilarious consequences.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 20 August, 2018, 11:03:21 am
Now I'm plugging through Ken Follicle's Century trilogy.  Lots of coalmining, espionage, and bodice-ripping so far.
Onto the third one now (yes, I'm a slow reader; I only get the chance to read last thing at night and keep falling asleep with my Kindle.  In mitigation, they are each more than 1000 pages in print).  A very egregious typo just now about a U2 spy plane travelling at "a mile every second".  To Kenbob's credit, he does acknowledge it in the Errata page on his website (https://ken-follett.com/errata/).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 20 August, 2018, 08:53:38 pm
Also been bitten by the Monsieur Pamplemousse bug so thanks for highlighting. Light reading but witty, informative and amusing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 20 August, 2018, 09:48:00 pm
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings, now a BRILLIANT BBC4/BBC America tv series called Killing Eve.

Book, is as always more detailed than a tv show, start different and explains/show what is happening differently, characters got different names/sex to the tv show. But this is one of the rare times where I like the tv show more than the book. As it got a wicked dark humor, that I like a lot, where the book falls short.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 24 August, 2018, 09:32:01 am
Blimey....  :facepalm:

Okay, I have been interested in space and space travel since I was a lad. I remember back then sitting on the floor in the school hall watching men walk on the Moon, while I had Thunderbirds wallpaper in my bedroom and built a Saturn 5 Rocket kit. Hell, if I had been any good at Maths rather than getting lost doing A levels, I would have loved to have gone onto University to study Astronomy.... I did get an O Level in such however.

I also tended to read a lot of Science Fiction books back in the day and drew pictures of Mega Space Ships. Thus, it was no surprise that I read and indeed re-read all of Arthur C Clarke's most excellent Rama series.

So, finally I discovered that some bloke called Larry Niven had written a book on a mega city in the sky: "Ringworld." I thought...it's got good reviews, it must be worth a read...... nope. Pile of crap. Too much sex, too much: "and then they did this followed by that" and really a story which went nowhere slowly.

I really should give up reading fiction again and stick to reading factual stuff.... read an interesting book a time back on Astrophysics for people in a hurry which was interesting but a little basic in places. Stuff like that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 24 August, 2018, 04:46:55 pm
Have you tried the early Alasdair Reynolds Revelation Space series?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 August, 2018, 05:02:45 am
Revisiting the "Twin Cities" series of Minneapolis-based crimethings by "PJ Tracy" before reading nos. 7 & 8.  In spite of the DETH of half of PJ Tracy, the other half will apparently continue solo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 26 August, 2018, 11:26:45 pm
Also been bitten by the Monsieur Pamplemousse bug so thanks for highlighting. Light reading but witty, informative and amusing.

Is he the one with a dog?  The radio plays on bbc?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 August, 2018, 01:58:05 pm
Also been bitten by the Monsieur Pamplemousse bug so thanks for highlighting. Light reading but witty, informative and amusing.

Is he the one with a dog?  The radio plays on bbc?

Yes, a dog called Pommes Frites. I wasn't aware of the radio plays.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 August, 2018, 03:00:19 pm
Still ploughing through Ellroy's Perfidia. Not quite sure why; his most engaging characters are vile. Got about 300pp to go and then I've got KSR's 2140 to help me over withdrawal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 27 August, 2018, 03:58:10 pm
I've had that on my paperbacks shelf for a long time now, but I've not been in enough of an Ellroy kind of mood to pick it up. Is it any less sprawling than Blood's a Rover?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 August, 2018, 05:12:27 pm
Yes: pretty well LA only, more or less a prequel to L.A. Confidential.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Graeme on 29 August, 2018, 10:11:17 am
Just read Riot Days.

I realise that I would have been in Moscow on business when Masha was in prison. I was so oblivious.

Of the many things that stick with me after reading this; the reflection that women devote their lives to visiting their husbands in prison, while many men eventually stop visiting their wives is saddening to read.

She was convicted of inciting religious hatred. What utter crap - once again religion used by those in power to justify abuse. And because this never was about religious hatred the book moves on to the reality of running from the police and life behind bars in Russia.

Her experiences recorded in Riot Days set a powerful background to the pitch invasion during the world cup.

I'm glad they had a chance to speak and perform at Greenbelt.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 16 September, 2018, 11:50:14 am
Just finished Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson. Second of a trilogy beginning with Europe in Autumn and ending with Winter, only I hope he adds more.  Really excellent near-future SF/espionage, very satisfying to read - they aren't long but by the end of Midnight I felt as if I had just read a 500-page Le Carré.


Just seen him on Twitter saying a TV adaptation is in the offing. https://twitter.com/HutchinsonDave/status/1041122897635487745    It's always iffy moving this sort of thing to TV,  I didn't much care for the recent "Altered Carbon" , but thought they did a very good job on "The City & The City".   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 17 September, 2018, 10:05:35 am
Catching up on John Connolly's excellent Charlie Parker series.

Charlie's going to West Virginia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 September, 2018, 04:19:40 pm
Against my better judgement, I'm giving Val McDermid's latest, "Broken Ground" a go.  Early days yet, but there's already two female characters "Willow" and "Dandy"  ::-). 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 19 September, 2018, 03:35:24 am
Fear:Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward. That stupid, ignorant crook just might destroy what's left of democracy in the US.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 19 September, 2018, 10:43:01 am
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (yes, I know I'm about 25 years behind the curve).

I'm only 3% through and the cast of pretentious bellends is already getting on my wick.  I'm waiting for someone to crop up reciting Proust, wearing a fucking monocle soon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 21 September, 2018, 10:12:25 pm
Catching up on John Connolly's excellent Charlie Parker series.

Charlie's going to West Virginia.

Oh, there was blood. Splendid. A perfect blend of crimifying and spookosity. And I wish I could write that well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 September, 2018, 11:23:34 am
Dan Simmons' Joe Kurtz series.  He's been reading James Ellroy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 22 September, 2018, 01:24:36 pm
Catching up on John Connolly's excellent Charlie Parker series.

Charlie's going to West Virginia.

Oh, there was blood. Splendid. A perfect blend of crimifying and spookosity. And I wish I could write that well.

Annoyingly, none of my local libraries have the first books in the series; worth tracking down to start there, or dive in with what they've got?

I've finally finished painting the alcove shelves downstairs, so have been emptying boxes of books and finding stuff I'd forgotten I had; the size of my to-read pile has just doubled again, mind. (And seeing how much space they free up, I think I'm going to have to build some for the living room as well...)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 September, 2018, 01:46:11 pm
You can read them standalone, but it's really worth reading them in order as things develop over time, especially the supernatural elements. It's a no bad thing because each book is so well done, but the actual individual plots are to a degree formulaic, the real story is in the background and spans the series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 22 September, 2018, 02:59:56 pm
Ta; will see if I can get a copy reserved and sent to my local  branch then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 22 September, 2018, 07:33:40 pm
I’ve just started “capitalism without capital”, as an alternative to being angry on twitter during my commute.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 27 September, 2018, 02:56:13 pm
Iain M Banks' _Consider Phlebas_, picked up for 50p from a hospital charity bookstall as something to keep me occupied while I waited for my appointment. I read one or two of the Culture books about 15 years ago, and for some reason I never read any more; at the time they mustn't have grabbed me so much, but this is terrific space opera. Will have to try the rest now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 October, 2018, 08:19:51 am
Having skim read the McDermid (Broken Ground, full of cliches), and then ditched the latest Stephen Booth (Fall Down Dead, juvenile) after 30 pages, I'm into "Memo from Turner" by Tim Willocks.  So far so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 October, 2018, 12:52:18 pm
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (yes, I know I'm about 25 years behind the curve).

I'm only 3% through and the cast of pretentious bellends is already getting on my wick.  I'm waiting for someone to crop up reciting Proust, wearing a fucking monocle soon.

I first read it when I was an impressionable 19yo. ISTR I loved it at the time.

I read it again a couple of years ago and HATED it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 October, 2018, 01:21:17 pm
Having watched Netflix's The Expanse I downloaded Leviathan Wakes, the first of the James S. Corey novels it was based on. Pleasing: he got the conventional physics right and made the unconventional halfway convincing.  I nearly baled out when I watched the first Expanse episode, snorting at people clumping around in Ceres' 0.029 g as if they were on Earth, and of course at spaceships making a noise.  The book is much better: Ceres was spun up to yield 0.3 g just inside the surface and the rockets don't even hiss.  I'm a wee bit sceptical, though, that spaceship hulls would all be ferrous enough for mag boots to work.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 02 October, 2018, 01:49:58 pm
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (yes, I know I'm about 25 years behind the curve).

I'm only 3% through and the cast of pretentious bellends is already getting on my wick.  I'm waiting for someone to crop up reciting Proust, wearing a fucking monocle soon.

I first read it when I was an impressionable 19yo. ISTR I loved it at the time.

I read it again a couple of years ago and HATED it...

I'm rather enjoying it.  The protagonists are all complete cockwombles, though.  No monocles, yet, but I'm quite eager for Bunny to FOAD (which - it won't be too much of a spoiler to reveal - he will).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 02 October, 2018, 01:52:01 pm
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (yes, I know I'm about 25 years behind the curve).

I'm only 3% through and the cast of pretentious bellends is already getting on my wick.  I'm waiting for someone to crop up reciting Proust, wearing a fucking monocle soon.

I first read it when I was an impressionable 19yo. ISTR I loved it at the time.

I read it again a couple of years ago and HATED it...


I think you have to be a certain impressionable age. I read The Goldfinch when that came out and it was an awful trudge. On that basis I dipped back into The Secret History, and it turned out to be much the same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 October, 2018, 02:30:28 pm
I believe there was quite an upturn in the fortunes of the Birdsplat Pen C° when TSH came out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 03 October, 2018, 10:12:48 am
Finished H is for Hawk, slightly peters away at the end but a good read

Then zipped through a book on the SOE missions to destroy the heavy water projets in Norway. A bit wider scope than the Ray Mears book which focussed on the group on the Hardanger Vidda.

Now ploughing through A Brief History Of Time.  The bit on fundamental particles is screwing with my head, It's green, no it's blue, but if it's down and next to an up, it's red - I think these theoretical physicists are making it up as they go along.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2018, 10:38:58 am
I think you have to be a certain impressionable age. I read The Goldfinch when that came out and it was an awful trudge. On that basis I dipped back into The Secret History, and it turned out to be much the same.

I've had The Goldfinch on my Kindle for a while but haven't got round to starting it yet. I suspect I never will.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 October, 2018, 11:19:28 am
It's not, imho, time well spent. It reads like a laboured SH. It just doesn't flow, everyone in it is unlikeable and rather dull, and the plot contrived. And it goes on forever. Buying a cup of coffee would take eight pages of description. I slogged through to the end. You know it's a bad book when you keep checking the per cent read.

It looks like you're trying to write a book to win literary prizes? asks Clippy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 October, 2018, 11:28:09 am
I felt much the same about The Little Friend. Some good stuff in it but it's far, far too long.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: LongDistanceClara on 07 October, 2018, 09:09:33 pm
The Goldfinch is excellent value (especially for me since it was one of 3 books for a pound at the village fete, boom) and could have been edited down but then you’d lose the almost unbearable sharpness and drama of the ending. I think it was quite clever in the way that the page count matched the weight/duration of the experience therein
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (yes, I know I'm about 25 years behind the curve).

I'm only 3% through and the cast of pretentious bellends is already getting on my wick.  I'm waiting for someone to crop up reciting Proust, wearing a fucking monocle soon.

I first read it when I was an impressionable 19yo. ISTR I loved it at the time.

I read it again a couple of years ago and HATED it...


I think you have to be a certain impressionable age. I read The Goldfinch when that came out and it was an awful trudge. On that basis I dipped back into The Secret History, and it turned out to be much the same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 18 October, 2018, 08:40:43 pm
finished A Brief History of Time, quite enjoyed it, may read selected bits again.

Now Reading Dave Gorman's America Unchained

Next a book about Edward IV

Only one more week of Saudi to go.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 October, 2018, 12:16:48 pm
Max "Hitler" Hastings' breeze-block sized history of the Vietnam War is staring accusingly at me every time I go into the kitchen, as if to say "stop twatting around with Babbage-Engines and start reading me!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 19 October, 2018, 05:49:33 pm
Charles Stross, Singularity Sky.
Quite enjoying it actually.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 19 October, 2018, 05:52:58 pm
Iain M Banks' _Consider Phlebas_, picked up for 50p from a hospital charity bookstall as something to keep me occupied while I waited for my appointment. I read one or two of the Culture books about 15 years ago, and for some reason I never read any more; at the time they mustn't have grabbed me so much, but this is terrific space opera. Will have to try the rest now.

See my earlier comment about m.banks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gattopardo on 19 October, 2018, 05:58:53 pm
Looked at my books am reading list:

Don Quixote -  Looks a bit small to be the full book;
One flew over the cuckoos nest;
Toast on Toast - From the tv program with Matt Berry.  Funny;
Finally Road to little dribbling.

Seem to pick up books and then read a bit then stop.  Or finish reading and not remember anything.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 20 October, 2018, 01:03:05 pm
Max "Hitler" Hastings' breeze-block sized history of the Vietnam War is staring accusingly at me every time I go into the kitchen, as if to say "stop twatting around with Babbage-Engines and start reading me!"

I have a similar sized tome, 'In Defence of the Realm' or similar - a history of the UK Security Services, bought for me by Redshift OTP.

I see it on a bookshelf every time I climb the stairs. In a Dirk Gently way I believe it has started to lurk seriously...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 22 October, 2018, 10:54:45 am
I’m re watching  & re reading “Brideshead”.  Waugh was a bit of an old fascist, has nice Charles Ryder coming back from Paris during the 1926 General Strike to join an anti striker militia, and Sebastian’s sweet little sister Cordelia goes off to be an ambulance driver in the Spanish civil war, for the nationalists  :jurek:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 22 October, 2018, 06:53:30 pm
I read a book called Coming from Behind by Howard Jacobson. He used to work at the same place as I in the 1980s/1990s.  The book is set in the place where I work and tells a story of elitism, weaved around the 'polly' (as it was) then being twinned with the local football club. Early in the book a discussion is held about various departments moving to different building. The English department were told that they were moving to M block to which they replied that there wasn't an M block.  Oh how I laughed - M block now exists and has always been the football ground. The same debate rages about how we teach in a football ground!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 31 October, 2018, 02:11:03 pm
Not really reading but eeeek !

http://narrativia.com/watch.html
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 November, 2018, 07:30:42 pm
Not really reading but eeeek !

http://narrativia.com/watch.html
No.
'Ooooooook.'

HTH
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 November, 2018, 07:32:03 pm
"Stalin's General" an autobiography of Georgy Zhukov by Geoffrey Roberts.

I know of Zhukov from his important role in the defeat of Hitler in WWII but knew nothing else about him other than Stalin became jealous of him post WWII.
Should be interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 05 November, 2018, 08:27:27 pm
As long as you don't mix him up with the Jason Isaacs character in 'The Death of Stalin' :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 November, 2018, 09:48:06 am
The latest Rankin/Rebus outing "In a house of lies". Still maintaining the standard.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 09 November, 2018, 05:15:11 pm
Just finished "Want You Gone" by Chris* Brookmyre.

Top Parlabane stuff, plot twists, hacking and breaking in.  As it was only published last year, all the tech references are up to date (Smart phones, Two Factor authorisation, cloud storage etc) with the glaring exception of when one of our heroes "takes note of a WEP key". It grated, but only a tiny bit.

*When did he change from Christopher?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 November, 2018, 08:06:57 pm
Howard’s End

That Forster fella knew how to write though. Some utterly sublime turns of phrase. And funny. Much funnier than the film.

Also dipping into The Man Upstairs, an early collection of Wodehouse stories. They lack the polish of his very best work but have a freshness and vibrancy that is missing from most of his later work. Thoroughly wonderful. Highly recommended, especially to anyone who thinks they don’t like Wodehouse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 14 November, 2018, 09:39:26 am
Just finished "Want You Gone" by Chris* Brookmyre.

Top Parlabane stuff, plot twists, hacking and breaking in.  As it was only published last year, all the tech references are up to date (Smart phones, Two Factor authorisation, cloud storage etc) with the glaring exception of when one of our heroes "takes note of a WEP key". It grated, but only a tiny bit.

*When did he change from Christopher?

Parlabane is back, eh?

(Extra points for getting that reference, even with Google I think you need more info to get a result)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 14 November, 2018, 09:44:20 am
Parlabane is back, eh?

(Extra points for getting that reference, even with Google I think you need more info to get a result)

Well, since Robertson Davies is one of my all time favourite writers, I had almost exactly the same thought when I read Tim's post. I presume Rebel Angels predates Brookmyre's creation by some years. IIRC "Parlabane is back" is the opening line, isn't it?

I've been meaning to re-read the Cornish trilogy for a while but you can't get it on Kindle and I can't be doing with lugging round several hundred pages of paperback on my commute.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Oaky on 14 November, 2018, 09:46:34 am
Taking time out from more serious reading to relax with a few PTerry books on the Kindle.  Currently: Lords and Ladies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 14 November, 2018, 11:15:09 am
Parlabane is back, eh?

(Extra points for getting that reference, even with Google I think you need more info to get a result)

Well, since Robertson Davies is one of my all time favourite writers, I had almost exactly the same thought when I read Tim's post. I presume Rebel Angels predates Brookmyre's creation by some years. IIRC "Parlabane is back" is the opening line, isn't it?

I've been meaning to re-read the Cornish trilogy for a while but you can't get it on Kindle and I can't be doing with lugging round several hundred pages of paperback on my commute.

Indeed so, I remember the first time I read it being fascinated because I couldn't work out for ages whether Maria (the 1st person narrator in the first chapter) was male or female. And as far as fave goes, same here, I'm sure I mentioned somewhere back there <---- that one of my treasured possessions is a handwritten reply from Robertson Davies to a fan letter. I also keep checking on Kindle to see if it released yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: robgul on 14 November, 2018, 11:27:36 am
An interesting book about an ongoing US soap opera . . . .  "Fear" by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame. - this follows a couple of other recent tomes about Trump that I've read this year. 

Surely the guy (Trump that is) must get taken down shortly?

Rob
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 14 November, 2018, 03:01:06 pm
It's a bit of a conundrum:  if Trump was shot it could set back hope of gun control for decades......
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: robgul on 14 November, 2018, 04:05:57 pm
It's a bit of a conundrum:  if Trump was shot it could set back hope of gun control for decades......

Indeed - I was thinking more along the lines of Tricky Dickie Nixon's exit over Watergate

Rob
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 14 November, 2018, 05:05:00 pm
Tricky Dickie was a very clever man who could work things out for himself!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 15 November, 2018, 11:20:33 am
I've just seen that Dave Hutchinson has released a new title in his (appropriately named) "Fractured Europe" series.  "Europe at Dawn"    I know there are a couple of fans on here.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 November, 2018, 01:28:14 pm
Ta, I'll watch out for that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 15 November, 2018, 01:30:31 pm
Ooh, yes! Though I thought the first three books were intended as a trilogy?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Torslanda on 17 November, 2018, 11:12:03 pm
Ooh, yes! Though I thought the first three books were intended as a trilogy?

Douglas N. Adams refers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 17 November, 2018, 11:24:31 pm
I've just seen that Dave Hutchinson has released a new title in his (appropriately named) "Fractured Europe" series.  "Europe at Dawn"    I know there are a couple of fans on here.

Ta - thats winging its way to my Kindle now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 November, 2018, 08:38:52 am
Ditto, to my Adenoid marketing pseudopod.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: orienteer on 18 November, 2018, 08:50:52 am
Latest from Haruki Murakami, "Killing Commendatore".

His usual blend of everyday life in Japan and supernatural events, holding the reader's attention as it is unpredictable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 November, 2018, 09:12:11 am
Latest from Haruki Murakami, "Killing Commendatore".

His usual blend of everyday life in Japan and supernatural events, holding the reader's attention as it is unpredictable.

Ooh, I'd forgotten about that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 November, 2018, 10:53:14 am
Oh, that Murakami...

(http://www.pbase.com/johnewing/image/153516625.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 November, 2018, 03:32:53 pm
Gave up on "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human" and moved on to "No Time to Cry" by James Oswald.  No, not an Inspector McLean, rather one for a new character.  Still police procedural, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 November, 2018, 03:51:44 pm
A new author to me, Khurrum Rahman's "East of Hounslow" is next up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 19 November, 2018, 06:51:48 pm
My 1p (+£2.87 p&p) bargain

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iCyl5JK9x3c/W_MGFpAnyUI/AAAAAAAC3ak/Z38d2BXaV3sN0j-1cDmby_5Uc2ip3w6XACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20181119_184557.jpg)

It's put together from his unpublished stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 20 November, 2018, 12:36:08 pm
Luna by Ian McDonald

Cracking classic sci fi. Only trouble is that it ends halfway through the story, so you *have* to read the sequel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 November, 2018, 12:53:45 pm
My 1p (+£2.87 p&p) bargain

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iCyl5JK9x3c/W_MGFpAnyUI/AAAAAAAC3ak/Z38d2BXaV3sN0j-1cDmby_5Uc2ip3w6XACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20181119_184557.jpg)

It's put together from his unpublished stuff.

I once had the gleeful pleasure of introducing a Canadian to his writing.  Aforesaid gent had just lamented the lack of distinguished authors in Canada.

I hope this one isn't his Silmarillion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 20 November, 2018, 03:33:41 pm
No, it isn't. It reads with that wonderful, easy, rolling educated voice, wide ranging with an edge of the ribald that makes him so readable.

Quote
"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." Did I say that? No, Logan Persall Smith said it, but I have thought it so many times that sometimes I mistake it for my own.

is how it starts. Later, fairly random selection

Quote
Sometimes there was a serious article on a hot topic, and I especially remember one by a bishop headed "Is Nudity Salacious?" (The bishop thought it need not be, if encountered in the proper spirit, but he gave a lot of enlightening examples of conditions under which it might be, in his word, "inflammatory". there wasn't much nudity in our neck of the woods , and I enjoyed the article tremendously). There were many stories with backgrounds of high life and society, which I suppose would be thought unsuitable for a child. (...) I read all the stories about girls, hoping to penetrate their secrets; I knew girls had secrets because all the girls I met were great whisperers and gigglers.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 November, 2018, 03:50:56 pm
That looks good.  I'll try & pick up a copy. Cheers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 22 November, 2018, 01:43:25 pm
Most of these will be rereads but Kindle have the complete works of Joseph Conrad for 49p

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Works-Joseph-Conrad-Shadow-Line-ebook/dp/B017XL9LWG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542893798&sr=8-3&keywords=conrad (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Works-Joseph-Conrad-Shadow-Line-ebook/dp/B017XL9LWG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542893798&sr=8-3&keywords=conrad)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 23 November, 2018, 10:52:43 am
Aren't most of those out of copyright, free for Kindle anyway?  I certainly got Heart of Darkness free a few years back.  I read Typhoon about 20 years ago and found it a real trudge, and I don't think I managed to finish HoD...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 24 November, 2018, 09:36:42 pm
Mr. Aaronovitch's latest in the "Rivers of London" series.  Jolly good fun.  Utter nonsense of course, but still good fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 24 November, 2018, 09:52:19 pm
Just finished the latest Stross Laundry tome. Some good bits, but parts felt a little tired. Still enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 November, 2018, 02:47:24 pm
Because Max "Hitler" Hastings' history of the Vietnam Police Action is too big to lug around in an inside pocket, I started James Oswald's "No Time To Cry" on the tube last night.  His first non-McClean crime novel, no supernatural goings-on yet (though Madame Rose, McClean's antiquarian chum, puts in an appearance) and light on killin's (only one so far).  Overall impression positive.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 November, 2018, 09:04:42 pm
Brothers in Blood, set in Southall and surrounding, by Amer Anwar. Excellent
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Vince on 01 December, 2018, 03:11:18 am
The Blood Road, Stuart MacBride's latest outing for Logan Mcrae. Mostly raining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 01 December, 2018, 04:01:56 am
The Blood Road, Stuart MacBride's latest outing for Logan Mcrae. Mostly raining.

That is a good book, a little hard to read, in places, especially if you are a parent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 December, 2018, 04:15:57 pm
The latest Jack Reacher outing from Lee Child "Past Tense". Being told as two parallel threads, and for me not as immediately as immersive as usual. Judging from the Amazon reviews I'm not alone.

ETA life's too short, I skimmed to the end, and am moving on to the new Michael Connelly "Dark Sacred Night. Hopefully I'll find it more engaging.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 December, 2018, 02:46:48 pm
Hearts in Atlantis.  Two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King.  The first would be a bit weird to anyone not au fait with The Dark Tower.  Really enjoying Blind Willie now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: orienteer on 04 December, 2018, 09:05:09 pm
Just finished "The vegetarian" by Han Kang,  first S Korean novel for me. I've read a lot of Japanese novels, this  really throws up the significant differences between the two societies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 December, 2018, 02:17:59 pm
Dave Hutchinson's latest, Europe at Dawn. OK so far. Scots diplomatic corps a bit of a hoot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Gus on 05 December, 2018, 02:22:01 pm
Vander's Human Physiology.
Studying for exam next Thursday  ::-) ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Robh on 06 December, 2018, 12:21:33 am
Over the past twelve months I’ve worked my way through all of Le Carre’s Smiley novels, finishing off with ‘A Legacy of Spies’. All are good, but ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’ is the best of the lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 06 December, 2018, 08:54:47 am
Having reinvigorated my library habit, I'm part way through "The Sacred Art of Stealing" by Christopher Brookmyre. Situationist and surrealist bank robbers take on Angel X. With Scottish accents.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 07 December, 2018, 10:29:54 am
Hearts in Atlantis.  Two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King.  The first would be a bit weird to anyone not au fait with The Dark Tower.  Really enjoying Blind Willie now.
Blimey, that last instalment, Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, had me crying like a baby.  I could barely see my Kindle through the tears.  :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 07 December, 2018, 12:14:54 pm
Hearts in Atlantis.  Two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King.  The first would be a bit weird to anyone not au fait with The Dark Tower.  Really enjoying Blind Willie now.
Blimey, that last instalment, Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, had me crying like a baby.  I could barely see my Kindle through the tears.  :'(

Heavenly Shades Of Night Are Falling is the opening line from the sublime song Twilight Time which was a hit for The Platters in the 50s.  I saw them with my Mam at The Globe, Stockton-on-Tees!  Surprised nobody has thought of Twilight Time as a film title........
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 07 December, 2018, 03:54:55 pm
As a result of recs from Mr L plus others, I am reading the start of the Charlie Parker books.... Good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 16 December, 2018, 12:38:57 pm
One Man and His Bike Mike Carter. Riveting. First book to make me laugh out loud for quite some time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 December, 2018, 03:17:38 pm
Having finished the James Oswald - so-so IMO, now onto the latest “Rivers of London” series, Lies Sleeping, from Ben Aaronovitch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 16 December, 2018, 06:11:44 pm
As a result of recs from Mr L plus others, I am reading the start of the Charlie Parker books.... Good
Did he not like the endings??

<badoom-tisch>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 December, 2018, 02:37:47 pm
As a result of recs from Mr L plus others, I am reading the start of the Charlie Parker books.... Good
Did he not like the endings??

<badoom-tisch>

Either Mrs P is referring to another Mr L or she's found the key to the gin cupboard, as this Unit thinks Charlie Parker was a jazz saxophonist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 17 December, 2018, 08:34:35 pm
As a result of recs from Mr L plus others, I am reading the start of the Charlie Parker books.... Good
Did he not like the endings??

<badoom-tisch>

Either Mrs P is referring to another Mr L or she's found the key to the gin cupboard, as this Unit thinks Charlie Parker was a jazz saxophonist.

Ah, twas actually ian.
Soz. You might like 'em too though. More semi weirdness and killins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 December, 2018, 11:04:51 pm
No more "Shadow Police" novels.  That's a shame, they were a bit on the grim side, but well written.


https://www.paulcornell.com/2017/10/the-future-of-the-shadow-police/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 20 December, 2018, 06:31:19 am
Aw, bugger :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 20 December, 2018, 07:29:06 am
Buddenbrooks, for the LOLs. (75% through and not many LOLs so far)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 20 December, 2018, 06:59:48 pm
It was me and no, it's not that Charlie Parker, and yes, they're very good, and they get more eldritch as the series moves along.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 December, 2018, 12:26:37 am
One Man and His Bike Mike Carter.

Funny name for a bike.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 27 December, 2018, 12:11:18 pm
"Europe At Dawn" by Dave Hutchinson.    Like the chap in the review below I'm wishing I'd re read the previous three books so I could remember all the plot details. 

https://onemore.org/2018/11/24/europe-at-dawn/

Edit: All 4 books are currently 99p each for Amazon Kindle.   Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 December, 2018, 01:28:55 pm
Yeah. I got two-thirds of the way through 'Dawn' before baling and going back to 'Autumn'.*  When you read them end-to-end it's a lot easier to follow.

If they ever get filmed it'll be an incomprehensible mess.

When it's night-time in Italy, it's Wednesday over here...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 27 December, 2018, 07:06:46 pm
A friend of mine gave me a carrier bag full of Jack Reacher books recently. They appear to make perfect Christmas reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 December, 2018, 02:17:07 pm
Going back to Dave Hutchinson , he's just started another series. "The Aftermath"  Sounds cheery stuff..... not.

https://locusmag.com/2018/06/paul-kincard-reviews-shelter-tales-of-the-aftermath-by-dave-hutchinson/

https://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2018/06/12/shelter-by-dave-hutchinson/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 28 December, 2018, 06:36:17 pm
I just acquired Max Hastings' new work, "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975". So far it's a very worthwhile read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 December, 2018, 07:09:38 pm
I just acquired Max Hastings' new work, "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975". So far it's a very worthwhile read.

I finally finished it on Xmas Eve.  Dead interesting it was too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 December, 2018, 09:41:50 am
A friend of mine gave me a carrier bag full of Jack Reacher books recently. They appear to make perfect kindling.

FTFY ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 December, 2018, 09:54:16 am
Going back to Dave Hutchinson , he's just started another series. "The Aftermath"  Sounds cheery stuff..... not.

https://locusmag.com/2018/06/paul-kincard-reviews-shelter-tales-of-the-aftermath-by-dave-hutchinson/

https://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2018/06/12/shelter-by-dave-hutchinson/

Aw shit.  I was looking forward to the further adventures of Ruudi.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 29 December, 2018, 11:03:34 am
A friend of mine gave me a carrier bag full of Jack Reacher books recently. They appear to make perfect kindling.

FTFY ;)
'Tis true they are not exactly great literature.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 December, 2018, 06:27:00 pm
A friend of mine gave me a carrier bag full of Jack Reacher books recently. They appear to make perfect kindling.

FTFY ;)
'Tis true they are not exactly great literature.  ;D

I'm sort of happy with a good book even if it's not exactly great literature, but I confess though I've tried two, I've never got the entire Jack Reacher phenomenon, they were both pretty dull by-the-numbers plots, a lead character that struggled to make into two dimensions, which on top of the stodgy uninspired prose, made the experience a bit meh. Had Jack been vaguely interesting, had the plots had some verve, or the prose been good, then they might be some value in the entire thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 December, 2018, 09:06:57 pm
At least they’re not Dan Brown, eh?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 30 December, 2018, 09:48:54 pm
Going back to Dave Hutchinson , he's just started another series. "The Aftermath"  Sounds cheery stuff..... not.

https://locusmag.com/2018/06/paul-kincard-reviews-shelter-tales-of-the-aftermath-by-dave-hutchinson/ (https://locusmag.com/2018/06/paul-kincard-reviews-shelter-tales-of-the-aftermath-by-dave-hutchinson/)

https://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2018/06/12/shelter-by-dave-hutchinson/ (https://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2018/06/12/shelter-by-dave-hutchinson/)

Aw shit.  I was looking forward to the further adventures of Ruudi.


Well, I've just finished "Shelter".  Hutchinson writes well & this is a page turner with a good bit of action, I finished it in a couple of days.   Grim, bleak & nasty.  That's just the weather, the storyline & characters are worse.  Our "hero" is not above a bit of gruesome revenge murder, and his employers believe in gun barrel diplomacy.   A big part of the plot features an established community destroying itself, this was very well done. think "Survivors" morphing into the Balkans wars.


It's a world setting that's been determined by the publishers, to highlight their stable of writers, so the next one in the series will not be written by Dave Hutchinson but Adam Roberts, who's new to me.   Not so sure I'll bother, if I want to get this depressed about human nature I can watch the news instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 31 December, 2018, 03:03:36 pm
“Malice”, the first of Keigo Hiroshino’s new Detective Kaga series. I’ve just finished the second, and enjoyed that too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 December, 2018, 06:39:20 pm
At least they’re not Dan Brown, eh?

Reminds me, I still have Inferno on my Kindle...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 January, 2019, 11:23:01 am
Just read 'The girl with all the gifts'. 

It is good. I'm not going to watch the film, it could only be a shallow, americanized version of the book.

How good? Well, I intended to go to bed early last night. Started book about 8pm last night. Finished it last night.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 January, 2019, 11:47:39 am
Actually, the movie is a British production (and a reasonable version of the book). I'm famously (here at least) averse the zombie genre because anything you can evade with a two-step with a shovel ain't no monster. I am scared of fungus though.

I'm reading the prequel (the Boy on the Bridge) which is interesting, though ultimately the problem with prequels is that you know what will happen later, which tends to mean it's just a bit of retread of the first novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 January, 2019, 12:50:53 pm
Actually, the movie is a British production (and a reasonable version of the book). I'm famously (here at least) averse the zombie genre because anything you can evade with a two-step with a shovel ain't no monster. I am scared of fungus though.

I'm reading the prequel (the Boy on the Bridge) which is interesting, though ultimately the problem with prequels is that you know what will happen later, which tends to mean it's just a bit of retread of the first novel.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 January, 2019, 01:05:19 pm
(click to show/hide)
is better, of course. Anything has to be better than the dread Walking Dead where the zombies' main weapon is the cast's unalloyed stupidity. Oh, and they're definitely walking.

I like the idea of a fungus, though in reality it's not how fungal lifecycles work. The hungries would sporulate and stop being, well, zombies and start being dead. As threatening as a bag of quorn mince.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 January, 2019, 01:13:17 pm
Going back to Dave Hutchinson , he's just started another series. "The Aftermath"  Sounds cheery stuff..... not.

https://locusmag.com/2018/06/paul-kincard-reviews-shelter-tales-of-the-aftermath-by-dave-hutchinson/ (https://locusmag.com/2018/06/paul-kincard-reviews-shelter-tales-of-the-aftermath-by-dave-hutchinson/)

https://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2018/06/12/shelter-by-dave-hutchinson/ (https://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2018/06/12/shelter-by-dave-hutchinson/)

Aw shit.  I was looking forward to the further adventures of Ruudi.


Well, I've just finished "Shelter".  Hutchinson writes well & this is a page turner with a good bit of action, I finished it in a couple of days.   Grim, bleak & nasty.  That's just the weather, the storyline & characters are worse.  Our "hero" is not above a bit of gruesome revenge murder, and his employers believe in gun barrel diplomacy.   A big part of the plot features an established community destroying itself, this was very well done. think "Survivors" morphing into the Balkans wars.


It's a world setting that's been determined by the publishers, to highlight their stable of writers, so the next one in the series will not be written by Dave Hutchinson but Adam Roberts, who's new to me.   Not so sure I'll bother, if I want to get this depressed about human nature I can watch the news instead.

Sounds like a horse designed by a committee.

Incidentally, in Dawn Hutchinson makes a minor issue of town squares in Europe not actually being square, but AFAIK English is the only language that turns Platz, place or equivalents into square, so he's a bit off-target.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 January, 2019, 01:24:48 pm
(click to show/hide)
is better, of course. Anything has to be better than the dread Walking Dead where the zombies' main weapon is the cast's unalloyed stupidity. Oh, and they're definitely walking.

I like the idea of a fungus, though in reality it's not how fungal lifecycles work. The hungries would sporulate and stop being, well, zombies and start being dead. As threatening as a bag of quorn mince.
Very true.
For me, the biggest weakness was
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 08 January, 2019, 03:29:04 pm
Just finished The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean Pendziwol.  Quite engaging and it paints a very vivid image of Lake Superior in fair weather and foul, and the lives of the lighthouse keeper's family. 
(click to show/hide)

Now just getting started on A Strangeness In My Mind (a.k.a. the yoghurt-selling book) by Orhan Pamuk.  Probably going to be on this one for a while...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 January, 2019, 03:01:35 pm
Looking forward to starting volume 3 of Andrew Cartmels Vinyl Detrective series, "Victory Disc".  I thought originally there were only going to be three - he'd written them all but was releasing one annually from 2017 (and I forgot last years until now) but I see that there's going to be a 4th later this year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 January, 2019, 04:20:46 pm
Well, I've just finished "Shelter".  Hutchinson writes well & this is a page turner with a good bit of action, I finished it in a couple of days.   Grim, bleak & nasty.  That's just the weather, the storyline & characters are worse.  Our "hero" is not above a bit of gruesome revenge murder, and his employers believe in gun barrel diplomacy.   A big part of the plot features an established community destroying itself, this was very well done. think "Survivors" morphing into the Balkans wars.

Downloaded the sample, read a couple of chapters and baled. Nothing against the writing, I'm just tired of novels about folk eking out existence after an apocalypse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 14 January, 2019, 08:38:40 pm
Well, I've just finished "Shelter".  Hutchinson writes well & this is a page turner with a good bit of action, I finished it in a couple of days.   Grim, bleak & nasty.  That's just the weather, the storyline & characters are worse.  Our "hero" is not above a bit of gruesome revenge murder, and his employers believe in gun barrel diplomacy.   A big part of the plot features an established community destroying itself, this was very well done. think "Survivors" morphing into the Balkans wars.

Downloaded the sample, read a couple of chapters and baled. Nothing against the writing, I'm just tired of novels about folk eking out existence after an apocalypse.


You're safely out of it.  We need the hints & tips post Brexit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 14 January, 2019, 09:39:45 pm
Now just getting started on A Strangeness In My Mind (a.k.a. the yoghurt-selling book) by Orhan Pamuk.  Probably going to be on this one for a while...
How are you getting on with it? I read it last year and enjoyed it. I'd never been to Istanbul before reading it (IYKWIM), and wanted to get back after I'd finished it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: professor palindrome on 14 January, 2019, 09:54:01 pm
C J Sansom   Tombland

Not entirely convinced about the integration of the "Shardlake" plot and the actual Kett Rebellion, but grateful for the tale of the historical events.  Easy to feel sympathy for people utterly frustrated by their inept rulers. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: professor palindrome on 14 January, 2019, 10:26:15 pm
Just finished "Want You Gone" by Chris* Brookmyre.

*When did he change from Christopher?

The change of name was announced in 2011 and was meant to reflect (something like) extra darkness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 15 January, 2019, 08:19:26 am
Now just getting started on A Strangeness In My Mind (a.k.a. the yoghurt-selling book) by Orhan Pamuk.  Probably going to be on this one for a while...
How are you getting on with it? I read it last year and enjoyed it. I'd never been to Istanbul before reading it (IYKWIM), and wanted to get back after I'd finished it.
It was your recommendation that prompted me, actually  :).  It's quite early days but I'm finding that it takes me off to a different world and culture, which is the kind of experience I really relish in a book.  Trying to avoid getting bogged down amidst all the names of various neighbourhoods etc...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 January, 2019, 09:12:02 am
Well, I've just finished "Shelter".  Hutchinson writes well & this is a page turner with a good bit of action, I finished it in a couple of days.   Grim, bleak & nasty.  That's just the weather, the storyline & characters are worse.  Our "hero" is not above a bit of gruesome revenge murder, and his employers believe in gun barrel diplomacy.   A big part of the plot features an established community destroying itself, this was very well done. think "Survivors" morphing into the Balkans wars.

Downloaded the sample, read a couple of chapters and baled. Nothing against the writing, I'm just tired of novels about folk eking out existence after an apocalypse.


You're safely out of it.  We need the hints & tips post Brexit.

;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: essexian on 15 January, 2019, 01:17:03 pm
With today being the day our MP's vote on Mrs May "deal" I thought it apt to start reading: "World War Z."

Quite good so far.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 January, 2019, 02:22:43 pm
No need to search for the index case there. Call Mr. Cameron.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mattc on 15 January, 2019, 02:27:43 pm
Well, I've just finished "Shelter".  Hutchinson writes well & this is a page turner with a good bit of action, I finished it in a couple of days.   Grim, bleak & nasty.  That's just the weather, the storyline & characters are worse.  Our "hero" is not above a bit of gruesome revenge murder, and his employers believe in gun barrel diplomacy.   A big part of the plot features an established community destroying itself, this was very well done. think "Survivors" morphing into the Balkans wars.

Downloaded the sample, read a couple of chapters and baled. Nothing against the writing, I'm just tired of novels about folk eking out existence after an apocalypse.
He should stick to funny books about cycling.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 16 January, 2019, 05:53:57 pm
Centuries of Meditations by Thomas Traherne.  Beautiful, beautiful short meditations on God, and how he speaks to us. 

Just finished the Ben Aaronovich Rivers of London series - entertaining, but it's not Pratchett.  And I didn't touch the graphic novels because I can't read them properly on my Kindle.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 23 January, 2019, 02:36:05 am
Just finished Max Hastings' book, "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy", which is excellent. I'm now working on Volume 1 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, The Path To Power. LBJ seems to have blended the egotism, greed and dishonesty of Donald Trump with enough brains to actually do some real damage.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 23 January, 2019, 07:50:38 pm
About to start "Pax Romana" Adrian Goldsworthy ia study of life in the Empire through conquest and the long periods of peace. It's my reading whilst at a tech conference in Barcelona next week and a proper paper book (for some reason I always read factual books in physical form). I think I will download Good Omens to my Kindle for some light relief as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 January, 2019, 08:36:41 am
One of the largely interchangeable 'Rivers of London' potboilers.  Witty enough not to be boring but hardly memorable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 24 January, 2019, 08:43:02 am
One of the largely interchangeable 'Rivers of London' potboilers.  Witty enough not to be boring but hardly memorable.

Glad it's not just me that finds them, well, mostly just OKish.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 24 January, 2019, 10:51:04 am
"Scrublands" by one Chris Hammer.  As the blurb says, if you enjoyed Jane Harpers "The Dry", then you'll probably like this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 24 January, 2019, 01:50:22 pm
I like the Rivers of London books a lot, though as light entertainment rather than anything else. I think they do a couple of things very well: giving a sense of London as place*; portraying both the complexity and the bureaucratic nature of a modern police investigation; and keeping up a nice line in wisecracks.

On the downside, the characterisation is sometimes a bit thin, and the plotting has some of the common flaws of the saving-the-world urban fantasy series - mainly that as the series goes on and the stakes get bigger and bigger, it becomes more and more difficult to handwave why the wider world remains oblivious of all this magic going on (to be fair, Aaronovitch does try to address this, but as with most of these explanations they start to strain the suspension of disbelief).

*Though as a Londoner-in-exile I'm perhaps more susceptible a target.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 24 January, 2019, 03:54:22 pm
I don't dislike and originally it was a nice conceit, but it's been around the block a few times without really moving forward, which gets a bit frustrating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 February, 2019, 08:53:52 am
I've just finished James Lee Burke's latest, New Iberia Blues.  It was ok, if you're a fan, and better than his previous.  It seems that it is also likely to be his final offering, but at 83 that's not so surprising.

On to the unknown-to-me Mark Greavey and his "The Gray Man".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 February, 2019, 11:50:38 am
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

One of those classics that regularly crops up in must-read listicles. It's not really doing it for me though. I'm normally a fan of High Modernism but this feels like a pastiche of Joyce with the action transposed from Dublin to Mississippi.

I went online looking for articles about Faulkner to see if I could get to the bottom of my failure to get on with him and found an interesting piece that mentioned his spat with Hemingway, which reminded me of Will Self's piece on Orwell. Except that I love Will Self's brand of modernism. Maybe it's an inability to relate to the setting - I have to admit to not having much in common with poor white cotton farmers in the Deep South in the 1920s.

This I love:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/03/will-self-modernism-and-me
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 08 February, 2019, 12:20:17 pm
That's one of fairly short list of books I have failed to finish reading (having started!).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 February, 2019, 12:30:52 pm
That's one of fairly short list of books I have failed to finish reading (having started!).

I'm sticking with it - it's short enough that the prospect isn't too depressing - but I'm glad to know I'm not alone.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 08 February, 2019, 12:53:50 pm
I just found it 'hard'. I was trying to get in a southern US mood through literature before visiting New Orleans, and Jo Wood recommended A Confederacy of Dunces as I was struggling with it, and I was enticed away, never to return.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 08 February, 2019, 06:32:54 pm
I've just started Flying Dutch.
After Steph's comments I couldn't resist it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 08 February, 2019, 07:12:46 pm
Just finished "Europe in Winter" the latest in Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series of novels. There will be a fourth and final book in the series apparently but no release date as yet.
The whole series is brilliant. Fantastic writing. Set in a near future Europe where the EU has broken up into micro states. No SF gizmos really but more of a feel of John le Carrie novel with some weird stuff about topology and maps. Oh and lots about restaurants and food. Highly recommended.

I'm reading the first one of these and having read nothing but crime fiction for the last 6 months am really enjoying it!
It reminds me of Andrey Kurkov's penguin novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 08 February, 2019, 07:41:31 pm
Mrs Legs has just begun the fourth of the Fractured Europe books, having read the other three in less than the time it's taken me to get halfway through the yoghurt-selling book.  I just wish I could stay awake for more than a couple of pages each night!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 February, 2019, 08:19:08 am
I just found it 'hard'. I was trying to get in a southern US mood through literature before visiting New Orleans, and Jo Wood recommended A Confederacy of Dunces as I was struggling with it, and I was enticed away, never to return.

Paul Prudhomme provides everything you need.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hellymedic on 10 February, 2019, 01:49:16 am
David's been at Astrofest and returned with a signed copy of Mission Moon 3-D by David Eicher and Brian May, complete with its own OWL viewer for 3-D splendour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 February, 2019, 08:31:33 am
Chain it to the book.  We have a book called Stereo Star Maps and the viewer for that was last seen around 25 years ago.

Jeez: just checked publication date and found that some arrant wanker has pinched the title for a pop crap-o-rama. Suspend by nuts until properly respectful/dead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 February, 2019, 03:52:51 pm
I'm revising my opinion of Rivers of London as I work through the series again: there's lots of lovely stuff in there, e.g.

Through the streets our wheels slowly move;
The toll of the death bell dismays us.
With nosegays and gloves we are deck’d,
So trim and so gay they array us.
The passage all crowded we see
With maidens that move us with pity;
Our air all, admiring agree
Such lads are not left in the city.
Oh! Then to the tree I must go;
The judge he has ordered the sentence.
And then comes a gownsman you know,
And tells a dull tale of repentance.
By the gullet we’re ty’d very tight;
We beg all spectators, pray for us.
Our peepers are hid from the light,
The tumbril shoves off, and we morrice.

 - Tyburn ballad, as transcribed by Francis Place

Mr. Aaronovitch is an erudite fellow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 13 February, 2019, 06:17:16 pm
I like the Rivers of London series. Erudite, yes, and also witty and well written. It helps when a writer can make the reader care what happens to the characters.

I'm waiting for the next one... But i could read The Furthest Sation while I wait.

I haven't looked at the graphic novels in the series yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 14 February, 2019, 02:33:06 am
I just finished Volume 1 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, The Path To Power, which is excellent. As well as being an incredibly well researched biography of Lyndon Johnson, the book provides an eye-opening picture of the Great Depression as it affected the US, and a fascinating picture of the sheer corruption of US politics. As I said in my last post, Johnson seemed to possess the egotism, mendacity and greed of Donald Trump, combined with a capacity for hard work and a gift for political maneuvering. He was also better at making money for himself than Trump.

All this is to say that I am now working on Volume 2 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Means of Ascent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 14 February, 2019, 09:40:36 am
Will Self - Great Apes

Thought I'd already read this one a long time ago but it's not at all familiar. It's entertaining, though, in a very Selfish way. Also very interesting to read this in light of his piece on Modernism that I read recently - this is very much an 'early work' and feels a bit try-hard and immature in places. Compare and contrast to the more developed, mature style of Umbrella.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 February, 2019, 01:56:29 pm
Re-reading the Revelation Space series from Alistair Reynolds. They're real books that I found on the shelves. The downside is that I now have weak and spindly arms from holding a Kindle which makes them hard to read in the bath.

I confess I remember them (blimey, are they that old) being a little stodgy, like an overfilled suitcase, some good stuff but you didn't need it all for your trip. You're not going to wear those shoes. Enjoying them more the second time around. There still that tendency towards occasional over-exposition that plagues all SF* but it seems to move along a fair, suitably relativistic, pace. If I recall though, I was annoyed by the very ending of the main story arc. Maybe I'll be less annoyed this time. Maybe that was some other SF series. I'll know when I get there.

*did I ever mention my theory about what happens to all the letters and words you type when a window is out of focus?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 14 February, 2019, 09:12:28 pm
I found the 3 main books of the Revelation Space trilogy to be very dense & chewy,  also quite confusing until I worked out who the various factions of uplifted humans were.   The Inhibitors still give me a chill though.  I didn't think much of the ending either.


I recommend his "Prefect" books , set in the same universe but a few centuries earlier.  A little lighter, and his writing's improved a bit


Edit. The Revelation Space books also include Pigs In Space....  :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 February, 2019, 10:44:38 pm
Actually, I went back after I read the most recent one (the sequel to The Prefect, I forget the name, no wait Elysium Fire, for some reason – and I'm sure it wasn't just to confuse me – they changed all the titles). I've quite enjoyed the books in general, though recently they got a bit dull with the elephant obsession series (and I gave up on that).

But anyway, I'm quite enjoying the re-read, it's a splendidly gothic universe. That said, I need to do some more bookshelf trawling to find the rest of the series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 15 February, 2019, 08:32:45 am
I found the elephant series a bit slow, but got into them a bit more as I went on. The steampunk space opera one (I think the sequel may now be out?) was awesomely silly and entertaining though - unsurprisingly his gothic imagination works quite well for dread pirates in spaaaaaaace.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 15 February, 2019, 06:55:00 pm
I've just started Flying Dutch.
After Steph's comments I couldn't resist it.

I thank you!
It is patchy, as with all Holt, but there are moments in it that are sublime. Be careful the MMB aren't watching you...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 February, 2019, 11:21:12 am
The Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers

Just started on the train this morning and pretty much instantly hooked. I've been slightly put off by the sheer number and breadth of recommendations, but it's actually very good so far, despite falling into the 'popular historical fiction' category - ie more Hillary Mantel/Lawrence Norfolk than Louis de Bernieres, thankfully.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 February, 2019, 02:01:37 pm
Just about to start the latest Inspector (or rather Chief Inspector) MClean from James Oswald.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hellymedic on 20 February, 2019, 04:18:40 pm
Chain it to the book.  We have a book called Stereo Star Maps and the viewer for that was last seen around 25 years ago.

Jeez: just checked publication date and found that some arrant wanker has pinched the title for a pop crap-o-rama. Suspend by nuts until properly respectful/dead.

This volume has a slot for the viewer in the thick rear cover board.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 February, 2019, 05:11:04 pm
Yeah, so has ours.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 26 February, 2019, 04:37:11 pm
Having just finished Means Of Ascent, I'm now starting on Master Of The Senate, which is Volume III of Robert A. Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson. Caro's first two volumes paint a picture of incredible corruption in US politics at the state level (at least in the state of Texas, although he suggests that other states weren't much better), and Johnson is portrayed as being among the most corrupt. The first few pages of Master Of The Senate seem to show Johnson in a somewhat more favorable light, we'll see what happens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 February, 2019, 12:17:59 pm
Certainly the impression of Johnson I got from Max "Hitler" Hastings' Vietnam history was that he was a massive git.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 March, 2019, 12:58:54 pm
Mr Phillips by John Lanchester

I found Capital infuriating but very much enjoyed The Debt To Pleasure. Unfortunately, this is a lot more like the former than the latter.

For example, there's some classic Sliding Doors geography in a passage describing a Monday morning train journey into central London - his train passes Battersea Power Station then Battersea Dogs' Home, which must mean he is on a train heading *out* of Victoria, so not as likely to be packed with commuters as he describes. He then gets off at the next station, which is not specified but it is implied that it is Battersea Park because he then goes into the park. However, if you're on the bit of line that goes past the Dogs' Home, the next stop is Wandsworth Road...

I wouldn't mind but it reflects a generally lazy approach - this is not a writer who researches but one who relies on his past experience. I could list several other factual inaccuracies that would be easily resolved with a little bit of attention to detail.

I'll stick with it because like Capital it is an easy read and moderately amusing in places, and short enough that it will be over soon enough.

ETA: I just looked up my review of Capital and I seem to have had stronger feelings about it at the time than I remember six years later:
Quote
Hated it. Hated the glib, smug writing. Hated the dull, predictable plot. Hated nearly all the characters, none of whom amount to anything more than enumerations of superficial traits and clichéd behaviours. There's a bit late on that sums up why I hated it, when two new characters are introduced simultaneously, their choice of coffee indicating how we're supposed to feel about them (one sympathetic, the other not). The author uses hackneyed cultural reference points like this in place of true insight into his characters' personalities.

To give Lanchester some credit, this is a well researched book. Every aspect of the lives of the characters is covered in a wealth of detail. As a snapshot of London in 2008, it's certainly broad and ambitious in its scope. It's just that for all that detail, the author appears to have nothing interesting to say. It's just boring. And about 200 pages too long.

At least Mr Phillips isn't annoying me quite as much... so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 06 March, 2019, 02:16:35 pm
Had a bit of a splurge on cycling books recently:

1) The World of Cycling According to G (Geraint Thomas) : yes it's ghost-written and fairly light and fluffy but it is also interesting and funny in places and I enjoyed it.

2) Chris Boardman's autobiography (can't remember the exact title). Much more a standard "this happened, then that happened" than G's book. Again interesting - I could actually have done with it being longer, as I felt some things got skipped past a bit, especially in the early years when he seemed to go from moderately promising TTer to Olympic champion in about 3 pages...

3) Sunday in Hell by William Fotheringham. "Behind the lens of the greatest cycling film of all time" says the subtitle: it is a book about the film "A Sunday in Hell" about the 1976 Paris-Roubaix. There's bit about the film-maker, the cyclists, the cameramen, the history of the race, the pave - fascinating. I'd reccommend all 3 of the books I've mentioned, but if you only want to read one, read this one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 06 March, 2019, 03:28:09 pm

For example, there's some classic Sliding Doors geography.....

I wouldn't mind but it reflects a generally lazy approach

I know what you mean. When I come across that kind of thing it makes me sceptical towards the rest of the book.   It's even worse when you encounter it in non-fiction.  For example, I came across a reference, in a book touted as beingly impressively researched, to somebody taking a ferry* from Newhaven to Hamburg, which is clearly ridiculous. There was no need for the statement to be there other than to give the impression that the author had really done his homework but it then made me doubt most of the more 'interesting' facts that he claimed to have unearthed.

* I also have a vague recollection of an early episode of the X Files in which one or other of the leads referred to a suspicious activity taking place on a cargo ship sailing from Leeds to Bergen. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 07 March, 2019, 02:04:58 pm
And I recently read a book, by a British Asian author, that referred to the main character shifting gears - in his Prius. Really annoyed me. And even if the author really is that ignorant, surely editors are there to catch such idiocies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 March, 2019, 04:55:48 pm
I had to go back and re-read the relevant passage to check I wasn't misunderstanding something. He does actually specify getting on at Clapham Junction, so it's feasible that he's getting off at Battersea Park*, but the bit that threw me was the line "the spires of Battersea Power Station loom up over the rail tracks ahead", which aside from being hackneyed writing is a bit of a stretch of the imagination if you're on a train approaching Battersea Park station.

Hmmmm. Maybe I'm being a tad harsh, but I'd be more inclined to forgive his poetic licence if I didn't find him so irritating generally.


*ETA: later on he mentions the train's destination being Waterloo, so he must be getting off at Queenstown Road, which is the bit of line that heads away from the power station, not the bit that heads towards it.  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 07 March, 2019, 07:18:18 pm
Little glitches don't so much bother me, but Battersea was mostly grim chimneys like someone had upturned an impracticably large coffee table. Admittedly, now barricaded by the identikit glass blocks that offer anyone who can afford them the opportunity to expose themselves to thousands of Victoria-bound commuters and quite possibly little else. Until someone figures out how to squeeze another block between them and the tracks in which case it'll be broadsides of unasked-for nudity. If, of course, anyone lived in half of them other than the ghosts of non-domiciled tax dodgers.

Still enjoying Revelation Space, and I even found the third book in the garage in a box of books that had never been unpacked after the house move (*cough* five years ago). It's just about stopped smelling a bit frusty. That said, I fear it, because it's the sort of hefy hardback that will undoubtedly become my tombstone when I attempt to read it in the bath. I'm almost tempted to rebuy it on the Kindle. Almost, I'm also a cheapskate and I'll drown for my principles.

(In other bad news, it's inspired me to write volume three of my magnum sci-fi opus.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 March, 2019, 12:57:44 pm
Just finished Ben Macintyre's "The Spy And The Traitor", the tale of Oleg Gordievsky.  KGB man spies for BRITAIN, is rumbled by The Man, spirited out of the USSR in the kind of operation you normally read about in clunky spy thrillers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 09 March, 2019, 11:55:18 am
Reading a book on Ancient Britons by Neil Oliver. So far he seems to be implying that Earth is the only planet with a significant axial tilt and that there is no evidence that modern humans ever interbred with neanderthals.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 March, 2019, 12:52:35 pm
His bum's out the window: Uranus has an axial tilt of 98°.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 March, 2019, 01:09:42 pm
The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

Added this to my Kindle ages ago after hearing an interview with the author and thinking it sounded interesting, but never got round to it. Glad I finally did - it's a good read, not at all literarily challenging but well written none the less.

Story concerns a 10yo girl who lives with her father (mother is dead) in an unspecified industrial town in a rather ambiguous time period (cultural references range from cellophane Lucozade bottle wrappers to Richard Dawkins). They're members of a Christian doomsday sect and as such the girl is regarded as weird and bullied at school. She prays for a miracle to prevent the bullying and her wish appears to be granted, leading her to think she has special powers - exacerbated by the fact that she hears voices in her head, which she takes to be God. After a few more 'miracles', the law of unintended consequences kicks in... It's written from the girl's unworldly point of view, so there's lots of stuff that is only hinted at, putting her miracles into context, but it all adds up to a surprisingly interesting exploration of the nature of faith.

The blurb includes a quote from Emma Donoghue and that made me think of certain similarities with Room (mainly the naive young narrator with limited world view).

Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 March, 2019, 11:36:16 am
Reading a book on Ancient Britons by Neil Oliver. So far he seems to be implying that Earth is the only planet with a significant axial tilt and that there is no evidence that modern humans ever interbred with neanderthals.

Professor Alice Roberts said otherwise about Neanderthals and I'll take her word over his any day ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 10 March, 2019, 03:23:13 pm
Certainly the impression of Johnson I got from Max "Hitler" Hastings' Vietnam history was that he was a massive git.

Mr Hastings was much too kind to LBJ, and the "more favorable light" that I referred to didn't last long. LBJ was an evil bastard who did a fair bit of damage to the world, and he was a thoroughly unpleasant individual on a personal level.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 March, 2019, 01:13:40 pm
Lanterne Rouge by Max Leonard

A history of the men who came last in the Tour de France. Very enjoyable. It's not a story of failure (because after all, to finish last, first you must finish) rather an insight into the peculiar psyche of professional cyclists. It's well researched and well structured, and generally well written - despite occasional lapses into journalistic banality and a few pointless digressions. Lots of great anecdotes, too - not included purely for entertainment's sake but by way of providing genuinely interesting insights into how the sport works. The chapter on Wim Vansevenant is a good example - I was aware of his feat in finishing last three years in a row but it turns out there's a lot more to his achievement than meets the eye.

Highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in the Tour.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 12 March, 2019, 01:37:00 pm
I'm a big fan of Max Leonard's - his 'Higher Calling' is also excellent. I must confess the journalistic banalities didn't jump out at me when I read it; IMO he's a cut above the usual as a stylist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 March, 2019, 01:48:39 pm
I'm a big fan of Max Leonard's - his 'Higher Calling' is also excellent. I must confess the journalistic banalities didn't jump out at me when I read it; IMO he's a cut above the usual as a stylist.

I've worked with Max before on some of his actual journalism so perhaps I'm just more sensitive to it... but granted, his style is certainly better than the average cycling hack. To me, the book's real strength is the depth and quality of the research, and how he constructs a narrative from the bare facts, rather than just recounting anecdotes and listing stats.

I'll add Higher Calling to the must-read list as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 12 March, 2019, 07:33:14 pm
Ha, yes, I try to leave my editor's hat off when I'm reading for pleasure; sometimes I even succeed. Anecdotes and stats strung together are unfortunately rather too common in cycle writing (is this the case for other sports writing?), but I guess that's partly the influence of the daily newspaper report being carried over to book length.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 March, 2019, 01:58:19 pm
Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World - Adrian Goldsworthy

and

Legions of Rome: The definitive history of every Roman legion - Stephen Dando-Collins

plus some Disc World novels for light relief.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Robh on 20 March, 2019, 01:28:41 am
‘The Descent of Man’ by Grayson Perry. I got to page 26, and could take no more of his solipsistic, banal, bollox. Think Russell Brand in a frock. An opportunity wasted. I picked it up for a project. Fortunately, one of the other books I picked up at the same time was ‘Amateur’, by Thomas Page McBee, which is proving to be an excellent antidote.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 March, 2019, 07:36:27 am
Russell Brand in a frock

Ha! That’s a perfect description.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 March, 2019, 01:44:39 pm
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Well, that's another one ticked off the list. All I will say is that I can see both why some people love it and why others hate it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redjeep! on 01 April, 2019, 09:50:12 pm
The Templars by Dan Jones.

A history of the Knights Templar, which I've always found fascinating in a shadowy conspiracy theory type of way, but this is the first time I've actually read any serious book about them.

Still fascinating. It also gives what seems to be a very good history of the Crusades and how they weren't the 'Boy's Own' romp that they've always been sold as, where a load of frightfully brave Lords of the realm went overseas to give Johnny (non-Christian) Foreigner a bit of a pasting and teach them their mistakes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 01 April, 2019, 11:05:10 pm
The Templars by Dan Jones.

A history of the Knights Templar, which I've always found fascinating in a shadowy conspiracy theory type of way, but this is the first time I've actually read any serious book about them.

Still fascinating. It also gives what seems to be a very good history of the Crusades and how they weren't the 'Boy's Own' romp that they've always been sold as, where a load of frightfully brave Lords of the realm went overseas to give Johnny (non-Christian) Foreigner a bit of a pasting and teach them their mistakes.

I had that myth dispelled by reading Ronald Welch's "Knight Crusader" several decades ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Crusader
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 April, 2019, 11:59:24 pm
The Templars by Dan Jones.

A history of the Knights Templar, which I've always found fascinating in a shadowy conspiracy theory type of way, but this is the first time I've actually read any serious book about them.

Still fascinating. It also gives what seems to be a very good history of the Crusades and how they weren't the 'Boy's Own' romp that they've always been sold as, where a load of frightfully brave Lords of the realm went overseas to give Johnny (non-Christian) Foreigner a bit of a pasting and teach them their mistakes.

I had that myth dispelled by reading Ronald Welch's "Knight Crusader" several decades ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Crusader (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Crusader)


I think I read most of Welch's books as a young person.  Good stories with some educational content,which was probably why they were all in Huyton library.  Certainly more thoughtful than G.A Henty.....     


I remember the cover of "Knight Crusader" & a few of the plot points, but it was a long time ago.


Hugh Walters ?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 02 April, 2019, 09:09:49 am
Now just getting started on A Strangeness In My Mind (a.k.a. the yoghurt-selling book) by Orhan Pamuk.  Probably going to be on this one for a while...
OMG, I finished it yesterday (wow, was I really going for 12 weeks?)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 02 April, 2019, 12:04:42 pm
Hugh Walters ?

Oddly enough, I was looking up his Chris Godfrey of UNEXA books the other month. I think my local library when I was a kid only had a couple - 'Nearly Neptune' and 'Passage To Pluto' ring bells...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 02 April, 2019, 12:43:27 pm
The Templars by Dan Jones.

A history of the Knights Templar, which I've always found fascinating in a shadowy conspiracy theory type of way, but this is the first time I've actually read any serious book about them.

Still fascinating. It also gives what seems to be a very good history of the Crusades and how they weren't the 'Boy's Own' romp that they've always been sold as, where a load of frightfully brave Lords of the realm went overseas to give Johnny (non-Christian) Foreigner a bit of a pasting and teach them their mistakes.

I had that myth dispelled by reading Ronald Welch's "Knight Crusader" several decades ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Crusader
Good grief, that brings some memories back.
Those were good books. Considerably more accurate than some contemporary films and mini-series!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 02 April, 2019, 01:52:16 pm
Off the back of the recent spacesuit twitterstorm, I discovered Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut series.  I've just finished The Calculating Stars, and once you look past some distinctly 21st century attitudes by the main character, it's a pleasingly well-researched and optimistic 'punchcardpunk' alternate history[1] of space exploration.

If you liked Hidden Figures (which was published after this was written), you'll probably enjoy this.


[1] The plot device is that NACA give Von Braun's team resources to develop space flight immediately after the war, and then a natural disaster in 1952 (just after they've achieved artificial satellites) kills off much of our original timeline and makes colonisation of space within decades imperative for the survival of humanity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 April, 2019, 09:33:58 am
Another one I really should have read years ago but have finally got round to...

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell

What's most alarming is how applicable it still is today... but I won't say any more than that because I don't want to drag politics into this thread.

Anyway, it's a good read and an effective polemic but judged as a piece of writing, I think I prefer George Gissing's The Nether World, which deals with much the same themes (though written 25 years earlier). Philanthropists seems much more optimistic though - The Nether World is entirely without a shred of hope.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 April, 2019, 08:23:16 am
I'm on The Princess Bride.  I can't believe I've reached the age of 37 without either reading this or seeing the fillum.  It's utterly, utterly brilliant.  S. Morgenstern was a genius ;).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 04 April, 2019, 09:08:51 am
Now just getting started on A Strangeness In My Mind (a.k.a. the yoghurt-selling book) by Orhan Pamuk.  Probably going to be on this one for a while...
OMG, I finished it yesterday (wow, was I really going for 12 weeks?)

And? What did you think?

I've just gone through an eclectic holiday splurge of
The Mayor of Casterbridge*
The first Lee Child Jack Reacher
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Dune*

Some stylistic and thematic lurches there, from one to another.

(* c35 years after first reading them - an exercise in memory and nostalgia)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 April, 2019, 09:17:32 am
I really enjoyed it, more as a picture-painting exercise than a gripping, page-turning narrative.  The story doesn't really go very far, but it gives a good impression of the urbanisation and rise in commercialism in modern-day Istanbul.  Thanks for the recommendation.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 04 April, 2019, 09:19:08 pm
Another one I really should have read years ago but have finally got round to...

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell

What's most alarming is how applicable it still is today... but I won't say any more than that because I don't want to drag politics into this thread.

Anyway, it's a good read and an effective polemic but judged as a piece of writing, I think I prefer George Gissing's The Nether World, which deals with much the same themes (though written 25 years earlier). Philanthropists seems much more optimistic though - The Nether World is entirely without a shred of hope.

Funny. I was thinking about that only the other day and wondering if my copy was still somewhere upstairs (it isn't). Aside from the story itself, which I'd agree is still topical, what I recall most is Tressell's random use of capital letters, which - today - is most obviously emulated by Trump's tweets.

It's probably due a revival, perhaps witheastern European decorators and a lottery winner as the eponymous benefactor.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 04 April, 2019, 10:03:15 pm
Samuel R. Delany's 'Trouble On Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia'

Probably best explained by this review: https://www.tor.com/2008/08/17/triton/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 04 April, 2019, 10:15:05 pm
Damn ,  I recall that being a very confusing read for an inquisitive teenager.   The Spike, metal eyebrows & The Order of Dumb Beasts ?   


I've still got to make a 3rd attempt at getting through "Dhalgren",  don't think I got more than half way the last time.


It's been a while but I don't remember a gay character in "The Dispossessed" ?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 04 April, 2019, 10:41:43 pm
Damn ,  I recall that being a very confusing read for an inquisitive teenager.   The Spike, metal eyebrows & The Order of Dumb Beasts ?   

That's the one. Not forgetting the Mumblers...

Quote
I've still got to make a 3rd attempt at getting through "Dhalgren",  don't think I got more than half way the last time.


It's been a while but I don't remember a gay character in "The Dispossessed" ?

Admittedly, I haven't read any of Le Guin's SF, so I can't comment on that, but it might be worth reading the transcript of an interview Delany had in 1986 with a lecturer and students at Concordia University (he talks about 'The Dispossessed' around a quarter of the way through):

https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/delany52interview.htm
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 04 April, 2019, 10:46:26 pm

The Mumblers may have been what I was thinking of.  OoDB was the Narnia stuff which I've never read!

That Tor review was by Jo Walton , the only stuff of hers I've read was the "Small Change" trilogy.  Fascism in a 1940's England that had made a swift peace with Germany.  Quite good.


Edit: http://thebooklender.katzette.com/book-review-small-change/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 April, 2019, 08:05:14 am
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North. Only 3 pp in so far but I'm intrigued.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 April, 2019, 09:26:44 am
I quite like her books, though in the latter ones she does occasionally veer into Creative Writing module 4b when

what's that

a voice

where, something, fractured

mindlike moonful milkshake

synopsis

which is a minor annoyance – and I'm all up for a bit of nonlinear narrative – as it doesn't seem to serve much purpose and frankly she's a good enough writer not to need it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 April, 2019, 01:29:38 pm
Sort of thing that's aimed at critics rather than people.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 10 April, 2019, 01:39:31 pm
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North. Only 3 pp in so far but I'm intrigued.
I found it fairly meh in the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 April, 2019, 02:32:51 pm
That's heartening. We'll see how it goes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 15 April, 2019, 08:02:38 pm
There was mention of The Laundry Files a few pages back, I read the description and thought, "I might just like that"

Onto Amazon, Book #1 - "The Atrocity Archives" OK... Click


Quote
You purchased this item on 20 May 2017.

Well that made an impression
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 15 April, 2019, 08:48:37 pm
A new author to me, Chris Ould’s “The Blood Strand”. A police procedural, but set on the Faroe Islands. Pretty good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 16 April, 2019, 06:31:28 am
A little late to the party, but I am about 50% of the way through "Cold as the Grave" by James Oswald.

Not sure why but it doesn't have the same grip as his other McLean books...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 21 April, 2019, 06:38:51 am
I had a look at the current book by John Boyne, as it is about a trans girl.

Shite. No connection to the reality at all.  Man writes book without (obvs) speaking to anybody trans, the character being a cardboard cut-out used for plot effect only. Of course, the usual hate press has come down on trans people for saying just that. Then I did some more reading.

He also wrote "Boy in the Striped Pyjamas". Oddly, the Jewish community seems to have said almost exactly the same thing about that book...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 April, 2019, 08:28:20 am
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North. Only 3 pp in so far but I'm intrigued.
I found it fairly meh in the end.

Yeah, in the end I could see why.  I think she was more interested in exploring the ideas behind the book than in the story. Fortunately I was too so in the end I quite enjoyed it - enough to buy her second as Claire North, Touch.  That I found boring, so I've suspended it for now.

I'm reading Cixin Liu's short-story collection The Wandering Earth. I've just read the title story and there's about 40% of the free sample left.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 April, 2019, 10:42:34 am
Just finished Matt Haig's "The Humans" which I thought I'd read before but hadn't.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 April, 2019, 11:12:06 am
"East And West", Chris Patton's account of his time as the last Governor of Hong Kong.  Interesting, especially with the benefit of twenty years of hindsight.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 24 April, 2019, 03:35:49 pm
"The Day that Never Comes" by Caimh (Keeve) McDonnell, the second part of his Dublin trilogy.  If you like Irish humour and a bit of Dub craic you'd enjoy them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 25 April, 2019, 01:03:26 pm
Not so much the books, but I've been using the highlight feature on my Kindle for a while now. Looking back through, it's quite interesting, here are a couple to share.

Benighted, by J B Priestley, writing in 1928
Quote
People wonder what’s the matter with the world these days. They forget that all the best fellows, the men who’d have been in their prime now, who’d have been giving us a lead in everything, are dead.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by thomas Friedman, 2011
Quote
Men like Assad and Saddam are dangerous and long-lasting because they are extremists who know when to stop.

Quote
All people who think they are redeeming the world don’t see the evil that they are doing every day. If your eyes are on eternity you can be blind to the person sitting next to you.

Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites
Quote
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

- Mort
Quote
He looked back like a nocturnal rabbit trying to outstare the headlights of a sixteen-wheeled artic whose driver is a twelve-hour caffeine freak outrunning the tachometers of hell.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 April, 2019, 05:32:24 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!!  I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 April, 2019, 08:34:43 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!!  I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

Oooo, that's going to be one long bath.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 April, 2019, 10:22:15 pm
Having had a long pause (a year or two) about 45% through The Bickford Fuse by Andrey Kurkov because I got fed up with it, I've picked it up again to have a rest from crime fiction. We'll see if I make it to the end.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 April, 2019, 10:24:38 pm
I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 30 April, 2019, 10:29:35 pm
After hearing Ishbel Holmes on R4, I bought her book "Me, My Bike and a Street Dog Called Lucy". Quite good. Pretty moving and inspiring in parts, but not as good as I hoped it would be after hearing her on the radio.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 May, 2019, 09:39:09 am
I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

I don't really do crime books, and yes, they're to a degree formulaic, but the general building spook factor in the background is, I think, the actual story. The foreground is just colour. Plus the writing is generally a good class or two above the average crime writer, in places quite luminous. If it were bog-standard written detective fiction without the arc, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. And I'd have to get a bargepole first, because they're not the sort of thing you find around the house.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 01 May, 2019, 10:22:05 am
I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

The last Mclean was quite poor I thought. Ditto Val McDermid's last couple of Tony Hill/Carol Jordan's, the last (several) Scarpetta's, and Peter's James and Robinson and Tim Weaver are going the same way. Inevitable I guess. Oh, and you can add James Lee Burke to that list.

Not really found decent replacements, but enjoying Gregg Hurwitz's "Orphan" series, and have got Chris Ould's second Faroes set story waiting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 01 May, 2019, 10:26:04 am
I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

I don't really do crime books, and yes, they're to a degree formulaic, but the general building spook factor in the background is, I think, the actual story. The foreground is just colour. Plus the writing is generally a good class or two above the average crime writer, in places quite luminous. If it were bog-standard written detective fiction with the arc, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. And I'd have to get a bargepole first, because they're not the sort of thing you find around the house.

Interestingly the poorer reviews cited the relative paucity of Parker/Angel/Louis in this story. I'm enjoying so far (10% in). As for the writing, when I'd looked up the meanings of "numinous" and "algor" I though "this reminds me of reading the Morse books!"

I'd normally shy away from t books with supernatural elements (and as I said above, the Inspector Maclean stories are beginning to labour) but I manage to let it flow past in the Parker books, principally because the writing is so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: caerau on 01 May, 2019, 01:17:42 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!!  I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.


Ha, be thankful you're not into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre - 700 pages is trifling in that arena.


The presence of this thread just made me laugh on that front incidentally as I am technically partway through reading A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I am one of a mere 600 people who bought the first one - entitled rather famously these days 'A Game of Thrones'  - in 1996 - earning me eventually a nice fat £300 on eBay when I sold it the other year ( :-D  - not bad for a book wot I bought almost at random once).  It is now a gobsmacking EIGHT years since he wrote the last one and his darn* TV series of it took over.  I think I'll finish it when the next blue moon coincides with a month of Sundays  :(


*Still the TV series is rather spiffing - despite knowing everything that was going to happen in the early series.  This of course may now reverse since the TV series has long ago gone way past where it is at in the books - though with rather drastic changes to personnel, timelines and plot at times.




So currently that's at about 5 books of 800+ pages.  If you REALLY want to go for it, try Robert Jordan't Wheel of Time which finally ended up at 14 volumes at about 800 pages each on average.  He did a GRRM and never finished it mind you - took him so long he actually died before he finished it - they had to get someone in to finish it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 May, 2019, 02:03:35 pm
How I Wonned Thee Tour Ov France1 by G Thomas.  Very standard ghostwritten potboiler but it was only £2.99.

Bethany (9):Well, we liked it!
5:Oh yes! (Sighs like someone sitting on a punctured spacehopper)

1: Or something like that
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 01 May, 2019, 03:02:04 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!!  I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

Ha, be thankful you're not into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre - 700 pages is trifling in that arena.


A bit of a change from when I last read sci-fi, which (discounting HHGTTG) was probably Asimov's Foundation trilogy!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: caerau on 01 May, 2019, 03:09:03 pm
Even he got the bug with his latter Foundation sequels
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 May, 2019, 03:31:07 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!!  I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.


Ha, be thankful you're not into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre - 700 pages is trifling in that arena.


I won an entire £10 for writing one. I had assumed it was probably awful and let it stew for a while, but I'm idly re-reading on the train at the moment and it isn't as bad as I feared. I did think to myself that it could lose a few 100k words in the edit, but then I remembered to stop being silly, it's SF. Robots. Aliens. Stuff that Blows Up (up to and including entire planets). All breathlessly packed into a mere several hundred thousand words.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: caerau on 01 May, 2019, 03:48:59 pm
You should see if you can get a writers spot on the next Marvel movie ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 May, 2019, 03:55:28 pm
I think I'll invent Sleepy Man for DC. He defeats his nemesis, Captain Wakeful, with the power of extended exposition. Every film in my Sleepverse will begin with at least 20 minutes of laboured exposition of how Sleepy Man got his narcolepsis-inducing powers and no new character will be introduced without a twenty minute preamble, including the pizza delivery guy.

It may be hard to believe, but I'm not the person who wrote Batman vs. Superman: Bedtime of Justice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 May, 2019, 11:44:52 am
I have had to put Anthony Beevor's "Arnhem" to one side following the unexpected acquisition of "Their Little Secret", the latest Mark Billingham.  No-one's been murdered utterly to DETH yet, which is a bit off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 05 May, 2019, 05:57:07 pm
havent read his Arnhem yet, did his Ardennes last year.

Reading Consider Phlebas to my son at the moment, and for myself started reading Under Western Eyes by Joseh Conrad, picked up for 25p in the penguin edition on the market a few weeks ago
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 07 May, 2019, 02:02:17 pm
Well, that's "Book of Bones" dispensed with, and I skipped less than 10 pages of the 707 it totalled, so it can't have been too bad!

Now onto something a lot less literary, Tony Parsons' latest Max Wolfe adventure "#taken". And I've just reserved a copy of Mick Herron's next "Slough House" installment, "Joe Country" due out in June.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 07 May, 2019, 05:10:13 pm
Question for the panel: I either heard or read a month or two ago about a book which, was highly recommended,, by a doctor about alternative medicine. The only precise thing I can remember was when he said something like this to a patient: "I have a plant in my garden that if you sat underneath it for 10 minutes you would be dead." He was referring to the waterlilies on his pond.

Can someone come to my rescue please and identify the book and the author?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 07 May, 2019, 05:14:47 pm
That quote is in this book : This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, Adam Kay - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hHGHDgAAQBAJ&source=gbs_slider_cls_metadata_7_mylibrary
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 07 May, 2019, 05:51:54 pm
Thanks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 08 May, 2019, 10:11:47 am
Just beginning Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman.  It's a bit waffly at the start - lots of superfluous description and clunky metaphor.  King is famously economical with adverbs, but, my Lord, there is a hatful of adjectives crammed into this one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 08 May, 2019, 10:19:27 am
Just beginning Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman.  It's a bit waffly at the start - lots of superfluous description and clunky metaphor.  King is famously economical with adverbs, but, my Lord, there is a hatful of adjectives crammed into this one.
I read that back in the 80s, the only thing I can remember about it is that, it was hard work. It was one of the first books I read in English, my Merriam-Webster dictionary got a good old work out.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 May, 2019, 11:06:44 am
Isn't that the one with Oshkosh B'gosh overalls?  That's about all I remember of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 26 May, 2019, 03:22:26 pm
I'm about halfway through "The Passage of Power", volume 4 of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson. LBJ may have been an evil bastard and a massive git, but he was definitely a master of the political process.

On a more cheerful note, I just started on "Stonehenge- A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument", Mike Parker Pearson's account of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, and what it taught us about Stonehenge. The last time I was in the UK, I took a tour of Stonehenge that included a chance to enter the inner circle of the monument, as well as a visit to Durrington Walls.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 26 May, 2019, 06:05:30 pm
Having had a long pause (a year or two) about 45% through The Bickford Fuse by Andrey Kurkov because I got fed up with it, I've picked it up again to have a rest from crime fiction. We'll see if I make it to the end.

I'm still reading this. Gods, it's hard going. I feel like I keep reading the same page and then passing out everytime I go to bed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 May, 2019, 12:44:38 pm
Put it to one side, for there is a new MacBride.  I have not yet read it so cannot comment on whether it contains:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 27 May, 2019, 09:14:11 pm
For those who like them , Andrew Cartmel has a new "Vinyl Detective" novel out.  "Flip Back"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 27 May, 2019, 09:27:07 pm
Ooh they both sound good. Something to look forward to when I eventually finish this book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 28 May, 2019, 06:40:16 pm
Melinda Leigh. Previously noted and avoided as a "Romantic Suspense Author" I ended up randomly reading one of the Morgan Dane and they are perfectly acceptable examples of the formula suspense genre without too much mush at all. Her lead characters are reasonably human and credible, her plots are well crafted and grounded in their locality and sufficiently pacey to keep you turning pages, although they are not hard to put down. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 03 June, 2019, 01:50:34 pm
I read the first chapter of The Magician's Nephew to my 5-year-old last week to break him into it, and so I ended up temporarily putting down The Talisman and reading another tale of travel between worlds.  I'd never read any of the Narnia stories before.  My wife tells me that when she read them as a little, the less-than-subtle Christian subtext was lost on her...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 03 June, 2019, 02:26:45 pm
Recent reading reading has included Catch-22 and Doctor Zhivago, and TBH, I think they are both slightly overrated.

Read one conversation in Catch-22 where characters are being deliberately obtuse or are simply talking past each other, and you've pretty much read them all. Some of the introductions to characters suffered from logorrhoea, as if Joseph Heller wanted to show off that he'd eaten a thesaurus. And even though it's a satire, some of what Milo Minderbinder gets up to simply stretches credulity.

The acclaim for Doctor Zhivago was, IMHO, more for it being a work of samizdat WRT one or two characters' ambivalence about the revolution. Boris Pasternak's inconsistent use of the different name forms IAW the eastern Slavic threefold custom meant that early on in the book, I was forever having to refer back to the list of characters at the front of the book to remind myself who was being referred to.

The other criticism offered by reviewers that I agree with is the remarkably fortuitous way in which characters' paths intersected. Pasternak might as well have subtitled the book "It's a small world".

YMMV, of course.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 03 June, 2019, 02:43:03 pm
I don't think I ever finished catch-22, mainly because everyone I knew at the time of reading (and before) told me this was a very serious book. I just pissed myself at the dark humour and that didn't compute with what I had been told.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 June, 2019, 02:47:02 pm
Recent reading reading has included Catch-22 and Doctor Zhivago, and TBH, I think they are both slightly overrated.

Read one conversation in Catch-22 where characters are being deliberately obtuse or are simply talking past each other, and you've pretty much read them all. Some of the introductions to characters suffered from logorrhoea, as if Joseph Heller wanted to show off that he'd eaten a thesaurus. And even though it's a satire, some of what Milo Minderbinder gets up to simply stretches credulity.

The acclaim for Doctor Zhivago was, IMHO, more for it being a work of samizdat WRT one or two characters' ambivalence about the revolution. Boris Pasternak's inconsistent use of the different name forms IAW the eastern Slavic threefold custom meant that early on in the book, I was forever having to refer back to the list of characters at the front of the book to remind myself who was being referred to.

The other criticism offered by reviewers that I agree with is the remarkably fortuitous way in which characters' paths intersected. Pasternak might as well have subtitled the book "It's a small world".

YMMV, of course.

I read Catch-22 when it came out and enjoyed it, but that was in the 60s. Dunno what I'd make of it now. I read the sequel when it came out and found it boring.

Minderbinder, though: I think he's a pretty good personification of the 1% and the industrial sector: selling the silk from the parachutes to make dresses is a pretty good parallel to the way the US in particular handles the environment. Not to mention using the CO2 out of the dinghy inflators to make soda-water.  It's Freedom Gas, fellers, and everyone has a share.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 03 June, 2019, 03:03:20 pm
It's such a long time ago that I tried to read Catch-22 that I forget why I failed to finish it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 03 June, 2019, 03:12:38 pm
It's such a long time ago that I tried to read Catch-22 that I forget why I failed to finish it.

I think that's why I ended up re-reading it. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 03 June, 2019, 06:50:15 pm
Just beginning Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman.  It's a bit waffly at the start - lots of superfluous description and clunky metaphor.  King is famously economical with adverbs, but, my Lord, there is a hatful of adjectives crammed into this one.

There is a sequel, 'Black House'. It is much darker.

I actually enjoyed both books, and I have a quote/catchphrase from a major character ("Right here and now!") I have deliberately used several times in dialogue for one of my own characters, Revd Simon Jenkins. Anyone who doesn't cry at the original character in 'Talisman' has no soul.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 June, 2019, 11:49:04 am
The Stranger House ~ Reginald Hill.  Interestingly spooky thriller, though Mr Hill should know that a Mercedes SLK is a strict two-seater so this talk of Father Madero getting his laptop off the back seat is a Foolish Thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 07 June, 2019, 12:39:52 pm
:-)

My dad was a Master Mariner and every bit of fiction with an element of Merchant Navy that passed through his hands was dutifully annotated with corrections. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 07 June, 2019, 08:24:01 pm
Mark Beaumont's latest record book, re his RTW speed ride.

I enjoyed his first one, partly because he put me in it but also because it is in many ways a "touring" book, recording places he rode and people he met. I couldn't get into the new one because it was like that TV programme for his first RTW record, a series of repeated comments about how much food he had to eat. This new book is basically "Got up. Rode in [weather]. crew did [stuff]. Rode [miles], ate [calories]. Rinse and repeat."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tail End Charlie on 07 June, 2019, 08:26:03 pm
I've been reading some of the Bernie Gunther books by Philip Kerr (not in order, I just buy them when they're 99p on Kindle). I think they're very good, I like books which give historical context as well as a good storykline. The plots are complicated, so you've got to concentrate, but I like that!

They're about a German detective/ private eye often in Berlin in the years before and after WW 2.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 15 June, 2019, 08:41:31 pm
This week, I finally finished The Bickford Fuse.
Thank fuck.

Making up for that now with book 3 of The Vinyl Detective.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 15 June, 2019, 11:11:12 pm
Embedded by Dan Abnett. About an experienced journalist who is attached to a military unit on an off world colony. He thinks the powers that be are hiding something so gets himself chipped into the head of one of the soldiers.

I have read it before a long time ago. Can't remember the salient points so am enjoying it again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 16 June, 2019, 03:02:10 pm
Jools Walker's Back in the Frame.  Unusually for a cycling book, it's quite good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 16 June, 2019, 05:50:46 pm
A Father's day present: Roman Frontiers in Wales and the Marches.
Finding sites I have never heard of despite living near by and having an interest in the period for 50 years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 June, 2019, 06:42:35 pm
"Viking Britain" by Thomas Williams.

Sometimes he gets more than a little over the top, but he writes it as a story, full of word play and image, and he has a real knack for finding quotes that are both vivid and apt, as well as rather rude.

On offer for pennies on kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 16 June, 2019, 08:35:22 pm
And I thought that you  built the the wall   nobby ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 21 June, 2019, 11:55:33 pm
The Drowned World by Ballard.  Lots of fun reading a book with a dictionary in the other hand at all times.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 June, 2019, 10:01:50 am
Think I read that one when it came out.  Anyway, I downloaded the sample on Google Books but Martin Bloody Amis's intro is so long that the real sample is only ~10 pp so I might have to go stumbling round the shelves in our spare room to locate a dusty, split-spined copy if it's there at all. Maybe I'll fork out Google's blood price and spare myself the pother.

Anyway, I'm reading a Laundry Files opus that had slipped past me unnoticed, The Nightmare Stacks.  5/10 so far but it's early days. Bob & Mo coefficient --> 0.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 22 June, 2019, 10:41:49 am
Shadow Captain by Alastair Reynolds - the second book in the Revenger series. SF with added steampunkiness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 June, 2019, 05:23:15 pm
I have disposed of the latest Logan McRae.

(click to show/hide)

Now on the most recent of Val McDermid's Karen Pirie series which, unlike all her other novels, is devoid of lesbians.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 22 June, 2019, 10:21:19 pm
I have disposed of the latest Logan McRae.

(click to show/hide)

Now on the most recent of Val McDermid's Karen Pirie series which, unlike all her other novels, is devoid of lesbians.

Appreciated :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 June, 2019, 07:06:32 am
Anyway, I'm reading a Laundry Files opus that had slipped past me unnoticed, The Nightmare Stacks.  5/10 so far but it's early days. Bob & Mo coefficient --> 0.

Finished. Opinion duly revised to 7.5/10.  Entirely worthy of Charlie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 June, 2019, 10:44:32 pm
Miss Von Brandenburg finally finished reading MY copy of the latest Ben Aaronovitch — The October Man — thereby allowing me to:
???

Next up is David Howarth's "The Shetland Bus", assuming she hasn't stolen it and hidden it at the bottom of her The Luggage.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 June, 2019, 08:56:46 am
I think my favourite Aaronovitch remains Foxglove Summer.

Currently crunching down on Charlie's The Delirium Brief. Oh my.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 June, 2019, 04:10:42 pm
Miss von Brandenburg went shopping this morning and bought her own copy of "The Shetland Bus" :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 June, 2019, 10:13:04 pm
Just finished Tim Weavers “No ones hime” a David Raker story. Now into Chris Oulds second Faeroes outing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 30 June, 2019, 11:57:32 am
Miss von Brandenburg went shopping this morning and bought her own copy of "The Shetland Bus" :thumbsup:

Did that for O-level English.  A terrific story.  To complete the set, you need Romeo & Juliet and (I think - it's a long time ago) Chaucer's Prologue (by Chaucer). 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 03 July, 2019, 04:38:24 pm
Miss Von Brandenburg finally finished reading MY copy of the latest Ben Aaronovitch — The October Man — thereby allowing me to:
  • Read it myself, and
  • Die with mortification at apparently having failed to notice the existence of "Lies Sleeping"

Just finished _October Man_ earlier in the week, and greatly enjoyed it. I did keep thinking:
(click to show/hide)
Also, it was another short one - Aaronovitch B is clearly slacking...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 July, 2019, 12:48:41 pm
Miss Von Brandenburg finally finished reading MY copy of the latest Ben Aaronovitch — The October Man — thereby allowing me to:
  • Read it myself, and
  • Die with mortification at apparently having failed to notice the existence of "Lies Sleeping"
Just finished _October Man_ earlier in the week, and greatly enjoyed it. I did keep thinking:
(click to show/hide)
Also, it was another short one - Aaronovitch B is clearly slacking...

He did say the other week that the next one will be a Proper Novel and will probably mostly be an account of what Abigail got up to while everyone else was mucking about in the country during the events of "Foxglove Summer".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 25 July, 2019, 07:40:13 pm
"The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India's Quest for Independence", by Anita Anand. It's the story of the massacre of hundreds of Indian civilians by British troops in Amritsar, India in 1919, and one person's efforts to avenge the victims by assassinating the two British officials most responsible for the massacre. I'm fascinated by the worldwide scope of the Indian nationalist movement, with members operating in Mexico, the US, and different parts of Europe. Seeing towns in California that I've passed through or even lived in named as places where the Indian nationalist movement operated is fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Phil W on 25 July, 2019, 07:40:50 pm
Dark Forest
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 25 July, 2019, 09:19:51 pm
Roman and Early Medieval Wales.
Apparently Cycleman was there.

I’m a late discoverer of the chap who wrote Slow Horses and Joe Country. Thoroughly enjoyed the 5 or 6 spy novels but tried another of his and couldn’t get into it at all.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 28 July, 2019, 04:07:40 pm
Fired up my kindle for the first time in over 6 months.
Found a copy of The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton on it, so I'm reading that.

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 July, 2019, 04:34:45 pm
Quite enjoyed most of that when it came out - I even wrote a computer simulation of the

(click to show/hide)

So in the end I didn't like it that much.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 July, 2019, 04:57:08 pm
Anquetil, Alone by Paul Fournel

Not your usual pro cyclist biography. Which is very much a good thing. In fact, it's not so much a biography as a personal memoir of Fournel's childhood obsession with Anquetil. By leaving out a lot of tedious detail, he really gets to the heart of why Anquetil was such a great cyclist. We all know the bare facts already (or can easily look them up on the internet), so there's no need to go over them.

I suspect the translator is not a cyclist though - sometimes he doesn't quite grasp the cycling idiom and goes for something more literal instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 July, 2019, 11:10:50 pm
Just finished Knife, the latest Jo Nesbø. Interesting denouement and a whole lot easier to read than his take on The Scottish Play.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 July, 2019, 12:33:39 pm
Just finished Knife, the latest Jo Nesbø. Interesting denouement and a whole lot easier to read than his take on The Scottish Play.

I've just started that, then to follow I have the latest Mick Herron "Slough House" installment, Joe Country
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hillbilly on 30 July, 2019, 04:53:35 pm
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vong.

Touted as the book of the year by some and it is easy to see why.  Very tightly written debut about the experiences of a generational Vietnamese American family survival on integrating into the US.  It's predicated on being a letter from a son to his mother, revealing aspects of his life and his relationship with her as it goes on.  An excellent read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 13 August, 2019, 12:26:11 am
Maybe I'll fork out Google's blood price and spare myself the pother.
Libraries!  I have just picked up a 25p fine, but then I have borrowed ~100 books in the last three years (nothing compared with my son's haul though - and being a child he does not have to pay his fines).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 August, 2019, 08:05:52 am
Neal Stephenson/Nicole Galland, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.  Started well, flagging a bit in the middle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 August, 2019, 09:40:25 am
The latest but one Charlie Parker (the Woman in the Woods). More ghostly goings-on and murders aplenty in Maine (bonus murders in Indiana). As good as ever though I expected a bit more of a conclusion, but actually I liked the ending, though I suspect I'll now have to pony up £10.99 for the next instalment rather than wait for it to drop...
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 August, 2019, 09:01:38 pm
Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth

It was on my list, for some reason, hence I got a notification when it was on offer for 99p. Glad I didn’t pay more than that for it, tbh. Not really my kind of thing It’s amusing in places but falls somewhat short of its billing as “Withnail for girls” or whatever it was the blurb said. Makes the mistake of thinking graphic swearing, sex, drinking and drug-taking is intrinsically funny and “edgy”. Some of the writing is seriously clunky, though there’s the occasional original turn of phrase.

There’s a film of it now, apparently. I don’t think I’ll be rushing to the cinema.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 August, 2019, 01:15:16 pm
The bloke who does the film reviews on the BBC news channel when Mark Commode is off being Important reckoned the film to be worthy of attention but the "Withnail For Girls" thing ought to be enough to put sane people off and instead devote the time to finding the person responsible for the phrase and killing them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 16 August, 2019, 01:30:15 pm
Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth

It was on my list, for some reason, hence I got a notification when it was on offer for 99p. Glad I didn’t pay more than that for it, tbh. Not really my kind of thing It’s amusing in places but falls somewhat short of its billing as “Withnail for girls” or whatever it was the blurb said. Makes the mistake of thinking graphic swearing, sex, drinking and drug-taking is intrinsically funny and “edgy”. Some of the writing is seriously clunky, though there’s the occasional original turn of phrase.

There’s a film of it now, apparently. I don’t think I’ll be rushing to the cinema.

You got further than I with my 99p punt. It wasn't awful but indeed, clunky in places (really, don't they have editors any more?). Felt a bit like it was written to spec for a demographic that isn't me. I was going to go back and finish it but suspect I won't.

The characters weren't especially interesting or likeable and evidently I'm not easily shocked by bad language, sex or drugs. Basically, a female-targetted version of the tired 'boys behaving badly' format.

I have seen the movie posters. And no, I can't say it'll drag me in either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 16 August, 2019, 01:46:18 pm
the "Withnail For Girls" thing ought to be enough to put sane people off and instead devote the time to finding the person responsible for the phrase and killing them.

Aside from being a lazy hack trope, it's setting the bar very high for yourself, so disappointment is pretty much inevitable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 22 August, 2019, 11:44:39 am
Various problems made me lose interest in reading then World of Books sent me the usual weekly e-mail (which I usually bin, for some reason I opened it and amongst the books was Catch 22, on a whim I bought it and I could barely put it down, absolutely brilliant, just brilliant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 August, 2019, 12:11:01 pm
the "Withnail For Girls" thing ought to be enough to put sane people off and instead devote the time to finding the person responsible for the phrase and killing them.

Aside from being a lazy hack trope, it's setting the bar very high for yourself, so disappointment is pretty much inevitable.

Hmm, I confess I didn't think of the Withnail and I comparison (and evidently didn't read the blurb), but it sounds like marketing had started the day on a quadruple espresso. I read another chapter and it's all a bit a middle-class-people-behaving-badly too, which you should only do if you're wannabe actors who know how to do it right, otherwise you're just a bit annoying. It's not awful, just not my cup of tea, but hey, 99p.

Apropos of nothing, my wife sat near Richard E. Grant yesterday evening. She sadly didn't ask him for a Camberwell Carrot, though alas, my wife has lived the sort of life where any Camberwell carrot would be an orange root vegetable grown in South London.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 22 August, 2019, 12:53:14 pm
I've just finished my first re-read of A Prayer For Owen Meany. It's about 30 years since I first read it. I think I always knew I would read it again. It was (even) better the second time around (apart from knowing the end). I think I read it better this time.

I had to stop last night before the end, just to gather my wits. I still choked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 22 August, 2019, 02:07:00 pm
Same. Almost. I re-read a couple of years ago after abour 20 years.  One of those books you put down after finishing and have to take a few minutes to process and then a few more to re-connect the current reality. (I think I had a similar feeeling when finishing Les Miserables.) Whereas Hotel New Hampshire left me cold when I re-read it, having forgotten that I hadn't really liked it the first time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 August, 2019, 03:51:27 pm
Hmm, I confess I didn't think of the Withnail and I comparison (and evidently didn't read the blurb), but it sounds like marketing had started the day on a quadruple espresso.

I had another look. It's actually a quote from Caitlin Moran.

I think that's the target market in a nutshell - Caitlin Moran fans.

Quote
It's not awful, just not my cup of tea, but hey, 99p.

Some of it is excruciatingly bad. Some of it is actually quite good. It's even modestly funny in places. But mostly it's just boring.

Anyway, it didn't waste too much of my time. Have now moved on to The Anatomy Of Ghosts by Anthony Taylor. Two reasons for reading this: one, my dad recommended it; two, I love the title. It has started promisingly, with the death of a teenage virgin in a ritual deflowering ceremony at the hands of some boisterous Cambridge students.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 August, 2019, 04:37:00 pm
Well, that's certainly a leap from the middle classes (that's it, Laura, I'm done with Waitrose, from now on I'm shopping in Lidl and I'm doing it drunk and in quite probably in heels. I may even be sick in the freezer, right there, atop the petits pois*) right into the elevated echelons of the upper classes where a boisterous defloration is, one supposes, de riguer for a certain sort of Cambridge student. Not the token ones from state schools, of course. Ritual deflorations, for those of us less enlightened, involved the restricted confines of a mid-1980s Ford Fiesta.

*there, I've saved you the trouble of reading The Animals.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 August, 2019, 04:43:54 pm
Re-reading Light by M. John Harrison.  Judging by the number of times he makes his characters do it, the M stands for masturbate.  That must have perplexed the Registry Office, not to mention the vicar.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 22 August, 2019, 06:42:10 pm
One of those books you put down after finishing and have to take a few minutes to process and then a few more to re-connect the current reality.
Exactly. I thought I’d be less susceptible to being so drawn in by it on my second reading but in some ways I think my experiences in between (losing my dad and brother, having my own children) made the story more resonant.
I’ve been a bit emotional all day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 August, 2019, 11:48:03 pm
right into the elevated echelons of the upper classes where a boisterous defloration is, one supposes, de riguer for a certain sort of Cambridge student.

Yes, I think you’ve got the general idea.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 August, 2019, 09:14:15 pm
"Outsider".  The first volume of Brian Sewell's autobiography. Fascinating.   Growing up gay in the 40's & 50's. Studying under Anthony Blunt at the Courtauld.   Working in the (shambolic) Christies.  Abandoning religion & celibacy and having an unbelievable amount of sex! (if you believe him).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 29 August, 2019, 06:14:38 am
I'll slowly working my way through All Around The Moon by Jules Verne.

It's the first of his I've read and I want to like it, I really do, but I'm finding it a bit dull.

There's several passages where he (or one of the characters at least) is just listing various lunar mountains and craters and their respective heights/sizes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 August, 2019, 11:37:07 am
Stuck at an airport?  Nothing to read?  Do not buy, or even steal, a copy of Frederick Forsyth's "The Fox".  It is an unmitigated bucket of arse-gravy from end to end.  Mercifully those ends are not far apart.  Pick up a copy of the Daily Mail instead.  The politics are the same and you might at least get some foopball reporting thrown in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 30 August, 2019, 12:34:39 pm
John Crace agrees with you. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/14/the-fox-by-frederick-forsyth-digested-read)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Karla on 30 August, 2019, 12:56:35 pm
Forsyth turned into a parody of himself some time ago.

There's a new Le Carre out soon too.  That's also going to be a parody of his earlier work, which has been much the same for at least the last 20 years.  It's a shame as his penultimate book rose above the pack and his last one at least finished off a lot of older Smiley era threads, so either book would have been a good place to stop.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 30 August, 2019, 12:59:23 pm
Forsyth's best works were the first three: Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War. I haven't bothered with anything that he wrote after Icon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 30 August, 2019, 01:57:29 pm
I think I gave up partway through Icon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 02 September, 2019, 09:49:26 pm
"The Source" by James Michener, a rather old dramatised version of the foundations of the Abrahamic religions, based around a fictional town in Israel as it is excavated as an archaeological dig.

It's very readable.  It paints a poor picture of the Crusades.  It all went a bit friendly fire.  Stupid bastards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 September, 2019, 03:30:28 am
Forsyth's best works were the first three: Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War. I haven't bothered with anything that he wrote after Icon.

I'm sure I remember reading that Forsyth said he would only ever write three novels.  Must have needed the money.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 September, 2019, 10:47:54 pm
Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatory.
The usual Murakami weirdness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 September, 2019, 02:32:20 am
"Raid 42", the fourth of Graham Hurley's "Wars Within" series of loosely-connected novels set in or near WW2.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 05 September, 2019, 09:11:05 am
Naill Griffiths' latest Broken Ghost. It's grim out west. Perhaps not quite as grim as the portrayal in Grits or Sheepshagger, but I still don't imagine that the Aberystwyth Tourist Board will be jumping to endorse it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 05 September, 2019, 09:46:57 am
The Terror, by Dan Simmons, a fictionalised account of Franklin's attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage with HMS Terror and Erebus.  Enjoying it so far.
 I think shit's gonna get weird.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 18 September, 2019, 03:10:52 am
I just finished re-reading A People's History of the Inited States, by Howard Zinn. Definitely worth re-reading, if only to be reminded that the US never was a democracy, although we have made some progress toward becoming one. We've also regressed a fair bit from time to time, especially since November 2016.

I'm now reading Inferno, by Max Hastings, being his history of World War II. His description of the Finnish-Russian war shed some light on that corner of the conflict, and his description of Vichy French behavior and the whole collaboration thing was quite the eye-opener for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 18 September, 2019, 07:17:31 am
A Tale Of Two Cities. My first Dickens novel. I found it in a little (Canadian-owned) bookshop in Paris, so I had to buy it. I understand that not all Dickens’ books are easy to read, but this one is going down very nicely.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 September, 2019, 07:40:09 am
We had A Tale Of Two Cities shoved at/in/up us at school for Junior Cert Eng Lit. I was 13 or 14 at the time and hated it. Fortunately it had been filmed a few years earlier - Dirk Bogarde as Cardboard Sid, and Saruman as the narsty aristo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 18 September, 2019, 05:31:33 pm
I had that one inflicted on me in audiobook form as a child.  From what I remember between vomiting[1] sessions, it was pretty good by Dickens standards.


[1] Back of car + audiobook + chain-smoking were a perfect storm as far as my stomach was concerned.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 18 September, 2019, 07:18:09 pm
A Tale Of Two Cities. My first Dickens novel. I found it in a little (Canadian-owned) bookshop in Paris, so I had to buy it. I understand that not all Dickens’ books are easy to read, but this one is going down very nicely.
That was my first (and still my only) Dickens that I've chosen to read. (I'm sure I was force fed another one when younger, but all I remember is being thoroughly bamboozled by the scores of characters.)

Anyway, I thought Tale of Two Cities was brilliant. It had far more humour in it than I expected. It sort of inspired me to read lots more Dickens, I just haven't got round to it yet (too many other books in the pile).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 September, 2019, 07:40:37 pm
I just finished re-reading A People's History of the Inited States, by Howard Zinn. Definitely worth re-reading, if only to be reminded that the US never was a democracy, although we have made some progress toward becoming one. We've also regressed a fair bit from time to time, especially since November 2016.

I'm now reading Inferno, by Max Hastings, being his history of World War II. His description of the Finnish-Russian war shed some light on that corner of the conflict, and his description of Vichy French behavior and the whole collaboration thing was quite the eye-opener for me.

The Penguin History of the USA is an interesting read, though disappointingly not told from the penguin's perspective. Once you get over that notable deficit, it's brain-achingly informative.

After diving the depths of the Amazon Kindle bargain bin, what I like to think of literary bog snorkelling, I just read Dark Matter so you don't have to. Another of those books the reviewers like but ian doesn't. Honestly, I'm at a variance with the reading world. Oh, it's another one of those books written as a movie pitch (oh, I know that's where the money is but it doesn't have to be so shittingly obvious).

The good stuff? It's written with words.

After that it's downhill. Dark Matter, oh you intriguing little minx of a title, beckoning me through the door and extracting my 99p. It's not about fucking DARK MATTER. It's about the multiverse, you know, every decision branches a universe, so what if. What if? Fortunately, no one has ever, ever contemplating writing on this subject before. But there's no dark matter to be found in the book which I suppose is suitably and empirically ironic. I'll give the author a point for that. I'll take it off for not understanding less about physics than my cat.

The plot is a straight road. There are no deviations, no turn offs, not even a piss break or mug of crappy diner coffee to put a stitch in the journey. There are no hitchhikers, no idiot overtakes. No evil bouncing tires. There's just the road. Straight to a destination that's obvious from the first page. Reviewers report they're thrilled by the twist. These are people who would probably shit themselves in surprise in discovering they have a belly button.

Characters that frankly are a poor use for the cardboard boxes that cats would have enjoyed sitting in far more. The lead is a theoretical physicist yet seems bafflingly dim. The dialogue is corny enough that Fray Bentos would put it in a can. Everyone is a bit stupid and a lot dull. No one has motivation, there's no ambiguity to any of the characters, and it's a book about multiverses, so you'd think it would be ripe for that. But no. The bad guys are bad. We're not told why. They're just there to be the bad guys. One character (I use the term advisedly) appears for a chapter or two, takes centre stage, and then simply disappears. Like she somehow found an escape route. I hate her for this because I felt duty-bound to stick it out to the end.

Pacyness seems achieved through the use of short sentences that lends a rather surreal Peter-and-Jane-ness to proceedings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 September, 2019, 10:56:23 am
After that it's downhill. Dark Matter, oh you intriguing little minx of a title, beckoning me through the door and extracting my 99p. It's not about fucking DARK MATTER. It's about the multiverse, you know, every decision branches a universe, so what if. What if? Fortunately, no one has ever, ever contemplating writing on this subject before. But there's no dark matter to be found in the book which I suppose is suitably and empirically ironic. I'll give the author a point for that. I'll take it off for not understanding less about physics than my cat.

Fair enough. So far, nobody has found dark matter outside the book either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 19 September, 2019, 11:13:10 am
That was my joke (such as it was). Tough audience.

Anyway, glancing at the Amazon reviews ex post facto, I see the cover blurb quote came from the chap who wrote The Martian so I should have known. At least I got to the end (which I didn't with The Martian), which feels like some sort of achievement worthy of the 99p investment. But honestly, I feel like I've been forced to read someone's movie pitch. Seems the author is quite famous for something called Wayward Pines, which has skipped my attention.

In a similar trudge I'm trying to finish a book on Chernobyl which was OK when it was describing what went wrong but now seems to be describing the extended demise of the soviet system in real-time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 September, 2019, 01:46:14 pm
Parker Bilal's latest, "The Divinities". A major change, given his last several books have been set in Cairo, with a refugee Sudanese cop as protaganist.

This latest is a more conventional in that it's a London set police procedural. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mark on 20 September, 2019, 03:03:10 am
I just finished re-reading A People's History of the Inited States, by Howard Zinn. Definitely worth re-reading, if only to be reminded that the US never was a democracy, although we have made some progress toward becoming one. We've also regressed a fair bit from time to time, especially since November 2016.

I'm now reading Inferno, by Max Hastings, being his history of World War II. His description of the Finnish-Russian war shed some light on that corner of the conflict, and his description of Vichy French behavior and the whole collaboration thing was quite the eye-opener for me.

The Penguin History of the USA is an interesting read, though disappointingly not told from the penguin's perspective. Once you get over that notable deficit, it's brain-achingly informative.

Thanks, the Penguin History of the USA is now on my Amazon wish list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 20 September, 2019, 06:12:13 am
Along these lines, I just read this one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121985-how-to-hide-an-empire
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 September, 2019, 10:30:09 am
That was my joke (such as it was). Tough audience.

Yeah, I missed "ironic". I'd say it was due to speed-reading but it's more that my eyes zoom around all over the place unbidden when I'm reading anything these days. I blame Microsoft.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 23 September, 2019, 01:42:22 pm
A Tale Of Two Cities. My first Dickens novel. I found it in a little (Canadian-owned) bookshop in Paris, so I had to buy it. I understand that not all Dickens’ books are easy to read, but this one is going down very nicely.
And finished.
It’s not the best of books, it’s not the worst of books.
In fact, it’s a far, far better book than I had ever expected.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 23 September, 2019, 06:47:43 pm
"Curtain Call" by Graham Hurley.  First of a series featuring one Enora Andressen (volume two was published last week).  In spite of the lead character's name it is not Scandi-noir, no, instead it sort-of revisits the universe of the author's Portsmouth-set and relentlessly grim Joe Faraday series.  Interesting enough to make me want to seek out "Sight Unseen".

Ms. Andressen, FWIW, is a French actress married to, but separated from, a Swedish film director.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 23 September, 2019, 07:17:50 pm
I think you'll find that "Portsmouth-set and relentlessly grim" is a tautology. :demon:

Signed, a resident of said city.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 01 October, 2019, 01:41:41 pm
If you’ve not already read them, Jon Courtenay Grimwoods excellent “Assassini” trilogy is on offer at Amazon.  First volume is 99p


https://twitter.com/joncg/status/1179010251665883144?s=21 (https://twitter.com/joncg/status/1179010251665883144?s=21)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 01 October, 2019, 11:01:54 pm
I am reading an analog copy of Harry Harrison's "A Transatlantic Tunnel- Hurrah!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 October, 2019, 08:22:49 am
I am reading an analog copy of Harry Harrison's "A Transatlantic Tunnel- Hurrah!"

Coal-fuelled aircraft!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 October, 2019, 09:09:32 am
I am reading an analog copy of Harry Harrison's "A Transatlantic Tunnel- Hurrah!"

Joe Poyer wrote a rather good book called Tunnel War back in the 70s or 80s.  1910ish attempts to build Channel Tunnel got at by furriners.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 October, 2019, 10:49:33 am
I am reading an analog copy of Harry Harrison's "A Transatlantic Tunnel- Hurrah!"

Coal-fuelled aircraft!

Good god, don't anyone tell Esther McVey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 04 October, 2019, 11:32:46 am
The Power - Naomi Alderman.

It's a good book, but I'm struggling not to read Roxy in a USAnian-idea-of-a-BRITISH-accent, which is distracting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 05 October, 2019, 10:02:32 am
If you’ve not already read them, Jon Courtenay Grimwoods excellent “Assassini” trilogy is on offer at Amazon.  First volume is 99p


https://twitter.com/joncg/status/1179010251665883144?s=21 (https://twitter.com/joncg/status/1179010251665883144?s=21)
Thanks!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 05 October, 2019, 07:42:15 pm
The Rules of Seeing by Joe Heap. I picked it up back in March at 99p, thought I'd step outside my comfort zone, I wouldn't normally choose a book maked in the "Romance" genre, I dunno, I may have been drunk at the time.

The story is centred around examining what might happen if  a blind person became able to see and is a first novel. Let's get the romance out the way: it wasn't too bad. IME "romance" differs from a novel in the superfluity of relationships and too much detail in the "dot dot dot"bits. With that in mind, I'd classify it as a novel, pleasingly the "dot dot dot" was just that.

The main relationship is an exploratory lesbian one, I found it sympathetic to the point where you feel invested in the outcome, which is always positive. Since finishing I have checked to see that Joe Heap is a man, he is and that surprised me.

The writing is fair to good, and I was mostly able to forgive the pace (staccato) and plot issues (incredulous, predictable) that you may find. The central character who creates the Rules for Seeing is almost too good to be true in many ways, but none the worse for that. Overall, I'd recommend it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 October, 2019, 10:04:37 pm
Sight Unseen ~ Graham Hurley.  Second of his Enora Andressen series and I fear there will be more to come.  I know They say "Write what you know" but recycling bits of your back catalogue is not what They meant.  Hayden Prentice is Bazza Mackenzie v2.0 and Ms Andressen stretches credibility far beyond its elastic limit.  Bah!

Still, Philip Pullman's "The Secret Commonwealth" is sitting on the coffee table making "read ME next" noises  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 October, 2019, 10:12:27 pm
Sight Unseen ~ Graham Hurley.  Second of his Enora Andressen series and I fear there will be more to come.  I know They say "Write what you know" but recycling bits of your back catalogue is not what They meant.  Hayden Prentice is Bazza Mackenzie v2.0 and Ms Andressen stretches credibility far beyond its elastic limit.  Bah!


Ah, now I remember why I don’t have that on my radar.  I read the synopsis of the first one and decided it sounded too trippy even for my low standards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 07 October, 2019, 12:10:14 pm
Alistair Reynold's House of Suns, which I found unread in the summer house (I know, apt). While an interesting story (so far), my gripe is the two main protagonists are inseparable and have precisely the same voice, and the first-person perspective swaps between them, so I keep having to check back which one is which since the only way to figure it out is to look for a mentioned name or a gender pronoun. The flipping points of view doesn't in any way benefit the story so far and since they're effectively the same, it offers no additional incite of perspective. It would have been a lot better if he'd just picked the one. There are not so many writers who can really do multiple first-person perspectives.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 07 October, 2019, 01:06:48 pm
Fielding's Tom Jones – and yes, even on the first page I'm being flummoxed with words such as: eleemosynary, calipee, contemning. It's going to be a long 636 pages.

Have started also, John James Audubon's biography by Richard Rhodes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 08 October, 2019, 06:47:23 pm
Anybody read the more recent Alistair Reynolds books?
I read them up to On The Steel Breeze and didn't finish that trilogy as I wasn't finding them that engaging.

I see there's another Prefect book and the Revenger series out since then. Any good? Or is he just doing it for the money now?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 October, 2019, 08:44:33 pm
I enjoyed the Prefect one,  I've not looked at the Revenger stuff.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 08 October, 2019, 08:45:30 pm
Anybody read the more recent Alistair Reynolds books?
I read them up to On The Steel Breeze and didn't finish that trilogy as I wasn't finding them that engaging.

I see there's another Prefect book and the Revenger series out since then. Any good? Or is he just doing it for the money now?

I gave up with the elephant books. Don't get me wrong, I like elephants and they've as much right as anything to be in space, they were just mostly dull and to be honest, he doesn't have the writing chops to write from the perspective of African characters. Or elephants. Write what you know, they say.*

I didn't mind The Prefect (or whatever the second one was called, they for some unknown reasons faffed around with the titles) and the first Revenger book (not read the second yet).

I confess I'm struggling with House of Suns, seriously every chapter I have to go back and check which character's first-person perspective I'm in this time, and considering I can see what the ending will be, that will make it more annoying. It would have been far better if he'd picked the one character and run with it. Ironically, I was looking in the summer house for Century Rain which I have read and I'm sure I enjoyed. I'm sure I saw it in there. I figure I must have read House of Suns as I bought it, but that said, it lacked the usual signs of molestation by my grubby paws and evidently didn't make a crater in my brain.

*which is why I'm a female, undead librarian with a taste for fresh blood and weapons-grade sarcasm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 October, 2019, 08:53:36 pm
I've read "House of Suns", but can't remember the plot, which is probably not a good sign.


I enjoyed "Century Rain" very much, but for some reason he's said he won't write any more in that setting  :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 08 October, 2019, 09:05:15 pm
Anybody read the more recent Alistair Reynolds books?
I read them up to On The Steel Breeze and didn't finish that trilogy as I wasn't finding them that engaging.

I see there's another Prefect book and the Revenger series out since then. Any good? Or is he just doing it for the money now?

I gave up with the elephant books. Don't get me wrong, I like elephants and they've as much right as anything to be in space, they were just mostly dull and to be honest, he doesn't have the writing chops to write from the perspective of African characters. Or elephants. Write what you know, they say.

Elephants in space? I thought Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle had killed that idea utterly to DETH with "Footfall" (Elephantine aliens attempt to invade and terraform Earth. Hilarity doesn't ensue).

Here's a review, which is more interesting than the book itself: https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/footfall
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 08 October, 2019, 09:18:51 pm
Elephants in space.  Pah!     Reynolds should always be honoured for giving us Pigs In Spaaaace !      I don't think Link Hogthrob would really have gotten on with Scorpio though......


https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Scorpio   Contains Spoilers for those who haven't read the Revelation Space books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 08 October, 2019, 10:05:30 pm
I liked Footfall. My first introduction to the Orion Drive.

I'm just about to read today's chapter of Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. A friend put me onto it, apparently it's a thing to read it a chapter a day throughout October. Though yesterday I had to read two chapters as I forgot the night before.

And coming tomorrow I've got Marcus Aurelius'seseses Meditations that I bought on a whim from Amazon today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 09 October, 2019, 09:44:57 am
Anybody read the more recent Alistair Reynolds books?
I read them up to On The Steel Breeze and didn't finish that trilogy as I wasn't finding them that engaging.

I see there's another Prefect book and the Revenger series out since then. Any good? Or is he just doing it for the money now?

I gave up with the elephant books. Don't get me wrong, I like elephants and they've as much right as anything to be in space, they were just mostly dull and to be honest, he doesn't have the writing chops to write from the perspective of African characters. Or elephants. Write what you know, they say.

Elephants in space? I thought Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle had killed that idea utterly to DETH with "Footfall" (Elephantine aliens attempt to invade and terraform Earth. Hilarity doesn't ensue).

Here's a review, which is more interesting than the book itself: https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/footfall

Honestly, I never got as far as the elephants being in space, since that was the third book in the inevitable trilogy and I'd given up by then. Possibly the reviews lied. Elephants in space would have relieved the boredom of some seriously dull and two-dimensional protagonists.

Reynold's is a bit hit and miss, he can't really do characters well and tends the labour the exposition and description, but I quite like the broad canvases of the universes he creates.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 October, 2019, 11:31:57 am
Yeah, I've bounced off a couple of Reynold's operas.  And that other fellow, wossisface, McDivitt?  (Takes his name from a divot, a small clod of earth?)  Very workmanlike authors.

Following Spesh's mention of Neuromancer & C° I'm re-reading it and chuckling at the idea of someone in the future thinking 3 Mb of RAM worth the pinching. Still, it's OK otherwise.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 October, 2019, 01:04:13 pm
Having just re-read Sir Phil's "The Book Of Dust" for familiarisation purposes I am now well into part two the second, viz. "The Secret Commonwealth".  Good so far.

Edit: perhaps I should have gone to sleep instead of finishing it, especially coz it'll be another two years before the denouement comes out.  Usual mixture of beguiling fantasy and sharp digs at the Church, the Military-Industrial Complex, IS and, on page 592, Bloody Stupid Johnson.

Approved.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 October, 2019, 12:28:49 am
"Many Rivers To Cross", the umpty-threeth of Peter Robinson's Banks novels.  County Lines drug-dealing seems all the rage these days.  If Mr Rankin does it in the next Rebus, which must be due shortly, Harsh Words will be uttered.

Edit: Thin.  Identity of murderer telegraphed in big flashing neon letters.  Time Banks took early retirement.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: telstarbox on 11 October, 2019, 09:14:19 am
I'm really looking forward to reading this


Quote
Excellent Essex by Gillian Darley – a long-overdue celebration
Beyond white vans and stilettos ... an original and beautifully written celebration of a much-maligned county

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/11/excellent-essex-gillian-darley-review
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 October, 2019, 11:21:24 am
Fielding's Tom Jones – and yes, even on the first page I'm being flummoxed with words such as: eleemosynary, calipee, contemning. It's going to be a long 636 pages.

One of my all-time favourite books. I remember being similarly flummoxed by eleemosynary - a word he seems particularly fond of, uses it often - but if you can get over that, it's a rollicking good read.

And incredibly smutty.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 October, 2019, 02:06:32 pm
The Three Kings by Leo Moynihan

Not normally a fan of biographies but we got a review copy sent to the office and I'm interested in the subjects, so thought I'd give it a go... It's about the three greatest British football managers of the 20th century - Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly - focusing on their common heritage growing up in mining communities in the Scottish lowlands, showing how it made them the men they became. Stirring stuff. Really enjoying it. You can imagine it being made into a TV miniseries, combining archive footage with a narrative voiceover by Ken Stott or Robbie Coltrane. Maybe some atmospheric Celtic tunes in the background.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 October, 2019, 09:15:27 pm
Because of you, one of my emails today featured the word eleemosynary. Admittedly, the last time I emailed that person, I used the phrase lacunaceous diatribe.

I'm really looking forward to reading this


Quote
Excellent Essex by Gillian Darley – a long-overdue celebration
Beyond white vans and stilettos ... an original and beautifully written celebration of a much-maligned county

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/11/excellent-essex-gillian-darley-review

I know what my wife is getting for Christmas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 October, 2019, 03:31:03 pm
The Institute ~ Stephen King.  Think "The Dead Zone" meets "Firestarter".  Better than some of his other recent offerings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 14 October, 2019, 10:05:05 am
Oh, do let me know how it goes, M. le Maire.  I've not read The Outsider yet... would it be best not to?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 October, 2019, 12:22:14 pm
"The Outsider" was OK too.  I'm thinking more along the lines of "Mr Mercedes" and sequels, which started promisingly enough and then turned smelly and brown.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 15 October, 2019, 11:49:59 am
Still getting through Tom Jones. God, it's a heavy book!!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 October, 2019, 12:06:12 pm
Still getting through Tom Jones. God, it's a heavy book!!!

Books from back then had bigly, clause-infested sentences.

That said, there's a monster from Gabriel García Márquez somewhere that I think tops 2,500 words. OK, I lied, Google says it's 2,156.

I dedicate this one to Spesh, who noted my occasional breathless and lengthy flights of consciousness.

Quote from: The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship, Gabriel García Márque
Now they’re going to see who I am, he said to himself in his strong new man’s voice, many years after he had first seen the huge ocean liner without lights and without any sound which passed by the village one night like a great uninhabited place, longer than the whole village and much taller than the steeple of the church, and it sailed by in the darkness toward the colonial city on the other side of the bay that had been fortified against buccaneers, with its old slave port and the rotating light, whose gloomy beams transfigured the village into a lunar encampment of glowing houses and streets of volcanic deserts every fifteen seconds, and even though at that time he’d been a boy without a man’s strong voice but with his’ mother’s permission to stay very late on the beach to listen to the wind’s night harps, he could still remember, as if still seeing it, how the liner would disappear when the light of the beacon struck its side and how it would reappear when the light had passed, so that it was an intermittent ship sailing along, appearing and disappearing, toward the mouth of the bay, groping its way like a sleep‐walker for the buoys that marked the harbor channel, until something must have gone wrong with the compass needle, because it headed toward the shoals, ran aground, broke up, and sank without a single sound, even though a collision against the reefs like that should have produced a crash of metal and the explosion of engines that would have frozen, with fright the soundest‐sleeping dragons in the prehistoric jungle that began with the last streets of the village and ended on the other side of the world, so that he himself thought it was a dream, especially the, next day, when he. saw the radiant fishbowl. of the bay, the disorder of colors of the Negro shacks on the hills above the harbor, the schooners of the smugglers from the Guianas loading their cargoes ‐of innocent parrots whose craws were full of diamonds, he thought, I fell asleep counting the stars and L dreamed about that huge ship, of course, he was so convinced that he didn’t tell anyone nor did he remember the vision again until the same night on the following March when he was looking for the flash of dolphins in the sea and what he found was the illusory line, gloomy, intermittent, with the same mistaken direction as the first time, except that then he was so sure he was awake that he ran to tell his mother and she spent three weeks moaning with disappointment, because your brain’s rotting away from doing so many things backward, sleeping during the day and going out at night like a criminal, and since she had to go to the city around that time to get something comfortable where she could sit and think about her dead husband, because the rockers on her chair had worn out after eleven years of widowhood, she took advantage of the occasion and had the boatman go near the shoals so that her son could see what he really saw in the glass of; the sea, the lovemaking of manta rays in a springtime of sponges, pink snappers and blue corvinas diving into the other wells of softer waters that were there among the waters, and even the wandering hairs of victims of drowning in some colonial shipwreck, no trace of sunken liners of anything like it, and yet he was so pigheaded that his mother promised to watch with him the next March, absolutely, not knowing that the only thing absolute in her future now was an easy chair from the days of Sir Francis Drake which she had bought at an auction in a Turk’s store, in which she sat down to rest that same night sighing, oh, my poor Olofernos, if you could only see how nice it is to think about you on this velvet lining and this brocade from the casket of a queen, but the more she brought back the memory of her dead husband, the more the blood in her heart bubbled up and turned to chocolate, as if instead of sitting down she were running, soaked from chills and fevers and her breathing full of earth, until he returned at dawn and found her dead in the easy chair, still warm, but half rotted away as after a snakebite, the same as happened afterward to four other women before the murderous chair was thrown into the sea, far away where it wouldn’t bring evil to anyone, because it had. been used so much over the centuries that its faculty for giving rest had been used up, and so he had to grow accustomed to his miserable routine of an orphan who was pointed out by everyone as the son of the widow who had brought the throne of misfortune into the village, living not so much from public charity as from fish he stole out of the boats, while his voice was becoming a roar, and not remembering his visions of past times anymore until another night in March when he chanced to look seaward and suddenly, good Lord, there, it is, the huge asbestos whale, the behemoth beast, come see it, he shouted madly, come see it, raising such an uproar of dogs’ barking and women’s panic that even the oldest men remembered the frights of their great‐grandfathers and crawled under their beds, thinking that William Dampier had come back, but those who ran into the street didn’t make the effort to see the unlikely apparatus which at that instant was lost again in the east and raised up in its annual disaster, but they covered him with blows and left him so twisted that it was then he said to himself, drooling with rage, now they’re going to see who I am, but he took care not to share his determination with anyone, but spent the whole year with the fixed idea, now they’re going to see who I am, waiting for it to be the eve of the apparition once more in order to do what he did, which was steal a boat, cross the bay, and spend the evening waiting for his great moment in the inlets of the slave port, in the human brine of the Caribbean, but so absorbed in his adventure that he didn’t stop as he always did in front of the Hindu shops to look at the ivory mandarins carved from the whole tusk of an elephant, nor did he make fun of the Dutch Negroes in their orthopedic velocipedes, nor was he frightened as at other times of the copper‐skinned Malayans, who had gone around the world, enthralled by the chimera of a secret tavern where they sold roast filets of Brazilian women, because he wasn’t aware of anything until night came over him with all the weight of the stars and the jungle exhaled a sweet fragrance of gardenias and rotter salamanders, and there he was, rowing in the stolen boat, toward the mouth of the bay, with the lantern out so as not to alert the customs police, idealized every fifteen seconds by the green wing flap of the beacon and turned human once more by the darkness, knowing that he was getting close to the buoys that marked the harbor, channel, not only because its oppressive glow was getting more intense, but because the breathing of the water was becoming sad, and he rowed like that, so wrapped up in himself, that he. didn’t know where the fearful shark’s breath that suddenly reached him came from or why the night became dense, as if the stars had suddenly died, and it was because the liner was there, with all of its inconceivable size, Lord, bigger than, any other big thing in the world and darker than any other dark thing on land or sea, three hundred thousand tons of shark smell passing so close to the boat that he could see the seams of the steel precipice without a single light in the infinite portholes, without a sigh from the engines, without a soul, and carrying its own circle of silence with it, its own dead air, its halted time, its errant sea in which a whole world of drowned animals floated, and suddenly it all disappeared with the flash of the beacon and for an instant it was the diaphanous Caribbean once more, the March night, the everyday air of the pelicans, so he stayed alone among the buoys, not knowing what to do, asking himself, startled, if perhaps he wasn’t dreaming while he was awake, not just now but the other times too, but no sooner had. he asked himself than a breath of mystery snuffled out the buoys, from the first to the last, so that when the light of the beacon passed by the liner appeared again and now its compasses were out of order, perhaps not even knowing what part of the ocean sea it was in, groping for the invisible channel but actually heading for the shoals, until he got the overwhelming revelation that that misfortune of the buoys was the last key to the enchantment and he lighted the lantern in the boat, a tiny red light that had no reason to alarm anyone in the watch towers but which would be like a guiding sun for the pilot, because, thanks to it, the liner corrected its course and passed into the main gate of the channel in a maneuver of lucky resurrection, and then all the lights went on at the same time so that the boilers wheezed again, the stars were fixed in their places, and the animal corpses went to the bottom, and there was a clatter of plates and a fragrance of laurel sauce in the kitchens, and one could hear the pulsing of the orchestra on the moon decks and the throbbing of the arteries of high‐sea lovers in the shadows of the staterooms, but he still carried so much leftover rage in him that he would not let himself be confused by emotion or be frightened by the miracle, but said to himself with more decision than ever, now they’re going to see who I am, the cowards, now they’re going to see, and instead of turning aside so that the colossal machine would not charge into him he began to row in front of it, because now they really are going to see who I am, and he continued guiding the ship with the lantern until he was so sure of its obedience that he made it change course from the direction of the docks once more, took it out of the invisible channel, and led it by the halter as if it were a sea lamb toward the lights of the sleeping village, a living ship, invulnerable to the torches of the beacon, that no longer made invisible but made it aluminum every fifteen seconds, and the crosses of the church, the misery of the houses, the illusion began to stand out and still the ocean liner followed behind him, following his will inside of it, the captain asleep on his heart side, the fighting bulls in the snow of their pantries, the solitary patient in the infirmary, the orphan water of its cisterns, the unredeemed pilot who must have mistaken the cliffs for the docks, because at that instant the great roar of the whistle burst forth, once, and he with downpour of steam that fell on him, again, and the boat belonging to someone else was on the point of capsizing, and again, but it was too late, because there were the shells of the shoreline, the stones of the street, the doors of the disbelievers, the whole village illuminated by the lights of the fearsome liner itself, and he barely had time to get out of the way to make room for the cataclysm, shouting in the midst of the confusion, there it is, you cowards, a second before the huge steel cask shattered the ground and one could hear the neat destruction of ninety thousand five hundred champagne glasses breaking, one after the other, from stem to stern, and then the light came out and it was no longer a March dawn but the noon of a radiant Wednesday, and he was able to give himself the pleasure of watching the disbelievers as with open mouths they contemplated the largest ocean liner in this world and the other aground in front of the church, whiter than anything, twenty times taller than the steeple and some ninety‐seven times longer than the village, with its name engraved in iron letters, Halalcsillag, and the ancient and languid waters of the sea of death dripping down its sides.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Riggers on 15 October, 2019, 12:16:26 pm
Crikey! I think that eclipses a Wilki Collins paragraph . . . (or three). good grief.


Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 October, 2019, 12:33:29 pm
Pity the translator. Though it's a rather opulent sentence. And he did do shorter, the opening of A Thousand Years of Solitude is as good as debut sentences get.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 15 October, 2019, 12:37:22 pm
Just A Hundred years, I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 October, 2019, 12:52:06 pm
I was thinking of the author's cut. That one has the deleted paragraphs restored.

Longerer is betterer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 October, 2019, 01:19:56 pm
I've just given up half way through Peter Robinson's latest Inspector Banks - except he's a superintendent now. Just bored with the premise and the characters, and a pedestrian plot. 

On to the next in the pile, a Jussi Adler-Olsen "Dept. Q" story, The Hanging Girl.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 October, 2019, 02:23:24 pm
I've just given up half way through Peter Robinson's latest Inspector Banks - except he's a superintendent now. Just bored with the premise and the characters, and a pedestrian plot. 

You didn't miss much.  And the sub-plot with Ray's grilf looks set to be dragged out over at least one more volume before Banks can do the decent thing and drink himself utterly to DETH.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 October, 2019, 02:57:56 pm
Jon Krakauer's book on the 1996 Everest expedition, Into Thin Air - the film Everest is based on it. Fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 17 October, 2019, 08:20:19 pm
Jon Krakauer's book on the 1996 Everest expedition, Into Thin Air - the film Everest is based on it. Fascinating.
And, some might say, seriously flawed. Still very gripping though.
See if you can find 'The Climb' by Anatoly Boukreev. He gives a very different perspective.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 October, 2019, 09:39:58 am
Jon Krakauer's book on the 1996 Everest expedition, Into Thin Air - the film Everest is based on it. Fascinating.
And, some might say, seriously flawed. Still very gripping though.
See if you can find 'The Climb' by Anatoly Boukreev. He gives a very different perspective.

Will do - thanks. I've already run across him in Krakauer's book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 October, 2019, 09:50:12 am
Normandy 44 - James Holland

A study of the build up to D-Day, the invasion itself and the battle for France. So far its excellent, he has loads of archive material from people who were there, not just the top brass but those in the middle roles and at the sharp end, planners, captains of the naval armada, pilots and squad commanders both on the Allied and German sides.

Perhaps Mark Francois and Nigel Farage et al should be forced to read books like this so they have some actual knowledge about WW II rather than what they seem to have gleaned from Commando and Victor comics. Massive world wide integrated supply lines for food and equipment and a huge multinational military. Not plucky Britain standing alone in any shape or form.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 October, 2019, 01:30:36 pm
Yeah, but Francois' dad was there, so he's an expert. Admittedly, Francois Jnr is scared to go on any beach in case he's mistaken for a comedy-sized beach ball.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 October, 2019, 09:18:58 am
Francois aka "Inch-High Private Pike"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 19 October, 2019, 07:55:13 pm
After seeing Mr Larrington's post, I got La Belle Sauvage.

I'm currently enjoying it; it's as engaging as The earlier books.

Thanks to Mr L.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 October, 2019, 08:21:40 am
Jon Krakauer's book on the 1996 Everest expedition, Into Thin Air - the film Everest is based on it. Fascinating.
And, some might say, seriously flawed. Still very gripping though.
See if you can find 'The Climb' by Anatoly Boukreev. He gives a very different perspective.

Well, his ghost writer, DeWalt, does. Krakauer refutes the damning statements made about him in the postscript to his 1999 edition, and most of the guides/mountaineers I've seen interviewed since reading his book support him, e.g. Reinhold Messner (https://youtu.be/yaWHdHPwkV0).  DeWalt also changed the sense of at least one interview to make it look as if Krakauer lied about Boukreev's actions.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 22 October, 2019, 10:26:13 am
T42, I thought of your strap line again the other day: I've just finished re-reading The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers and there is another fine bottle-cleaning incident for Bunter to blow up about!  I never tire of her books, even though I know the plots.  Her mastery of landscape is up there with Buchan and even when you know the story it's fascinating to see how she lays the seeds of the plot as you go along.  In this particular case, I love the milieu (bell-ringing), too.  My brother rings, not too far south of the Fens, where Tailors is set, and I have tried but my hands are too damaged to grip properly, now.  But the book will do!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 22 October, 2019, 11:47:08 pm
Dandelion wine by Bradbury, Coraline by Gaiman and the amusingly titled "Carbon Diaries 2015" (the author escapes me). 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 October, 2019, 08:38:46 am
T42, I thought of your strap line again the other day: I've just finished re-reading The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers and there is another fine bottle-cleaning incident for Bunter to blow up about!  I never tire of her books, even though I know the plots.  Her mastery of landscape is up there with Buchan and even when you know the story it's fascinating to see how she lays the seeds of the plot as you go along.  In this particular case, I love the milieu (bell-ringing), too.  My brother rings, not too far south of the Fens, where Tailors is set, and I have tried but my hands are too damaged to grip properly, now.  But the book will do!

Aye, The Nine Tailors is grand. Even if you remove the crime & detection story there's a full novel left, and it's fascinating.

Bell-ringing in the English fashion is utterly missing here, and it's one of the few things we miss.  As Wimsey observes at one point, when the French have a full peal they just play hymns on it.  Our local Temple of Doom just has two or three bells and the ringing style is every man for himself. Or rather, it's probably the curé pressing a button and a Crowley-model randomiser driving the hammers.

I haven't read one of the Wimsey novels for years. Our collection is all New English Library paperbacks; the glue went about 30 years ago, so that if you open one you get a handful of pages and glue-dust. Time for the electronic versions, I think.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 23 October, 2019, 09:31:22 am
Have you tried sites like Alibris?  You can still get the occasional paperback there.  Ours are getting pretty battered, too, so electronics may be on the horizon.  Not the same, though, is it?!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 October, 2019, 02:02:00 pm
I dunno: I can get the same ebook on my tablets & my phone so that I can go on reading during lunch.

Google Books has The Nine Tailors at 2.99€. They also have a different edition at 12.99€. Go figure. I'd say it must be the hardback but I've already cracked that one once.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 23 October, 2019, 08:57:21 pm
I have all the Wimseys read to me by Ian Carmichael. Can't imagine them any other way, now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 October, 2019, 02:19:31 pm
Carmichael's the one I see when I'm reading them.

I'm reading The Nine Tailors now.  The differences in the social order come across much more strongly now than when I first read it, around 1970: e.g. the rectory at Fenchurch St. Paul boasts a maid, a cook and a gardener, the rector treats the villagers as if he were their schoolmaster and the villagers all accept it as right and proper.  I never noticed that first time around.

Long time ago now.  For all we go on about the vile Tories, some things have changed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 24 October, 2019, 03:59:43 pm
The Debatable Land - Graham Robb

Time to get myself some local(ish) knowledge.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 25 October, 2019, 05:50:51 pm
Anybody read the more recent Alistair Reynolds books?
I read them up to On The Steel Breeze and didn't finish that trilogy as I wasn't finding them that engaging.

I see there's another Prefect book and the Revenger series out since then. Any good? Or is he just doing it for the money now?

I've enjoyed the Revenger series so far - OTT gothic steampunky Pirates in Spaaaaaaaace...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 October, 2019, 06:46:44 pm
I did get to the end of House of Suns (that it took so long should tell you something). The ending wasn't what I anticipated at least, but really the plot was a lot stretched and not entirely sensical, and it took a long while to get to somewhere interesting and then the moment it did: the end. The annoyingly indistinguishable first-person PoV persisted until the end. The idea of people looping around the galaxy on epic timescales was very good, but the rendering not so, you'd think the characters would have a bit more to say on having been alive for millions of years and having seen innumerable civilisations rise and fall. And the central, mildly incestuous romance about as torrid as a shallow, lukewarm bath. Pondering flashback subplot appeared entire superfluous.

Not awful, but I could have passed on it. And I've still not found Century Rain mostly because every time I glance up to the yeti-besieged summer house, it's always raining.

I'm going to try to be one of the clever kids and read this year's Pulitzer Prize winner next. Or next but one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 October, 2019, 10:05:27 am
Returning to The Nine Tailors, it really does get offensive at the end:

(click to show/hide)

So that's all right then. I know that it should be read in the light of its day, but I still find it moderately disgusting. I don't think I'll read any more Wimseys.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 October, 2019, 10:34:21 am
A. A. Dhand's third DI Harry Virdee book, set in Bradford.  Literature it's not (simplistic, even), but interesting for being written from the perspective of a Sikh police officer married to a Muslim woman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 08 November, 2019, 10:48:21 pm
The Terror, by Dan Simmons, a fictionalised account of Franklin's attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage with HMS Terror and Erebus.  Enjoying it so far.
 I think shit's gonna get weird.  :thumbsup:
Blimey, was I really reading that for more than two months?  Well, it is nearly 1000 pages...  Just finished it and I'm feeling slightly bereft now.  One of the best things I've ever read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 November, 2019, 08:44:33 am
One of the best things he wrote, too. Better than his other one about the Yeti. Drood I'm not too sure of.  Both worth reading, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 November, 2019, 09:11:00 pm
The Years of Salt and Rain - Kim Stanley Robinson

Rereading it now after 15 years. A lovely thoughtful book. Always get classed as SF just because of the premise that the black death wipes out 99% of Europe's population rather than 50%.
In reality its an alternate history and a meditation on life, religion and the human condition.

Favourite quote so far "God falls on on the earth line rain in that he doesn't create clear water but mud".

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 November, 2019, 09:22:51 am
ITYM The Years of Rice and Salt.

One of our favourites too. See you in the Bardo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 18 November, 2019, 09:15:01 am
If you’ve not already read them, Jon Courtenay Grimwoods excellent “Assassini” trilogy is on offer at Amazon.  First volume is 99p
https://twitter.com/joncg/status/1179010251665883144?s=21 (https://twitter.com/joncg/status/1179010251665883144?s=21)
I gave up after 20% or so on my Kindle and am glad that I only wasted a pound.  It's impossibly hard to keep track of who's doing what because the author's writing style and command of grammar is so poor. 

It's absolute drivel; a zero- or one-star review from this unit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 18 November, 2019, 09:28:55 am
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

Winner of the 2008 Booker. Meh. I get it, but it hasn't really grabbed me.

Just finished this.  I enjoyed it. A lot of content to think on
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 20 November, 2019, 09:23:28 pm
Casanova's story of his life. Yes the 3,600 page one. Lots of historical detail requiring mobile phone alongside ebook to check up on descriptors and history. It's actually quite a good read but he does contradict himeself repeatedly. Fascinating insight into 18th C way of doing things. (not particularly those things.).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 21 November, 2019, 10:01:22 pm
I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork.

Page turning scandi thriller.  Better than some Jo Nesbo's.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 22 November, 2019, 11:07:19 am
When Christ And His Saints Slept - Sharon Penman

12th-century history with a bit of fiction woven in.  Thumbs up so far...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2019, 12:32:41 pm
Cold As The Grave ~ James Oswald.  Maclean volume 9, which I had somehow missed.  Latest Alfa so far undamaged by Demonic Forces.  New on due in February 2020 according to the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 25 November, 2019, 02:44:11 pm
I finished reading a murder mystery called 'Holy Island'  by LJ Ross last week. Well, I finished reading after 20% because it was awful. The whodunnit aspect may have been engaging had I continued but I couldn't get past the Mills and Boon touches. Our hero was a strong and moody DCI with a firmly chisled cliche, deep blue piercing commonplaces, and a hackneyed backstory which meant he was living alone on Lindisfarne under some sort of suspension. He and the pretty young Professor of Cults (or something like that) - a native of Holy Island of course, who had been sent out against his will to help with the investigation - took an instant dislike to each other, so you could see which way that was heading. And then he had to wait for a 'CSI' team to be sent out to him, presumably no SOCos being available from Newcastle, which is apparently 'a large city' some miles to the south.

A lot of people like this sort of thing judging by the 5* reviews and the massive-selling DCI Ryan series which followed Holy Island. I'm not one of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 25 November, 2019, 04:33:46 pm
ITYM The Years of Rice and Salt.

One of our favourites too. See you in the Bardo.

Loved that book1
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 November, 2019, 07:37:11 pm
Nothing To Hide, the second of James Oswald's Constance Fairchild series.  Bit more overlap with McClean this time: as well as Madame Rose, DC Harrison and Grumpy Bob also put in an appearance.  And edging closer to McClean's "Eek, a ghostie!" territory too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: lou boutin on 29 November, 2019, 08:23:55 pm
I am reading Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.  I was champing at the bit to read The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, but was really disappointed.  It wasn't quite what I expected; neither was what she talked about at The Testaments lecture tour come to that - albeit what she did talk about was interesting.  So, I hope that Cat's Eye isn't a disappointment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 November, 2019, 09:46:34 pm
I am reading Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.  I was champing at the bit to read The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, but was really disappointed.  It wasn't quite what I expected; neither was what she talked about at The Testaments lecture tour come to that - albeit what she did talk about was interesting.  So, I hope that Cat's Eye isn't a disappointment.


That title gave me flashbacks to an old Andre Norton story I read over 40 years ago !


 https://www.tor.com/2018/07/23/space-adventure-political-sf-andre-nortons-catseye/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 30 November, 2019, 11:12:09 am
Lots of Ray Bradbury.  Enjoying his short stories (even Dandelion Wine is essentially a series of shorts) but would like a "proper" novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 November, 2019, 03:20:19 pm
Bill Bryson’s “The Body”. Quite interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 November, 2019, 03:50:55 pm
Lots of Ray Bradbury.  Enjoying his short stories (even Dandelion Wine is essentially a series of shorts) but would like a "proper" novel.

Something Wicked This Way Comes?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrazyEnglishTriathlete on 30 November, 2019, 07:49:13 pm
Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James - still one of the best books I've ever read.  Utterly funny and yet gets to the heart of male insecurity.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 01 December, 2019, 09:37:52 am
Lots of Ray Bradbury.  Enjoying his short stories (even Dandelion Wine is essentially a series of shorts) but would like a "proper" novel.

Oh, I did this last year! Have you tried The Martian Chronicles?

I just finished ‘Birdsong ‘ by Sebastian Faulkes. Just reading it was traumatic. What a tremendous book it is. 26 years old, wow.  I thought it was a new book!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 01 December, 2019, 12:36:29 pm
Became bored with Casanova for now. Came across the graphic and little known story of soldiers' trench life just after the first battle of the Somme.  Her Privates We. Frederick Manning. Due to the bad language in the book it was initially published anonymously for seven years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 01 December, 2019, 12:41:03 pm
Lots of Ray Bradbury.  Enjoying his short stories (even Dandelion Wine is essentially a series of shorts) but would like a "proper" novel.

Oh, I did this last year! Have you tried The Martian Chronicles?

I just finished ‘Birdsong ‘ by Sebastian Faulkes. Just reading it was traumatic. What a tremendous book it is. 26 years old, wow.  I thought it was a new book!
If you like SF Ruithie try Hiero's Journey Sterling E Lanier. There are some terrific mental battles in it, some of which are rather spooky.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 09 December, 2019, 07:24:01 pm
"Agency", the sequel to William Gibson's scary "The Peripheral" is released shortly.  Here's a lengthy but rather good profile from The New Yorker.


  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-science-fiction-real#
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 December, 2019, 09:13:59 am
Having seen a trailer for the film I've just started Jonathan Lethem's book Motherless Brooklyn, about an NY PI with Tourette's. Not bad so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 December, 2019, 09:33:55 am
Doctor Sleep. I find Mr King's books a bit hit and miss these days and I think I skipped the last couple, but this one is a bit old-school King, as befits the sequel to The Shining, and is all the better for it. It's not better for my bedtime though, as it's 'just another chapter' territory. Will see if holds out to a satisfactory conclusion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 December, 2019, 10:43:50 am
Doctor Sleep. I find Mr King's books a bit hit and miss these days and I think I skipped the last couple, but this one is a bit old-school King, as befits the sequel to The Shining, and is all the better for it. It's not better for my bedtime though, as it's 'just another chapter' territory. Will see if holds out to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Shining was the first SK I ever read, bought in the foyer of the rather nice hotel - regency-styled furniture in the corridors, tall velvet curtains, big wide bed  - I'd been lodged in by the company I was visiting in Milan.  By the time I finished it, at 2:45 am, I hardly dared go into the marble-tiled bathroom for a slash.

Will look for Dr. Sleep in due course.  Our bathroom's all resin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 December, 2019, 07:03:15 pm
"Agency", the sequel to William Gibson's scary "The Peripheral" is released shortly.  Here's a lengthy but rather good profile from The New Yorker.


  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-science-fiction-real#

Ta for the heads up!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 10 December, 2019, 10:03:11 pm
Cold As The Grave ~ James Oswald.  Maclean volume 9, which I had somehow missed.  Latest Alfa so far undamaged by Demonic Forces.  New on due in February 2020 according to the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia.
According to Nozama there's another one out on the 20th Feb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 December, 2019, 01:49:17 pm
Just started Ian Rankin's long-lost techno-thriller "Westwind".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 December, 2019, 02:25:34 pm
Just finished Motherless Brooklyn. Well worth the €9.54.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 15 December, 2019, 09:32:34 pm
Life on the Edge. Quantum biology. (I didn't even know that was a thing.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 16 December, 2019, 12:00:56 am
Lots of Ray Bradbury.  Enjoying his short stories (even Dandelion Wine is essentially a series of shorts) but would like a "proper" novel.

Something Wicked This Way Comes?
On chapter 15 (there are about 60 though).

Oh, I did this last year! Have you tried The Martian Chronicles?
All copies missing from Birmingham Library.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 16 December, 2019, 04:22:09 pm
Partway through The Scarfolk Annual
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 December, 2019, 04:41:59 pm
Just starting another Jonathan Lethem, "As She Crawled Across The Table".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 16 December, 2019, 04:53:04 pm
Currently Enjoying Simon Armitage's _All Points North_; recent books have included _The Brothers York_, Dr. Hutch's _Faster_. a John Scalzi SF thing (lightweight but fun), and Iain M Bank's _Matter_.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 December, 2019, 05:54:15 pm
I know I've read Ian Rankin's "In A House Of Lies" before, so how come it managed not to be either on my Kindle or in my Calibre library?

"Westwind" was a bit meh and has not aged well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 December, 2019, 06:26:55 pm

"Westwind" was a bit meh and has not aged well.

I felt it was cashing in on his later success, and thus ignored it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 17 December, 2019, 12:29:14 am
A Guide For Adults With Hip Dysplasia

As depressing as it sounds.  It's clear and genuinely informative, but every useful fact is served with a garnish of the cringeworthy prayers-and-cheerleading stuff you'd expect from a USAnian-dominated womeny online space[1] devoted to something medical.  I just got to the bit where they unironically suggest "listening to Vivaldi" as a relaxation technique.   :facepalm:


[1] The authors have spared us the usual crimes against grammar and typesetting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 17 December, 2019, 07:34:18 pm
Just finished It, now reading the Wasp Factory, my first Iain Banks (rather than M Banks)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feanor on 17 December, 2019, 08:13:20 pm
I'm re-reading Ring of Bright Water, on account of looking at OS maps.

I found myself drawn into the OS maps of South Skye, the way you do.
My eyes were drawn to the contours, and you follow them through places with beguiling Gaelic names, and so it was I came to Glenelg, and then to the remote isolated bay of Sandaig.
That was the setting for the book, although Gavin Maxwell never referred to it by that name, calling it Camusferna.

I discovered that the name of the book was not simply a literal geographical observation.
It was taken from the opening lines of a pome by his contemporary and friend, Kathleen Raine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Raine).
A pome called 'The Marriage of Psyche' (http://northcoastcat.blogspot.com/2011/07/marriage-of-psyche-by-kathleen-raine.html), referring to the tale of Cupid and Psyche (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche), from the larger work of Metamorphoses.

"He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water
Whose ripples travel from the heart of the sea,
He has married me with a ring of light, the glitter
Broadcast on the swift river."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 17 December, 2019, 08:28:42 pm
Just looked that up, great pome, speaks to me of travel and discovery
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 17 December, 2019, 10:19:49 pm
Just finished book #76 of the year - wondering if I can hit 80. Given that my target was 52 I'm pretty pleased with how much reading I've managed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 22 December, 2019, 09:17:43 pm
“Brave New World”, which I’ve not read before.  Easy to read & slightly quaint, the sort of society Toby Young would admire.

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/17/classics.margaretatwood (https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/17/classics.margaretatwood)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 December, 2019, 08:58:31 am
Mr. S. King's Doctor Sleep. Guaranteed not to keep you awake.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 24 December, 2019, 10:39:31 am
Mr. S. King's Doctor Sleep. Guaranteed not to keep you awake.

I wandered off to read something else, but I'm quite enjoying it, there's a slow tectonic coming together of the two protagonists which is essentially what the book is about.

Minor gripe, there's an occasional unnecessary foreshadowing clunker.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 December, 2019, 01:41:10 pm
Little did she know...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 December, 2019, 11:22:10 am
The Spirit Of Hawkwind 1969-1976, co-authored by Nik Turner, has just crawled out of some fancy wrapping paper, as has the second edition of Atlas Obscura.  Hoorah!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 26 December, 2019, 03:58:53 pm
A Guide For Adults With Hip Dysplasia

As depressing as it sounds.  It's clear and genuinely informative, but every useful fact is served with a garnish of the cringeworthy prayers-and-cheerleading stuff you'd expect from a USAnian-dominated womeny online space[1] devoted to something medical.  I just got to the bit where they unironically suggest "listening to Vivaldi" as a relaxation technique.   :facepalm:

It gets better:  They've just recommended air freshener as a useful thing to bring to hospital, in case the patient in the next bed is emitting bodily fluids due to post-anaesthetic nausea, or similar.   ??? :facepalm:

Disclaimer: In the event that I end up in hospital for whatever reason (but especially those involving the upper digestive tract, general anaesthesia or opiates), anyone attempting to improve their stay by squirting Glade in my presence had better be a fan of The Exorcist.


[Yes, I'm making slow progress:  It's not a very interesting book, I've been busy, and I keep having stop to allow my sarcasm time to dissipate.]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 26 December, 2019, 04:25:54 pm
@Kim. Ewwww! Reminds me of the time I was in hospital for a bowel resection. The guy in the next bed had been fitted with a bag. Despite being fully mobile he refused to use the loos to change his bag, rather he would do it at his bed. Then use Poundland's cheap Lynx copy to "mask" the smell. Luckily he was discharged before any injuries were caused.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 26 December, 2019, 04:56:13 pm
Poundland's cheap Lynx copy

Isn't language brilliant?  How a simple combination of familiar words can bring forth hitherto unknown levels of olfactory fear...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 26 December, 2019, 05:06:24 pm
A first for me, an Anne Cleeves’. I’ve been a fan of the “Shetland” tv series, and loathed the Rev “Vera”, with the squawking bag lady Brenda Blethyn.  So I’ve started with her latest, a new creation Matthew Venn, set in North Devon. So far so good. It may well tempt me to try the Shetland and Vera series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 26 December, 2019, 10:22:53 pm
The Shetland books are so much better than either of the tv series. (ITV or BBC. ITV was shite)
But YMMV if you watched the tv series first.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 December, 2019, 11:00:10 am
Wot Mrs P said.  As to "Vera":

Quote

Rehearsals afoot for the Christmas Play
It’s called “Roll The Square Arthur” and mind what you say
It’s a cricketing farce with a thickening plot
Act One, Scene One – Brenda Blethyn gets shot

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 December, 2019, 02:47:20 pm
The Shetland books are so much better than either of the tv series. (ITV or BBC. ITV was shite)
But YMMV if you watched the tv series first.

I didn’t realise there was an ITV “Shetland”. I did wonder about reading the the books after having liked Douglas Henshall's Perez. But books are often very different to the tv output anyway so I’ll give them a try.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 27 December, 2019, 08:12:23 pm
Poundland's cheap Lynx copy

Isn't language brilliant?  How a simple combination of familiar words can bring forth hitherto unknown levels of olfactory fear...

I'm always impressed that perfumologists have managed to synthesise the pure essence of teenage male disappointment and put it in a can.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 December, 2019, 11:14:02 am
The Shetland books are so much better than either of the tv series. (ITV or BBC. ITV was shite)
But YMMV if you watched the tv series first.

I didn’t realise there was an ITV “Shetland”. I did wonder about reading the the books after having liked Douglas Henshall's Perez. But books are often very different to the tv output anyway so I’ll give them a try.

I don't think I ever saw the ITV one either, though the Beeb's version is actually made by ITV Studios.  The first few of the BBC ones were pretty straightforward adaptations of some of the books, albeit in a different order and with Perez' lurrrve interest Fran notably absent, but after that, as per Morse, Banks etc, they veer off into standard cop show territory.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 December, 2019, 11:38:58 am
I managed half an episode of the ITV one before giving up in disgust. I know Sandy's not supposed to be the sharpest tool in the box but they had him barely able to tell which end of a pencil was which.

Oddly I can find no evidence of this ITV/STV version on the internets. Maybe I dreamed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 28 December, 2019, 11:59:47 am
I've listened to all the Shetland books and they're a little bit same-y by the end. Can't be that bad, though, as I listened to them all. I'm never going to Shetland now, there's at least 2 murders a book. The place is deadly!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 28 December, 2019, 01:15:55 pm
Another gem from the hip book (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=342.msg2453295#msg2453295):

Apparently left-hand drive cars (like they use in ABROAD, where the FOREIGNS come from) without a clutch pedal are driven entirely with the left leg.   ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 December, 2019, 01:29:21 pm
I've listened to all the Shetland books and they're a little bit same-y by the end.

I would say the same of most crime book series.
I should admit here that the main reason I have taken to reading crime books is because nobody else I like writes fast enough. Or they're dead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 29 December, 2019, 12:13:08 pm
I listened to all the Vera, too. Same-y murders enlivened with spot the local places and massive inaccuracies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 December, 2019, 12:41:19 pm
My thoughts on the “new” Matthew Venn series was that it was “Shetland” in north Devon. Ie the story was as formulaic as most crime fiction (of which I read a lot). But it was ok and distracting enough, if not gripping.

Now on to another similar, a Damien Boy, police procedural set around Bridgewater, Somerset.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 29 December, 2019, 12:58:28 pm
I've written a couple of police procedurals, but I set them in South Wales. Mostly*. Some of that takes place in Weston Super Mud, which is as close as it gets to N Devon.

*I did succumb and do some proceeding in Crawley... but I drew the line at Croydon
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 December, 2019, 02:15:16 pm
I've listened to all the Shetland books and they're a little bit same-y by the end. Can't be that bad, though, as I listened to them all. I'm never going to Shetland now, there's at least 2 murders a book. The place is deadly!

You may go there safely as much of it is filmed, whsiper it, in mainland Scotlandshire.  The nearest to a killin' Miss von Brandenburg and I came was when a Sea Labrador called Charlie started demanding Fish With Menaces.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mllePB on 29 December, 2019, 05:05:03 pm
I've listened to all the Shetland books and they're a little bit same-y by the end. Can't be that bad, though, as I listened to them all. I'm never going to Shetland now, there's at least 2 murders a book. The place is deadly!

You may go there safely as much of it is filmed, whsiper it, in mainland Scotlandshire.  The nearest to a killin' Miss von Brandenburg and I came was when a Sea Labrador called Charlie started demanding Fish With Menaces.

Nah, the books are a great read if you've ever been to Shetland because the descriptions of the locations are really evocative. The most entertaining part of the TV series was spotting which bits were filmed in the islands and which must be mainland due to the scenery just not being sufficiently wind-swept and featuring things alien to Shetland like wheelie bins or hedges.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 30 December, 2019, 10:52:53 am
Working my way slowly through Simons' books on sailplanes, which I have on loan, picking out potential build subjects.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: perpetual dan on 31 December, 2019, 01:34:17 pm
Christmas present reading is going well. I've  finished Emily Chappell's "where there's a will" (interesting, moving, well written) and now I'm on to Nan Shepherd's "The Living Mountain".

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 01 January, 2020, 09:06:07 am
The latest Le Carre, (https://wordery.com/jackets/33aa29a7/m/agent-running-in-the-field-john-le-carre-9780241401231.jpg)

Quite polemical in parts.  Oh, all right, Very polemical in parts.. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 02 January, 2020, 08:43:41 am
Poundland's cheap Lynx copy

Isn't language brilliant?  How a simple combination of familiar words can bring forth hitherto unknown levels of olfactory fear...

I'm always impressed that perfumologists have managed to synthesise the pure essence of teenage male disappointment and put it in a can.

Yes not so much smell the fear as fear the smell.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 02 January, 2020, 07:12:02 pm
Erebus by Michael Palin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 02 January, 2020, 07:48:07 pm
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

I'm about halfway in, and it's quite good...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 03 January, 2020, 12:03:47 am
I was OK with The Three Body Problem until about three quarters of the way through.  After that, meh!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 03 January, 2020, 10:35:40 am
I don't think I finished either. Conceptually interesting but stodgily written (or translated) and well, life became too short. ETA: evidently I did finish it, but while interesting, it relies on the tolerance for dense and extended exposition, which isn't my cup of tea.

Re-reading Black Swan Green after some Christmas 80s music nostalgia wallowing (and if you grew up in the 80s, you should read it). I read somewhere that David Mitchell (not that one) is co-writing the script to the next Matrix movie (yeah, I know).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 03 January, 2020, 12:31:42 pm
Scrublands, by Chris Hammer

Nicely written thriller set in drought hit Australian outback with bush fires...
Close to the end of the book now and its very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 January, 2020, 10:18:41 pm
Scrublands, by Chris Hammer

Nicely written thriller set in drought hit Australian outback with bush fires...
Close to the end of the book now and its very good.

I loved it, as good as Jane Harpers “The Dry”. His follow up “Silver” is published soon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 January, 2020, 10:21:40 pm
The latest Le Carre, (https://wordery.com/jackets/33aa29a7/m/agent-running-in-the-field-john-le-carre-9780241401231.jpg)

Quite polemical in parts.  Oh, all right, Very polemical in parts..

Aah but the language. So dated   :-\  I’ll see how it goes, but Im not hopeful of it gripping me. Mind you, perhaps Smiley’s People wouldn’t now, who knows.

Nat is supposedly 47 now,  but talks as if he were in the ‘30’s.

ETA I gave up. Life’s too short sadly. The last of his I’ll try, assuming he lives to write another. On to Martin Cruz Smith’s The Siberian Dilemma.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 04 January, 2020, 06:22:22 pm
I like the Smiley novels, but they are a period piece. I'm not sure Le Carre translates to current affairs, sadly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 04 January, 2020, 06:52:20 pm
I just finished 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry.  Very, very good, but so sad. And really shocking in places.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 05 January, 2020, 10:55:52 am
I like the Smiley novels, but they are a period piece. I'm not sure Le Carre translates to current affairs, sadly.

Agreed, I didn’t persevere with the one before this either, A Legacy of Spies. Again, I felt the language dated.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 05 January, 2020, 11:37:02 am
George Martin's prequel Knight of the Seven kingdoms. Several early and later novellas combined. So so.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 January, 2020, 12:42:43 pm
I like the Smiley novels, but they are a period piece. I'm not sure Le Carre translates to current affairs, sadly.

Agreed, I didn’t persevere with the one before this either, A Legacy of Spies. Again, I felt the language dated.

I tend to agree with that, but it's supposedly an ageing Peter Guillam writing in retirement so he's writing in the manner someone of that age might write, e.g. John Le Carré.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 January, 2020, 07:45:29 pm
Germany, Memoirs of a nation - Neil MacGregor

Highly recommended if you want to understand Germany or even the EU really.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 06 January, 2020, 09:54:16 pm
Just finished:
Something Wicked this way Comes - Bradbury.  I thought I was better at the start, but then I thought the first half was exceptionally well written, so not too surprised that it didn't maintain it throughout. A (should have been A*)
Greedy Man in a Hungry World - Jay Rayner.  He is good at telling anecdotes, but it didn't "totally change the way I thought about food" or "dispel myths about food" as promised.  His arguments often run against each other (he does acknowledge this) and some very big claims get very little support.  Worth reading for the idea that Carbon Miles only count for ~3-5% of the food's footprint, so some food from abroad can be lower carbon than that which is locally produced.  D-
The Female Man - Joanna Russ.  I see what she was trying to do, but it does come across rather clunky and hard to decipher.  I'm not a woman in the 1960s, so a lot of this doesn't really apply to me. D+
The Guns of Avalon - Roger Zelazny.  I quite liked "Lord of Light" so have been a bit disappointed by his other stuff, this was a pretty straightforward Conan/Elric style fantasy book, but without the Conan (boo!).  C
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 09 January, 2020, 10:49:08 pm
Just finished The Wasp Factory, despite having read much Iain M Banks, that didn't go quite how I expected
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 10 January, 2020, 08:36:00 am
I enjoyed Martin Cruz Smiths latest Reno, the Siberian Dilemma, although the finale was IMO a bit of a cop-out. Followed that with Tess Gerritsen's The Apprentice, which was diverting enough I'll read the next in the series.

Have just started Giles Blunt's Forty Words for Sorrow, the first of the Cardinal novels. There are differences from the TV series of course, but having watched that it's good to put the voices and intonation to Cardinal and Delorme.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 January, 2020, 09:41:10 am
The Guns of Avalon - Roger Zelazny.  I quite liked "Lord of Light" so have been a bit disappointed by his other stuff, this was a pretty straightforward Conan/Elric style fantasy book, but without the Conan (boo!).  C

Well, it certainly pre-dates the Schwarzi films by 10 years, although Wiki says not the comic character. That said, it was a descent into pulp, much as were Fritz Leiber's swords & sandals fantasies.  A Rose for Ecclesiastes is much more typical Zelazny output.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quisling on 10 January, 2020, 10:30:43 am
I’ve finished all the books I received for Xmas/birthday and can heartily recommend:
Homesick: Why I live in a shed by Catrina Davies
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
And
Out of the wreckage by George Monbiot

All good thought provoking reads.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 10 January, 2020, 12:27:08 pm
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   
(Need to get through it quickly to get on to Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs which I bought after hearing  some of his reading of it on R4 recently.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 January, 2020, 01:38:40 pm
Re-reading Rankin's "Rebus".

How's that for alliteration?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 10 January, 2020, 01:46:29 pm
The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart. One of the better Athurian legend tales.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 10 January, 2020, 03:04:33 pm
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   
(Need to get through it quickly to get on to Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs which I bought after hearing  some of his reading of it on R4 recently.)

Unreliable Memoirs is wonderful, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Parts of it come back to me, even now, and it must be twenty-plus years since I read it.  He was such a clever, funny man.  I wonder if I'd get a few more of his literary references if I read it now.  Should probably do that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 10 January, 2020, 03:36:00 pm
Information Warriors: The Battle for Hearts and Minds in the Middle East by Vyvyan Kinross

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Equate-Pat-Lancaster/dp/1908531657

Topical stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 10 January, 2020, 03:37:39 pm
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   
(Need to get through it quickly to get on to Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs which I bought after hearing  some of his reading of it on R4 recently.)
Bought the Sandi Toksvig for my mum for Christmas, had a brief read in the bookshop, looks very good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 10 January, 2020, 08:35:39 pm
Having a bit of a binge on Adrian Tchaikovsky at the mo. I finished off 'Children of Ruin' over Christmas, read 'Dogs of War' last week and I'm now halfway through 'Cage of Souls'. All good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 11 January, 2020, 04:50:13 pm
"Agency", the sequel to William Gibson's scary "The Peripheral" is released shortly.  Here's a lengthy but rather good profile from The New Yorker.


  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-science-fiction-real# (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-science-fiction-real#)


Another puff piece in the Grauniad. [size=78%]https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/11/william-gibson-i-was-losing-a-sense-of-how-weird-the-real-world-was?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/11/william-gibson-i-was-losing-a-sense-of-how-weird-the-real-world-was?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other)[/size]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 12 January, 2020, 12:59:39 am
A Rose for Ecclesiastes is much more typical Zelazny output.
I shall give that a spin once I clear my current pile from the library.  Currently reading
Moorkock's Dancers at the End of Time - nearly finished the first "book", it's mildly amusing, but a bit like going to a comedy show and being left with a smile on your face.
Delaney's Dhalgren, only a short way in but I am not hooked (early days though)
Coldwater Smith's Rediscovery of Man - two short stories in and quite enjoyable.  Time will tell whether words/concepts like "cranching" will get on my nerves.

...

Not read "Wasp Factory" but I didn't like The Bridge or ... forgot the title of the other book of his I read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 January, 2020, 09:35:10 am
Most of Moorcocks's output ranks as mildly amusing. Mother London, though, is something else.

I thought The Bridge was brilliant, but then I've enjoyed every Banks I've read except The Quarry, which he wrote in the knowledge that he was dying of cancer. If you fancy a good space opera, try Consider Phlebas. I must admit, though, that I have a tendency to think of it as Consider Flab-Ass, which is most unfair.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 13 January, 2020, 05:28:01 pm
There's a new Ben Aaronovitch "Rivers of London" available for pre-order.    "False Value".



"The hugely anticipated brand new RIVERS OF LONDON novel...


Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner's brand new London start up - the Serious Cybernetics Company."(*)


* Groan  :facepalm:



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 13 January, 2020, 08:13:05 pm
Most of Moorcocks's output ranks as mildly amusing. Mother London, though, is something else.

I thought The Bridge was brilliant, but then I've enjoyed every Banks I've read except The Quarry, which he wrote in the knowledge that he was dying of cancer. If you fancy a good space opera, try Consider Phlebas. I must admit, though, that I have a tendency to think of it as Consider Flab-Ass, which is most unfair.

My previous Banks vs M Banks was Dead Air which I enjoyed greatly.  I came to Banks long after M Banks, and oddly enough have just finished reading Consider Phlebas to my son.  I'd find it hard to pick a favourite, but I've just read Matter for about the third time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 January, 2020, 08:46:33 am
I've re-read Surface Detail a several times, particularly the wee sting in the tail - but then, stings in the tail is standard Banks practice. Excession is a favourite too, although you need to be steeped in Culture culture before reading it.  His sanguinary spaceships are great fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 January, 2020, 12:50:22 pm
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   

Interesting, neither my wife or myself got more than 20 pages in. Had it been an audio book read by herself, I think we would both of enjoyed it.

Having finished "Forty Words for Sorrow", which was perfectly acceptable (so much so I bought the next 2 Cardinal books off eBay) I've started on Anne Cleeves "The Crow Trap".

That was the first of the "Vera" TV series stories, and I recall loathing it almost immediately, despite (she is a great actress), and because of Brenda Blethyn's character portrayal. (I read at the weekend that it's hugely popular, with 8 million watching per episode, and it gets sold abroad a lot).  Unlike with Cardinal, I sincerely hope not to put Blethyn's voice to the character in the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 14 January, 2020, 01:16:59 pm
I sincerely hope not to put Blethyn's voice to the character in the book.
Try this (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Crow-Trap-Audiobook/B07FQYYLVZ) :)
Interesting, neither my wife or myself got more than 20 pages in. Had it been an audio book read by herself, I think we would both of enjoyed it.
I sense a pattern (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Between-the-Stops-Audiobook/1405534796)  ;D

I still (STILL! How many years is it now?) can't read. Obviously I can read, but I can't read a book, I can't focus/ concentrate for long enough. I've tried easing in with short stories, children's books, it just hasn't worked. Audible has been a godsend. /endadvert
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 January, 2020, 04:57:02 pm
My wife reads a lot, but also uses Audible (and Borrowbox, which is part of Herts library services). The audio books are for at night - as part of her bipolar she has "sticky thoughts" as she describes it, and a soothing voice helps keep them at bay during the hours of darkness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 January, 2020, 11:44:01 am
Well I gave up 300 pages into "The Crow Trap". Not becauseof the portrayal of Vera per se, jut a general lack of believability for me in the whole procedure. I'll trt Anne Cleeves again with the Shetland series.

Today I shall collect the latest of Barbara Nadel's Cetin Ickman stories, "A Knife to the Heart".

ETA oops, I've read that one, so on to a new Peter May, “A Silent Death”,  a new standalone.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 20 January, 2020, 11:42:05 pm
I can't focus/ concentrate for long enough. I've tried easing in with short stories, children's books, it just hasn't worked.
I think that short stories are harder on the system - comparing for example Bradbury's short stories with "Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell", the second is much easier to read, I found I was easily thinking "just 100 pages tonight" where the short stories were closer to 10 (one story).  Maybe some Neil Gaiman?  Ocean at the end of the lane, or Coraline?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 21 January, 2020, 11:06:45 am
I'm reading Sai King's Wind Through The Keyhole, which is a story within a story within a story.  It seems to be piggybacking somewhat from the over-arching Dark Tower setting - I'm into the thrust of the main story of Tim Ross now, and it's good enough to stand as a novella in its own right.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 22 January, 2020, 07:49:05 am
Finished "A silent Death" by Peter May. Unengaging and simplistic. How he can trot that after the Lewis trilogy I don't know.

Now onto "Silver" by Chris Hammer, again featuring Martin Scarsden, the journalist protagonist from (the excellent) first novel "Scrublands".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 24 January, 2020, 11:30:25 pm
A similar experience to the above. 
Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm; the previous book of hers that I read "where late the sweet birds sang" was stunning, what other writers would have made into a 3000 page trilogy she delivered convincingly in one book, with each section interesting, readable and ending well.
In contrast, "Juniper Time" is heavy going, you don't really get where you're going with the story for most of it, the characters aren't likable, it's got lots of "filler", magic injuns, unpleasantness that isn't essential to the story (in fact lots of stuff that isn't important to the story) and I DNFed with about 20 pages to go (of 280) - life is too short.  I skimmed the ending, it's not only "not good", it makes me feal worse about suffering through the rest of the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 25 January, 2020, 06:41:18 am
A Rebel In Fleet Street. Comyns Beaumont.

It has historical information Google can't find.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 25 January, 2020, 09:26:16 am
Exactly, by Simon Winchester, a history of precision engineering. Fascinating.

And in short order I finished both Erebus (the tale of Franklin's ship) and Life on the Edge (quantum biology). I think I'm just about getting the hang of quantum mechanics now, sort of ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Syd on 25 January, 2020, 10:26:10 am
Currently reading A Man and His Watch.

Interesting stories about iconic time pieces and those who owned them.

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200125/97c21f8d8101a6c76e7e872a38094ab5.jpg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 January, 2020, 10:23:48 pm
"Crome Yellow" by Aldous Huxley.  Which begins with our Hero in a panic, over getting both his luggage & his bicycle off a train before it leaves the station.   BTDTGTTS.   Some things haven't changed since the 1920s..
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 02 February, 2020, 09:38:26 pm
The real story & Forbidden Knowledge by Donaldson.  Of the last five books I have read it is joint best and benefits from being more easily read than the others.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 03 February, 2020, 10:07:00 am
This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson.  Excellent so far  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 03 February, 2020, 06:51:39 pm
I've re-read Surface Detail a several times, particularly the wee sting in the tail - but then, stings in the tail is standard Banks practice. Excession is a favourite too, although you need to be steeped in Culture culture before reading it.  His sanguinary spaceships are great fun.

Just recently re-read Matter, and Consider Phlebas, both excellent non-culture, culture novels.

Now reading The Man In The High Castle, found it in a charity shop whilst wasting twenty minutes this morning
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 04 February, 2020, 09:36:59 am
This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson.  Excellent so far  :thumbsup:

Picked that up on Google Books for future reference. Ta.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 05 February, 2020, 02:31:44 pm
Finished Where There's A Will, Emily Chappell's new book last night.

Another good read, I really do like her style and turn of phrase.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 08 February, 2020, 11:32:12 pm
The real story & Forbidden Knowledge by Donaldson.  Of the last five books I have read it is joint best and benefits from being more easily read than the others.
Okay, 400 pages or so later I have to re-assess.  The Novella "The Real Story" was good, disturbing but good in an "X-rated version of Tiger Tiger by Bester" fashion.  "Forbidden Knowledge" was a bit repetitive and at that point in the story I started to wonder where portrayal of misogyny ends and misogyny proper starts.  Another 1500 pages (estimated) to cover for the next three books in the series.  Not sure I am convinced.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 13 February, 2020, 07:23:52 pm
"Agency" by William Gibson.     Very short chapters, which seems to suit my currently lurgified attention span.    Far too prophetic for bloody comfort.


https://twitter.com/KateSherrod/status/1227692954615050240?s=20
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 February, 2020, 08:46:27 am
"Agency" by William Gibson.     Very short chapters, which seems to suit my currently lurgified attention span.    Far too prophetic for bloody comfort.


https://twitter.com/KateSherrod/status/1227692954615050240?s=20

I revisited some of his "Neuromancer" stuff recently. It hasn't aged well.  I'll wait until Google Books has this at around $1 per 100 pp.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 14 February, 2020, 11:16:48 pm
^I wasn't convinced it had aged well in the 90s.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 February, 2020, 08:41:46 am
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, OTOH...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 26 February, 2020, 11:16:59 am
For the first time since some time in the 1980's I'm reading a book by Gerald Seymour. I know I read (and watched) Harry's Game (which I though superb), and I think I read one other about piracy, but that's it.  His latest "Beyond Recall" reminds me quite strongly of early Le Carre's.  I'm quite enjoying it, so may work my way back through his catalogue over time, helped by the fact that all his books are stand-alone (although they may, like Hammond Innes', be somewhat formulaic, I'll see.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 February, 2020, 02:08:01 pm
Having disposed of the latest Inspector, sorry, Chief Inspector McClean* offering and Max "Hitler" Hastings' take on the Dams Raid it's now hairy historian Neil Oliver's "The Story Of The BRITISH Isles In 100 Places".  Chronological trawl through, well, 100 sites of interest in the UK and Ireland.

* Disappointed that James Oswald hasn't appropriated Robert Rankin's "Inspectre" tag yet ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 26 February, 2020, 04:36:18 pm
Gormenghast, about 75 pages in so far, only reading a few pages an evening.

REcently Read Neil Olivers take on the Vikings, interesting and entertaining

re Hammond Innes, yes generally formulaic, but occaisional surprises - Read one a while back about a tanker disaster which was a bit different
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 26 February, 2020, 06:19:46 pm
Currently reading, amongst other things, Moby Dick. Can't say I'm enthralled so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 26 February, 2020, 08:01:10 pm
Currently reading, amongst other things, Moby Dick. Can't say I'm enthralled so far.

If you've ever read Tolstoy, War and Peace, it a bit like that in terms of passages of extreme excitement linked by passage of extreme turgidity
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 26 February, 2020, 08:49:44 pm
I haven't, and suspect I might not
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 26 February, 2020, 10:03:27 pm
"The Monster, Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson.  A sequel to "The Traitor"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 20 March, 2020, 09:28:19 pm
"Where there's a Will" by That Emily Chappell. She writes beautifully. It's also a bit of a thrill when you are personal friends with the author.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 20 March, 2020, 09:40:57 pm
Whatever the latest Expanse was (Tiamat's Wrath). Really rather good if you like that sort of thing.

Next up A Book of Bones, the latest but one in the epic Charlie Parker series. I hate John Connelly and not just because I have to Google the spelling of his name every time I write it, but because of his iridescent prose which frankly makes other writers seem more than a little inadequate. Also, despite being an Irishman, he conjures up a near-perfect sense of Nor'east Americana.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 20 March, 2020, 10:42:46 pm
I am reading Phillip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth.

It's making me quite sad.
Pingu says: "it's only a book"
Still sad.

Still want a dæmon though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 March, 2020, 11:00:18 am
One of Harry Turtledove's potboilers, this one from a series tracing the course WW2 might have taken if Chamberlain & Dalladier had stood up to Hitler at Munich.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 March, 2020, 04:45:14 pm
Traveling (sic) The Lewis & Clark Trail.  Sadly I rather doubt I will be doing so this year :'(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 31 March, 2020, 10:50:17 am
OK, I clicked on it thinking it might be a fascinating novel centred around coffee drinking, it isn't: God Shot (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41719463-godshot)

Having followed the link, I'm curious to hear if this blurb makes it interesting for anyone to read*:

Quote
Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret “assignments,” to bring the rain everybody is praying for.

Lacey has no reason to doubt the pastor. But then her life explodes in a single unimaginable act of abandonment: her mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves Lacey and runs off with a man she barely knows. Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mice collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules, and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother, no matter what it takes. With her only guidance coming from the romance novels she reads and the unlikely companionship of the women who knew her mother, she must find her own way through unthinkable circumstances.

Possessed of an unstoppable plot and a brilliantly soulful voice, Godshot is a book of grit and humor and heart, a debut novel about female friendship and resilience, mother-loss and motherhood, and seeking salvation in unexpected places. It introduces a writer who gives Flannery O’Connor’s Gothic parables a Californian twist and who emerges with a miracle that is all her own.

*I suspect the target audience may not be old farts like me
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 March, 2020, 12:09:58 pm
God, that sounds awful. I died halfway through the blurb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 31 March, 2020, 02:51:08 pm
Make Every Photon Count- Steve Richards.
A beginners guide to Deep Sky astrophotography.
Got to learn the proper way to do it as opposed to just attaching my camera to my scope and praying.....
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 31 March, 2020, 03:15:20 pm
God, that sounds awful. I died halfway through the blurb.

Glad it's not just me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 March, 2020, 03:53:18 pm
God, that sounds awful. I died halfway through the blurb.

Glad it's not just me.

I think, to be honest, it was written by the publisher's Marketing Algorithm. They plug in the variables of the target market, hit 'generate book' and the let the machine cogitate up a suitable pile of words and accompanying cover blurb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 31 March, 2020, 04:12:58 pm
Shades of Fritz Leiber's Silver Eggheads.  Wordwooze.

Meanwhile, here's a present for all.  For years, Nature ran a series of one-page SF stories on its last page, called Futures . When they rejigged their layout a few months back, Futures bit the dust.  Some of them were pure meh but some were bloody good. The missus has now found them on line, and this is the one I liked best:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06039-3
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: The Family Cyclist on 31 March, 2020, 04:31:12 pm
A book about how to read water by the guy who did a book about natural signs. Can't remember his name


Also keep getting my canoe camping book by Tim Gent and canoeing by Ray Goodwin and just looking wistfully at the pictures
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 31 March, 2020, 05:12:41 pm
God, that sounds awful. I died halfway through the blurb.

Glad it's not just me.

I think, to be honest, it was written by the publisher's Marketing Algorithm. They plug in the variables of the target market, hit 'generate book' and the let the machine cogitate up a suitable pile of words and accompanying cover blurb.

So, on the whole, you wouldn't have appreciated my initial thought "A review that Ian might have wrote had he lost his sense of humour"?

I still think that there might be people who would have read that and thought "I'll enjoy reading that". If it comes up as Kindle Unlimited I may well be tempted to see if it is as godawful as the blurb makes it sound. At the moment it is pre-release for £21 hardcover on April 7.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 April, 2020, 12:22:43 pm
God, that sounds awful. I died halfway through the blurb.

Glad it's not just me.

I think, to be honest, it was written by the publisher's Marketing Algorithm. They plug in the variables of the target market, hit 'generate book' and the let the machine cogitate up a suitable pile of words and accompanying cover blurb.

So, on the whole, you wouldn't have appreciated my initial thought "A review that Ian might have wrote had he lost his sense of humour"?

I still think that there might be people who would have read that and thought "I'll enjoy reading that". If it comes up as Kindle Unlimited I may well be tempted to see if it is as godawful as the blurb makes it sound. At the moment it is pre-release for £21 hardcover on April 7.

There may be people who aren't me (a fact I have yet to establish). It does seem algorithmic though in stacking up all the market focus touchpoints and ticking them off. I'm personally not so sure that anyone who has read Flannery O'Connor will have come back with the words 'humour and heart,' not really the themes explored in Southern Gothic. Though with a California twist, who knows, that's probably like grits with a side of smashed avocado. Chefs, just don't, m'kay?

I was left with an abiding impression of Pastor Vern frantically and futilely trying to release himself over his barren raisins. I'd be shocked to encounter that scene and I'm not a fourteen-year-girl.

Honestly, though, it grabs me on 'taxidermy mice collection.'

I hate Goodreads, it's full of vacant nitwits who seem to love everything. It's only palatable if you set the filter to two stars and below. Otherwise it's full of people in a perpetual state of astonishment (which pays, I'm sure). Words, Marcy, they used words!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 01 April, 2020, 12:30:47 pm
If it doesn't exist, there needs to be a book equivalent of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 April, 2020, 01:07:16 pm
More on "What I learned today" front, Art Garfunkel has a list of every book he has read since 1968 on his website https://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html, that list looks as if it might be an interesting source of inspiration if treated with caution

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 April, 2020, 11:46:19 am
Stranded as I am forty miles from the "To read" pile I am revisiting Neal Stephenson.  "Zodiac" was a lot better than I remember first time round.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 April, 2020, 09:48:06 am
What with Mr Stephenson having written a couple more sturdy boks since the last time I looked I am now a third of the way through Fall: or Dodge In Hell, wot is a sort of sequel to Reamde, unites the universes of that book with that of Cryptonomicon and has some pertinent observations on the malignant power of social media, which I think the author would like to uninvent.  Also it's got Enoch Root in it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 29 April, 2020, 11:14:57 am
I'm rather surprised this thread hasn't been overflowing with entries of late.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 29 April, 2020, 12:24:54 pm
I'm rather surprised this thread hasn't been overflowing with entries of late.

Maybe we're all embarrassed to admit what we are reading to keep us sane (although I've just finished The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards, which I heartily recommend. It dissects the leadership qualities of all the PMs from Wilson to May and, to my mind, is scrupulously fair to them all.  I'm hoping that by the time it comes out in paperback he will have added one more chapter.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 29 April, 2020, 12:41:42 pm
I'm rather surprised this thread hasn't been overflowing with entries of late.

Maybe we're all embarrassed to admit what we are reading to keep us sane (although I've just finished The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards, which I heartily recommend. It dissects the leadership qualities of all the PMs from Wilson to May and, to my mind, is scrupulously fair to them all.  I'm hoping that by the time it comes out in paperback he will have added one more chapter.)
Or even two, with a bit of luck.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 29 April, 2020, 01:27:45 pm
A book about how to read water by the guy who did a book about natural signs. Can't remember his name


Tristan Gooley?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 April, 2020, 02:17:48 pm
London Falling, by Peter (or Paul?) Cornell.  Thought it was hard-bitten peeler procedural until
(click to show/hide)
. Anyway, I'm enjoying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 April, 2020, 04:48:01 pm
MrsT, reading Helen Mantel's latest, suddenly burst out laughing after lunch and spluttered until she turned puce.  The passage that got her began:

On Shrove Tuesday, the priest abased himself on the flags of St. Pauls...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 29 April, 2020, 04:59:20 pm
What with Mr Stephenson having written a couple more sturdy boks since the last time I looked I am now a third of the way through Fall: or Dodge In Hell, wot is a sort of sequel to Reamde, unites the universes of that book with that of Cryptonomicon and has some pertinent observations on the malignant power of social media, which I think the author would like to uninvent.  Also it's got Enoch Root in it.

He looks like a weird bugger!
I'd never heard of him until now, and he's got quite a back catalogue; which book do you recommend for starters?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 29 April, 2020, 05:06:03 pm
I've just finished Beloved Poison by E S Thomson.
It's either a gothick crime thriller or a horror detective novel, set in a London hospital in the 1840s.
Well written, with characters that I cared about and lots of historical, technical and anatomical detail.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 April, 2020, 11:26:31 am
False Values by Ben Aaronovitch - complete with glow in the dark front cover
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bludger on 30 April, 2020, 11:27:49 am
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein which feels pretty apt.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 April, 2020, 11:41:26 am
What with Mr Stephenson having written a couple more sturdy boks since the last time I looked I am now a third of the way through Fall: or Dodge In Hell, wot is a sort of sequel to Reamde, unites the universes of that book with that of Cryptonomicon and has some pertinent observations on the malignant power of social media, which I think the author would like to uninvent.  Also it's got Enoch Root in it.

He looks like a weird bugger!
I'd never heard of him until now, and he's got quite a back catalogue; which book do you recommend for starters?

I started off with Snow Crash and worked forward. Liked them all except Seveneves, which is entertaining enough but left me with a sprained credulity.  Anathem was so good I re-read it immediately on finishing it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 April, 2020, 12:07:37 pm
What with Mr Stephenson having written a couple more sturdy boks since the last time I looked I am now a third of the way through Fall: or Dodge In Hell, wot is a sort of sequel to Reamde, unites the universes of that book with that of Cryptonomicon and has some pertinent observations on the malignant power of social media, which I think the author would like to uninvent.  Also it's got Enoch Root in it.

He looks like a weird bugger!
I'd never heard of him until now, and he's got quite a back catalogue; which book do you recommend for starters?

I started off with Snow Crash and worked forward. Liked them all except Seveneves, which is entertaining enough but left me with a sprained credulity.  Anathem was so good I re-read it immediately on finishing it.

The first one I read was Cryptonomicon which, in spite of being firmly rooted in 90s technology hasn't dated at all badly, which is always a danger when tech is involved.  Seveneves was better second time around but still not that wonderful while The Diamond Age, er, wasn't.  +1 for Snow Crash as an introduction and don't start The Baroque Cycle unless you're sure you'll have Copious Free Time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 30 April, 2020, 01:13:28 pm
Starting at the beginning of A Song Of Ice And Fire again.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 30 April, 2020, 01:43:43 pm
Starting at the beginning of A Song Of Ice And Fire again.

And by the time you've finished A Dance With Dragons, The Winds Of Winter still won't be out...  :demon:

(Joking apart, I do get an impression from the last time I read his blog that GRRM being holed up in self-isolation (his age and BMI put him well into being at risk from coronalurgi) might actually be helping his work-rate.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 30 April, 2020, 03:34:25 pm
Thank you, T42 and Mr Larrington. Snow Crash it is.

Currently, I'm reading Mr Finchley Discovers His England by Victor Canning. I enjoyed the BBC radio dramatisations. It offers a spell of light relief between beloved Poison and Snow Crash.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 April, 2020, 04:58:25 pm
What with Mr Stephenson having written a couple more sturdy boks since the last time I looked I am now a third of the way through Fall: or Dodge In Hell, wot is a sort of sequel to Reamde, unites the universes of that book with that of Cryptonomicon and has some pertinent observations on the malignant power of social media, which I think the author would like to uninvent.  Also it's got Enoch Root in it.

He looks like a weird bugger!
I'd never heard of him until now, and he's got quite a back catalogue; which book do you recommend for starters?

I started off with Snow Crash and worked forward. Liked them all except Seveneves, which is entertaining enough but left me with a sprained credulity.  Anathem was so good I re-read it immediately on finishing it.

The first one I read was Cryptonomicon which, in spite of being firmly rooted in 90s technology hasn't dated at all badly, which is always a danger when tech is involved.  Seveneves was better second time around but still not that wonderful while The Diamond Age, er, wasn't.  +1 for Snow Crash as an introduction and don't start The Baroque Cycle unless you're sure you'll have Copious Free Time.

I rather liked The Diamond Age.  We have The Baroque Cycle in hardback. It came with a wrist brace and a tube of ibuprofen ointment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 30 April, 2020, 07:03:43 pm
Cycle rides around London  by Charles g
 Harper
Written in 1902
Might try some of the routes to see what changed when the lockdown ends   :)
Hopefully next week I can get with cyclists around the world by adi b hakim,lal p bapasola
And rustom b bhumgara
On the 15 October 1923 a group of Indian cyclists left Bombay to ride around the world  and this is a record of their trip.
When I have read it I will review it on hear  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 03 May, 2020, 08:14:11 pm
So I have read it and and recommend it to the house  :thumbsup:
There are a few black and white pictures at the end of the book but the places and sights are described very well  . The  bikes were single speed and heavily overloaded. In all a very interesting view of the world in the 20 s  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 12 May, 2020, 05:03:40 pm
Currently reading, amongst other things, Moby Dick. Can't say I'm enthralled so far.
Bloody finally. More like Moby What A Dick! Took ages because I could only bear a few pages at a time.

Still that's the 27th book of the year done and dusted.

And I started the first Expanse book a couple days ago and enjoying it much more.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 23 May, 2020, 01:23:43 am
Keyes' Flowers for Algernon - Good read, well written, reasonably predictable though.
Delaney's Nova - Not Babel-17.  Some good ideas but the core of the story is lacking.
Tevis' Mockingbird - very much Farenheit 451.  Enjoying it so far (but early days).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 May, 2020, 08:33:45 am
Pietr le Letton, the first Maigret novel.  When we first came to France we bought one a week from the local supermarket, and by the time a university friend visited us we had quite a shelf-full. He dived on them and then said "shit, they're in French". ;D

Anyway, although we still have around 50 of them they're all crack-spined, so I picked up an eBook containing the first 8 or 9 and I'm revising my 30's French. Social history, too; e.g. did you know they used to have floating laundries on the Seine?  Oh, and Maigret's favourite gris tobacco was one of the reasons I quit pipe-smoking: the wretched stuff nearly burnt through my tongue.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 23 May, 2020, 10:23:37 am
Maigret is a totally different experience in the French speaking world that in English.  If you grew up with the English series I would recommend the Bruno Cremer series as being a billionty times better and a truer representation of the books.
Nice tip, I haven't read in French in so long, I might give it a try.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 May, 2020, 02:10:33 pm
Maigret is a totally different experience in the French speaking world that in English.  If you grew up with the English series I would recommend the Bruno Cremer series as being a billionty times better and a truer representation of the books.
Nice tip, I haven't read in French in so long, I might give it a try.

I'm spending more time following stuff up in the dictionary and on the Internet than I am reading.  When all your French-speaking chums use Alsacien for preference your vocab doesn't get a lot of exercise.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 23 May, 2020, 09:43:26 pm
My gast was flabbered when I met Alsacians who barely spoke French.  I thought it was dying out now though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 May, 2020, 09:31:33 am
Between Strasbourg & the northern frontier with Germany it still persists, getting stronger as you move north. South of Strasbourg it pretty well fades out.  The kids up here speak it less and less, too.

Latest Maigret gem is fil-en-six: Before WW2 the strength of spirits used to be indicated by loops of string knotted round the neck of the bottle, presumably for people who couldn't read the labels. The more loops, the stronger the drink.  Fil-en-six was eau-de-vie, around 40% alcohol.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 24 May, 2020, 10:22:58 am
 Blazing bicycle saddles  by James Clarke.
Enjoyable funny cycle touring in Europe   :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 25 May, 2020, 01:47:11 am
From Bicycle to Superbike - didn't realise it was part biography/interviews/outtakes and part about the bikes.  I would have enjoyed more of mike's musings about the bikes he made.
Mr L gets an honorable mention partway through.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 06 June, 2020, 12:52:00 pm
Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness.  Too early to comment atm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 June, 2020, 07:50:43 pm
The Sledge Patrol ~ David Howarth.  WW2 true tale of derring-do in eastern Greenland, from the former 2IC of the Shetland Bus operation.  May contain Nazis or traces of Nazis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 June, 2020, 08:21:20 pm
The Guards by Ken Bruen, the first of the Jack Taylor stories. Quite a bit darker than the TV series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 07 June, 2020, 10:12:12 am
1356 by Bernard Cornwell.
The fourth in the Grail trilogy and my fourth or fifth time of reading.
Usual excellent characterisation and battle description and plots getting a little 'samey' which doesn't seem to happen in the 12 books of the Uhtred series.
You don't need wizards and dragons for good historical novels although a witch or heretic helps.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 07 June, 2020, 11:17:46 am
Interesting (to me) coincidence - just finished reading (Mockingbird or Nova, not sure) where they talk about how the Grail saga is cursed an all authors/playwrites/bards/etc die before finishing the series.
Possibly just a 1960s "Fun" "Fact".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 June, 2020, 11:31:45 am
5th or 6th Maigret in a row.  Late gleanings are that, in 1930, $100 got you around 2500 frs, two caviare sandwiches and vodka to accompany would rush you 60,- frs at La Coupole, and a delivery man on a cargo trike earned around 600,- frs/month, poor bugger.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 10 June, 2020, 08:52:48 am
Have you started the Capp'en Fitzroy yet, T42?  Because I'm childcaring/homeschooling/working, I fall asleep after a few lines each evening, so I'm still going after (checks thread back in time) four months(!).  It's bloody excellent, though. (This Thing Of Darkness - Harry Thompson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Thompson))
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 June, 2020, 10:15:50 am
The Drakes Drum trilogy by Nicholas Summer.

Its an interesting counterfactual history of Britain in the 20th century. Slight changes have big effects:

Churchill gets run over and killed in New York before he can become PM
Mosley becomes leader of the British Labour Party in the 1930s
A report on the cost and benefits of The Empire leads to India being given its freedom before WWII
FDR doesn't win a second term as POTUS
Pericval is removed as a he felt to be not up to defending Singapore

It's well researched and full of detail on politics, economics and military strategy. It's told in the form of exerts of from radio and TV interviews, news papers and historical books written from 1930 to this century (also fictional of course). A few personal stories thrown in to add some human interest.

Finished the first two but the final part hasn't been published yet :(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 June, 2020, 10:42:03 am
Have you started the Capp'en Fitzroy yet, T42?  Because I'm childcaring/homeschooling/working, I fall asleep after a few lines each evening, so I'm still going after (checks thread back in time) four months(!).  It's bloody excellent, though. (This Thing Of Darkness - Harry Thompson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Thompson))

Not yet.  I did download the sample but couldn't settle to it.  My concentration's pretty shot these days, for various reasons.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 10 June, 2020, 03:31:01 pm
Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness.  Too early to comment atm.
Possibly my favourite book EVAH
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SiD on 10 June, 2020, 05:07:28 pm
The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov (2011)
Boy but did he have a crystal ball!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 10 June, 2020, 06:15:04 pm
Just started 'Humankind' by Rutger Bregman. I needed a bit of cheering up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 12 June, 2020, 04:13:40 pm
Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness.  Too early to comment atm.
Possibly my favourite book EVAH
Only 1/3 of the way through.  It's not grabbed me like "The Dispossessed" did, but then I picked that one up on spec with no idea what it would be about (having read the Earthsea trilogy over 20 years earlier and only knowing Le Guin as another author of Tolkein style Fantasy) and was so impressed I bought my sister a copy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 12 June, 2020, 07:21:32 pm
Late to the party, but I have just started "Bury Them Deep" Inspector McLean #10.

All good so far.

This is following on from "Singing to the Dead"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 12 June, 2020, 07:30:03 pm
I've been slow recently but I finished the first Expanse book last night.

I will be getting the next one
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andyoxon on 15 June, 2020, 04:41:11 pm
I've been slow recently but I finished the first Expanse book last night.

I will be getting the next one

Listening rather than reading, but I've just finished (audio*) book 8:  Tiamats Wrath.   One of the best IMO.  Looking forward to the final (print) book, later this year apparently.   I watched the Expanse online too, before going to the novels, so had a mental image of the TV characters...

* can get two novels with the free Audible [amazon] trial (2 free credits).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 19 June, 2020, 12:03:05 am
Stewart's Earth Abides.  A virus has killed off mankind see ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 June, 2020, 09:06:15 am
Stewart's Earth Abides.  A virus has killed off mankind see ...

That used to be one of our favourite books before it fell apart from being read too often.

His Fire is well worth the read, as is Storm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 20 June, 2020, 12:20:05 am
I can always count on you to know what I;m currently reading!
I'm haphazardly working my way through SF Masters.  I have a couple more new authors to explore before I investigate more by the same author, but thanks for the recommendation. 
(To be fair I'm not sure that I will hack "Stand on Zanzibar")
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Beardy on 20 June, 2020, 01:07:20 am
I’m currently listening to Dune having read it as yoof. I don’t reread books because it annoys me when I remember what’s coming and being dyslexic I’ve never really been able to enjoy the writing. However, I’m totally entranced by it, and having read some a lot of ‘pulp’ nd self published stuff recently, I’m appreciating the value of a well written script. Wonderful.

I’m also reading The Kings Watch series by Mark Hayden, and while it’s enjoyable and easy to read, it’s really not in the same league as Frank.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 June, 2020, 09:07:34 am
After 7½ books in a row I've left Maigret sitting over his fine à l'eau in a bar in Fécamp while he waits for the murderer to crack and spill the haricots. For a break I'm catching up on classic SF from my pre-spotty youf, in the shape of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, which I didn't care to be seen reading when it came out because of the lurid cover and potential parental disparagement.  My dad used to grow disaparagus under a bucket in the garden, alongside the rhubarb, and he always had lots to spare. Served it up with vinegar, too.  Anyway, I read yest that the book was several autobahns better than the film, which I once tried to watch without a sick-bag, so I've downloaded a free sample and I'll see.

BTW, Google Books has two editions available, one of the 2€ dearer than the other.  Funny thing: the pricier one downloads in a flash, whereas the el cheapo just hangs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 20 June, 2020, 11:12:45 am
(To be fair I'm not sure that I will hack "Stand on Zanzibar")
It's one of my favourites!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 June, 2020, 11:39:36 am
My recently unsolicited copy of Jasper Winn's "Water Ways".  It's good enough, but Paul Gogarty's "The Water Road" is streets better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 20 June, 2020, 11:55:38 am
T42 - Starship Troopers is on my list.  I thought the film was enjoyable because Dougie Howser.
nicknack - I'm cautious of any book where you read the first two chapters and not only does nothing happen, but you have no idea what's going on.  It's like the book is constantly shouting random lines from a post-apocalyptic twitter at me.
(I'll be locked out of reading soon as my son will be commandeering the kindle).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 20 June, 2020, 12:05:04 pm
Three body problem by Liu Cixin

Chinese SF - first in a series of 3 books concerning Earths discovery and interaction with a neighboring civilisation
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 20 June, 2020, 01:11:16 pm
(To be fair I'm not sure that I will hack "Stand on Zanzibar")
It's one of my favourites!


A classic , along with "The Sheep Look Up".    Didn't like "The Jagged Orbit" very much. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 June, 2020, 01:41:34 pm
T42 - Starship Troopers is on my list.  I thought the film was enjoyable because Dougie Howser.

Never heard of him; and I'm back to Maigret.  ST is just too... jerky.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 20 June, 2020, 02:39:33 pm
You should (not) try "Stand on Zanzibar"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 June, 2020, 03:16:36 pm
I read it when it came out. Great book.  Of course, some tech now seems a bit quaint but he got a lot of the mores right, although we haven't quite reached the point where advertising hoardings deliver their messages "from the yawning crotch of a receptive shiggy".

Wonderful how some phrases stick in the mind.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Beardy on 21 June, 2020, 02:55:09 am
I found starship trooper ver 'boys own' but as I wasn’t much beyond boyhood when I read it I quite enjoyed it. I seem to remember there were 6 books in that series.

I enjoyed Three Body Problem but haven’t read any of the sequels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 June, 2020, 10:25:27 am
I think I mentioned that I read Starship Troopers a while back. It was quite possibly the most awful thing I've read (and I've read some awful stuff). The movie seems to take its fascistic militarism with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The book, erm, doesn't.

But the worst crime was that it was intensely dull. Nothing much happened to people who weren't very interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 June, 2020, 11:18:48 am
According to Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers), Heinlein wrote it as a reaction to the US stopping nuclear testing.  I fell off the end of the eBook free sample and went back to Maigret.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 22 June, 2020, 12:46:33 pm
A Delicate Storm, the second Cardinal from Giles Blunt. It’s quite nice having the voices from the TV series in my head, they’re a good fit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 22 June, 2020, 03:19:58 pm
My reading during the pandemic - it's surprising how much you can get through when you're not spending 2-3 hours cycle commuting every weekday -:
Camus - The Plague. Not as many laughs as I'd remembered/hoped for.
Defoe - Diary of a Plague Year - Lasted to page 10 before deciding I needed a change of subject and gave in.
Mantel - The Mirror and the Light - a bit of a plod at times but glad to have finished the trilogy, and a comfort at times to go to bed and immerse myself in a well-realized world which was so much different from today's. And yet...
Sarah Gran - the Claire DeWitt trilogy. Gritty, compromised, woman PI. Funny and surprising. There's an overarching story for the 3, which stretches credulity, but knits them all together. Not that they can't be read individually. I preferred the New Orleans post-Katrina one - the first - to the LA ones, but all good.
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest. Hard work. Struggled on for a while before deciding life's too short.
Ruth Rendell - The Bridesmaid. More like a Barbara Vine than a Ruth Rendell. A slow-burning psychological thriller. Like a long Simenon without the detective. A bit disturbing but easy to read.
Trollope - The Warden. Re-read. Don't know why. Found it tedious this time round. I now have second thoughts about embarking on Barchester Towers, which is on the pile.
Agatha Christie - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Say no more.
2 of the 3 Mick Herron Slow Horses spy thrillers. As (checking through this thread...) also enjoyed by rafletcher. Saving the third until I get a thirst for thrillers again (currently slaked).
Justin Torres - We The Animals. Recommended by a stranger on the internet and took a punt on it because it was 99p on Kindle - this turned out to be good value for money. Series of vignettes from the viewpoint of the youngest of three boys, through his adolescence, in a struggling mixed Puerto Rican/white family. Just found out that a film was made of it in 2018.
McEwan - The Cement Garden. Thought I'd go back to my reading list from 35 years ago, and am considering Banks' The Wasp Factory (or should I consider Consider Phlebas?) again for similar nostalgic reasons.

Am going to go for Philip Roth next. Not had the pleasure before. Any recommendations? I thought, maybe, Goodbye Columbus because it's short (in case I don't like it) and the first of a series (in case I do). But it's also his first so may not be as good as later ones.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 June, 2020, 04:16:59 pm
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest. Hard work. Struggled on for a while before deciding life's too short.

Especially given the circumstances.  I gave up on that one too, but not before tendinitis set in from holding it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 11 July, 2020, 02:08:53 pm
Finished "Earth Abides", it was worth finishing but it did feel like a book written by a Geographer.  I far preferred "Where late the Sweet Birds Sang". 

Reading the complete Sherlock Holmes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 12 July, 2020, 07:25:11 am
Haven't read any Sherlock Holmes for a long while
The book of Starship Troopers, agree that was dull as ditchwater

Just finished Millennium by Ben Nova, somewhat apocryphal perhaps?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 July, 2020, 08:02:58 am
Picked up Neal Stephenson's entire Baroque Trilogy for something like 5€. >2,300 pp. Read it a couple of times already but at that price...  Also, his book Fall; or Dodge in Hell, which I haven't already read. Reading that now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 12 July, 2020, 08:57:52 am
I had another moon rebellion based book, but can't blooming find it, was looking forward to another read of that after Millenium

Annoying thing is I can vaguely remember the plot, but not title or author, though I'd recognise it on the bookshelf.  Maybe its one of those I  took somewhere and deliberately left it to be passed around
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 July, 2020, 12:09:08 pm
I had another moon rebellion based book, but can't blooming find it, was looking forward to another read of that after Millenium

Annoying thing is I can vaguely remember the plot, but not title or author, though I'd recognise it on the bookshelf.  Maybe its one of those I  took somewhere and deliberately left it to be passed around

Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress"?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 12 July, 2020, 05:03:22 pm
Possibly, another moon revolt job?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 12 July, 2020, 05:13:39 pm
Yup, with a sentient computer called Mike who slings rocks at Earth.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 12 July, 2020, 09:10:25 pm
Yup, with a sentient computer called Mike who slings rocks at Earth.

That's the one,
Cigar for Mr 42, or a good drop of whatever you fancy
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 13 July, 2020, 12:03:34 am
Heart of Darkness and Good Omens on the queue to dip in between Conan Doyles.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 13 July, 2020, 05:50:27 am
Heart of Darkness is a great read, there's not much of Conrad that isn't
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 August, 2020, 11:26:44 pm
Cry Baby, the umpteenth instalment of Mark Billingham's long-running DI Thorne series.  Except it isn’t, because it turns out it’s actually a prequel to Sleepyhead aka Thorne 1.0.  Early doors yet but there's been a nice juicy killin'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 August, 2020, 11:27:12 am
Good: Thorne refers to John Selwyn Gummer as an arsehole :thumbsup:
Not good: Fiesta Cosworth?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 09 August, 2020, 10:11:33 pm
I found starship trooper ver 'boys own' but as I wasn’t much beyond boyhood when I read it I quite enjoyed it. I seem to remember there were 6 books in that series.

I enjoyed Three Body Problem but haven’t read any of the sequels.

Nope. Starship Troopers is a standalone.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 09 August, 2020, 10:23:18 pm
Yup, with a sentient computer called Mike who slings rocks at Earth.

That's the one,
Cigar for Mr 42, or a good drop of whatever you fancy

First book I thought of!

Heinlein is someone who could write well, and carry a story, as well as challenge preconceptions. His description of the US juvenile-into-adult justice system in the USA was spot on* (pity about his proposed solution, though)

What grates about him now (in my experience) is that I see far more clearly his obsessions, particularly in intergenerational sex. Putting aside the incest in "Time Enough for Love", you see the same 'little girl becoming older male relative's partner' trope in everything from 'Door into Summer'. an adult book, to 'Time for the Stars', allegedly a young person's book, by way of 'Farnham's Freehold'. Alpha male gets very young bride, in essence.

*In essence, he criticised the then-current US juvenile system and compared bringing up a child to bringing up a dog the wrong way. You see the puppy make messes in the house, so you just lock it up for a few hours before letting it out again. After a year of this, you realise that the dog is now an adult, so the next time it pees on the carpet, you shoot it dead.

Another quote from that one was about the phrase "juvenile delinquent", where "delinquent" means failing in responsibility, while "juvenile" means too young to exercise responsibility in the first place.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 August, 2020, 04:52:55 pm
Having reached the end of Cry Baby it turned out to be a prequel in chronological terms only, being set against a backdrop of Euro '96, with killin's.

(click to show/hide)

Now on Ben Aaronovitch's “False Value” which I should have read four months ago. The cover glows in the dark.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 13 August, 2020, 08:07:42 am
Cryptonomicon, again.  Great fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 13 August, 2020, 11:02:33 am
Read some sci-fi (ob-trilogy) because who doesn't like battles in space (the people in them, probably). Entertaining enough, though the author has a strange insistence on using imperial units, and I don't mean stormtroopers, I mean yeards, feet and inches and that stuff. I have no idea now how long a yard is and I doubt anyone will in several centuries. I have a feeling I can accurately deduce the author's political views.

Re-reading Queen and Country because it was cheap on Kindle the other week, and it still makes me chortle enough to re-froth up the bath suds. The chapter about being forced to read literature as a schoolchild is still very good (and accurate).

And Kat Arney's Rebel Cell about cancer and genetics (if anyone is interested in my discursions into genetics, pick up her previous book Herding Hemingway's Cats, where she does it a lot better without resorting to making Usain Bolt run through treacle, though I bet she would if she could).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 19 August, 2020, 06:26:30 pm
The Joyful Environmentalist    .....    https://www.isabellosada.com/the-joyful-environmentalist (https://www.isabellosada.com/the-joyful-environmentalist)     landed on my doormat today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 28 August, 2020, 10:47:37 am
Just finished Exactly by Simon Winchester, the history of metrological precision. Really engaging and fascinating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 August, 2020, 01:13:18 pm
Wandering through The Baroque Trilogy and taking time to savour it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 28 August, 2020, 05:48:09 pm
Quote from: ian
... I have no idea now how long a yard is and I doubt anyone will in several centuries.
Oh, I'm sure they will as long as authors are still churning out historical fiction.  The longbow hasn't been cutting edge military technology in Europe for 6 or 7 centuries but people still know about them thanks to scribblers like Wm. Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, G. A. Henty* and others regaling us with tales of Agincourt & times mediaeval.  I *bet* W.S. turned out at least one Robin Hood pot-boiler for the Saturday matinees.

Quote from: ian
I have a feeling I can accurately deduce the author's political views.
Hmmm.  You might be able to have a stab at the author's generation, but not necessarily his or her political standpoint, unless you have other evidence that you are withholding.


*More contemporary authors are (probably) available.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 28 August, 2020, 05:49:59 pm
The Golem and the Djinni (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golem_and_the_Jinni).  Rather enjoying it so far.

Before that it was Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Views_of_Olduvai_Gorge).  Mid 90s SciFi, and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.  How it could have won anything is a mystery to me.  Perhaps there wasn't any competition at the time.  It felt a bit like something written in the 1950s.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 August, 2020, 06:24:37 pm
Oh, I'm sure they will as long as authors are still churning out historical fiction.  The longbow hasn't been cutting edge military technology in Europe for 6 or 7 centuries but people still know about them thanks to scribblers like Wm. Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, G. A. Henty* and others regaling us with tales of Agincourt & times mediaeval.  I *bet* W.S. turned out at least one Robin Hood pot-boiler for the Saturday matinees.

See also Flanders & Swann's take on “Greenfleeves” (http://www.beachmedia.com/gorbuduc.shtml), wot DJ Random handily played me yesterday.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 28 August, 2020, 07:35:47 pm
Stalingrad - Vasily Grossman

A 20th century War and Peace and almost as long. It's the prequel to Life and Fate his most famous novel. He always intended it to be a two book series and wrote Stalingrad first but it was mangled by the Soviet censors and a good English translation of the unbowdlerized text wasn't available until recently. Mrs Pcolbeck bought it for my birthday and I am enjoying it very much.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 29 August, 2020, 04:38:15 pm
Now on Ben Aaronovitch's “False Value” which I should have read four months ago. The cover glows in the dark.

I wouldn't bother. Mr Aa seems to have fallen down the cookie cutter trap and is milking it.

Each successive book seems to dumb things down a bit more. Not sure I will read any more of his books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 29 August, 2020, 04:41:03 pm
Stalingrad - Vasily Grossman

A 20th century War and Peace and almost as long. It's the prequel to Life and Fate his most famous novel. He always intended it to be a two book series and wrote Stalingrad first but it was mangled by the Soviet censors and a good English translation of the unbowdlerized text wasn't available until recently. Mrs Pcolbeck bought it for my birthday and I am enjoying it very much.

Must have a go at that. Life & Fate was great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 August, 2020, 06:06:58 pm
Now on Ben Aaronovitch's “False Value” which I should have read four months ago. The cover glows in the dark.

I wouldn't bother. Mr Aa seems to have fallen down the cookie cutter trap and is milking it.

Each successive book seems to dumb things down a bit more. Not sure I will read any more of his books.

It made this Unit laugh.  I am irredeemably shallow :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 September, 2020, 10:16:27 am
I confess, I struggled with Ben Aaronovitch's books – I should like them, and I don't necessarily not like them, but I'm always left feeling a bit meh and I quickly forget them. And really, how many books is it going to take before he gets any good at the magic lark? He's still going to be an apprentice in his 80s.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 01 September, 2020, 10:29:40 am
Upheaval by Jared Diamond. I'm a bit of a sucker for his work.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 01 September, 2020, 03:10:49 pm
I confess, I struggled with Ben Aaronovitch's books – I should like them, and I don't necessarily not like them, but I'm always left feeling a bit meh and I quickly forget them. And really, how many books is it going to take before he gets any good at the magic lark? He's still going to be an apprentice in his 80s.
I've just binge-listened them all over the last week(ish) in preparation for the latest which I realised arrived without me noticing in my Audible Library. In my mind as BAa is a Dr Who Writer, so his works will be ephemeral. Do they need to be memorable?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 September, 2020, 03:21:53 pm
I confess, I struggled with Ben Aaronovitch's books – I should like them, and I don't necessarily not like them, but I'm always left feeling a bit meh and I quickly forget them. And really, how many books is it going to take before he gets any good at the magic lark? He's still going to be an apprentice in his 80s.
I've just binge-listened them all over the last week(ish) in preparation for the latest which I realised arrived without me noticing in my Audible Library. In my mind as BAa is a Dr Who Writer, so his works will be ephemeral. Do they need to be memorable?

That's the thing, I have to re-read the previous one, which I generally don't have to. It's mostly an internal conflict, I ought to love them as I'm spookily minded, but somehow find them a bit meh. I'm not sure why and it just seems to be me.

I'm the person who doesn't really like Dr Who though, so perhaps that explains it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 September, 2020, 03:46:52 pm
Nah. I quite like Aa but I can't stand DrW.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 01 September, 2020, 04:03:07 pm

Now on Ben Aaronovitch's “False Value” which I should have read four months ago. The cover glows in the dark.

Got yourself a Kindle, then?

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 01 September, 2020, 05:03:46 pm
Looks like I've not posted here at all...

After flying through La Pest (in English) earlier this year, I've been struggling through Tim Moore's Spanish Steps as I'm finding it distinctly average.
Not good enough to want to get to reading time and extract myself away from a computer before bed time (This is partly Epics fault for giving CIV 6 away for free), but good enough to have battered out a few chapters when I was up at Tummel for a few days at the caravan.

Just like Shinto I need some encouragement to get on with it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 September, 2020, 06:26:13 pm
Nah. I quite like Aa but I can't stand DrW.

There are two of us then. It was OK when I was a kid, but now, it's twee rubbish.

I recently read The Light Brigade, which I enjoyed. It's an enjoyably snarky take-down of the execrable boy's-own guide to fascism that is Starship Troopers muddled with an entertaining time romp (with a good few nods to Vonnegut) that I could almost keep straight. It could have been a derivative mess, but seemed to work out fine, without overtying its shoelaces and tripping over the resulting knotted contradictions that come with any time travel story.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 01 September, 2020, 07:57:43 pm
Nah. I quite like Aa but I can't stand DrW.

There are two of us then. It was OK when I was a kid, but now, it's twee rubbish.


I'm old; I saw the first Dr Who, and considered it to be puerile rubbish.
Therefore, we are now three. Anyone else?

As for Ben Aaronovitch, I mostly enjoyed reading the Peter Grant novels, but the last one seemed somewhat flat; as if Writing it was a contractual obligation
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 September, 2020, 08:27:49 pm
Nah. I quite like Aa but I can't stand DrW.

There are two of us then. It was OK when I was a kid, but now, it's twee rubbish.


I'm old; I saw the first Dr Who, and considered it to be puerile rubbish.
Therefore, we are now three. Anyone else?

As for Ben Aaronovitch, I mostly enjoyed reading the Peter Grant novels, but the last one seemed somewhat flat; as if Writing it was a contractual obligation

I assume he got paid for a series (in which case good for him) but yes, I find they don't move on much. Peter does some police paperwork, learns 1/467th of a new spell, then goes home to a goddess who is literally domestic. I think I enjoyed the first couple but I couldn't say what happened in the most recent one, it sort of slid out of my mind. Horses for courses, I suppose.

Same for Dr Who, I'm not sure if it's just resurgant nostalgia, my wife seems to like it, but I find it a bit annoying, cheesy stories, poor acting, and I've never clear the tone. Is it supposed to funny or serious? Quite possibly it's too clever for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 04 September, 2020, 04:29:57 pm
The Three Body Problem Cixin Lui.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 September, 2020, 05:23:42 pm
Belatedly starting Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series.  Indications good thus far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 September, 2020, 08:39:41 pm
The Three Body Problem Cixin Lui.

I'm pretty sure that this book bored me so much that bits of my brain fell off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 September, 2020, 12:41:56 pm
Belatedly starting Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series.  Indications good thus far.

Hurrah: quoting the lyrics of Half Man Half Biscuit's “The Best Things In Life” :thumbsup:
Bah: getting them wrong. “Writing”, not “drawing” >:(
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 September, 2020, 12:51:40 pm
The Three Body Problem Cixin Lui.

I'm pretty sure that this book bored me so much that bits of my brain fell off.

In memory I continually mix up the first bit of this with another whose first section is called The Tea Shack. This latter is delightful but the rest of the book not so much.  I'd rather like to roll the two together into a sort-of The Three-Body Tea Shack.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 05 September, 2020, 03:15:57 pm
Belatedly starting Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series.  Indications good thus far.


Speaking of Mr Stross......   



https://twitter.com/cstross/status/1302243803965919232?s=20
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 September, 2020, 05:26:02 pm
Belatedly starting Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series.  Indications good thus far.


Speaking of Mr Stross......   



https://twitter.com/cstross/status/1302243803965919232?s=20

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 22 September, 2020, 01:34:08 pm
Boy's Life, by Robert R. McCammon.  Lots of scene-setting, 1960s atmosphere, and character development, quite reminiscent of some of Stephen King's non-supernatural writing.  I've been enjoying it a lot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 September, 2020, 01:53:11 pm
“O goody!” exclaimed Mr Larrington during his weekly pilgrimage to Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles. “A new Jo Nesbø!”  Specifically The Kingdom.  Not a Harry Hole novel.  It joins the sizeable “to-read” pile which still contains, for starters, half the Laundry Files and new-ish boks from Carl Hiaasen and Val McDermid.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 22 September, 2020, 03:38:35 pm
Just finished "Sicily 1943" and am well stuck into "Italy’s Sorrow: A Year of War 1944–45" both by James Holland

The Italian campaign really was a nasty deadly slug fest for both the military and civilians caught in the middle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 22 September, 2020, 03:41:55 pm
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman of whose House of Games and weekly lockdown quiz I am a fan.

This book is also good, not least because of the short chapters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 23 September, 2020, 01:07:46 pm
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman of whose House of Games and weekly lockdown quiz I am a fan.

This book is also good, not least because of the short chapters.
Mr Big River is trying to entice me to buy that for Kindle, probably because I bought some Anthony Horowitz a while back...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 23 September, 2020, 11:33:34 pm
The Book of Hidden Things.
I liked the cultural references to walkmen and times before mobile phones and the internet.  There was some good stuff in there but ultimately to be GOOD it needed more work.  6/10
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 24 September, 2020, 10:41:34 am
Trying to prove myself wrong by reading the latest Rivers of London book. It's OK. I think the issue is that he spends ages on minutiae that don't really move the plot forward. Honestly, I swear I read eight pages about him watching some CCTV footage of someone in a cubical, another entire chapter dedicated to a party in the park. It all adds up, and if you've a limited attention span like me, you forget what the actual plot is supposed to be, since the last mention of it was a couple of chapters back. Oh yes, that. I'm at 50% and I could detail everything that's actually happened and is relevant to the plot with a single sentence. I'm not sure I'd even need a comma.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 24 September, 2020, 11:44:57 am
I must admit later on in that book he was referring to a character and I didn't know who it was.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 September, 2020, 01:15:26 pm
I must admit later on in that book he was referring to a character and I didn't know who it was.

That's why I use eBooks these days.  Search button.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 24 September, 2020, 01:35:18 pm
I'm sure one of the characters introduced early turned from female to male in the space of two pages, which must count as a really quick sex change. JK Rowling would be furious. Or quite possibly I missed something. He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 25 September, 2020, 12:07:59 am
He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.

Some authors seem to make a habit of that.  Like they're trying to make it easier to remember who everyone is...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 September, 2020, 10:25:32 am
I confess I'm generally against the intros that begin with a long introduction as to what the character's hair colour, eye, skin colour is, and what they're wearing if it's of no real relevance to the story being told. This information can be imparted, as necessary, in the narrative. It's a lot less clunky to mention that 'she raised her glasses to get a better look' then tell me, the first introduction, a full description including her eye prescription. Unless, of course, this is a clever way of expressing Peter's police procedural outlook where he compiles a description of everyone he meets. But it's still a bit annoying for the casual reader.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 25 September, 2020, 10:53:55 am
I shall be pleased to get my hands (literally) on a real book this afternoon, the first since Herts. libraries went into lockdown in March.  The kindle has been useful, but for some strange reason, not as enjoyable as a physical book. Plus I don't buy books, only borrow them, and of course I can't borrow to the kindle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 25 September, 2020, 03:11:39 pm
Belatedly starting Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series.  Indications good thus far.


Speaking of Mr Stross......   



https://twitter.com/cstross/status/1302243803965919232?s=20

 :thumbsup:

Just pre-ordered Dead Lies Dreaming.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! Ia!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 25 September, 2020, 03:55:48 pm
I'm sure one of the characters introduced early turned from female to male in the space of two pages, which must count as a really quick sex change. JK Rowling would be furious. Or quite possibly I missed something. He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.

If you missed something, I missed the same thing... I wondered if that character might be trans However, I couldn't be arsed to pursue the matter.

I think that the Peter Grant series has now reached a logical end; the last one seems like a potboiler. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 September, 2020, 08:18:17 pm
I'm sure one of the characters introduced early turned from female to male in the space of two pages, which must count as a really quick sex change. JK Rowling would be furious. Or quite possibly I missed something. He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.

If you missed something, I missed the same thing... I wondered if that character might be trans However, I couldn't be arsed to pursue the matter.

I think that the Peter Grant series has now reached a logical end; the last one seems like a potboiler.

Glad it wasn't just me. It just seems cluttered with unnecessary detail which, to be honest, obscures the plot. Last night's chapter included everyone getting a 'New York Chinese' and, erm, eating it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 25 September, 2020, 09:45:54 pm
I'm sure one of the characters introduced early turned from female to male in the space of two pages, which must count as a really quick sex change. JK Rowling would be furious. Or quite possibly I missed something. He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.

If you missed something, I missed the same thing... I wondered if that character might be trans However, I couldn't be arsed to pursue the matter.

I think that the Peter Grant series has now reached a logical end; the last one seems like a potboiler.

Glad it wasn't just me. It just seems cluttered with unnecessary detail which, to be honest, obscures the plot. Last night's chapter included everyone getting a 'New York Chinese' and, erm, eating it.


Maybe the spurious detail is there to hide the lack of content, characterisation , narrative development and plot.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 September, 2020, 10:46:57 am
Yeah, I got to the end, and a big meh to False Values. Like I say, it's always been a series that I figured I'd like more than I did, but they were an OK read. Should have probably called it a day when the Faceless Man got his.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 September, 2020, 11:15:57 am
From what Mr Aaronovitch said at Miss von Brandenburg's local bookshop last year, the next one is likely to feature a goodly amount of Abigail.  He also spoke of setting one in or around Furryboottoon, as an act of revenge on Stuart MacBride.  The thought of Nightingale meeting D/S Steel fills me with joy :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 September, 2020, 12:28:10 pm
Maybe that's where Future Peter is, casting his eye back on current events. Oh, if only he knew then what he knows now. If only! I'm a bit surprised that he didn't wake up at the end to find that it had all been a dream.

(Honestly, if someone can explain the time-shift...)

I seem to be a minority among the five-star reviews. I sometimes think I'm reading a different book. Remember my gripes about The Martian, a book seemingly enjoyed by everyone but me. Not that I got close to the end. Maybe they produce special ian editions, part of some grand prank.

On the plus side, there's a new Sandman Slim book which is a lot better because he's got a Monster Arm and a Big Gun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 30 September, 2020, 01:59:02 pm
Ian, many thanks for your critique. You articulated similar thoughts to mine; but I didn't bother to set them down in a rational, orderly format.

I agree about Guleed; I think that she's the most resolved character.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 30 September, 2020, 03:17:45 pm
He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.
I think it's supposed to feel police-speak-ish, IC1 female and all that.
The female/male character is Victor, yeah? On audio all that just slides on past with me relying on Kobna to give them differentiating voices.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 September, 2020, 08:17:36 pm
He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.
I think it's supposed to feel police-speak-ish, IC1 female and all that.
The female/male character is Victor, yeah? On audio all that just slides on past with me relying on Kobna to give them differentiating voices.

Yeah, I did consider that explanation. It doesn't bug me hugely, it's a general bugbear of mine when authors introduce characters with a complete description. Why not tell me their favourite flavour of crisps.

Anyway, what most bugged me was the weird time shift and how Peter got into the future and when he's coming back.

And the fucking HGTTG stuff. OK, I confess I never really liked HGTTG either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 01 October, 2020, 09:30:24 am
Desperation, by Sai King.  Probably The Regulators next, for completeness.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 October, 2020, 07:35:27 pm
Still Life, volume 6 of Val McDermid's DCI Karen Pirie series.  Twenty pages in and we've already got two killin's, the French FOREIGN Legion and no lesbians.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 October, 2020, 05:07:57 pm
Squeeze Me, the latest from Carl Hiaasen.  Contains a very large snek, a The First Lady (Secret Service codename: Mockingbird) and a The President Of The United States (Secret Service codename: Mastodon) with a syrup.  But not Skink, or at least not yet.

Edit: Mr Hiaasen really isn't keen on the Apricot Hellbeast :thumbsup:

Edit: Hurrah!  It might have taken >220 pages but Skink has finally showed up.  He doesn’t like the Apricot Hellbeast either.

Edit 2: Finished!  One of his funniest boks in years, e'en though all the bits about Mastodon must have practically written themselves.

This Unit hereby endorses this product, service or sentiment.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 07 October, 2020, 02:37:48 pm
'Argentine Fight for the Falklands'

Brit historian writes from interviews and official records of how the Argentinians saw and fought the war. Lots of first-hand stuff, and nicely balanced. Proper consideration of the courage and skill of so many of the Argentinians involved, in particular their pilots. Proper weighting for their successes.

One thing leapt out at me, as it always does when I read their accounts, and that is their rather sad jingoism. The sort of shit that the Sun posted made me squirm; this appears to be an entire country obsessed with similar adolescent excess.

"I saw the ship, and after a prayer to the most holy Mother of God, I said 'Viva la patria' and dropped the bomb"

I saw an interview years ago of Chris Keeble, the eventual victor of Goose Green. He was calm, controlled and respectful. He spoke of how his main concern was to avoid needless deaths, so he went for a walk and did his best to work out a way to end the killing, finally coming up with the idea of simply demanding the pother side surrender.

The Argentine commander spoke a load of bollocks about sacred soil and willing sacrifice for the holy Patria and... Pillock.

I am not going to have a discussion on the causes of the war, as I do not wish another session of "Ugh! English bad!"; I am writing about the conduct of the same, and I found the constant Argentine "Brave martyrs for the holy flag..." bullshit profoundly depressing. So many lives wasted.

One of my stories begins in the Falklands, and I came up with a phrase to describe the nightmares of a survivor: "Empty eyes, filled with rain".

Stick your patriotic glory where the sun shineth not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 07 October, 2020, 05:08:56 pm
The Return - Harry Sidebottom

Excellent tale
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 October, 2020, 01:27:37 am
A Song For The Dark Time, aka Rebus 23.  Only killin' so far happened before it started, though it was a nice juicy stabbing.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 08 October, 2020, 10:01:58 am
Ballistic Kiss, the latest Sandman Slim. I wasn't so sure about the last one, it was a bit darker, but this was back on form. OK, the Janet/death cult subplot was a bit of a drag and he should have killed them all earlier and gone on to have more furniture-breaking sex with Candy, but it was a pacy read and a good antidote to False Values.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sprogs on 08 October, 2020, 06:45:40 pm
Just finished Stieg Larsson's Millennium series.
Scary stuff. The violence disturbed me a great deal, but the books were difficult to put down. I read the third in an all night session.
I've just bought the films and I'm a bit anxious about watching them in case they are a bit too vilent for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 09 October, 2020, 06:10:40 pm
Sasha Swire's Diary of an MP's Wife.
Covers the Cameron years and very interesting insights into Cameroon politics and Old Ma May which is as far as I've got.
Well written and edited.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 October, 2020, 08:59:36 pm
Sasha Swire's Diary of an MP's Wife.
Covers the Cameron years and very interesting insights into Cameroon politics and Old Ma May which is as far as I've got.
Well written and edited.

Professor Larrington has just endorsed this; her husband is reading it and cackling like a loon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 10 October, 2020, 07:37:37 am
Well, ALL my library reservations appeared en bloc this week. So I’ve started with John Connolly’s “Dirty South”.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 October, 2020, 11:05:14 am
I confess I'm generally against the intros that begin with a long introduction as to what the character's hair colour, eye, skin colour is, and what they're wearing if it's of no real relevance to the story being told. This information can be imparted, as necessary, in the narrative. It's a lot less clunky to mention that 'she raised her glasses to get a better look' then tell me, the first introduction, a full description including her eye prescription. Unless, of course, this is a clever way of expressing Peter's police procedural outlook where he compiles a description of everyone he meets. But it's still a bit annoying for the casual reader.

The Dan Brown thread redux.  ;D

Anyhoo, I downloaded Never Let Me Go yesterday because it was on 99p offer for Kindle. A timely coincidence, given that I was discussing it with a colleague the other day. Been meaning to read it for aaaages, so this is a good excuse.

Ishiguro has a new one out next year that sounds highly promising, and deals with similar themes to Never Let Me Go, from the sound of it. I was almost in tears just reading the blurb.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob W on 10 October, 2020, 11:36:45 am
I always assumed the character description thing was Police-speak too. I must confess I enjoy the Rivers of London books - the first few built up enough goodwill for the settings and characters that I'm happy to park my brain in neutral and cruise through them without engaging my nit-picking circuits. I agree that - as with many authors - Aaronovitch was at a bit of a loss what to do once the big baddie was defeated; if you want a continuous arc (as opposed to case of the week type stuff) it's hard to keep raising the stakes over and over (which seems to be a particular problem for urban fantasy; I'm looking at you, Jim Butcher...) I did think the German-set one was enjoyable, so maybe it's just that Aaronovitch has got a bit bored or stuck with his original protagonist?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 10 October, 2020, 07:47:48 pm
Quote from: pcolbeck
The Italian campaign really was a nasty deadly slug fest for both the military...
Have a dekko at Milligan's, "Mussolini - His Part in my Downfall" it makes for quite sombre reading towards the end.

To add to the debate about False Value.  I quite enjoyed it, but it did feel like a filler while Mr. Aaronovitch works out how to get things moving again. I am waiting for his ex-partner to become the new Moriarty of Magic. 

Have just finished the latest Le Carre (Agent Running in the Field) & Harris (V2).  Both perfectly serviceable ways of entertaining a tired brain, but they're not going to detain you for long. Neither is particularly densely plotted and the Harris book can easily be read in a long evening.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 10 October, 2020, 09:35:26 pm
Sasha Swire's Diary of an MP's Wife.
Covers the Cameron years and very interesting insights into Cameroon politics and Old Ma May which is as far as I've got.
Well written and edited.

Professor Larrington has just endorsed this; her husband is reading it and cackling like a loon.

Just finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Further confirmation that politicians like them are not people like me. Still, that is changing - my new MP is an ex OR of The Rifles.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 11 October, 2020, 07:10:16 pm
Re character descriptions: I rarely give them unless there is a specific reason to do so, such as a character being particularly tall, or a pivotal moment where it impacts on the story. I prefer to leave people to form their own image.

What I DO like to play with is self-image versus external perception. As an example, one of my people sees herself as a strutting rock chick, while another, on encountering her for the first time, sees a skinny and hard-faced blonde. My logic is that where film tends to lock an appearance into 'canon', written work lets one see one's own vision of the person.

That said, I saw the trailer on Twitter for the new 'Watch' Pratchett adaptation.

Oh do, please, FOAD. That is NOT Sam Vimes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 11 October, 2020, 08:11:13 pm
Quote from: Steph
Oh do, please, FOAD. That is NOT Sam Vimes.
The pictures on the wireless are much better.  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 11 October, 2020, 08:14:48 pm
Saw the trailer for The Watch yesterday. No way am I going to watch it. Looks awful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 11 October, 2020, 08:34:13 pm
You can't say that you weren't warned that PTerry's Night Watch canon was going to be utterly FUBAR'd by BBC America... :demon:

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=70466.msg2427433#msg2427433
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=70466.msg2445036#msg2445036

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 11 October, 2020, 08:38:09 pm
WTF is that mascara/eyeliner/black crap under his eyes, and WHY? Why has someone whose entire life has been in A-M got a different accent?

I don't know if Sybil appears in the trailer, but I am shuddering to think how prettified they will make her. Never mind Cheery Littlebottom.

[Insert extra rant as appropriate; there's plenty to rant about]
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 11 October, 2020, 09:38:05 pm


Anyhoo, I downloaded Never Let Me Go yesterday because it was on 99p offer for Kindle. A timely coincidence, given that I was discussing it with a colleague the other day. Been meaning to read it for aaaages, so this is a good excuse.


Love this.
(Not that you got it for 99p, the book.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 12 October, 2020, 10:33:09 am
I always assumed the character description thing was Police-speak too. I must confess I enjoy the Rivers of London books - the first few built up enough goodwill for the settings and characters that I'm happy to park my brain in neutral and cruise through them without engaging my nit-picking circuits. I agree that - as with many authors - Aaronovitch was at a bit of a loss what to do once the big baddie was defeated; if you want a continuous arc (as opposed to case of the week type stuff) it's hard to keep raising the stakes over and over (which seems to be a particular problem for urban fantasy; I'm looking at you, Jim Butcher...) I did think the German-set one was enjoyable, so maybe it's just that Aaronovitch has got a bit bored or stuck with his original protagonist?

I think part of the problem is that the book seems to be a set up for the rest of the series, so takes a long time to get nowhere. I guess some readers have more patience than I do. Proper story arks can work over many books, but each individual book has its own episodic benefits. If it doesn't have this, it's just like reading the first quarter of a book and then arbitrarily stopping. I'll read the next quarter in a year's time.

I never get an explanation for the initial time-shifting. Maybe that will be resolved in about three books time.

Maybe it's time for me to the bite the bullet and finally read Inferno?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 October, 2020, 01:34:59 pm
Love this.
(Not that you got it for 99p, the book.)

 :thumbsup:

Really looking forward to it, just need to stay focused long enough to do some actual reading, which I've not been able to achieve very often lately.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 October, 2020, 09:51:02 pm
Love this.
(Not that you got it for 99p, the book.)

 :thumbsup:

Really looking forward to it, just need to stay focused long enough to do some actual reading, which I've not been able to achieve very often lately.

One of the few benefits of this plague-era is that I can read for a good hour or two in bed every night, and don't have to worry about that just-finish-the-chapter sleep deficit when the morning alarm threatens to concertina into the tail-end of my nocturnal reading. Now I just get up later. I aim for 9am but I'm not a natural success and failure doesn't hold me back, not when it comes to sleeping. There's absolutely no motivational poster that features me. I'm my own line of demotivational posters. Some time around 9.30am my wife starts to inadvertently drop things in her office next door. Hold loud conference calls with people who appear to be herself. By 9.45am she'll stomp into the bedroom, put her hands on her hips, and declare 'this is your life?'

I really don't know why she needs that question mark. Perhaps she's asking the cat.

So this, in combination with a lack of social life because it's against the law (for a misanthrope like me, this is the juice), and the fact that we only watch an hour of TV a day (some people are scared of giant spiders, I'm scared of turning into my parents), I'm reading a vast amount. Last night I was binging on re-reads of the Sandman Slim series (ooo, vampires with flame throwers) and a chapter on convergent evolution. If I could remember my dreams I am sure they would be awesome.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 18 October, 2020, 09:51:36 am
https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-North-Times-Oswald-Northumbria-ebook/dp/B00CGOD5K0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2T31M7XVGJNIQ&dchild=1&keywords=the+king+in+the+north+the+life+and+times+of+oswald+of+northumbria&qid=1603010684&sprefix=the+king+in+the+north%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

A sort of biography of both King Oswald of Northumbria, nephew IIRC of Edwin the Great, and of the Kingdom(s). All too often, Northumbria's place in history is written something like "WESSEX WESSEX WESSEX ALFRED ALFRED and there were some other kingdoms", or, more tellingly, in re the Norman genocide inflicted on that area, "Stamford Bridge, HASTINGS HAROLD HASTINGS HAROLD LONDON, minor event up North, DOMESDAY BOOK"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 25 October, 2020, 05:03:03 pm
I am currently reading The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray.
I think I picked the wrong year to read this. Now looking for something a bit less depressing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 26 October, 2020, 01:03:52 pm
I've been working through the backlog of library reservations that appeared all at once  ::-).   I managed the latest Val McDermid Karen Pirie outing, though I'm not sure how true to Police procedure it was. 3 stars.  Then I tried Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne prequel, didn't like it all, gave up after 1/3. 2 stars.  Now onto (the much better IMO) Rankin Rebus outing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 26 October, 2020, 01:06:37 pm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-North-Times-Oswald-Northumbria-ebook/dp/B00CGOD5K0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2T31M7XVGJNIQ&dchild=1&keywords=the+king+in+the+north+the+life+and+times+of+oswald+of+northumbria&qid=1603010684&sprefix=the+king+in+the+north%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

A sort of biography of both King Oswald of Northumbria, nephew IIRC of Edwin the Great, and of the Kingdom(s). All too often, Northumbria's place in history is written something like "WESSEX WESSEX WESSEX ALFRED ALFRED and there were some other kingdoms", or, more tellingly, in re the Norman genocide inflicted on that area, "Stamford Bridge, HASTINGS HAROLD HASTINGS HAROLD LONDON, minor event up North, DOMESDAY BOOK"

Yes also dipping into that. Seems that Aragorn was based on this chap.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 26 October, 2020, 01:52:51 pm
Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods". I had this on my list to read about 18 months ago when on holiday, but I'd just read another BB book and I was a bit Brysoned-out.

His opening couple of paragraphs of Chapter 6 describe how walking a long way changes life's perspectives.

Quote
Life takes on a neat simplicity too. Time ceases to have any meaning. When it's dark you go to bed, and when it's light again you get up, and everything in between is just in between. It's quite wonderful really.

You have no engagements, commitments, obligations or duties, no special ambitions and only the smallest, least complicated of wants; you exist in a tranquil tedium, serenely beyond the reach of exasperation, "far removed from the seats of strife", as the early explorer and botanist William Bartram put it. All that is required of you is the willingness to trudge.

That is how lockdown is for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 27 October, 2020, 08:57:02 am
'Badgerlands' by Patrick Barkham but finding it a struggle (it has interesting bits but, for me, joined by tosh) so I am reading 'Wheeling Matilda' by Jim Fitzpatrick alongside it - very interesting and shows there is nothing new in Bikepacking if you use a diamond frame.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 27 October, 2020, 10:57:21 am
Just finished "We were Young and Carefree" by Laurent Fignon, which is very interesting. Now on "My World" by Peter Sagan + ghostwriter which is much lighter but which I am actually getting through more quickly, possibly because I know about the events described while the Fignon book is all historical to me (I was alive, but not following cycling). It did at least mean I knew what people were on about after this year's Tour de France final time trial, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 02 November, 2020, 05:08:34 pm
Just finished Kim Stanley Robinson's latest "The Ministry for the Future" about a fictional UN climate agency created in 2025 and following the world and some characters from the agency for around thirty years.
The beginning is extremely harrowing and totally believable the way things are going but the book as a whole is rather poetic and hopeful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: bikepacker on 02 November, 2020, 06:07:26 pm
I was looking for not too heavy crime fiction and came across this on Amazon: The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan. I am 4 chapters in and am finding it intriguing. The plot is about a murdered cyclists with the investigation being led by a detective that suffers with Asperger's syndrome and black female detective sidekick. It will be interesting to read how it develops and progresses.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Butterfly on 05 November, 2020, 11:56:01 am
He has a habit of introducing all the characters by skin colour and ethnic background which I find a tad grating.
I think it's supposed to feel police-speak-ish, IC1 female and all that.
The female/male character is Victor, yeah? On audio all that just slides on past with me relying on Kobna to give them differentiating voices.

I have listened to the entire series on audible and really enjoyed them. I think Kobna's narration is the best that I have come across. I felt that Victor was fairly evident as a character that appears female and identifies as male and that is mentioned once then moved on. I really like the identifying the characters clearly - it makes you realise how other authors either only identify black characters or just assume that everyone is white - I realise that is partly my own white centric reading, but it is good to have that challenged. There are various bits that I missed on the first listen of all the books, that I got on the second or third read through, probably due to my poor attention span. I liked False Value, although that took a couple of reads before I'd sorted it out in my head. I liked the bits set in Kent, because it was an area I was familiar with (Kobna needs to know that Twydall is pronounced twiddle though!). I've also enjoyed the graphic novels, which I wouldn't usually read, since the stories are referred to in the main novels. I like that the books have diversity in a general way - they have characters that are muslim/trans/gay/black without the books being about that. Other books seem more self conscious about that where the ROL books are just telling the story of modern London.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 05 November, 2020, 02:58:35 pm
I think Kobna brings an extra dimension to the story that I might not have done myself. He's really good.

He's also the reader for Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series. I'm afraid to listen to it because I have such solid pictures in my mind and I'm not sure I can reconcile that with his.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Butterfly on 05 November, 2020, 03:47:43 pm
I've never read them, so I might consider listening to them with him as the reader.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 05 November, 2020, 07:26:50 pm
Broken Vows. Tony Blair the tragedy of power by Tom Bowers.
Very interesting.
About to start 'Warrior. A life of war in Anglo Saxon Britain' by Albert & Gething
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 12 November, 2020, 04:44:09 pm
Now on book 4 of the 'Oddjobs' series. The obvious and tempting comparison is Charlie Stross' Laundry books.

Alien gods take over the world, secretly, and a secret government agency, etc, etc. The writing is more than adequate, from a private publisher called 'Pigeon Park', with a rather amusing logo. Characterisation isn't great, but the books are funny, and I did find myself caring for some of them in the end.

The key point is that the books are set around central Birmingham, in places that I know rather well. A favourite pub that Basil introduced me to even gets a mention, The Wellington, and each book ends with "YES! The central library is a huge.../NO! The central library is not home to a dimension-defying alien court, nor a secret Vault containing the Big Bloody Book"

"Pigeon Park", by the way, is Cathedral Square.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 15 November, 2020, 01:04:20 pm
I have just finished off the 5 Frey and McGray books by Oscar De Muriel.

They have ghosts, vampires, witches and Queen Victoria.

Mostly set in Edinburgh and thoroughly enjoyable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrazyEnglishTriathlete on 16 November, 2020, 05:48:24 pm
Heavy Duty by K.K.Downing and Mark Eglinton.  To be followed by Rob Halford's: Confess.  Will reserve judgement until have read both.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 17 November, 2020, 02:16:55 pm
I started re-reading Patrick Hamilton's The Slaves of Solitude a few months ago but haven't been in much of a mood for reading lately (ie this year) so didn't get very far before I put it to one side.

I was in the mood yesterday evening though, so picked it up and polished it off in one go. Such a wonderful, wonderful book - rather bleak but very funny indeed. One of my all-time favourite novels. And rather apposite for the times we live in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 24 November, 2020, 06:09:51 pm
"On the Black Hill"by Bruce Chatwin. I have also bought his book "In Patagonia", both highly recommended by my pal Penelope.

I thoroughly enjoyed "On the Black Hill", a tale of identical twin brothers born and spending their entire lives on a farm in rural Radnorshire, an area I am reasonably familiar with. Not Much Happens in the 100 or so years described by the book, but it is described ery sympathetiaclly by the author.

My next effort will be "Galina", the autobiography of Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano and wife of cellist Mstislav Rostrapovich. It's out of print but I managed to pick up a bargain second-hand copy online.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 24 November, 2020, 06:26:05 pm
Have also just polished off The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, another I started re-reading earlier this year but didn't get very far with. Enjoyed it just as much the second time round - more in some respects. It was the very first of his books I read but I have since worked back through his oeuvre and doing so has revealed a lot more about the David Mitchell Universe that has made me see this one in a different light. I understand one of the characters in this makes a reappearance in his latest, Utopia Avenue, which I also intend to get round to soon...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 25 November, 2020, 08:17:45 am
Have also just polished off The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, another I started re-reading earlier this year but didn't get very far with.
There aren't many novels I've put down partway through and not picked up again, but this was one of them...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 November, 2020, 08:49:43 am
Have also just polished off The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, another I started re-reading earlier this year but didn't get very far with.
There aren't many novels I've put down partway through and not picked up again, but this was one of them...

It doesn’t get any better!

Which is to say, if you didn’t like the first half, you probably wouldn’t like the second half either.

I was more sensitive to the book’s flaws second time around but I still loved it.

I've now started re-reading The Bone Clocks. As with the first time round, the setting of the opening section, on the North Kent marshes, has had me hooked instantly. But it also helps that pace-wise, it's a book that hits the ground running.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 25 November, 2020, 09:30:33 am
I have got sucked into audiobooks and I have managed to "read" quite a few in the last 2-3 months. I get to "read" the 2 times 40 odd min whole I'm out walkies a day. I have also found that I can listen while doing other chores and still be engaged. Though the more light hearted they are the easier it is to do other things, other more serious books, like the ones about racism, I really had to just sit an listen.

I dipped into the audiobooks on Google Books, this is where I read most of my books anyway. I started with the random 99p or free offers but I had to bail out on a few as the voice of the reader just did my head in. I had to order the .epub or put on the want to read pile.

I was thinking about using Audible and tried one of these free month offers, but again I tried the preview and heard the voice of the reader and I just knew I couldn't handle their voices for 5-10 hours. I'm not paying a monthly subscription and then paying per book on top to be annoyed.

I might just be me, I don't read a book and make a voice per character. So having a reader making voices up to fit the new person in the book is just so cringe. There is a few books where they have a different reader for the main characters, this is much better, than a man trying to be a woman or a US reader trying to sound like they are from Cornwall etc etc.

I signed up to the local library and their online service and at least there I can hand back if the voice annoys me without the nagging knowledge of a monthly sub. And I really like their app too and that kinda nostalgic feeling that you had to read the book in time or you will be fined. Along with the placing the book on hold and the having to wait for others to finish. This is also silly that they have limits on how many readers on a digital book.

So this is what I have managed to read of late, nearly in order.

The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Afropean: Notes from Black Europe by Johny Pitts
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

And then I needed a rest after all these "thinking" books :)
 
Alive by Sharon J. Bolton
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket 
Snuff by Terry Pratchett
The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

I liked how the The Bad Beginning had just the right amount of foley to make the book nice and silly. I have never really been into mysteries and thrillers ala Agatha Christie, but the two by Peter Sawnson and the one by Lisa Jewell I just binged, managed to "read" all in just over a week. Might be because I needed the rest from the books above.


Sadly this have cut into my podcast time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 25 November, 2020, 10:11:15 am
Have also just polished off The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, another I started re-reading earlier this year but didn't get very far with.
There aren't many novels I've put down partway through and not picked up again, but this was one of them...

It doesn’t get any better!

Which is to say, if you didn’t like the first half, you probably wouldn’t like the second half either.

I was more sensitive to the book’s flaws second time around but I still loved it.

I've now started re-reading The Bone Clocks. As with the first time round, the setting of the opening section, on the North Kent marshes, has had me hooked instantly. But it also helps that pace-wise, it's a book that hits the ground running.

The Bone Clocks is one of my favourite books, but I really enjoyed The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet even though I thought I wouldn't (I'm not big on historical stuff). I do remember it taking a while to get going. Never really got on with number9Dream though, it seemed to try a bit too hard. My only really gripe with his books is that narration is often too well-wrought and erudite, Holly in The Bone Clocks is one of the places were he's little more in-character, and it works well.

Utopia Street got a bit of mixed review, but mostly the bad reviews seem to be from the sort of music bores who are all 'really, Jimi did not wear purple trousers on the 3rd January 1963, what an idiot this author is.'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 28 November, 2020, 11:15:23 am
Reading the first Harry Potter to#1 son at bedtime.  Not sure it's supposed to be funny in the way we find it funny.
(click to show/hide)
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 November, 2020, 12:33:41 pm
Reading the first Harry Potter to#1 son at bedtime.  Not sure it's supposed to be funny in the way we find it funny.
(click to show/hide)
Try the Lemony Snicket books, they’re so much better - my son enjoyed them a lot more than the Harry Potter books when he was a small person.

The plots are equally ridiculous - but not in a bad way like HP.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 28 November, 2020, 12:55:07 pm
I see that 'The ship that flew' by Hilda Lewis is available again electronically via Amazon. Books may be had but 2nd hand and expensive. Wonderful story for youngsters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 November, 2020, 05:32:44 pm
"On the Black Hill"by Bruce Chatwin. I have also bought his book "In Patagonia", both highly recommended by my pal Penelope.

I thoroughly enjoyed "On the Black Hill", a tale of identical twin brothers born and spending their entire lives on a farm in rural Radnorshire, an area I am reasonably familiar with. Not Much Happens in the 100 or so years described by the book, but it is described ery sympathetiaclly by the author.

My next effort will be "Galina", the autobiography of Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano and wife of cellist Mstislav Rostrapovich. It's out of print but I managed to pick up a bargain second-hand copy online.

It was filmed
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 28 November, 2020, 05:43:46 pm
Reading the first Harry Potter to#1 son at bedtime.  Not sure it's supposed to be funny in the way we find it funny.
(click to show/hide)

I get 'shouted at' a lot because I consider certain Big Cult Things to be rather, well, crap.

George Lucas, Dan Brown and Rowling are all utterly shite at writing in the sense of art. They all rely heavily on "What happens next?", with minimal characterisation and dire dialogue. In the cases of Rowling and Lucas that is exacerbated by trite maundering dressed up as 'philosophy'. They all make a lot of money, of course.

And no, I am not just damning JKR because of her shitty opinions and vindictive nature*. She really is a dreadfully bad writer.


*Demands free speech while threatening every critic with a law suit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 28 November, 2020, 05:52:59 pm
Just read 'Wuthering Heights'.

How did I managed to avoid this for so long? Not the sort of absurd/surreal/darkly comic literature I would normally go for, but the arcane and idiomatic language is gorgeous.

Got a few books on the pile to be read simultaneously:

How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley (not started it yet, but his other book I read recently referenced Hannah Arendt heavily, so Im expecting thus).

Frankie Boyle's Future of British Politics...started it. More of a political essay than anything else, but benefits from his humour as well as incisive insight.

The Battle for Syria, by Christopher Phillips. More middle-eastern politics, which I find endlessly fascinating. Not started it yet.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 28 November, 2020, 05:57:13 pm
To be followed by Rob Halford's: Confess.

I'll save you the read:

"Spinal Tap with drugs and bumming"*


*as reported to me by Bairdy (Otp once), who is heavily into that sort of thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 29 November, 2020, 12:45:33 am
George Lucas, Dan Brown and Rowling are all utterly shite
"The lost boys" of "Breakfast Club" is cult, Dan Brown is ubiquitous and indeed rather shite.  I read the into to one of his books where he was trying to separate the fact from fiction, a lot of his "scientific facts" were wrong.  "Arse Gravy" is how Stephen Fry referred to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 November, 2020, 01:11:41 am
George Lucas, Dan Brown and Rowling are all utterly shite
"The lost boys" of "Breakfast Club" is cult, Dan Brown is ubiquitous and indeed rather shite.  I read the into to one of his books where he was trying to separate the fact from fiction, a lot of his "scientific facts" were wrong.  "Arse Gravy" is how Stephen Fry referred to it.

Not to mention “loose stool water”.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 November, 2020, 12:07:56 pm
Mention of Dan Brown has made me want to dig out the legendary thread, but I can't find it. Chiz.

Re George Lucas, what was the Harrison Ford quote?

"You can type this shit but you sure can't say it!"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 29 November, 2020, 05:29:43 pm
I confess to being the one person left in the world who hasn't read a Harry Potter book. I saw one of the movies once, can't say it made me want to watch another.

I am going to pick up Dan Brown's Inferno at some point and this time with the eye of the tiger and all that and finish the bloody thing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 29 November, 2020, 05:37:14 pm
No, you aren't the only one.

One of my pet hates is grown ups, mostly men, going on about Harry Potter books that they have read. Its no different to those weirdo adult Star Wars fans, or middle-aged Heavy Metal fans still wearing the uniform.

Fuck off, I'm not interested that you like reading children's books you creepy arseholes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 29 November, 2020, 05:39:32 pm
Another one here.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 November, 2020, 06:46:48 pm
I’ve read several of the HP books, but I have the excuse of being a parent.

They’re mostly just quite dull. But not nearly as dull as Lord of the Rings.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 29 November, 2020, 07:19:50 pm
I can maybe understand children liking them given they're supposed to be kid's books*, it's the adults queuing up to rave about them. To be fair, if people enjoy them, more power to them. But if they'd stop before (a) insisting I must have read them and (b) when finally convinced that I might have indeed not read them, demand that for some reason I must.

I get this with blokes and football too. I say I don't follow football and they don't believe me. I must support someone. I simply don't. Sometimes they demand a why. Honestly, there's no great story behind not liking such things, no secret trauma, in the same way I'm not interested in the exploits of teenage magicians, I'm not interested in seeing a ball kicked around a field.

I tried The Hobbit back in my school days. I remember it being stodgily awful enough to engender a lifelong aversion to anything Tolkien. To be honest, the entire fantasy genre seems a bit swampy and overwrought, they can't do anything in less than 1500 pages of exposition.

*admittedly, when I was younger, I was reading proper horror, which may explain a few things.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 November, 2020, 07:35:38 pm
Mention of Dan Brown has made me want to dig out the legendary thread, but I can't find it. Chiz.

This one? https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=72990.0
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 November, 2020, 08:15:46 pm
I read the HP books, but only because people kept foisting them on me. I didn't buy any. I read the first chapter of a Dan Brown for shits and giggles on a ski holiday because it was kicking about in the chalet. 1 chapter was more than enough.

Having said that I thought the same about China Mieville and Jo Nesbo and they are allegedly acceptable writers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Pingu on 29 November, 2020, 08:25:02 pm
I have not read a HP (Hewlett Packard?) book either.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 29 November, 2020, 09:42:13 pm
I was reading Douglas Stuart’s 'Shuggie Bain’, which is excellent and brutal - reminds me of Dublin in the 80s - but then picked up Geert Mak’s ‘In Europe’ which has me enthralled. Suspect I’ll finish the latter and re-start the former.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 November, 2020, 09:42:47 pm
Mention of Dan Brown has made me want to dig out the legendary thread, but I can't find it. Chiz.

This one? https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=72990.0

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: phantasmagoriana on 29 November, 2020, 09:54:25 pm
I've never read a HP book either. I did watch one of the films, but only because they were filming in my local (at the time) cathedral, and I wanted to see what they'd been up to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 29 November, 2020, 10:23:55 pm
Hello.
My name is Nick and I have read all the Harry Potter books.
I have also read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
And pretty much everything Charles Dickens wrote.
But...
I have read Moby Dick.
And enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 29 November, 2020, 10:49:29 pm
I've read all the Harry Potter books. Didn't like them up until the 3rd book, I mean who wants to read about 12 year old kids...

Speaking of which, just started reading Lolita. A podcast came up in my feed, where the presenter will be going through Lolita and its affect on the world. I knew nothing about Lolita, other than there being an old man and a young girl. So I googled for a precis. Probably the most disturbing plot I've come across, especially for a book that so many people seem to really enjoy. So got the annotated version, and will be working my way through it, and listening to the podcast. Just reading the introduction had me reaching for the dictionary one page in: Recondite. Pretty sure I have never seen that word before.

Re Dan Brown. After choosing the works of Dan Brown as one of my Mastermind specialist subjects, I think that in the summer of 2016 I was perhaps the foremost Dan Brown novel expert in the country (when I tried to think who would have committed so much Dan Brown trivia to memory, I was confident that no other sane person in the country would have). When I travelled up to the recording, I met another semi finalist (and at the time the reigning Only Connect champion), and it turns out that my choice of the novels of Dan Brown, had blocked his proposed specialist subject of the Robert Langdon novels of Dan Brown.

Dan Brown set out to write successful novels, and he created a formula. They're effectively tourist guidebooks with a ludicrous plot tacked on. Angels & Demons is a list of tourist attractions in Rome. Da Vinci code is Paris and London. Lost symbol is Washington, and Inferno is Florence, Venice and Istanbul (Digital Fortress, Barcelona). You won't realise it at the time, but it seeps in.  You laugh at the plots when you read them, but a few months or years later, you have a hankering to visit one of the locations and then you realise it's because of a Dan Brown novel, and then you'll just fall to your knees and cry, because you realise that Dan Brown has bested you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 29 November, 2020, 11:11:39 pm
Speaking of which, just started reading Lolita... a book that so many people seem to really enjoy.

I'm not sure 'enjoy' is the right word. I found it unsettling. But captivating.

Quote
Dan Brown set out to write successful novels, and he created a formula.

I can't remember whether it was Dan Brown or John Grisham who said in an interview I once read that they took to writing novels as a business venture, in order to become rich. Might have been both. I don't hold it against them. You can't really argue with that kind of success.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 29 November, 2020, 11:29:46 pm
I have only read one Dan Brown book, the Code one. If that's a tourist guide book then I would highly recommend not to read it as he got a few directions wrong in Paris, where I was living at the time of reading. And that annoyed me so much I haven't read or watched anything else of his stuff.

I have watched a few of HP films and enjoyed them as an afternoon escapism, but I will not be reading them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 29 November, 2020, 11:46:19 pm
I'm about 100 pages into "Galina" as mentioned above. Utterly gripping.

She was born in 1926. So far, I'm up to about page 100, and she's into the 1950s and is a young upstart at the Bolshoi.

(click to show/hide)

Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 30 November, 2020, 07:00:35 am
Speaking of which, just started reading Lolita... a book that so many people seem to really enjoy.

I'm not sure 'enjoy' is the right word. I found it unsettling. But captivating.
Too true.  It’s a really good story, engagingly told by a narrator who is anything but reliable.  A few laughs and quite a few winces.

I’m just smashing out Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club because I fancied something quick and easy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 November, 2020, 10:44:08 am
Speaking of which, just started reading Lolita... a book that so many people seem to really enjoy.

I'm not sure 'enjoy' is the right word. I found it unsettling. But captivating.

Quote
Dan Brown set out to write successful novels, and he created a formula.

I can't remember whether it was Dan Brown or John Grisham who said in an interview I once read that they took to writing novels as a business venture, in order to become rich. Might have been both. I don't hold it against them. You can't really argue with that kind of success.

Lolita is terrifyingly good and utterly disturbing, which is the point, especially when realise just how Nabokov has flipped your perspective somewhere really very disquieting.

The path to being a successful author these days is to churn out what are essentially movie treatments in the hope they'll get optioned (they mostly never get made, which I suppose, is fortunate). The most memorably bad one I read recently was something call Brilliance and was anything but, definitely one of the worst things I've read. It's so bad you have to finish it just because it's a marathon of bad (according to my google-fu, it's part one of a saga, presumably about as much fun as a march to Moscow that ends in mid-winter). According to Amazon, it's worthy of a billion great reviews. Honestly, it's awful on any measure. Mind you, I put The Martian in the same category, I don't get it, it's awful. It reads like it's written by a twelve-year-old.

I'm not actually bothered if people do enjoy this stuff, it's just the insistence that I must be interested. I get the HP lecture all the time (for the stupidest reason, I share a name with one of the lead characters, so yeah, just call me Reluctant Hermione). It's the same with football, as a regular traveller, it's was a safe bet that in any given taxi anywhere in the world, I'd get the Football Conversation. From Nairobi to Hanoi, they're waiting for me. I've tried bluffing it for diplomacy's sake, which is always a mistake since my knowledge of football ended with half-complete Panini album sometime around the kickoff of the 1980s. I never did get that bloody Sheffield Wednesday badge (this traumatic historical episode, alas, is never what they want to talk about). Even now, my father in any given conversation will bring up football and the fact he can't believe I've no interest in it. I honestly think those will be his last words to me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geraldc on 30 November, 2020, 11:01:36 am
The bit that I found the most interesting bit about Lolita so far is that the book features a "fake" foreword from a psychiatrist who has edited the book. In it he explains that the author is a prisoner, and a bad bad person.
I rarely read forewords, and often skip them. If you skip the foreword to Lolita it presents the main protagonist in a completely different light, and helps to explain why some people see Lolita as a romance...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 November, 2020, 11:24:19 am
Yes, that foreword is an essential part of the novel (it's not an actual foreword in the conventional sense).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 November, 2020, 12:38:53 pm
Bah Humbert!

(http://legslarry.org.uk/BikeStull/coat_48.png)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 November, 2020, 12:46:48 pm
If you skip the foreword to Lolita it presents the main protagonist in a completely different light, and helps to explain why some people see Lolita as a romance...

Tbh, it should be pretty clear that Humbert is a bad, bad person even without the foreword. He's presented as plausible and very human, but he's also a deeply unreliable narrator, and I'm not convinced it was Nabokov's intention for us to find him in any way sympathetic. Trying to make us 'understand' him, and therefore sympathise with him, is part of his tricksiness, not Nabokov's. If that makes sense at all, given that he's entirely fictional.

If you like Lolita, I would also recommend The Good Soldier.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 November, 2020, 02:25:25 pm
I always thought it was Nabokov's entire purpose to make the reader lose track of Humbert's unreliability and find themselves sympathising (or that is at least my interpretation). That's the clever flip – and more so, it's not a trick, at no point does Nabokov paint Humbert in anything other than the most despicable tones. You're not fooled by the author, you're fooled by yourself as the reader. It's a conspiracy of unreliability. The foreword emphases this – I think in more ordinary hands the foreword could have fallen flat as a get-out-clause – but in the novel it sets the scene for the later flip perfectly because you have been told, and you knew it from the very beginning. Yet you've been beguiled by the narrative into accepting some of the manifest unreliability of Humbert.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 30 November, 2020, 02:28:46 pm
Another thing that gets me, is the ability of authors to check some simple things or their staff or publishers. This came up I'm the book I'm reading atm, right after I moaned about Dan Brown his lack of directions in Paris.

Even if I'm reading a fiction, a made up story, it is not SiFi, other world/outer space and full of magic (ok they do talk about witches), it is set in the Scottish Highland just after all hallow eve. At 5:30am at that time of year,  dawn e.g. sunrise is still fecking 2+ hours or more away !!! So don't tell me that you can start to make out the trees and path, in the thick woods you are walking trough, because of the early dawn !!!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 30 November, 2020, 02:58:06 pm
Mention of Dan Brown has made me want to dig out the legendary thread, but I can't find it. Chiz.

This one? https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=72990.0

I'd lost that. I just re-read and was moved to mirthy tears. I don't know what drugs I was on when I penned my panegyric for cupcakes, but they were evidently the good ones. I'm not really sure how we got from Dan Brown to cupcakes, but that's the majesty of the internet, derailing our thought processes since 1993. It also made me re-read some Chandler.

I am tempted to write a live-action review of Inferno. Bad prose and awkward storytelling as it happens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 November, 2020, 03:06:34 pm
You're not fooled by the author, you're fooled by yourself as the reader.

Yes, that's a very good way of putting it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 November, 2020, 03:11:44 pm
I don't know what drugs I was on when I penned my panegyric for cupcakes, but they were evidently the good ones.

Clearly!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 30 November, 2020, 09:24:54 pm
Mention of Dan Brown has made me want to dig out the legendary thread, but I can't find it. Chiz.

This one? https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=72990.0
Kathy's reply is well worthy of POTD.  Spit-take?  I felt moved to brew a cup of tea, buy a laptop, just to express my mirth.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 December, 2020, 11:34:55 am
So, I finished Bone Clocks. Yes, I’m a slow reader but it is 600 pages.

I have a terrible memory for books, which is great because it means re-reading is almost like reading for the first time, except for the odd minor details I do remember. The thing that struck me when I got to The Fun Bit in Bone Clocks is how very Dan Brown-esque all the stuff about the Blind Cathar is.

Just much better written.

Cracking straight on with Slade House now, which is a kind of epilogue to Bone Clocks. It’s also a brilliant and properly scary horror story. And lots and lots of fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 December, 2020, 01:04:45 pm
I just finished The Baroque Trilogy for the third time. Took a long time over The System of the World in particular, because having it on my tablet made it easy to nip out and look up bits of background - Hanoverian Succession, early 18th-century London maps, the various prisons, Trials of the Pyx and god knows what else.

Now looking for something else, but The Baroque Trilogy is a hard act to follow: after >2,500 pp I feel somewhat bereft. Maybe I'll re-read the Aaronovitch series...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 06 December, 2020, 04:13:35 pm
I'm 19 hours and 16min into The Bone Clocks and got 5 hours 13min to go. That's about 7.5 dog walks. I hope I will get about 2.5 hours done tonight when I do the bottling of my homebrew. Thanks for the heads up, I'm enjoying this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 06 December, 2020, 06:56:50 pm
So, I finished Bone Clocks. Yes, I’m a slow reader but it is 600 pages.

I have a terrible memory for books, which is great because it means re-reading is almost like reading for the first time, except for the odd minor details I do remember. The thing that struck me when I got to The Fun Bit in Bone Clocks is how very Dan Brown-esque all the stuff about the Blind Cathar is.

Just much better written.

Cracking straight on with Slade House now, which is a kind of epilogue to Bone Clocks. It’s also a brilliant and properly scary horror story. And lots and lots of fun.

I'd always assumed it was a bit of a knowing nod to the oeuvre of Mr Brown (which he just nicked from a million and one books traipsing through the various conspiracies, Dan Brown is not even an imaginative hack). Definitely makes a good job of it, I'd pay good money for David Mitchell (either of them, for that matter) to re-write The Da Vinci Code.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 December, 2020, 02:18:42 pm
I'd always assumed it was a bit of a knowing nod to the oeuvre of Mr Brown

In Slade House, he even has one of the characters say, after a lengthy passage of Basil Exposition: “This is all getting a bit Da Vinci Code.”

Knowing? It’s downright arch.

I love it. ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 07 December, 2020, 02:27:48 pm
So, I finished Bone Clocks. Yes, I’m a slow reader but it is 600 pages.

I have a terrible memory for books, which is great because it means re-reading is almost like reading for the first time, except for the odd minor details I do remember. The thing that struck me when I got to The Fun Bit in Bone Clocks is how very Dan Brown-esque all the stuff about the Blind Cathar is.

Just much better written.

Cracking straight on with Slade House now, which is a kind of epilogue to Bone Clocks. It’s also a brilliant and properly scary horror story. And lots and lots of fun.

I'd always assumed it was a bit of a knowing nod to the oeuvre of Mr Brown (which he just nicked from a million and one books traipsing through the various conspiracies, Dan Brown is not even an imaginative hack). Definitely makes a good job of it, I'd pay good money for David Mitchell (either of them, for that matter) to re-write The Da Vinci Code.

Dan Brown managed to kill for me the intrigue and very real mystery of Saunier, Rennes Le Chateu, In Arcadia Ego etc. although this topic has become a bit of an industry nowadays.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 07 December, 2020, 02:33:29 pm
Finished The Body Clocks.

Not really spoilers but it does give something about the book away, but then again if you read reviews on sites like Goodreads, they will give away more.
(click to show/hide)

Other than that I really enjoyed it, now to catch up on some podcasts and then I think I will start on Slade House.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 09 December, 2020, 09:00:38 am
Just started a new book and it is annoying me. (not Slate house as my local library got a waiting list for that)

Cause I don't know what's worse the author not getting the directions/locations right OR dreaming up a location that doesn't exist in a city you know very well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 10 December, 2020, 09:57:11 am
Having just finished reading The Hobbit to my son, I've now started with Dune for him

For me, in the summer I rode through a local village which has turned it's bus stop into a book exchange, so I exchanged a few.  I'm currently reading one about the AQIM insurgency into Mali and Timbuktou which is based around the efforts to save the historic Islamic texts from destruction. It also gives a good potted history of the various attempts by Europeans to be the "first to reach Timbuktou". Quite good so far
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 10 December, 2020, 10:14:03 am
Prey tell me the title of that book about the books of Timbuktou, pretty please
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 10 December, 2020, 12:32:09 pm
When I was a kid, I thought Timbuctoo was one of those made-up names to designate a generic exotic and distant location. Didn't discover it was a real place before I reached adulthood.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 December, 2020, 02:07:58 pm
Dan Brown managed to kill for me the intrigue and very real mystery of Saunier, Rennes Le Chateau, In Arcadia Ego etc. although this topic has become a bit of an industry nowadays.

It was all a 1950s hoax in any case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No%C3%ABl_Corbu

Saunière got his money from simony.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 10 December, 2020, 02:18:52 pm
When I was a kid, I thought Timbuctoo was one of those made-up names to designate a generic exotic and distant location. Didn't discover it was a real place before I reached adulthood.
Always been dreaming of either cycling or walking from Timbuktu to Kathmandu, just because why not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 10 December, 2020, 03:20:03 pm
When I was a kid, I thought Timbuctoo was one of those made-up names to designate a generic exotic and distant location. Didn't discover it was a real place before I reached adulthood.
Always been dreaming of either cycling or walking from Timbuktu to Kathmandu, just because why not.
Have you read In Xanadu (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xanadu-Quest-Flamingo-William-Dalrymple/dp/0006544150) ?  Highly recommended for you based on your last remark.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 10 December, 2020, 05:23:07 pm
When I was a kid, I thought Timbuctoo was one of those made-up names to designate a generic exotic and distant location. Didn't discover it was a real place before I reached adulthood.
Always been dreaming of either cycling or walking from Timbuktu to Kathmandu, just because why not.

Across Africa, to Djibouti (another of those exotic sounding places), nip over the water to Oman, cross the Straits of Hormuz to Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and you're there

It was called The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu, btw
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 December, 2020, 06:14:49 pm
[…] from Timbuktu to Kathmandu […]

If that’s not from Ian Dury's Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, it should be :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 10 December, 2020, 06:48:39 pm
It was called The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu, btw
I watched and Al Jazeera (I think) docu about them. Really interesting
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 December, 2020, 10:37:48 am
Dead Lies Dreaming, the latest from Charlie Stross.  If it wasn’t intended as a metaphor for Brexit, it certainly reads like one to this Unit.

Although promoted by the publisher as a Laundry File, it isn’t one, or at least no-one from the Laundry has appeared so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 December, 2020, 10:46:01 am
Troubles by JG Farrell

It really is as good as everyone says it is. And funny. Although quite bleak. Reminds me of Evelyn Waugh in that respect. Albeit with very different political sensibilities.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 11 December, 2020, 12:38:56 pm
Dead Lies Dreaming, the latest from Charlie Stross.  If it wasn’t intended as a metaphor for Brexit, it certainly reads like one to this Unit.


https://twitter.com/cstross/status/1337370138421710853?s=20
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 20 December, 2020, 11:02:38 pm
I am currently reading a number of very ancient back issues of "Laidback Cyclist", with one in four issues featuring the works of a certain Mr Larrington.
Book-wise, still working through the Potter with my son.  It's still nonsense enough that my 10-year-old comments about how ridiculous it is - I heard a rumour that it grows up a bit later in the serious so holding out for that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 21 December, 2020, 05:24:50 pm
Just read Sard Harker by John Masefield.  Highly recommended (the language is a bit 1920s).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 28 December, 2020, 02:21:49 pm
Reading the first Harry Potter to#1 son at bedtime.  Not sure it's supposed to be funny in the way we find it funny.
(click to show/hide)
Try the Lemony Snicket books, they’re so much better - my son enjoyed them a lot more than the Harry Potter books when he was a small person.

The plots are equally ridiculous - but not in a bad way like HP.
Thanks for this, citoyen.  I got my eldest (7.5 and a voracious reader) the first two books for Christmas.  He knocked out The Bad Beginning before breakfast this morning and it looks like we’re going to be getting the full set...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 28 December, 2020, 02:27:45 pm
I’m on the last volume of the Chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor. Most enjoyable.

I’ve given up on the Ben Aaronovitch Peter Grant novels.

Also finishing off Ring the Hill by Tom Cox. Fond memories of Somerset revisited.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 28 December, 2020, 03:47:19 pm
Thanks for this, citoyen.  I got my eldest (7.5 and a voracious reader) the first two books for Christmas.  He knocked out The Bad Beginning before breakfast this morning and it looks like we’re going to be getting the full set...
I would like to recommend the Cressida Cowell "How to Train Your Dragon" books.  They start off very easy reading but get more complicated and nuanced as you read through (just like the hype about the Potter) but are actually funny and different.
Worth noting that they are nothing like the films (other than the main character being called "Hiccup" and there being dragons in the stories).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 28 December, 2020, 04:04:05 pm
The Return by Harry Sidebottom.
Third read in six weeks. Very good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 December, 2020, 05:52:43 pm
Harrier 809 ~ Rowland White.  Military hist. focussing on the FAA's hastily-reformed 809 Squadron.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 December, 2020, 06:08:48 pm
Try the Lemony Snicket books, they’re so much better - my son enjoyed them a lot more than the Harry Potter books when he was a small person.

The plots are equally ridiculous - but not in a bad way like HP.
Thanks for this, citoyen.  I got my eldest (7.5 and a voracious reader) the first two books for Christmas.  He knocked out The Bad Beginning before breakfast this morning and it looks like we’re going to be getting the full set...

Yay!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 29 December, 2020, 05:48:53 pm
Sai King’s Under The Dome, which surprisingly post-dates The Simpsons Movie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 December, 2020, 06:20:15 pm
I am not reading it yet, but if anyone wanted Ian Dunt's How To Be A Liberal on kindle it's on offer for £2.59 today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 29 December, 2020, 08:41:30 pm
Try the Lemony Snicket books, they’re so much better - my son enjoyed them a lot more than the Harry Potter books when he was a small person.

The plots are equally ridiculous - but not in a bad way like HP.
Thanks for this, citoyen.  I got my eldest (7.5 and a voracious reader) the first two books for Christmas.  He knocked out The Bad Beginning before breakfast this morning and it looks like we’re going to be getting the full set...

Yay!  :thumbsup:
I heard The Bad Beginning via the local library app and it had some good folly effects that made the story rather good/fun
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 30 December, 2020, 12:23:14 am
Tom Holt's OutSorcerer's Apprentice.  It's mildly funny and mildly entertaining.  I wouldn't recommend, but I will finish reading it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 30 December, 2020, 08:01:00 am
I've found Tom Holt to be a bit hit and miss, enjoyed Faust Among Equals, but found another of his unsatisfying
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 30 December, 2020, 10:08:59 am
I found Tom Holt via 'Expecting Someone Taller'. Liked that, liked 'Flying Dutch' and 'Who's Afraid of Beowulf?', but he went very hit and miss after that.

Once he got onto his current 'Youspace' kick, he seemed to settle into bringing back recurring characters, and it became a rather unfunny version of 'Fast Show'.

Nope. No longer working for me, but I did read 'Orc on the Wild Side' a couple of weeks back. Still not doing it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 30 December, 2020, 10:16:09 am
Dead Lies Dreaming, the latest from Charlie Stross.  If it wasn’t intended as a metaphor for Brexit, it certainly reads like one to this Unit.

Although promoted by the publisher as a Laundry File, it isn’t one, or at least no-one from the Laundry has appeared so far.

Finished it a while ago. Not quite sure of its 'fit' into the series; I suspect it is a placeholder/means of introducing some characters he wants to use later. One of the aspects some people miss about the Files is that he consciously wrote the initial ones in  different styles, so one was an Ian Fleming book, another Len Deighton, another Peter O'Donnell.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 30 December, 2020, 10:22:34 am
I picked up The Outsiders,  a biography of the Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere, the former being the founder of the Daily Maul, in a second-hand bookshop while on holiday a few years ago and have only just got round to starting it.

Whatever one thinks of the current rag, it's hard not to admire Alfred Harmsworth's drive and far-sightedness in the way that he set up and ran the paper (plus later ventures such as the Daily Mirror), with ideas that are now taken for granted but were innovative at the time.

So far, possibly the most amusing fact, though - given the rag's antipathy towards us today - is that Harmsworth was an obsessive cyclists, who once raced from London to Bournemouth on a penny farthing and began his career editing a bicycling magazine.

I haven't got to the part where he dies and Rothermere takes over, but his descendants appear to be a much less likeable bunch.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 30 December, 2020, 10:30:21 am
I am currently reading a number of very ancient back issues of "Laidback Cyclist", with one in four issues featuring the works of a certain Mr Larrington.
Book-wise, still working through the Potter with my son.  It's still nonsense enough that my 10-year-old comments about how ridiculous it is - I heard a rumour that it grows up a bit later in the serious so holding out for that.

DECLARATION: I despise Rowling as a nasty and litigious bigot. She champions 'freeze peach' but regularly threatens libel action against anyone she dislikes. Including a magazine for schoolchildren.

That said, her writing is really, really poor in quality. It doesn't get any better; cardboard characters, dire exposition, overt racism: she is the one-bigot equivalent of the people who wrote 'Janet and John', "Spot the Dog' or any number of Star Wars novelisations.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 December, 2020, 10:56:10 am
“The Final Crossing” by Brian McGilloway, an author from Derry who writes crime fiction. I’ve enjoyed all his works, but like many authors he can’t make a living from it. See also Adrian McKinty, particularly his Sean Duffy series. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 31 December, 2020, 10:47:25 am
Serpentine ~ Philip Pullman.  That didn’t take long.  Nice drawings though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 31 December, 2020, 01:24:58 pm
Dead Lies Dreaming, the latest from Charlie Stross.  If it wasn’t intended as a metaphor for Brexit, it certainly reads like one to this Unit.

Although promoted by the publisher as a Laundry File, it isn’t one, or at least no-one from the Laundry has appeared so far.

Finished it a while ago. Not quite sure of its 'fit' into the series; I suspect it is a placeholder/means of introducing some characters he wants to use later. One of the aspects some people miss about the Files is that he consciously wrote the initial ones in  different styles, so one was an Ian Fleming book, another Len Deighton, another Peter O'Donnell.

(click to show/hide)


I don't think it's intended as a "Laundry Files" novel , it's the first of a parallel trilogy set in the same universe but with totally new characters.  I think his publishers wanted to keep the association though.


From Charlie's blog http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/10/the-laundry-files-an-updated-c.html#more


"New spin-off series, new starting point! The marketing blurb describes it as "book 10 in the Laundry Files" but by the time this book is set—after CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN and the end of the main Laundry story arc (some time in 2015-16) the Laundry no longer exists. We meet a cast of entirely new characters, civilians (with powers) living under the aegis of the New Management, ruled by his Dread Majesty, the Black Pharaoh."
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 31 December, 2020, 03:09:57 pm
Ta!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 01 January, 2021, 02:28:01 pm
If anyone has read The Flame Trees of Thika can you pop over to the KWC answers thread?

Ta
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 05 January, 2021, 03:52:38 pm
I'll put this here.

How many legs does the monster have the War of the Worlds ? When you have come up with the answer click on the link below to see the coin celebrating H.G.

https://twitter.com/HolBolDoTweet/status/1346119804474810370?s=20

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 January, 2021, 04:47:51 pm
I'll put this here.

How many legs does the monster have the War of the Worlds ? When you have come up with the answer click on the link below to see the coin celebrating H.G.

https://twitter.com/HolBolDoTweet/status/1346119804474810370?s=20

This is at least the third time this has been posted in yacf today!

I did check, though - I haven't read the book, so I wasn't entirely sure if they were actually referred to by a name that specified the number of limbs, had a feeling it might just have been 'war machines' or something. But my brief research suggests Wells did indeed use that term.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 January, 2021, 04:50:29 pm
It actually took me a second to notice what was wrong.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 05 January, 2021, 10:32:42 pm
Failure is not an option by that Gene Kranz bloke.
I am really struggling.......  to put it down.
Title: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 January, 2021, 01:44:40 am
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 January, 2021, 08:36:35 am
I'll put this here.

How many legs does the monster have the War of the Worlds ? When you have come up with the answer click on the link below to see the coin celebrating H.G.

https://twitter.com/HolBolDoTweet/status/1346119804474810370?s=20

This is at least the third time this has been posted in yacf today!

I did check, though - I haven't read the book, so I wasn't entirely sure if they were actually referred to by a name that specified the number of limbs, had a feeling it might just have been 'war machines' or something. But my brief research suggests Wells did indeed use that term.

It's also the term Frank Hampson used in Rogue Planet.  But his war machines had four or even six.  Stable guy, old Frank.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 06 January, 2021, 11:22:02 am
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig.

Lots of people have raved about this book.

I might just be ‘not in the right place right now’ but I don’t love it. It’s a kind of stream of consciousness account of Matt’s experience of depression.

I’m a depressive, and have been throughout my adult life. Perhaps I did this level of processing earlier in my disease trajectory.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 06 January, 2021, 05:01:29 pm
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.
Didn't make me cry. Love wasn't really present, for me.

Gut wrenching story.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 07 January, 2021, 01:49:50 pm
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

In my pile, along with Troubles, which I meant to read a long time ago, but forgot about until you mentioned it a couple of pages back, and the new ones form Jonathan Coe, Don DeLillo and William Boyd. A Christmas book bonanza.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 07 January, 2021, 01:54:30 pm
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.
Didn't make me cry. Love wasn't really present, for me.

Gut wrenching story.

The very last thing I want right now is my guts wrenched.

The Chronicles of St Mary’s were great. Any recommendations for something similarly lighthearted and silly?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 January, 2021, 02:10:22 pm
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

In my pile, along with Troubles, which I meant to read a long time ago, but forgot about until you mentioned it a couple of pages back,

Troubles is another that will stay with me. And no doubt will be re-read. Wonderful book. Very glad to finally get round to both of them - long overdue!

Didn't make me cry.

I was discussing Ishiguro a while ago with a colleague and she said Never Let Me Go made her cry, which is why I mentioned it. Didn't have quite the same effect on me. But The Remains Of The Day had me in pieces. I've seen the film a few times and read the book twice and it gets me every time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 09 January, 2021, 11:37:41 am
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I can't remember who it was OTP who first recommended her to me (Peter?), but I do remember that it was on the back of me mentioning how much I like EF Benson. This is by far the most EF Benson like of her books that I've read so far. And I adore it. So funny. So beautifully written.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 09 January, 2021, 04:08:25 pm
Excellent!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 09 January, 2021, 06:32:42 pm
Since my wife was given it at Xmas, I've just speed through Diary of an MP's wife by Sasha Swire. The funny, gossipy, bits have already been in the newspapers and most of the rest isn't worth buying the book for, but there was one part that caught my eye. Having lost his junior ministerial job, her husband is out and about raising funds for the party. He and Raab have a meeting with a potential donor who is offering "a large donation", then it's casually mentioned that it will have to be in his wife's name as the actual donor is not British.

A similar comment is made later about another donor.

I thought that was illegal.  ???
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 January, 2021, 12:20:17 am
The Coffinmaker's Garden ~ Stuart MacBride.  On the down side, all the killin's are historical thus far, but there have been, at a conservative estimate, about twenty-five of them.  And none of the victims was a parakeet either.  Even though it's set in the fictional town of Oldcastle, the weather is just like it is 99% of the time in Logan McRae's version of Furryboottoon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 January, 2021, 11:19:07 am
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Story of a brutal triple murder in a remote crofting community in the Scottish Highlands in 1869. Incredibly dark and gruesome but utterly compelling. And very clever. The bare facts of the case are set out right at the start - the cleverness is in how the details are gradually revealed as it goes on. Quite brilliant.

(tenuous cycling content: the plot includes an ascent of Bealach na Ba, albeit by Highland pony rather than by bike)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 11 January, 2021, 11:32:59 am
Stephen King 11.22.63 Well written so far.........early days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 January, 2021, 11:55:45 am
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Story of a brutal triple murder in a remote crofting community in the Scottish Highlands in 1869. Incredibly dark and gruesome but utterly compelling. And very clever. The bare facts of the case are set out right at the start - the cleverness is in how the details are gradually revealed as it goes on. Quite brilliant.

(tenuous cycling content: the plot includes an ascent of Bealach na Ba, albeit by Highland pony rather than by bike)

Loved this book when I read it as part of my Booker Prize challenge.  Think I'll have to get back to that this year.  The basic premise is that as soon as the long list comes out you download/buy/borrow all 13 books.  You then have until the prize announcement to read all 13.  The time between longlist publication and final is 13 weeks. 1 book per week is doable if they are His Bloody Project or the like.  All goes to Hell in a handbasket if Hilary Mantell or the like have a book in the list!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 January, 2021, 12:07:34 pm
The basic premise is that as soon as the long list comes out you download/buy/borrow all 13 books.  You then have until the prize announcement to read all 13.  The time between longlist publication and final is 13 weeks. 1 book per week is doable if they are His Bloody Project or the like.  All goes to Hell in a handbasket if Hilary Mantell or the like have a book in the list!

I started His Bloody Project yesterday afternoon and could happily have finished it in a single sitting if not for having other things to do. Looking forward to reading the last section, the report of the trial, tonight. If only all Booker nominees were like this, I could read an awful lot more of them. I finished Bring Up The Bodies in a matter of a few days but that's only because it was holiday reading and I had nothing better to do. I've still got A Brief History of Seven Killings on my 'to read' pile but haven't worked up the appetite for it yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 January, 2021, 01:03:50 pm
As a spoiler, it's not brief.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 January, 2021, 01:11:54 pm
As a spoiler, it's not brief.

Not original either - Marlon James nicked that gag off Stephen Hawking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 January, 2021, 01:32:03 pm
Shame that no one, to the best of my knowledge, added the option of a Jamaican patois to Hawking's speech synthesizer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 11 January, 2021, 01:46:04 pm
The basic premise is that as soon as the long list comes out you download/buy/borrow all 13 books.  You then have until the prize announcement to read all 13.  The time between longlist publication and final is 13 weeks. 1 book per week is doable if they are His Bloody Project or the like.  All goes to Hell in a handbasket if Hilary Mantell or the like have a book in the list!

I started His Bloody Project yesterday afternoon and could happily have finished it in a single sitting if not for having other things to do. Looking forward to reading the last section, the report of the trial, tonight. If only all Booker nominees were like this, I could read an awful lot more of them. I finished Bring Up The Bodies in a matter of a few days but that's only because it was holiday reading and I had nothing better to do. I've still got A Brief History of Seven Killings on my 'to read' pile but haven't worked up the appetite for it yet.

The only one I have started and never finished was "A Brief History..." There was just something about it that I didn't get on with.  "A Little Life", by Hanya Yanagihara was a completely different matter, though and I finished in a couple of days sat around a Moroccan swimming pool.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 11 January, 2021, 01:56:22 pm
On Audio His Bloody Project is read by Cameron Mowat (https://brennanartists.com/clients/cameron-mowat/) and Crawford Logan (https://brennanartists.com/clients/crawford-logan/).
It is utterly brilliant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 January, 2021, 01:57:59 pm
The basic premise is that as soon as the long list comes out you download/buy/borrow all 13 books.  You then have until the prize announcement to read all 13.  The time between longlist publication and final is 13 weeks. 1 book per week is doable if they are His Bloody Project or the like.  All goes to Hell in a handbasket if Hilary Mantell or the like have a book in the list!

I started His Bloody Project yesterday afternoon and could happily have finished it in a single sitting if not for having other things to do. Looking forward to reading the last section, the report of the trial, tonight. If only all Booker nominees were like this, I could read an awful lot more of them. I finished Bring Up The Bodies in a matter of a few days but that's only because it was holiday reading and I had nothing better to do. I've still got A Brief History of Seven Killings on my 'to read' pile but haven't worked up the appetite for it yet.

The only one I have started and never finished was "A Brief History..." There was just something about it that I didn't get on with.  "A Little Life", by Hanya Yanagihara was a completely different matter, though and I finished in a couple of days sat around a Moroccan swimming pool.


I got through it. It was technically brilliant and certainly established as time and place but it suffered from the usual, excessive length and unnecessary overcomplexity, needless characters and it occasionally got difficult to tell the difference between gangstas #12, #14, and #23 beyond their mutual love of big knives and sexual violence. Somewhere there was as a far snappier 300pp novel wanting to break free.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 January, 2021, 02:15:21 pm
Shame that no one, to the best of my knowledge, added the option of a Jamaican patois to Hawking's speech synthesizer.

There's a lovely wee gag in Le Magnifique when the R on JPB's typewriter gets stuck and all his characters start speaking Martiniquais.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 11 January, 2021, 02:33:52 pm
On Audio His Bloody Project is read by Cameron Mowat (https://brennanartists.com/clients/cameron-mowat/) and Crawford Logan (https://brennanartists.com/clients/crawford-logan/).
It is utterly brilliant.

I'm familiar with Crawford Logan from playing Paul Temple in the more recent radio adaptations... Can't quite imagine him playing a 17yo Highland crofter, so I presume he's reading the other documents.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 11 January, 2021, 03:30:00 pm
It is truly an excellent read.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 11 January, 2021, 10:01:45 pm
Hmm I might have to bail or try again later on this book The Humans by Matt Haig. 50 pages into 322 and yet to have a laugh, The jokes I do see them and I like that style cause I loved Phil Janes and Douglas Adams styles to name but a few but this book just falls flat to me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fuzzy on 11 January, 2021, 11:35:08 pm
Stephen King 11.22.63 Well written so far.........early days.

Wasn't that turned into a filum or tv series?
Seem to recall watching something like it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 January, 2021, 11:00:35 am
The Coffinmaker's Garden ~ Stuart MacBride.  On the down side, all the killin's are historical thus far, but there have been, at a conservative estimate, about twenty-five of them.  And none of the victims was a parakeet either.  Even though it's set in the fictional town of Oldcastle, the weather is just like it is 99% of the time in Logan McRae's version of Furryboottoon.

That was rather fun inna-gratuitously-violent-stylee.  This easily-amused Unit was also taken by the reaction of a Rothesay book group to a Logan McRae novel.  They didn’t like it ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 13 January, 2021, 11:04:46 am
Stephen King 11.22.63 Well written so far.........early days.

Wasn't that turned into a filum or tv series?
Seem to recall watching something like it.
Your recalling is good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11.22.63
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 13 January, 2021, 11:29:10 pm
Just finished Absolution Gap which is the third of the Revelation Space trilogy.

I rather enjoyed the first, wasn't quite as keen on number two.

This one, well I started it in December. December 2018.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 15 January, 2021, 07:24:38 pm
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Loved this book when I read it as part of my Booker Prize challenge.
I read it a few years ago.  It did nothing for me - makes me think of Dom Jolly explaining that he didn't find Vic and Bob funny, despite recognizing all the evidence that they were hilarious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 21 January, 2021, 01:13:48 pm
Carl Hiason's Squeeze Me.  It contains refernce to the POTUS Florida residence "Casa Bellicosa".  It's pleasant enough, and mildy amusing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 25 January, 2021, 08:59:28 pm
Just started reading The Anarchy by Dalrymple. What a pleasant lot the East India Company were.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 25 January, 2021, 09:08:09 pm
Oooo. That's one down in my bedside pile. Really looking forward to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 January, 2021, 09:04:23 am
False Value by Ben Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaronovitch. It plods, pun intended. I have it on a tablet and I keep flipping out to read the Graun and the NYT in hope of something cheering.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 26 January, 2021, 09:34:55 am
I've started The Earthsea cycle by Ursula K Le Guin. It's a series I've heard of and seen referenced for years.

I can't say I'm enthralled. It's fine, nothing outright wrong with it, it's just not grabbing me.

I expect I'll continue and see where it goes though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 26 January, 2021, 09:35:09 am
Just finished Absolution Gap which is the third of the Revelation Space trilogy.

I rather enjoyed the first, wasn't quite as keen on number two.

This one, well I started it in December. December 2018.

I bet you spat at the ending.

I did find a copy of Century Rain in the summer house which I remembered as his best book, so I'm re-reading and quite enjoying. The noir doesn't quite come off, but he's no Chandler, but points for trying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 January, 2021, 09:40:46 am
I've started The Earthsea cycle by Ursula K Le Guin. It's a series I've heard of and seen referenced for years.

I can't say I'm enthralled. It's fine, nothing outright wrong with it, it's just not grabbing me.

I loved those books. When I was 10.

I've often thought about re-reading them as an adult but have never got round to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 26 January, 2021, 04:24:15 pm
I've started The Earthsea cycle by Ursula K Le Guin. ... it's just not grabbing me.

Like Citoyen I suspect it's a series best read before a certain age, say about 16.  I read them when I was about 12 or 13 and really enjoyed them.  I think they'd been on Jackanory and I then found them in the local library.


Quote from: citoyen

I've often thought about re-reading them as an adult but have never got round to it.
I've still got a copy of the Tombs of Atuan. Haven't read it for a few years, but I thought it had aged pretty well the last time I did.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 30 January, 2021, 08:35:23 am
John Masefield's account of Gallipoli.  It's grimmer than the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan, because not only is the death rate far worse, you know it's all going to be in vain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 03 February, 2021, 08:34:56 pm
It was called The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu, btw
Many thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed this. Must have been a bit of a kick to the teeth of the first Europeans to arrive there to only find goods and trade from Europe there already :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 February, 2021, 02:34:36 pm
Dominion - Tom Holland

Not about Christianity per say as a religion though there is a lot in there about the history of Christianity, but more about the impact of Christianity on Western thinking. Excellent so far.

One hilarious one star review on Amazon complains that it focuses too much on religion - well yes its a book about how a religion affected society wtf did they expect it to contain?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 04 February, 2021, 05:27:42 pm
I've started The Earthsea cycle by Ursula K Le Guin. ... it's just not grabbing me.

Like Citoyen I suspect it's a series best read before a certain age, say about 16.  I read them when I was about 12 or 13 and really enjoyed them.  I think they'd been on Jackanory and I then found them in the local library.


Quote from: citoyen

I've often thought about re-reading them as an adult but have never got round to it.
I've still got a copy of the Tombs of Atuan. Haven't read it for a few years, but I thought it had aged pretty well the last time I did.

I re-read them but I agree that they're probably more aimed at younger people - however I also think they get more adult as you go through so it is worth sticking with them if you can.
Le Guin returned to Earthsea much later in her life and wrote two more books set there which are rather different and darker and more adult than the original three. I need to re-read and finish the last one (I have no idea why I didn't finish it).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 04 February, 2021, 06:14:26 pm
I ended up reading Earthsea #2 and I've got #3 & #4 there on the bedside table, tis a big omnibus tome.

I'll read the rest I've got and see if I have the rest in the library. I don't know which books I actually have after a few book fair runs when I came away with several veg boxes of sci fi and fantasy paperbacks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rogerzilla on 04 February, 2021, 07:55:46 pm
Dominion - Tom Holland

Not about Christianity per say as a religion though there is a lot in there about the history of Christianity, but more about the impact of Christianity on Western thinking. Excellent so far.

One hilarious one star review on Amazon complains that it focuses too much on religion - well yes its a book about how a religion affected society wtf did they expect it to contain?
Sisters of Mercy fan, probably.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 04 February, 2021, 11:06:53 pm
^ chortle

I read the Earthsea trilogy (as was) ages ago.  Not read the later stuff and the Birmingham online library appears to have never heard of Le Guin (the physical library is shut, obvs).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 10 February, 2021, 12:56:34 pm
struggling to find something to read - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54594933-kissing-the-coronavirus
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Paul on 11 February, 2021, 11:03:03 am
The Curious Case of Leonardo's Bicycle (http://www.brickbats.co.uk/books/leonardos-bicycle/) (as reviewed in the latest edition of Cycle).

I'd never heard of Brick, despite his proximity, working medium and apparent pro-bikeness. I'm really enjoying his style. If you like bikes and comic books, it's definitely worth a look. And if you're quick you might get a signed one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 11 February, 2021, 11:56:36 am
Boy is this book depressing - The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization by Vince Beiser - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36950075-the-world-in-a-grain -

Quote
After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future.

And, incredibly, we're running out of it.

The way we are digging up because we are using so much, we have find a way to reuse it and another thing to use in its place and also we gotta clean up the way we get it out of the ground and manufacture it and use it.

I think you gotta read it, but if you don't have the time here is a short film to watch on the tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pry3aRPzuE8 (2:22) or read this https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/kenya-sand-wars/index.html or this https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/27/sand-mining-global-environmental-crisis-never-heard
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 11 February, 2021, 01:18:27 pm
Finally got my hands on Stuart Macbrides latest. Hmmm, whilst a fan of his works, I'm at page 279, with (checks) over 200 more to go. His prose style really doesn't carry such a tome.I'll prbably finish it, but only because our lbrary loand are defaulted to 1st April with no renewals required.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 11 February, 2021, 03:50:21 pm
struggling to find something to read - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54594933-kissing-the-coronavirus
new keyboard, pls!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: MikeFromLFE on 11 February, 2021, 04:25:03 pm
I've just finished Mamista by Len Deighton, which on the face of it was a straightforward cold War, south America, jungle yarn.
The more I digested it the more depressing it became. The moral of story seems to be that no matter who you are, or what your philosophy is, you we get shafted by someone. (and end up dead in a way that is both unpleasant and unpredictable)
Cheery.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 14 February, 2021, 03:17:02 pm
Moar Le Guin.  Roccanon's World, not on a par with LHoD or the Dispossessed, but immensely well written nonetheless and better than the last few books I've read.
Also, Moar Sherlock Holmes, which is good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 16 February, 2021, 06:17:09 pm
Recently I've been reading Stuart Macbride's A Song for the Dying. I've been finding it difficult to get to sleep while reading it.
Last night I finished it and made a start on Piranesi by Susannah Clarke. That was more like it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 February, 2021, 07:28:14 pm
Some light relief in Carl Hiaasen’s “Razor Girl”. I was going to read James Lee Burke’s “A Private Cathedral”, but the OTT gratuitous violence seemed more than usually pointless, and a supernatural assassin put the tin lid on it (although curiously I’ll still read John Connelly’s Charlie Parker’s next outing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 16 February, 2021, 07:31:30 pm
I'm reading a book with a sticker (pretend because it's on my Kindle) on the cover that reads 'For fans of Dan Brown.'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 16 February, 2021, 09:50:14 pm
I've started The Earthsea cycle by Ursula K Le Guin. It's a series I've heard of and seen referenced for years.

I can't say I'm enthralled. It's fine, nothing outright wrong with it, it's just not grabbing me.

I expect I'll continue and see where it goes though.
You're far too old for Earthsea.
Try Gifts, Powers, Voices.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 16 February, 2021, 10:09:10 pm
(Again) Her Privates We. Frederic Manning.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 February, 2021, 10:53:12 pm
Recently I've been reading Stuart Macbride's A Song for the Dying. I've been finding it difficult to get to sleep while reading it.

His 4th Oldcastle/3rd Ash Henderson bok came out last month.  Keeps up the good work in the number and nastiness of killin's.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 February, 2021, 01:45:05 pm
Working my way through "Cold Case: A Bob Skinner Mystery" which is as far from Tartan Noir as you can get and still a) be in Scotland and b) be about polis.

Just ordered "What Will Burn" plus have "The Coffinmaker's Garden" to read.  Taken a punt on "Coffin Road" by Pater May, too.  A new one to me but I guess others have a view.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 18 February, 2021, 02:55:55 pm
Planet of Exile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 February, 2021, 06:57:47 pm
Can't remember if I mentioned the JD Kirk books already?
Fairly easy to read well paced Tartan Noir with lots of sweary words, though generally good natured.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 February, 2021, 07:19:36 pm
Working my way through "Cold Case: A Bob Skinner Mystery" which is as far from Tartan Noir as you can get and still a) be in Scotland and b) be about polis.

Just ordered "What Will Burn" plus have "The Coffinmaker's Garden" to read.  Taken a punt on "Coffin Road" by Pater May, too.  A new one to me but I guess others have a view.

Peter May’s books I find to be variable in the extreme. Loved the Lewis trilogy. His Enzo ones, meh. Coffin Road fell in between for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 February, 2021, 07:49:37 am
Can't remember if I mentioned the JD Kirk books already?
Fairly easy to read well paced Tartan Noir with lots of sweary words, though generally good natured.

I don't remember them being recommended but I have them lined up now (Mr SouthAmericanRover agrees with your recommendation)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 February, 2021, 10:46:23 am
I'm reading a book with a sticker (pretend because it's on my Kindle) on the cover that reads 'For fans of Dan Brown.'

Was very good – The Anomaly by Michael Rutger, it's actually Michael Marshall (Smith) in another guise (why, don't know), but I stumbled across it after reading Hannah Green and her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence. Reminds me that I should venture up to the summer house and see if I can dig out the early scifi stuff he wrote (I have a feeling I leant to someone who didn't give them back). Anyway, it's a stab at a Crichton-esque airport-rack potboiler, which wouldn't be my usual cup-of-tea, but it's very well written and paced, and kept me reading till late to finish it. I'm sure he wants someone to make it into a film (if so, good) more so after they stole the brilliant Spares and made it into the execrable The Island.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 23 February, 2021, 09:45:03 am
I have always found Crichton to be an unbearably dull writer. Years ago, I wrote that good prose should either stand out for its beauty, or be so skilful that it carries the reader seamlessly with it. A good story teller draws you with them, and you don't notice the writing. That is artistry. Crichton, like Dan (ugh) Browne seems to write at the sort of telegraphic utterance level not seen much above 'Janet and John'.

I want, as said, to see beautiful prose that I can enjoy for itself, or to ride on the wings of the writer's imagination. In the second case, I want to see what happens next, but not simply be told "This then happened, then this".

Crichton does that to me. I can't read him, or rather I can, but whatever great plot he has allegedly devised is buried under a steady drizzle of turgid dross.

Could be worse. Could be Stephen R 'Thesaurus' Donaldson.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 23 February, 2021, 12:46:03 pm
I can't remember reading a Crichton book, to be honest, it was just that the subject of that was, erm, Crichtonic. It wasn't Dan Brown, for the fans thereof, as the cover claimed.

Anyway, Michael Marshall (Smith) in his various guises has always been one of my favourite authors. The plot was utterly preposterous but in a good way and it rollicked along at quite a pace. I imagine he enjoyed writing it with an eye on the script (I believe he's mostly a screenwriter these days). I was quite prepared to be disappointed as it didn't much sound like my cup of tea, but it was good fun, and certainly lifted by the characterization, which was an order of magnitude above the usual.

It has encouraged me to binge read some of his older stuff again. His short stories are amongst the best.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 01 March, 2021, 09:05:48 am
Just finished: Last Stop Auschwitz: My Story of Survival from within the Camp by Eddy de Wind https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45732516-last-stop-auschwitz

This should be read by everyone. Never again.

Now reading: This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49247043-this-is-how-they-tell-me-the-world-ends

You really don't trust anyone with any electronic ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 March, 2021, 07:25:58 am
Working through "What Will Burn", the new DI McLean book (sorry for the spoiler there)

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 March, 2021, 08:46:26 am
Waiting, as I do, for actual print books (as a reservation is only 70p), I'm still watimg for "What will burn", but making do with the latest Mick Herron / Slow Horses outing "Slough House".  Excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 19 March, 2021, 11:04:48 am
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: tiermat on 19 March, 2021, 11:35:05 am
 :hand:

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 19 March, 2021, 07:51:33 pm
Joe Country by Mick Herron and waiting the new one to come out in paperback.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 12 April, 2021, 03:45:39 pm
Ducks, Newburyport (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/15/ducks-newburyport-by-lucy-ellmann-review)

I don't think I would have bought this if I'd read a review, nor could I have coped with it as a written book, even when I could read.

It's really really really good as an audiobook (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/28/how-a-1000-page-novel-became-a-45-hour-audiobook-lucy-ellmann-ducks-newburyport). Of course it is. It's an internal monologue, listened, it becomes your internal monologue.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: geoff on 14 April, 2021, 10:00:01 am
Ian Rankin - "The Falls"

I'm pleased to turn once more to Rankin, another meticulous clockwork plot, shot through with wit, reflecting our own changing times, the flawed detective exploring his own unravelling to gain the insight required to unlock the puzzle. Rebus.

And the voice, the sometimes delicate, by turns brutal prism of Scots dialect, nicely translated for a sassenach ear. I really love how he leads the reader in, always adding to our knowledge without ever talking down.

Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 April, 2021, 12:26:36 pm
I am trying to read The Kingdom, the latest breezeblock-sized not Harry Hole offering from Jo Nesbo.  It is slow going, promises of killin's notwithstanding.  So slow, in fact, that I've got Julie Fanselow's Traveling The Lewis & Clark Trail running as an experimental side project.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 April, 2021, 12:14:34 pm
The latest D.I. (now D. Super) Banks from Peter Robinson. It's ok.

ETA: I didn't persist, it just didn't engage me. Now trying another of my so-so authors, Peter May, and his latest offering The Night Gate.  It's an Enzo story, so lightweight. Will have to see if it grips my attention or not. I love the Lewis trilogy, but have generally struggled to maintain interest with subsequent offerings (and, indeed, prior ones)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 19 April, 2021, 01:16:40 pm
Adrian Czajkowski, 'Shadows of the Apt' *Tchaikovsky for publication purposes)

Just coming to the last two in this series. Rather interesting premise, but the plotting can beseen as reflecting obvious Earth real-life history. The premise:

A fantasy world filled with lots of different races of humans, each race (kinden) having a non-human 'totem' that affects their physical nature and mindset. For example, Mantis Kinden are near-psychopathic and very efficient killers. Wasps are utterly nasty empire-builders.

Each kinden has an Art, a sort of magic trick, that can be deployed. This can involve, e.g, wings, so that wasps have 'light airborne' troops, and flies are rather short people who are employed as messengers.

The kinden, and individuals within them, are divided between the Apt and Inapt. 500 years before the time of the books, the world was run by the Moth mystics with their Mantis troops, but there was an Apt revolution. The difference between Apr and Inapt is the ability to use machinery and carry out certain aspects of abstract reasoning. For example, the Inapt can use swords, bows, etc, but cannot work door handles or read stylised maps. They have other abilities, depicted as being just as valid.

The technology is a sort of steampunk. As an example, there are many 'automotives', many of which are walkers. A typical aircraft is an ornithopter, made of wood and silk, powered by a clockwork motor and armed with two Roman style repeating ballistae. The engine can be rewound by trailing a drogue chute, which does rather impinge on the laws of thermodynamics except in very specific circumstances, such as soaring unpowered flight on thermals being used to gain the necessary potential energy for rewinding.

Not too badly written, if a little repetitive now and again, but any set of books whose lead character is a bald, dumpy and middle-aged man is worth a look.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 03 May, 2021, 04:13:16 pm
I've currently got Dan Simmons's Hyperion on the go, also Jeff Vandermeer's Hummingbird Salamander, and The Overstory by Richard Powers.

Hummingbird Salamander is very different from Vandermeer's earlier stuff (Area X, Borne, Dead Astronauts), and I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I suspect it's because the voice is very much that of his protagonist, and for me it's overly contrived and doesn't flow as naturally as the earlier weirdness.

Hyperion is a tour de force. It's really quite something.

I want to like The Overstory more than I do. I keep putting it down because it feels too much like a book I'd be made to read for school.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 May, 2021, 11:00:22 am
I started reading The Overstory about two years ago, I think I'm still in the 40% complete doldrums. Good luck.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 04 May, 2021, 11:22:29 am
I started reading The Overstory about two years ago, I think I'm still in the 40% complete doldrums. Good luck.
I'm finding that I pick it up, think about how old I am, how much longer I might exist on this Earth, and all the books yet unread that I could be reading instead of this one. Then I go and get one of those.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 04 May, 2021, 11:36:33 am
I should just give up to, I'm not going to finish it. It's not a bad book, it's well-written, but it's overly worthy stodge, and it's always a bad sign when you get to the end of a long section and look at the per cent complete and think, fuck, it's not even moved a single per cent. How can that be?

Occasionally I feel the urge to improve myself with proper literature, more often than not these days, I regret it. Long books in which lots of words happen and not much else.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 04 May, 2021, 02:38:51 pm
Currently reading Perdido Street Station and rather enjoying it.

And a friend bought it for me so that's even better.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 04 May, 2021, 03:08:59 pm
I started reading The Overstory about two years ago, I think I'm still in the 40% complete doldrums. Good luck.
I'm finding that I pick it up, think about how old I am, how much longer I might exist on this Earth, and all the books yet unread that I could be reading instead of this one. Then I go and get one of those.

Sam

I felt like that about the last Stephen R Donaldson book I tried to read. My thoughts can be summed up as two-stage:
1. How much more of this stuff is there?
2. [Endreads] Sod this for a game of book-reading soldiers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 13 May, 2021, 04:02:30 pm
I am reading Emily Chappell's 'What goes around'.
I've had this from charity shops twice before and never got around to reading it.
Bought it again last week and it is beautifully written. A nice read - unless anything horrible happens in the second half.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 14 May, 2021, 09:32:30 am
just started Tim Weaver's latest "Missing Pieces", a non David Raker standalone. Set in the US so maybe an attempt to break that market.

ETA: It has the alternating “now” and “before” chapter arrangement. Not one of my favourite devices. I’ll see how it goes.

ETAA: It didn't. The format deprives the narrative of pace, and the writing isn't so good I'd read it for the language alone.  Not sure whats next, possiblt the new-to-me Dale Brown's "Tiger Claw" - some mindless escapism.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 May, 2021, 11:24:19 am
Just finished Charlie Stross's two Edinburgh krimis, Halting State and Rule 34.  Shame he abandoned the third in the series, they were great fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 14 May, 2021, 11:42:40 am
Just finished Charlie Stross's two Edinburgh krimis, Halting State and Rule 34.  Shame he abandoned the third in the series, they were great fun.


He said real life events are making it almost impossible to write near future fiction.  A real shame. 



“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don’ like to bug you, but I need a second opinion . . .”


"Wow, that’s something out of the ordinary. A two-wetsuit job means kinky beyond the call of duty. "
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 16 May, 2021, 10:30:48 am
I finished the Emily Chappell book "What goes around" yesterday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read about a subject that doesn't mean much to me by an author that I wouldn't usually consider.
Beautifully written and I've just ordered her one about the European endurance race - another aspect of cycling that I would usually pass by.

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 16 May, 2021, 11:04:24 am
Just finished Charlie Stross's two Edinburgh krimis, Halting State and Rule 34.  Shame he abandoned the third in the series, they were great fun.


He said real life events are making it almost impossible to write near future fiction.  A real shame. 



“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don’ like to bug you, but I need a second opinion . . .”


"Wow, that’s something out of the ordinary. A two-wetsuit job means kinky beyond the call of duty. "

Good old Embry - made me quite nostalgic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 May, 2021, 09:05:27 am
I finished the Emily Chappell book "What goes around" yesterday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read about a subject that doesn't mean much to me by an author that I wouldn't usually consider.
Beautifully written and I've just ordered her one about the European endurance race - another aspect of cycling that I would usually pass by.

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.

Doesn't look lile it, but you can ask her yourself

https://twitter.com/emilychappell?lang=en
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 17 May, 2021, 10:28:21 am
Just finished "A Great and Terrible King" - Marc Morris the biography of Edward 1st. Really interesting especially on how his reign changed and shaped English / Scottish relationship from then until now really. The medieval aristocracy really were a bunch of back stabbers.

Started on "Aden Insurgency - the save war in Yemen 1962-67" Jonathan Walker

Reading this mainly because my dad was involved in the early part of this. He was clerk to one of the generals.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 May, 2021, 11:16:53 am
Like Ashaman42, Perdido Street Station, maybe for the 3rd time. Read it when it came out 20 years ago, and at least one other time in between. C. Miéville does rather enjoy wallowing in crud, but it's fascinating crud.

Later books of his, e.g. Kraken, came across as somewhat pathetic self-parody, though they bucked up a bit with Embassytown - touch of Kafka there.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 17 May, 2021, 11:29:14 am
I finished Perdido yesterday and loved it overall.

Last night I started Kerouac's On The Road but only chapter one read so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 17 May, 2021, 12:28:04 pm
I've got Mieville's "October" balanced on the Teetering Pile Of Unread Books.   His non fiction history of the October Revolution.   One year I may get around to reading it  :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 May, 2021, 12:31:40 pm
Professor Larrington lent me a couple of fat Miéville papperboks a few years back while I was struggling through Kraken.  They were returned, still unread, a couple of years later.

Edit: Have just added the latest slab of military hist. from Max “Hitler” Hastings – Operation Pedestal: The Fleet that Battled to Malta 1942 – to the “To read” pile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 17 May, 2021, 02:03:39 pm

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.

Doesn't look lile it, but you can ask her yourself

https://twitter.com/emilychappell?lang=en
[/quote]
Do you have to be a member of twitter to use it? If so, I'll pass thanks.
Her 'Where There's a Will' has just arrived along with We are Nature by Ray Mears, A Woman in the Polar Night - Christine Ritter, and Terry Waites 'Solitude'.
I am reading Condor Blues by Mark Nicol.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 17 May, 2021, 10:20:20 pm
Working through "What Will Burn", the new DI McLean book (sorry for the spoiler there)

Oh. I thought I'd just finished reading that, but it appears I was one behind, though I still had this one in my kindle waiting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 18 May, 2021, 11:33:15 am
Just finished Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which was one of the best things I've read in ages. Guess I'll have to get the next one in the series.

Just started Maria Dahvana Headley's Beowulf.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 18 May, 2021, 12:52:20 pm
Just finished Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which was one of the best things I've read in ages. Guess I'll have to get the next one in the series.

Just started Maria Dahvana Headley's Beowulf.
Sam
I have that on my Amazon wishlist. Have you read enough yet to form an opinion? It's the feminist version of the poem and had good reviews but then so did Heaney's Beowulf and I didn't enjoy that.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 May, 2021, 01:00:48 pm
Like Ashaman42, Perdido Street Station, maybe for the 3rd time. Read it when it came out 20 years ago, and at least one other time in between. C. Miéville does rather enjoy wallowing in crud, but it's fascinating crud.

Later books of his, e.g. Kraken, came across as somewhat pathetic self-parody, though they bucked up a bit with Embassytown - touch of Kafka there.

Interesting. The City & The City is still the only one of his that I've read, and I loved it, but I understand it's not typical of his work. I've had Perdido Street Station ready to pick up from my TBR pile for some time, but I have no idea when I'll ever get round to it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 18 May, 2021, 03:46:03 pm
Just finished Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which was one of the best things I've read in ages. Guess I'll have to get the next one in the series.

Just started Maria Dahvana Headley's Beowulf.
Sam
I have that on my Amazon wishlist. Have you read enough yet to form an opinion? It's the feminist version of the poem and had good reviews but then so did Heaney's Beowulf and I didn't enjoy that.

Quote
Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days,
everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only
stories now, but I'll sound the Spear-Danes' song, hoarded for
hungry times.

Their first father was a foundling: Scyld Scefing.
He spent his youth fists up, browbeating every barstool-brother,
bonfiring his enemies. That man began in the waves, a baby in
a basket,
but he bootstrapped his way into a kingdom, trading loneliness
for luxury. Whether they thought kneeling necessary or no,
everyone from head to tail of the whale-road bent down:
There's a king, there's his crown!
That was a good king.

I am enjoying it immensely, but if you prefer your translation not to sound like an assertive street kid performing it as a kind of rap, it might not be for you.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 May, 2021, 04:05:35 pm
Talking of feminist updates of classics, I'm reminded of Elizabeth Cook's Achilles - although I'm not sure it really is 'feminist', except perhaps in the same way that Point Break is 'feminist' thanks to having a woman director...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/04/fiction.poetry

I really should re-read that some time. It's great.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 18 May, 2021, 04:12:02 pm
Talking of feminist updates of classics, I'm reminded of Elizabeth Cook's Achilles - although I'm not sure it really is 'feminist', except perhaps in the same way that Point Break is 'feminist' thanks to having a woman director...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/04/fiction.poetry

I really should re-read that some time. It's great.

Miller's Song of Achilles is one of my favourite books of all time.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 18 May, 2021, 04:22:25 pm
Talking of feminist updates of classics, I'm reminded of Elizabeth Cook's Achilles - although I'm not sure it really is 'feminist', except perhaps in the same way that Point Break is 'feminist' thanks to having a woman director...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/04/fiction.poetry

I really should re-read that some time. It's great.

Miller's Song of Achilles is one of my favourite books of all time.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles

Sam

I enjoyed that very much too - if I remember rightly, it's bordering on slash fiction... but in a good way.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 18 May, 2021, 05:27:40 pm
I quite enjoyed the mash-up of HP Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes (more Conan Doyle than Lovecraft fortunately). The style was spot-on without being dated. Purists will hate it, of course, and that fact alone gives me pleasure.

Stumbled into another yet different spin of the wheel with Lovecraft and Carter, which started out promising, but now lolls around like an overdressed and underemployed crime story. It's obviously a TV pitch, reasonably written, but gradually ticking the annoyance boxes. It might pull its socks up and grow some tentacles in the last act, I suppose.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 19 May, 2021, 07:16:36 am

Quote
Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days,
everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only
stories now, but I'll sound the Spear-Danes' song, hoarded for
hungry times.

Their first father was a foundling: Scyld Scefing.
He spent his youth fists up, browbeating every barstool-brother,
bonfiring his enemies. That man began in the waves, a baby in
a basket,
but he bootstrapped his way into a kingdom, trading loneliness
for luxury. Whether they thought kneeling necessary or no,
everyone from head to tail of the whale-road bent down:
There's a king, there's his crown!
That was a good king.

I am enjoying it immensely, but if you prefer your translation not to sound like an assertive street kid performing it as a kind of rap, it might not be for you.
Sam
That retains the snarl of a saga. I've just ordered it on Amazon and it will be here today. Cheers
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 19 May, 2021, 07:37:08 am
I've just finished Condor Blues by Mark Nicol.
It is an 'true' account of a mixed platoon of PWRR and Argyle & Sutherland infantry in a remote small fort - Condor - in Iraq.
It is not a book to enjoy: infantry OR's are largely post-schoolboys with guns and capable of great bravery, without hesitation, in support of their mates but also breakdown in a crisis. It is also a very good insight into how medals are won and the odds against winning small skirmishes with the supplied weaponry and limited ammunition supply of the time. NCO's are often bullies and either feared, admired or ridiculed and officers are still playing the same games as ever.
It encourages me to hope that the recent, and ongoing, UK defence reviews can only improve the soldiers lot.

Now onto Emily Chappell's Where there is a Will. Excellent opening pages.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 09 June, 2021, 08:39:51 am
Near the end of this one :  Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55216172-empireland

Brilliant read on how ingrained the Empire is into todays Britain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 June, 2021, 10:45:14 am
I am bingeing on John le Carré.  Starting with Smiley.  The past is definitely another country.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 June, 2021, 11:16:07 am
The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England - Mark Morris

I had this on pre-order and it was worth the wait. Covers the end of the Roman Empire in Britain to 1066.
My the Anglo Saxons were an argumentative violent back stabbing bunch.
A great read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 June, 2021, 01:03:45 pm
The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England - Mark Morris

I had this on pre-order and it was worth the wait. Covers the end of the Roman Empire in Britain to 1066.
My the Anglo Saxons were an argumentative violent back stabbing bunch.
A great read.

They still are. ;)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 10 June, 2021, 06:07:29 pm
Near the end of this one :  Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55216172-empireland

Brilliant read on how ingrained the Empire is into todays Britain.


Have got well into this:  "Britain Alone: The Path from Suez to Brexit" Philip Stephens, which demonstrates the same problem.  We cannot overcome our delusion of grandeur.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 10 June, 2021, 06:12:40 pm
This is seen from the US side with many lines linked to the UK Empire. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121985-how-to-hide-an-empire a very good read.

I got this one lined up. Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family's Story of Slavery by Alex Renton - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56997241-blood-legacy
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 10 June, 2021, 08:38:16 pm
I started reading Ray Mears 'We are Nature' and couldn't decided whether he is being pretentious or scientific so I am resting that one and have read Dennis Lehane's 'The Drop' and a James Oswald Inspector MacClean tale. I've decided to give up on those because I don't like magic and unlikely plots in my police procedurals.
Currently reading Martin Carver's 'Formative Britain - an Archaeology of Britain, 5th to 11th Century AD'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 11 June, 2021, 04:12:41 pm
Have started Dan Simmons's The Fall of Hyperion.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jakob on 11 June, 2021, 07:35:49 pm
Audiobook: Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This seems to be a return to form.
Bedside book: The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812 by C.S. Forester. Having read 'Six Frigates' by Ian Toll a few years back, this a good expansion on the conflict with the Royal Navy. Somewhat rose-tinted, but still interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 12 June, 2021, 08:28:55 am
Near the end of this one :  Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55216172-empireland

Brilliant read on how ingrained the Empire is into todays Britain.

Bought for kindle. As a white male son of a colonial officer it is a most revealing perspective. As I read on, it occurred to me how horrifying it would be to me to suddenly swap my position of privilege for that of a person whose race the British regarded as inferior. Even today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 June, 2021, 09:31:09 am
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

Hmmm. As a fully paid-up member of the David Mitchell fan club, I found this one very disappointing. Lots of hackneyed stuff about an aspiring rock band in the 60s, with nothing very interesting to say about the era - just a load of name-dropping. Plus a bit of the usual supernatural stuff you expect from Mitchell. Countless references to previous books, many of which feel shoehorned in - self-reference becomes self-reverence. I really hope this is a one-off and not a sign that he has run out of ideas.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 June, 2021, 09:49:59 am
Hmm, I am a bit sceptical about Utopia Avenue (not read it that), on account that I find books about rock bands conceptually dull. There's already a fair few similar reviewer complaints about the name dropping et al. though I was willing to put aside the pedantic 'Hendrix did not wear purple trousers on the 27th May 1967' type gripes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 14 June, 2021, 10:26:52 am
Hmm, I am a bit sceptical about Utopia Avenue (not read it that), on account that I find books about rock bands conceptually dull. There's already a fair few similar reviewer complaints about the name dropping et al. though I was willing to put aside the pedantic 'Hendrix did not wear purple trousers on the 27th May 1967' type gripes.

He admits in his afterword that he's taken a few minor liberties with chronology, but there's nothing that leaps out at me, and I don't care about that level of detail anyway.

It's not the name-dropping per se that I have a problem with - these are rock stars, you'd expect them to be hanging out at parties with other rock stars - but it's all a bit clunky. Like the way a bad impressionist tells you who they are impersonating, to make sure you get it*.  At one point, the band's token girl is being chatted up at a party by someone called "Lenny". Of course, we all know who it is, and don't need it spelled out. But then the drummer turns up and literally says, "Bloody hell, it's Leonard Cohen!"


*eg "Hello, I'm Frank Spencer. Oooh, Betty." (cue raucous laughter from audience)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 June, 2021, 11:08:42 am
I'll read it, but I can't say I'm entirely enthused by the subject matter, my thoughts on 60s prog rock bands are well known in these parts (mostly a case of who, what, WHY?).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 15 June, 2021, 06:31:56 pm
^I wouldn't call The Who prog rock...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 June, 2021, 08:00:53 pm
I remember watching Tommy once, an experience I've never wanted to repeat.

Anyway, I bought Utopia Avenue so look forward to my exciting review.

Dammit, I missed an Andy Weir trigger event earlier.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 June, 2021, 08:22:38 pm
I remember watching Tommy once, an experience I've never wanted to repeat.

Ken Russell deserves as much of the credit blame for that as Pete Townshend.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 16 June, 2021, 01:35:27 pm
#1 son (11) is reading his first Pratchett.  (I was not involved in this decision)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 16 June, 2021, 01:48:35 pm
#1 son (11) is reading his first Pratchett.  (I was not involved in this decision)
Andrew (7) thoroughly enjoyed Dragons at Crumbling Castle

I read Diggers/Truckers/Wings when I was a little, but never got beyond The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic.  Mrs Legs is working her way through DiscWorld on Kindle so I'm sure I'll get there eventually...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 16 June, 2021, 05:17:37 pm
I was never  fan, I found it tedious and/or visual slapstick comedy delivered through the medium of writing.  Perhaps I just read the wrong books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 June, 2021, 09:19:45 am
Hemingway's In Our Time. Quick read, vivid, and free on Gutenberg:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61085/61085-h/61085-h.htm
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 22 June, 2021, 09:23:07 am
I was never  fan, I found it tedious and/or visual slapstick comedy delivered through the medium of writing.  Perhaps I just read the wrong books.

They never worked for me either, a chapter or two in and it becomes a bit much, and you realise you've several hundred pages of the same lying ahead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 22 June, 2021, 06:57:44 pm
When the world was young
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E4a9HY9XMAsTwzQ?format=png&name=small)
https://twitter.com/pecunium/status/1407019883645259778?s=20

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 24 June, 2021, 06:18:47 pm
The Wanted by Robert Crais.
A good time filler.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 28 June, 2021, 02:31:26 pm
The Changing of the Guard - The British Army since 9/11 by Simon Akam.
very interesting insight into the command structure of the British Army and the adjustments it has had to make having failed in Basra and Helmand.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 30 June, 2021, 10:08:35 pm
The last two books I've read have been unlike any others I've read.

The first was The Wake by Paul Kinsgsnorth. Set in a post apocalyptic Lincolnshire Fens in 1066-1068, and featuring our hero Buccmaster of Holland, a status-obsessed, deluded 'socman' who eventually gathers together a rag-bag guerilla force of boys, serfs and other disposessed Anglo-Saxons, determined to rid the land of the 'fuccan frenc' who have killed his wife and sons and destroyed his village. The unusual thing is that it's written in a 'ghost' language of Kingsnorth's invention, a mix of Anglo Saxon and modern English with limited punctuation, and all words of Old English origin. There's a limited glossary but I struggled for the first 20-30 pages before getting used to the language and the spelling conventions. It's supposed to be a compromise between 'authenticity' and readability, so as not to put off those without an OE degree. Judging by the Amazon reviews this was only partly successful.

And then Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor. A girl goes missing on holiday in a Peak District village at the turn of the year. The villagers turn out to look for her, with no success. Village life continues over the next 13 years, a chapter for each year, described in pacy minute detail. Sentences whizz by, relationships develop, migratory birds come and go, the water levels in the reservoirs rise and fall, the well dressing happens every year, the other traditional markers for the year come and go, babies are born, people die, people move in, people move away. Memories of the girl fade but never go away completely. Nothing much happens and everything happens. It was very impressive. Not sure yet whether I liked it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 01 July, 2021, 08:04:40 am
Living Wild by Bear Grylls.
Bought it for number one grandson but thought I'd best check it out first in case it is subversive. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 01 July, 2021, 03:22:25 pm
The first was The Wake by Paul Kinsgsnorth. Set in a post apocalyptic Lincolnshire Fens in 1066-1068, and featuring our hero Buccmaster of Holland, a status-obsessed, deluded 'socman' who eventually gathers together a rag-bag guerilla force of boys, serfs and other disposessed Anglo-Saxons, determined to rid the land of the 'fuccan frenc' who have killed his wife and sons and destroyed his village. The unusual thing is that it's written in a 'ghost' language of Kingsnorth's invention, a mix of Anglo Saxon and modern English with limited punctuation, and all words of Old English origin. There's a limited glossary but I struggled for the first 20-30 pages before getting used to the language and the spelling conventions. It's supposed to be a compromise between 'authenticity' and readability, so as not to put off those without an OE degree. Judging by the Amazon reviews this was only partly successful.

If you haven't read it yet, you may like Iain M. Banks's Feersum Endjinn.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 01 July, 2021, 03:39:43 pm
Exactly what came to mind for me too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 July, 2021, 11:02:35 pm
The first was The Wake by Paul Kinsgsnorth. Set in a post apocalyptic Lincolnshire Fens in 1066-1068, and featuring our hero Buccmaster of Holland, a status-obsessed, deluded 'socman' who eventually gathers together a rag-bag guerilla force of boys, serfs and other disposessed Anglo-Saxons, determined to rid the land of the 'fuccan frenc' who have killed his wife and sons and destroyed his village. The unusual thing is that it's written in a 'ghost' language of Kingsnorth's invention, a mix of Anglo Saxon and modern English with limited punctuation, and all words of Old English origin. There's a limited glossary but I struggled for the first 20-30 pages before getting used to the language and the spelling conventions. It's supposed to be a compromise between 'authenticity' and readability, so as not to put off those without an OE degree. Judging by the Amazon reviews this was only partly successful.

If you haven't read it yet, you may like Iain M. Banks's Feersum Endjinn.

Sam

The one that comes to mind for me from that description is Riddley Walker.

I like the sound of The Wake. I'll add it to my ever-growing list of books I'm never going to get round to reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 05 July, 2021, 09:24:31 am
Fans of Alistair Reynolds may care to note that he has a new book coming out on Augusts 21st.    The title gives no idea what it's about ....    "Inhibitor Phase" .......     :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 05 July, 2021, 10:10:43 pm
I was never  fan, I found it tedious and/or visual slapstick comedy delivered through the medium of writing.  Perhaps I just read the wrong books.

They never worked for me either, a chapter or two in and it becomes a bit much, and you realise you've several hundred pages of the same lying ahead.

When I found out it’s turtles all the way down that did it for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 July, 2021, 10:57:46 am
The first was The Wake by Paul Kinsgsnorth....

I just had a gander at a sample from Google Books. Naturally, since the glossary is at the end of the book it wasn't included but, having bounced off Teach Yourself Anglo-Saxon while commuting 50 years ago, I could mæc ût mæst af æt.  Looks like fun.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 06 July, 2021, 06:17:21 pm
Mi/eville's Looking for Jake and other short stories.

Some good stuff there, but I think I miss out on some of it for having not read his other stuff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 08 July, 2021, 07:27:15 am
A charity shop find: A Golden Age of Cycling - a Gentleman's Adventure on Two Wheels, 1924-33. The diaries of Charles James Pope edited by Shaun Sewell.
Shaun Sewell is, according to the flyleaf, a 'diary detective'.
Charles died in 1951, aged 72, believed to have been killed by an unknown motorist.
The book starts well because the first recorded tour is in Shropshire.

Edit: .... and became boring once the touring moved away from places I know.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 08 July, 2021, 07:39:46 am
And then Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor. A girl goes missing on holiday in a Peak District village at the turn of the year. The villagers turn out to look for her, with no success. Village life continues over the next 13 years, a chapter for each year, described in pacy minute detail. Sentences whizz by, relationships develop, migratory birds come and go, the water levels in the reservoirs rise and fall, the well dressing happens every year, the other traditional markers for the year come and go, babies are born, people die, people move in, people move away. Memories of the girl fade but never go away completely. Nothing much happens and everything happens. It was very impressive. Not sure yet whether I liked it.

Listening to his atm while walkies, I'm enjoying it. The way things are told, nice simple, the same yet different. No long dragged out sentences to say/explain something that could be said with fewer words. Thanks for the heads up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 11 July, 2021, 08:19:40 am
Not sure if I have mentioned this book before because I have been reading it all year: Everyday Day Nature by Andy Beer.
A nature related entry for each day of the year.
Very interesting
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 July, 2021, 09:47:42 pm
My copy of Perfume by Patrick Suskind

I haven’t got to the bit where he invents a robot that smells cheese yet.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 July, 2021, 01:18:37 am
For some inexplicable reason Miss von Brandenburg thinks Parfum is one of the bestest book evvah, to the extent that she gave me a copy for my birthday.

Twice :facepalm:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 July, 2021, 07:20:54 am
But no iPod?

I’m enjoying it very much so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 14 July, 2021, 04:21:02 pm
Blood, Metal and Dust by Ben Barry.

The withdrawals from Iraq 2 and Afghanistan by a British Army Brigadier.
Interesting to read the events in their correct order, the politics and military actions behind the events and covering all the nations involved.
The author has a tendency to tell you something in a sentence and then repeat it in a different sentence in the same or next paragraph. A method taught to all British Army instructors in days of yore to successfully teach dangerous things to a wide range of IQ's learning together. It's a tad irritating  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 July, 2021, 04:50:14 pm
I seem to be on a Dan Simmons kick just now. Just got a sample of his The Crook Factory on my tablet. Apparently about the spy ring that Ernest Hemingway ran in Cuba.  I'll get round to it when I've done re-reading The Fall of Hyperion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 14 July, 2021, 09:03:13 pm
I'm re-reading Doktor Glas by Hjalmar Södeberg. My parsimony got the better of me and I bought the £1 version for the Kindle, not the £7 one. The cheapo one uses the old Swedish alphabet and I'm having to reacquaint myself with it. Good yarn though; about a doctor who poisons a priest to set free his oppressed wife. Written as a series of diary entries over one summer by the eponymous doctor, who gradually convinces himself that doing away with the priest would be the right thing to do.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 16 July, 2021, 08:17:34 am
Has anyone read Sarah Outen's 'Dare to Do'?
Is it a worthwhile read for an armchair adventurer?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 16 July, 2021, 08:42:47 am
She had a couple of films in the Banff Mountain Film Festival.  Amazing woman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 16 July, 2021, 12:31:17 pm
She had a couple of films in the Banff Mountain Film Festival.  Amazing woman.

Thank you. I take it that is a recommend  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 24 July, 2021, 05:43:18 pm
Hyperion, due to it being mentioned upthread.  I had not idea what it would be like and it's very good - found the Sol/Rachel story proper moving.  Two more chapters to go - not sure I want to "spoil it" with the sequels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 24 July, 2021, 08:38:14 pm
I've read Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion and enjoyed then. There is two more in the series, I hear that they are good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 July, 2021, 01:30:13 pm
I've read them both but it was so long ago I can't remember much.  I'm just approaching the end of The Fall of Hyperion. I think I enjoyed them more this time around than the last.  I'll do Endymion etc. after The Crook Factory.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 July, 2021, 10:23:51 pm
I have finally hacked my way through the 10-foot jungle of prose that is John Le Carré's “Smiley” novels and have concluded that Le Carré's spies are the ones that most of Len Deighton's spies regard as a bigger enemy than the Soviet Union.  Also, what happened to Peter Guillam's wife and unborn child?

Now assaulting the same author's non-Smiley novels starting with “A Small Town In Germany”.  I am halfway through.  Someone might have gone walkabout with the SEEKRIT files, a fan and a typewriter.  Or not.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 26 July, 2021, 02:08:12 am
There was a recent radio production of "A Small Town In Germany" and I've got a "Talking Book" of it, too.  I enjoyed them both.  And the great thing is - I already can remember nothing about them, other than that I enjoyed them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 26 July, 2021, 08:26:55 am
The Battle for History - re-fighting WW2 by John Keegan
Old - 1995 - but a good look at the revision of WW2 history to that time by historians for whom "controversy is a way of life".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 26 July, 2021, 09:53:55 am
I gotta stop starting and start finishing books cause I got these on the go :

Falling by T.J. Newman https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56614951-falling. Just started and a nice page turner, turn brain off and read kinda book.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16902.Walden Never heard about this fella before, but an interesting book. I might give the "canoeing in the wilderness" book a go too, as I have been thinking about renting a canoe and revisit the holidays of my youth.

Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family's Story of Slavery by Alex Renton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56997241-blood-legacy Enjoying this one.

Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan, Graham McTavish, Charlotte Reather (co-writer), Diana Gabaldon https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55851555-clanlands This one sounded like it would be be a good read. I haven't seen the tv show(s ?) this is booked about. Yes I know I have seen some of the Hobbit that one of the actors are in. But from what I read it sounded like a nice/fun tour of Scotland. But I should really learn shouldn't I, actors do like to talk about their parts in various things and the awards they got (or just the parties attached to that.) Not much about Scotland as I hoped and it ain't as funny as people said it would be. I might DNF on this as I can't be arsed to read actors going on about Me, Me, Myself, I and Me oh did I tell you when I was at so and so's after awards party, Me.

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49247043-this-is-how-they-tell-me-the-world-ends Nice and spooky about the "cyber war" that is going on out there. So do update!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 July, 2021, 04:28:26 pm
Le Carré may have to be put on hold after “Rabbit Hole”, a brand spanking new offering from Mark Billingham, hopped off the shelf and into my trolley just now.  Not advertised as featuring Thorne but I expect he'll put in a cameo appearance.  He always does, the shameless tart.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 26 July, 2021, 05:07:24 pm
Has anyone read Sarah Outen's 'Dare to Do'?
Is it a worthwhile read for an armchair adventurer?
Yes, I have. I enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 27 July, 2021, 08:17:17 am
My eldest has just devoured the Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books (recommended by citoyen, I think).  Now I'm enjoying them too!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 July, 2021, 11:43:41 am
My eldest has just devoured the Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books (recommended by citoyen, I think).  Now I'm enjoying them too!

Hurrah!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 27 July, 2021, 05:20:56 pm
Has anyone read Sarah Outen's 'Dare to Do'?
Is it a worthwhile read for an armchair adventurer?
Yes, I have. I enjoyed it.

Thank you. I now have a copy
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 28 July, 2021, 08:48:14 am
My eldest has just devoured the Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books (recommended by citoyen, I think).  Now I'm enjoying them too!
Hurrah!
:thumbsup: Very witty, I can see why Andrew enjoyed them!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 28 July, 2021, 06:26:37 pm
I finished the Emily Chappell book "What goes around" yesterday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read about a subject that doesn't mean much to me by an author that I wouldn't usually consider.
Beautifully written and I've just ordered her one about the European endurance race - another aspect of cycling that I would usually pass by.

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.

A late reply to this one: she wrote an excellent blog that won the National Travel Writers' Blog of the Year. For some time it wasn't working properly but I think it's OK now:

http://thatemilychappell.com/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 28 July, 2021, 06:41:00 pm
I have just finished Nevil Shute's "On the Beach".

It's many years since I have read a book so quickly - took me less than 3 days, and a similar number of session. Completely gripping, it's left me utterly depressed and realising that the world is currently in a very similar state, albeit (probably) in rather slower motion for many of us.

Edit: towards the end of the book, there's a brief bit of analysis as to how they got to that state, and the press gets a mention, but one difference is that in Shute's book, there's no vociferous bunch of denialists making any sort of counter-action impossible.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 28 July, 2021, 06:49:32 pm
I have several of his books and think he's a terrific writer.  On The Beach was a good film and suffered not in the least from having Ava Gardner to look at and Fred Astaire as a most unlikely but believable racing driver.  No Highway was also effectively filmed with James Stewart (himself a highly-promoted airman) as an aeronautical engineer.  I think you'd find that equally gripping, Wow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 29 July, 2021, 12:55:06 pm
The Forgotten Tragedy, Brian Crabb. Well researched book concerning the sinking of the SS Lancastria just outside St. Nazaire, a few weeks after Dunkirk.  Britains largest ever naval loss and upon which my grandfather died.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 July, 2021, 06:13:46 pm
Le Carré may have to be put on hold after “Rabbit Hole”, a brand spanking new offering from Mark Billingham, hopped off the shelf and into my trolley just now.  Not advertised as featuring Thorne but I expect he'll put in a cameo appearance.  He always does, the shameless tart.

About 120 pages in, two killin's and no Thorne yet.  Though his mate Phil Hendricks has had a mention.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 July, 2021, 07:09:20 pm
I am reading the 1st of Anne Leckie's Ancillary Justice trilogy as recommended by Ravenbait ages ago.
It's quite long but it's keeping me amused. Which is good, because I've been recently living on a diet of crime fiction cos no one else can write fast enough. And crime fiction is ok but it's not very nutritious.
(I remember my G'ma reading lots of crime fiction when she used to come up here on her hollybobs. I think I know why now, there's lots of it.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 31 July, 2021, 09:47:29 am
I am reading the 1st of Anne Leckie's Ancillary Justice trilogy as recommended by Ravenbait ages ago.

I read those a several of yonks back.  It's a real window into the BRITISH tea-drinker mentality :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 01 August, 2021, 03:36:26 pm

Walden by Henry David Thoreau https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16902.Walden Never heard about this fella before, but an interesting book. I might give the "canoeing in the wilderness" book a go too, as I have been thinking about renting a canoe and revisit the holidays of my youth.

I like to have a couple books on the go, you can vary the style yo7 feel like on the day.
Walden is good, but “on the duty of civil disobedience” is better and generally part of the same book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 01 August, 2021, 06:54:47 pm
Sarah Outen's 'Dare to Do'
Enjoying it then about a third in I thought, I'm not getting anything from this.
Unlike Emily Chapell it is all too sophisticated and sponsored for my taste.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 August, 2021, 07:22:12 pm
Another killin' :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 August, 2021, 10:06:32 am
After guest appearances by DCI Brigstocke (in a non-speaking role) and Dr Perera, Thorne finally appears on page 374, although the narrator claims she forgot hid name immediately.  Nice twist at the end.  This Unit endorses “Rabbit Hole”.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 02 August, 2021, 04:56:03 pm
I read a cycling book. Two. They were 99p on Kindle. I'm not as cycling mad as some of you, of course. One about a race down Africa (Mark Beaumont) which while an epic achievement, I'm sure, wasn't a great read, he might be a good cyclist, but less so as a writer. It wasn't awful, but the grandeur of a continent wasn't really captured and honestly, I didn't much care for the being-the-quickest aspect which just led to many of his interactions with the locals as being overbearing. It felt like much of Africa was guilty of being in the way.

The second one I didn't think I'd like, Emily Chappell on being a courier, and mostly I think couriers are pretty much delivery monkeys with a somewhat overstated mythos. But she sold it to me (not enough to do it). Mostly a book about riding a bike without being about riding a bike. Nothing tremendous exciting happened, other than a young woman going about her life (which involved riding a bike for a living), but it's well-written and, in places, rather poignant.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 05 August, 2021, 05:27:14 am
English Pastoral by James Rebanks.

I nearly bought this a couple of times but was unsure and left it. Fortunately, number two daughter has passed it on and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Unlike Mark Crocker or John Lewis-Stempel it is not a nature book about animals, although they are not ignored. So far (first third), it is about the relentless grind of small scale farming and the different reactions of his father and grandfather, and his mother and grandmother to the work, and his changing appreciation of what he is doing with his life.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 05 August, 2021, 09:47:38 am
Getting around to Utopia Street, David Bowie told me to read it.

Yeah, the near-constant full name dropping is a bit annoying, though I suspect I'm blessed by not being particularly au fait with the musical era. He also can't do yer working class.

That said, the story is pulling me along apace.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 08 August, 2021, 05:27:33 pm
The City & the City - as Kafkaesque as promised, I think the ending lets it down to some extent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 August, 2021, 07:10:30 pm
John Connelly’s “The Nameless Ones”. Apropos of which, it can’t be long before the end of the Charlie Parker series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 09 August, 2021, 09:00:46 pm
John Connelly’s “The Nameless Ones”. Apropos of which, it can’t be long before the end of the Charlie Parker series.

Oh, that will be sad as I love the books, but the splendidly extended and elegiac story arc has to end somewhere.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 09 August, 2021, 10:04:48 pm
Getting around to Utopia Street, David Bowie told me to read it.

Yeah, the near-constant full name dropping is a bit annoying, though I suspect I'm blessed by not being particularly au fait with the musical era. He also can't do yer working class.

That said, the story is pulling me along apace.

Ian, is it actually Utopia Avenue - by David Mitchell?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 10 August, 2021, 07:53:48 am
English Pastoral by James Rebanks.

I nearly bought this a couple of times but was unsure and left it. Fortunately, number two daughter has passed it on and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Unlike Mark Crocker or John Lewis-Stempel it is not a nature book about animals, although they are not ignored. So far (first third), it is about the relentless grind of small scale farming and the different reactions of his father and grandfather, and his mother and grandmother to the work, and his changing appreciation of what he is doing with his life.

Excellent book by a farmer who cares about the future.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 10 August, 2021, 10:38:43 am
Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss
I am thinking of DNFing after 1/4 of the book, it reeks of 70s amoral tales - I could not give a fig about any of the characters and don't really care what happens.  The bit that goes into their societal values is just irksome.  All I need is another book...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 10 August, 2021, 10:59:46 am
Getting around to Utopia Street, David Bowie told me to read it.

Yeah, the near-constant full name dropping is a bit annoying, though I suspect I'm blessed by not being particularly au fait with the musical era. He also can't do yer working class.

That said, the story is pulling me along apace.

Ian, is it actually Utopia Avenue - by David Mitchell?

Yeah, my brain mixed it up with Espedair Street. Despite the minor gripes (and really, Hooley is not on the South Downs, Mr Mitchell), I'm quite enjoying it, even if perhaps isn't up to the standard of some of his previous (that said, I was never struck on number9dream either).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 10 August, 2021, 12:42:18 pm
I'm part way through Tony Kevin's 'Walking the Camino', based on his journey along the Camino Mozarabe and the Via de la Plata.

It's a really good read, if you're interested in that sort of travel writing and meditation on modern life.  I would recommend it...  :thumbsup:

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 11 August, 2021, 07:54:44 am
John Connelly’s “The Nameless Ones”. Apropos of which, it can’t be long before the end of the Charlie Parker series.

Oh, that will be sad as I love the books, but the splendidly extended and elegiac story arc has to end somewhere.

Ah, you misinterpreted my comment I think.  I'd not read more than a few pages, so had (and have) no insight into the potential fate of Parker, rather it was just idle speculation borne out of the lonevity of the series.  FWIW thus far this outing is focussed on his two companions. It is still rather good though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 11 August, 2021, 10:46:23 am
Hostage by Robert Crais.
Like Lee Child but doesn't put Tom Cruise into the mind's eye.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 11 August, 2021, 04:20:14 pm
I just took delivery of the remastered, full-colour edition of Danielewski's House of Leaves.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 August, 2021, 10:11:07 pm
John Connelly’s “The Nameless Ones”. Apropos of which, it can’t be long before the end of the Charlie Parker series.

Oh, that will be sad as I love the books, but the splendidly extended and elegiac story arc has to end somewhere.

Ah, you misinterpreted my comment I think.  I'd not read more than a few pages, so had (and have) no insight into the potential fate of Parker, rather it was just idle speculation borne out of the lonevity of the series.  FWIW thus far this outing is focussed on his two companions. It is still rather good though.

I presume he has an end of the arc in mind, but then who knows, I guess they sell and as long as he writes them I'll keep indulging him.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 12 August, 2021, 12:46:55 pm
Remembered that I hadn't finished Vandermeer's Hummingbird Salamander, so I've returned to that instead.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 12 August, 2021, 05:56:41 pm
Dalrymple's The Anarchy. Every page is fascinating. Exactly my sort of book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 17 August, 2021, 06:54:09 am
I'm reading Dalrymple's 'From the Holy Mountain'...  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 17 August, 2021, 07:14:57 am
Swords around the Throne by Ian Ross.

Had a trip to Shrewsbury yesterday with a mate and found, among others, The Bluffers Guide to Cycling in a charity shop.
The book highlight of the trip was on the return in Much Wenlock: a 1978 first edition of The Wonderful Ride - the true journal of George T. Loher's ride across America.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 18 August, 2021, 05:34:59 pm
I'm reading Dalrymple's 'From the Holy Mountain'...  :thumbsup:


By a strange coincidence I ordered a copy yesterday. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 20 August, 2021, 09:50:16 am
Going the wrong way - Chris Donaldson

A 21 year old from Belfast rides to Cape Town then all the way down America in 1980 on possibly the most unsuitable adventure bike ever a Moto Guzzi Le Mans.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 20 August, 2021, 06:48:05 pm
Around the world on a wheel by John Foster fraser .
1896 circumnavigation of the world using safety cycles. I just got as far as Russia but it is a interesting read  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 August, 2021, 08:25:52 pm
Professor Larrington's as-yet-untitled new book.  It's to do with Norse mythology.  So far I have bunged it on my Kindle, removed it from my Kindle because it won’t let me increase the font size of a .pdf and I can’t read text that titchy even with glasses and squinting, converted it to .mobi and bunged it on my Kindle again.  Where it is now in a legible size :thumbsup:

Now to start reading it in the bath.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 22 August, 2021, 10:10:44 pm
<fx: splosh>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 22 August, 2021, 10:23:30 pm
Ah, and here I've been reading pdfs in landscape because zooming in just means scrolling for every single line.

And even then the text is a tad smol.

I should try this conversion malarkey.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 August, 2021, 10:27:39 pm
No splosh but lots of confusing names.  Doubly so now that Richard bloody Wagner has popped up with his so-called “operas” :(

Ah, and here I've been reading pdfs in landscape because zooming in just means scrolling for every single line.

And even then the text is a tad smol.

I should try this conversion malarkey.

It’s dead easy in Calibre, though obv you'll need to bung it onto something that speaks e-bookese afterwards. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 23 August, 2021, 08:32:23 am
The Wall - Rome's Greatest Frontier by Alastair Moffat
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SteveC on 25 August, 2021, 08:23:58 pm
This thread encouraged me to actually see how many books I am 'reading' at the moment.

On Kindle:
The Discovery of King Arthur - Geoffrey Ashe [1]
The KIng’s Painter - Franny Moyle [biography of Holbein]
The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart - Sarah Fraser [Biography of James VI & I’s older son, Charles I’s big brother]

Dead Tree:
The Cauldron, the Spit and the Fire: How We Cooked Until the End of the Nineteenth Century - Robert Deeley
Artemesia - National Gallery catalogue from the exhibition of her paintings which I didn’t get to
Sir Hugh Plat: the Search for Useful Knowledge in Early Modern London - Malcolm Thick
Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth Century Britain

There might be a bit of a theme here. And I could really do with actually finishing some of them.

[1] This is my current 'night time' book. I've read it before, it's not too taxing, the sort of thing I can read before going to sleep or if I wake up during the night. I won't get too involved or want to remember all the details.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cuddy duck on 25 August, 2021, 08:53:13 pm
Nudged by this online essay - https://www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/lissen-by-kathleen-jamie/ (https://www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/lissen-by-kathleen-jamie/) - I'm on James Wood's 'Serious Noticing; Selected Essays'.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 26 August, 2021, 07:39:23 am
I picked up a copy of Dom Joly's 'The Downhill Hiking Club' to take on the next cruise in November.  It's got very good reviews.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 26 August, 2021, 08:02:32 am
Around the world on a wheel by John Foster fraser .
1896 circumnavigation of the world using safety cycles. I just got as far as Russia but it is a interesting read  :)
I've read that. Different times, eh?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 26 August, 2021, 08:05:15 am
I've just listened (well, not 'just'; over the last week or so) to the first two (excellent) books in Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy and between me buying the first two, excellently read by Peter Firth, they've removed the third from sale and now I can only get it on Pre-Order, read by Simon Russel Beale.
a) the book came out in 1995. Pre-Order?
b) I bet some names are now pronounced wrong
c) I HAVE TO WAIT A WEEK
Pat Barker's The Ghost Road. It dropped at 08:00. I checked at 07:45 and it wasn't there. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 26 August, 2021, 08:06:12 am
I am currently reading my way through Bernard Cornwell's Arthur books, having finished the Uthred books.

Also re-reading "The art of deception" by Kevin Mitnick, a great book which will change the way you view seemingly innocent cold calls and "informatin gathering".  Paranoid, moi? shurely not!
I regularly re-read the Uhtred series - and the Heretic series - but I have never been able to get into his Arthur novels. I may try them again if you report back favourably. :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 26 August, 2021, 08:12:26 am
Am I the only one reading a cycling book? 
Read those  :)
Have you read Louis Sutherland's 'I Follow the Wind' and 'The impossible Ride'?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 26 August, 2021, 08:16:17 am
Ted Chiang's short story The Story of Your Life, which was the basis of the film Arrival.  The linguistics are much more technical than in the film, which is no surprise. Dunno about the ending yet.

The only other linguistics-centred SF novel I can remember reading was The Embedding, about 50 years ago. Both fascinating, even though Arrival was an enjoyable 2-hour spoiler.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Rod Marton on 27 August, 2021, 12:31:15 pm
Ted Chiang's short story The Story of Your Life, which was the basis of the film Arrival.  The linguistics are much more technical than in the film, which is no surprise. Dunno about the ending yet.

The only other linguistics-centred SF novel I can remember reading was The Embedding, about 50 years ago. Both fascinating, even though Arrival was an enjoyable 2-hour spoiler.
Babel-17 - Sam Delaney
Native Tongue - can't remember who wrote this but the feminism was laid on rather too thickly for me to enjoy.
I'm sure there are others.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 27 August, 2021, 12:43:14 pm
Native Tongue - can't remember who wrote this but the feminism was laid on rather too thickly for me to enjoy.

A search for the title in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=Native+Tongue&type=Fiction+Titles) suggests it's by Suzette Haden Elgin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Tongue_(Elgin_novel)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 August, 2021, 12:48:47 pm
Ted Chiang's short story The Story of Your Life, which was the basis of the film Arrival.  The linguistics are much more technical than in the film, which is no surprise. Dunno about the ending yet.

The only other linguistics-centred SF novel I can remember reading was The Embedding, about 50 years ago. Both fascinating, even though Arrival was an enjoyable 2-hour spoiler.
Babel-17 - Sam Delaney
Native Tongue - can't remember who wrote this but the feminism was laid on rather too thickly for me to enjoy.
I'm sure there are others.

I read a deal of Delaney in the 70s but I don't recall reading Babel-17.  Saw the title in the "By the same author" page often enough.

Anyway, I finished The Story of Your Life.  Different from the film, of course, but the film didn't betray it so much as add bits to entice funding. I could still watch it without getting pissed off. I've since read and enjoyed one other story in the collection - The Tower of Babylon, funnily enough.

I've just been looking at paintings of the Tower of Babel: they all have a right-hand thread.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 28 August, 2021, 07:13:07 am
Trying to read Aftermath - Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich 1945 - 55 by Harald Jahner
Finding it a bit 'weighty' and of little relevance to my interests.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 28 August, 2021, 02:32:31 pm
Babel 17 was my first Delaney and I think my favorite.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 August, 2021, 02:55:14 pm
I just bought it. Tell you later how I get on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 28 August, 2021, 04:37:01 pm
Halfway through “Inhibitor Phase”, the latest volume of Alistair Reynolds “Revelation Space” series .   


Desperate battles, unstoppable enemies, moral quandaries and Pigs In Spaaaace ….  :thumbsup:


https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs (https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 September, 2021, 12:43:56 am
Have now finished Professor Larrington's latest opus and have acquired much kudos for knowing about Led Zeppelin, Point Rosee and its lack of Norse colonists and Jarlin J Jarlinsson (teh Colombian Viking).  Next up is probably “1979” by Val McDermid.  First in a new series, it sez 'ere.  Expecting killin's and most likely lesbians, since the latter have been conspicuously absent from the Karen Pirie series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 September, 2021, 01:04:18 pm
Babel 17 was my first Delaney and I think my favorite.

Didn't like it. Delaney's style has not aged well.

---o0o---

Finally got round to The Crook Factory, Dan Simmons's FBI opus centred on Ernest Hemingway. Early days but fun so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 02 September, 2021, 03:46:13 pm
Ian Ross' Imperial Vengeance
No. 5 of 6, I believe (I hope).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 September, 2021, 06:28:01 pm
Queen Lucia by EF Benson - an audiobook to accompany my long bike ride yesterday, borrowed from the local library. I often find audiobooks difficult, due to very low tolerance of irritating voices, but got on with this one very well.

I’ve read the all the Mapp & Lucia books before but very much enjoyed being reminded how funny they are. Lightweight but comforting. Unfortunately the library doesn’t have the rest of the series. Chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 September, 2021, 07:22:05 pm
S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 02 September, 2021, 10:55:00 pm
Babel 17 was my first Delaney and I think my favorite.

Didn't like it. Delaney's style has not aged well.
Won't argue much with that.  I did think it was better than Nova or Dhalgren though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 03 September, 2021, 09:42:52 am
Babel 17 was my first Delaney and I think my favorite.

Didn't like it. Delaney's style has not aged well.
Won't argue much with that.  I did think it was better than Nova or Dhalgren though.

I read and liked a lot of his stuff back when it came out.  B-17 felt a bit too shallow for my taste these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 03 September, 2021, 12:06:08 pm
The only Delaney I've read is Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia1, which was apparently written as a response to Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed.

The problem a lot of readers, myself included, have had with it is that the central character Bron Helstrom is such an arse that exasperation with his self-absorption and other flaws tends to get in the way of understanding the points Delaney was making about utopian societies. If you haven't read it or not read it for a while, it might be worth reading the two reviews on Tor's website and a Q&A session between Delaney and students at Concordia University2 before plunging (back) in. Caveat lector, because there are minor spoilers, though:

Tor.com - Heterotopian Choices: Samuel R. Delany’s Triton (https://www.tor.com/2008/08/17/triton/#4050)

Tor.com - I am a Reasonably Happy Man: The Trouble with Trouble on Triton (https://www.tor.com/2010/08/02/i-am-a-reasonably-happy-man-the-trouble-with-trouble-on-triton/)

On Triton and Other Matters: An Interview with Samuel R. Delany (https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/delany52interview.htm)


1 The earlier editions were published as Triton.
2 Just to confuse, the interview's posted on the SF pages at an Indiana-based university's web site.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 03 September, 2021, 01:47:58 pm
I'm most of the way through The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.  Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 03 September, 2021, 05:25:59 pm
The only Delaney I've read is Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia1, which was apparently written as a response to Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed.
I would find that a really hard starting point, as that book is so awesome that I went and bought a copy to give to someone else and then started reading the rest of the series (yes, Left Hand of Darkness was the second book I read).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 September, 2021, 11:37:24 pm
Have now finished Professor Larrington's latest opus and have acquired much kudos for knowing about Led Zeppelin, Point Rosee and its lack of Norse colonists and Jarlin J Jarlinsson (teh Colombian Viking).  Next up is probably “1979” by Val McDermid.  First in a new series, it sez 'ere.  Expecting killin's and most likely lesbians, since the latter have been conspicuously absent from the Karen Pirie series.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Salvatore on 07 September, 2021, 11:58:42 am
I've just started reading The Leipzig Affair by Fiona Rintoul. Like the author (and Genosse Brymbo otp), I spent a term at Karl Marx Universität in Leipzig. No doubt names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty, but the first sentence in the book is "You're sitting in a booth in the language laboratory with headphones on and Frau Aner's voice in your ear". Well I remember being in a booth in a language lab and I remember a Herr Aner who taught Landeskunde and much else. A pretty unusual name, so hardly a coincidence. I can see on the third page there a mention of Leipzig's very own Konsument department store - all shiny aluminium cladding much like Birmingham Bullring. I bought a pair of shoes there. Apparently there was such an outcry when it was demolished post-Wende that its replacement is a very faithful replica.

But I digress. I wonder what other memories the book will awake.

Konsument:

(https://weepress.co.uk/weenew/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-G0823-0205-001_Leipzig_Konsument-Warenhaus1.jpg)

and its replacement Höfe am Brühl
(https://files.structurae.net/files/photos/f011540/13189_bild1.jpg)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tom B on 07 September, 2021, 01:55:51 pm
Quote
I've just started reading The Leipzig Affair by Fiona Rintoul

I liked this book. See also The Bicycle Teacher by Campbell Jefferys, about an Aussie who goes to live in the GDR (cycling content is minimal - title is the nickname he earned)

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Salvatore on 07 September, 2021, 03:19:09 pm
Quote
I've just started reading The Leipzig Affair by Fiona Rintoul

I liked this book. See also The Bicycle Teacher by Campbell Jefferys, about an Aussie who goes to live in the GDR (cycling content is minimal - title is the nickname he earned)
Thanks. Looks interesting from the blurbs I've seen.

I've just seen that one of the characters in The Leipzig Affair has the same address as I had - Tarostrasse 14.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 07 September, 2021, 09:53:35 pm
Just finished Slough House by Mick Herron
Wonderful read again. Much death but still open to another follow up.
Jackson Lamb could be the 21st century Uhtred.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 September, 2021, 10:43:21 am
Chappie in The Crook Factory mentioned Drei Kamaraden by Erich Maria Remarque so I downloaded that and had a wee read until conscience pricked about TCF and I went back to it.  If half the stuff mentioned in TCF really happened then Ernie H. was quite a lad.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nobby on 08 September, 2021, 03:33:58 pm
Reading 'Deep Country - Five Years in the Welsh Hills' by Neil Ansell
Lovely nature descriptive book to be read in between others.
With that in mind I have eitherAD381 by Charles Freeman or Triumph in Dust by Ian Ross or The Late Roman Army by Southern & Dixon to start this evening or maybe I'll do Sodukos (my spelling!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 September, 2021, 10:54:54 am
Finally, at 78% of the full race distance of “1979”, a killin'.

I expect the Scotsman did it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cycleman on 12 September, 2021, 06:18:12 pm
And so the murders begun........... :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 September, 2021, 12:53:24 am
And so the murders begun........... :demon:

Sadly not.  I know the protagonist is Filthy Lying Journalist Scum rather than the polis or a criminal profiler but a single killin' is not what we've come to expect from La McDermid.  Still, I was right about the identity of the murderer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 September, 2021, 04:46:07 pm
And so the murders begun........... :demon:

Sadly not.  I know the protagonist is Filthy Lying Journalist Scum rather than the polis or a criminal profiler but a single killin' is not what we've come to expect from La McDermid.  Still, I was right about the identity of the murderer.

But it was I think a lot better written than some of her recent outings, and lacked the radical lesbian content that’s recently been de rigeur in her work or so it seems. Plus I was living and working in Glasgow at the time the book is set, so it evoked a few memories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 September, 2021, 11:19:56 am
Saw a reference somewhere to "Oakley Hall's excellent western, Warlock" so I downloaded a sample of the eBook, and excellent is what it is.  What else it is is 17€, a little swingeing but I'll probably make an exception.

Anyway, it's about an 1880 south-western frontier town that hasn't yet received its patent and so remains outside the sway of Unca Sam's Law, meaning that rascals, ruffians and scallywags abound and the peace is kept by a succession of deputies appointed by a citizens' committee having no legal authority.  Between the general lawlessness and rustling Mexican cattle it might have been the inspiration for a number of other works such as Deadwood and Lonesome Dove, which it precedes by about 30 years.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 26 September, 2021, 07:31:10 pm
Hyperion II.  Enjoyed it much much less than the original, I won’t be looking to the next books for at least a year, if ever.
While there are some real strengths to it, I felt the story could and should have been told in half the page count.  I also just liked the first book much more for its combination of short story style.
(Read a review online saying that the first book was basically unreadable as it was basically the Canterbury tales, which is illegible, even to English students.  So, each their own, ymmv, etc).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 26 September, 2021, 07:59:35 pm
Theroux's "kingdom by the sea", hot on the heels of tim Moores "you are awful but I like you".


The later's dislike of Harling presumably means he's never recrossed the border, the former is yet to make such terrible faux pas.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 26 September, 2021, 10:40:08 pm
Well actually he does regularly confuse the GB, UK and England but he's American.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 06 October, 2021, 11:47:25 pm
I'm reading Dalrymple's 'From the Holy Mountain'...  :thumbsup:


By a strange coincidence I ordered a copy yesterday.


Just finished this.  Very good book.  Educational,  I had very little knowledge about the Christian communities in the Middle East.   Rather sad though,  the book was written in the 90's and the author thought the only ones with long term prospects were in Syria, protected by Assad. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 06 October, 2021, 11:58:55 pm
I'm reading Dalrymple's 'From the Holy Mountain'...  :thumbsup:


By a strange coincidence I ordered a copy yesterday.


Just finished this.  Very good book.  Educational,  I had very little knowledge about the Christian communities in the Middle East.   Rather sad though,  the book was written in the 90's and the author thought the only ones with long term prospects were in Syria, protected by Assad. 
Yup, a fascinating read. A great little cameo appearance from Robert Fisk IIRC.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 07 October, 2021, 12:11:54 am
Yeeeesssss........   I think the term "War Junkie" or similar was used.     I've 2 of Fisk's books on my shelves.  Pity The Nation was awesome, sad & horrific. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 08 October, 2021, 07:42:39 pm
They Walked Like Men - I assumed would be about werewolves, but it's about capitalists buying everything and how it sucks for everyone on Earth (but dressed in Sci Fi as the capitalists are aliens).
Horns - by Joe Hill, rather Gaiman-y atm.  Possibly a bit too telegraphed and a bit too slow.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 October, 2021, 08:55:21 pm
Elana Ferrante's "My Brilliant Friend" - the first book in the Neapolitan Quartet

I'm probably late to the party here but for anyone who hasn't read it then it is as good as all the reviews say it is.
Exceptional invocation of place. I'm minded to buy the other three before I finish this one.

Interesting too that no one knows who she/he is and there are no clues about the authors background other than locals say the author must have been brought up in Naples.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 27 October, 2021, 03:26:17 pm
Finished “Horns”, a good idea and some of it was very good, but it needed another round or two of editing to make it a sharper read, a bit too much repetition and too slow at points.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 October, 2021, 03:44:29 pm
Re-read Ian McDonald's Chaga last week then moved onto the sequel, Kirinya, but found it rather boring so downloaded a sample of Stephen Baxter's latest, Galaxias, which is rather engaging so far.  Chaga was fascinating even the second time around, but Kirinya feels very stale.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2021, 01:33:45 am
After a long pause I have returned to John le Carré's The Naive And Sentimental Lover which isn't sub-titled “The Excruciatingly Dull Life of Aldo Cassidy, Dick” but should have been.  I hope to Dog he does something interesting in the next thirty pages like murder someone, join the French FOREIGN Legion, race in the TT or go over the Niagara Falls in a gas stove otherwise I might be forced to abandon Aldo entirely and read something shallow and containing killin's instead.  Or the latest from TV's Guy Martin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 05 November, 2021, 08:20:32 am
Finished Mr. Baxter's Galaxias last night.  The initial idea was excellent and the purely physical consequences fascinating, but there was a hell of a lot of waffle before the end - or maybe I was just in such a hurry to know how it worked out that all those yammering protagonists got in the way. Will probably re-read in a year or two.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 05 November, 2021, 09:00:48 am
After a long pause I have returned to John le Carré's The Naive And Sentimental Lover which isn't sub-titled “The Excruciatingly Dull Life of Aldo Cassidy, Dick” but should have been.  I hope to Dog he does something interesting in the next thirty pages like murder someone, join the French FOREIGN Legion, race in the TT or go over the Niagara Falls in a gas stove otherwise I might be forced to abandon Aldo entirely and read something shallow and containing killin's instead.  Or the latest from TV's Guy Martin.
I think this is the only book I've started and taken the conscious decision not to finish.

And I'm a massive Le Carré fan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2021, 10:38:21 am
After a long pause I have returned to John le Carré's The Naive And Sentimental Lover which isn't sub-titled “The Excruciatingly Dull Life of Aldo Cassidy, Dick” but should have been.  I hope to Dog he does something interesting in the next thirty pages like murder someone, join the French FOREIGN Legion, race in the TT or go over the Niagara Falls in a gas stove otherwise I might be forced to abandon Aldo entirely and read something shallow and containing killin's instead.  Or the latest from TV's Guy Martin.
I think this is the only book I've started and taken the conscious decision not to finish.

That’s encouraging  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 05 November, 2021, 01:07:27 pm
"Why does e=mc2 (and why should we care?)" by Brian Cox and Jeff Foreshaw which was interesting but made my brain melt (and had a picture of a cat on the cover in spite of not being about Schroedinger's Cat).
"What goes around" by Emily Chappell which was good and not what I was expecting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 05 November, 2021, 01:42:37 pm
For a more refreshing read, try the bobiverse books (although some parts of those really irritate me).

Having run out of Becky Chambers, I've been following this advice.  They're silly, but entertainingly so, and the depiction of space warfare makes a lot more sense than most.  I keep feeling insufficiently fluent in Star Trek references.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 12 November, 2021, 11:05:05 pm
"Why does e=mc2 (and why should we care?)" by Brian Cox and Jeff Foreshaw which was interesting but made my brain melt (and had a picture of a cat on the cover in spite of not being about Schroedinger's Cat).
I have DNFed that book about three times.  I think Brian low-balled the level too much (you only need to know Pythag, and if you don't I'll teach you) to the point where I lost the plot due to too many words and not enough maffs.  Jeff is a frickin' genius, so I am disappointed with this (though it's about as accessible, though on the other end of the spectrum, as his book on the pommeron).  The bit on the back that says that Brian is a prof in Manchester and lives in that_London always gives me a chuckle.
For easy Physics reading I much prefer Jim.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 November, 2021, 02:47:33 pm
After a long pause I have returned to John le Carré's The Naive And Sentimental Lover which isn't sub-titled “The Excruciatingly Dull Life of Aldo Cassidy, Dick” but should have been.  I hope to Dog he does something interesting in the next thirty pages like murder someone, join the French FOREIGN Legion, race in the TT or go over the Niagara Falls in a gas stove otherwise I might be forced to abandon Aldo entirely and read something shallow and containing killin's instead.  Or the latest from TV's Guy Martin.
I think this is the only book I've started and taken the conscious decision not to finish.

And I'm a massive Le Carré fan.

So I struggled through to the end.  Aldo Cassidy is Mr Jones from His Bobness' Ballad Of A Thin Man after he works out what's happening.  Possibly.  And the song lasts six minutes whereas this book felt like six years.

(click to show/hide)

Now on the same author's The Little Drummer Girl which at least has killin's right from the off.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 November, 2021, 03:43:11 pm
I feel that Le Carre was of his time, and the style didn’t age well. I couldn’t finish either of his last two offerings. I’ve just started The Stoning a debut novel from the Australian Peter Papathanasiou. It’s started promisingly enough. Time will tell.

ETA: That had to go back to the library, so I've re-reserved it, and will make a start on The Bood Divide by A.A. Dhand. A new (ish) departure for him after his Detective Harry Virdee series, but still set amongst the racial and religious divides of Bradford.  That should last me until I pick up the latest Lee Child / Andrew Child collaboration next week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 16 November, 2021, 11:47:27 am
A copy of Always On: Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era , by BBC legend Rory Cellan-Jones recently appeared in the house, so I have just picked it up and started it.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/always-on/rory-cellan-jones/9781472981196 (https://www.waterstones.com/book/always-on/rory-cellan-jones/9781472981196)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 16 November, 2021, 02:12:51 pm
"Why does e=mc2 (and why should we care?)" by Brian Cox and Jeff Foreshaw which was interesting but made my brain melt (and had a picture of a cat on the cover in spite of not being about Schroedinger's Cat).
... I lost the plot due to too many words and not enough maffs.  ...

I think that might have been my problem, too. I always say I'm not very good at maths, but I do have a Maths A level... I would also have liked to know if the derivation they were giving was the way Einstein got to  e=mc2. And then there was a big jump to the Standard Model with quarks and so on.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 19 November, 2021, 06:26:21 pm
Einstein’s stuff is really hard to follow because he likes to explain and thought experiment instead of use maths.
Ymmv
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 November, 2021, 03:21:44 pm
Well, I’m 2/3rds of the way through the latest Jack Reacher Better off Dead. It would seem like the influence of Lee over Andrew Child is waning. What an odd book. It’s ok, but Lee Childs writing managed somehow to lift the books a bit above the run-of-the-mill avenging stranger genre. This, not so much. Change the lead character’s name and it could be anyone writing it. And it’s set in a town seemingly devoid of pedestrians, or of cars driven by anyone not part of the plot. Disappointing.

ETA: And the deathless prose….  “There was just one table. It was round. There were six plastic chairs in a scruffy circle around it. They seemed lost.”  And so it goes on. Do we ever hear mention of the chairs again? We’re they of any significance at all in the plot? No.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 27 November, 2021, 05:38:30 pm
Einstein’s stuff is really hard to follow because he likes to explain and thought experiment instead of use maths.

Maybe because he wasn't very good at maths. He had Marcel Grossmann to help him with the difficult bits.

Mind you that's for a definition of "not very good at maths" that's somewhat different to most peoples definition of "not very good at maths".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 28 November, 2021, 02:44:23 pm
And now on to Michael Connelly’s latest, a Ballard & Bosch, The Dark Hours.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Socks on 28 November, 2021, 03:02:16 pm
Bought Cavendish's latest -"Tour de Force", delivered this afternoon. Having watched the Tour and cheered him on after his illness and injuries in previous years I'm looking forward to reading his account of the 2021 Tour.

The only time I've seen the Tour live was at Kilnsey crag when it visited Yorkshire.  Then we all sat down to watch the Harrogate sprint finish on a big screen ....

I think it would be fair to say that I'm a Cavendish fan.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 28 November, 2021, 03:35:45 pm
Einstein’s stuff is really hard to follow because he likes to explain and thought experiment instead of use maths.

Maybe because he wasn't very good at maths. He had Marcel Grossmann to help him with the difficult bits.

Mind you that's for a definition of "not very good at maths" that's somewhat different to most peoples definition of "not very good at maths".

Einstein being bad at maths is something of an urban myth.

https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/06/23/1115185.htm?site=science/greatmomentsinscience
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 December, 2021, 12:05:08 am
I have toiled through to the end of Le Carré's A Perfect Spy, which doesn’t actually have very much espionage.  In it.

(click to show/hide)

Next up, The Russia House which I think I have read before.  Or at least there’s a paperback copy over there ==>
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 20 December, 2021, 12:14:29 am
Huxleys Brave new world, fastest I've got through a book in recent times, maybe just cos I've got less to do but been a few multi-chapter sittings which isn't like me.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 December, 2021, 10:40:48 am
In keeping with the general Götterdämmerung/Weltuntergang ambience of the day I've been reading Stephen Baxter's Moonseed for the nth time.  Brings back fond memories of running up Arthur's Arse half-pissed in the dark to catch the May-Morning sunrise, followed by bacon rolls and aspirin at the bottom of the Royal Mile. YMMV
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 20 December, 2021, 10:30:15 pm
Brave new world finished.

Moving onto Davis willets' - the pinch, I tried to pick something short and light but realised my "books to read" pile (now nicely stacked* in various Kallax cubby holes) is lacking on that front.

Although I've been "reading" the works of both coleridge-taylor and lear between books for the last 5 years, I'm well past both the ancient mariner and his counter parts in a pea green boat, but nowhere near the biographie listeria and lears end.

* read... ach well they're just shoved in as I could when I transported them.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 30 December, 2021, 02:04:35 pm
Not a fan of BNW, which I read back when I was ~17 to go with Farenheit 451 and 1984. 

Speaking of not being a fan, I'm not a fan of Stephen King (I don't despise his work, I can see good things to it, but I think it lacks somewhat), so it's not the highest praise when I say that his son's work is very much at his level.  Been reading 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill - it varies from "quite good" to "needs more editorial input".  Much like "Horns" I found that with the longer stories I was skipping ahead to get to the point and I gave up on the last story, happy to get anything I would get from it from skimming the story.  It's a shame as it should be good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 December, 2021, 02:12:27 pm
Not a fan of BNW, which I read back when I was ~17 to go with Farenheit 451 and 1984. 

This ^^^^.  Not that impressed by BNW when I read it as part of the O-level Eng. Lit. syllabub circa 1979 and even less so when I revisited it a couple of years ago.  I don’t think it has aged well.  1984, otoh, seems to have been treated as an instruction manual by successive .gov.uks since, er, about the time I first read it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 30 December, 2021, 03:26:05 pm
I've just finished KSR's latest.  It's much like his other books, but...

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 30 December, 2021, 04:04:45 pm


Not a fan of BNW, which I read back when I was ~17 to go with Farenheit 451 and 1984. 

This ^^^^.  Not that impressed by BNW when I read it as part of the O-level Eng. Lit. syllabub circa 1979 and even less so when I revisited it a couple of years ago.  I don’t think it has aged well.  1984, otoh, seems to have been treated as an instruction manual by successive .gov.uks since, er, about the time I first read it.

Although ome aspects of 1984, constant surveillance for example have happened, the main thing was constant use of propoganda techniques, with the exception of crises like the last couple of years where such techniques are required, I jsut don't see it having played out in anywhere near an extent as to BNW has been used as a blueprint by those pumping debt (soma?), endless consumer goods, dumbing down and instant gratification at us.

And Lord of the flies continues to play out in conservative HQ


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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 06 January, 2022, 12:32:12 pm
Bill Bryson, The Road to Little Dribbling. A Christmas gift. Amusing, but not the laugh out loud engendered by Notes From A Small Island. I did laugh out loud at the Whelks backpack reference, however.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 06 January, 2022, 01:12:00 pm
The Crow Road.

Another thread remided me that I hadn't read anything by I(M)B for far too long.

I got up to Canal Dreams, then read Complicity, then stopped. In the Culture novels I got as far as Excession.

So I've back-tracked to The Crow Road... I enjoy Banks's writing, I can see the settings in my minds eye and the oddness of the characters* and their lives is obviuos, but not overdone.

*They are well written and plausible.


Whit next!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 06 January, 2022, 05:11:09 pm
I does not like Ian banks.  Too much of the “and then I woke up and it was all a dream”.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 06 January, 2022, 08:57:36 pm
Perfume by Patrick Süskind.  Interesting.  More than a little bit weird.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 January, 2022, 09:01:57 pm
Perfume by Patrick Süskind.  Interesting.  More than a little bit weird.

Miss von Brandenburg liked that so much she gave me a copy for my birthday.  Twice :facepalm:  I didn’t get on with either of them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 06 January, 2022, 10:49:25 pm
The Crow Road.

Another thread remided me that I hadn't read anything by I(M)B for far too long.

I got up to Canal Dreams, then read Complicity, then stopped. In the Culture novels I got as far as Excession.

So I've back-tracked to The Crow Road... I enjoy Banks's writing, I can see the settings in my minds eye and the oddness of the characters* and their lives is obviuos, but not overdone.

*They are well written and plausible.


Whit next!

First I read was The Bridge, then Canal Dreams
I thought Bank's code switching worked really well although it realised on stereotypes of Scots speakers.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 January, 2022, 11:06:21 pm
Continuing my quest to find a non-Smiley le Carré which actually rewards the effort required to wade through the chap's suet pudding prose I am now on The Night Manager, which I'm sure wasn’t this much work first time around.  Also the plot is basically the same as The Little Drummer Girl chiz.  The TV adaptation was much less taxing and had Olivia Colman.  In it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 06 January, 2022, 11:26:45 pm
Having finished David willet "the pinch" I have moved onto lighter reading "the lone rangers" about Berwick rangers.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 07 January, 2022, 10:07:28 am
Continuing my quest to find a non-Smiley le Carré which actually rewards the effort required to wade through the chap's suet pudding prose I am now on The Night Manager, which I'm sure wasn’t this much work first time around.  Also the plot is basically the same as The Little Drummer Girl chiz.  The TV adaptation was much less taxing and had Olivia Colman.  In it.

You might find it in The Constant Gardener. Then again, you might not.  It was the closest I came to enjoying a non-Smiley, but I've not managed to finish either of his last 2 offerings, and of cousre will be spared further (I assume).

I'm reading the debut novel from Paul Cleave, The Cleaner, a crime novel set in Christchurch, although not the Christchurch the NZ Tourist Board would have wanted promoted.  Not bad.

I've also got the current Mark Cavendish to occupy my lunchbreaks now I've watch all the Supercars replays for the year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 January, 2022, 10:47:42 am
Perfume by Patrick Süskind.  Interesting.  More than a little bit weird.

Miss von Brandenburg liked that so much she gave me a copy for my birthday.  Twice :facepalm:  I didn’t get on with either of them.

You could cross your eyes and read them in stereo, though.

Liking Perfume would be pushing it a bit far.  I found it impressive but it left a nasty taste behind.  I tried reading Süskind's next one, The Pigeon, but it was like trying to eat cold mashed potato by sniffing it up the nose.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 January, 2022, 12:04:13 pm
The second copy was repossessed and passed on to some other unfortunate worthy recipient.  She also gave me two copies of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow”, but that was because she lent the first one to a cow-orker — before I'd even read it — who then lent to to someone else who subsequently got abducted by aliens or changed jobs or absconded to Patagonia with the Christmas fund and a 40' container of purloined books, or something.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 07 January, 2022, 02:16:32 pm
"Erebus - the Story of a Ship" by Michael Palin. Enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hatler on 07 January, 2022, 03:52:54 pm
"Erebus - the Story of a Ship" by Michael Palin. Enjoying it so far.
Yup. A fascinating read. Really enjoyed this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 09 January, 2022, 10:08:25 pm
The Tunnel Through Time, Gillian Tindall. Fascinating reading of the history of environs tunnelled through by the QE line. I wish my knowledge of London town and its suburbs was more developed, however this does not detract from enjoyment of the book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Beardy on 09 January, 2022, 10:17:36 pm
I’ve just started listening to The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu but after listening to most of the first chapter I’m not entirely sure I’m currently up to their deep and meaningful ideas. I’ve enjoyed their work in the past but the detailed explanations of the thought processes of an ant as it explores for food have quite worn me out. I think I’ll put it aside for another day.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 09 January, 2022, 10:49:43 pm
Rivers of London by Aaronovitch.  Enjoyable if a little on the light side.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 January, 2022, 09:45:31 am
Just finished The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky.  Not bad.  He writes well, too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 10 January, 2022, 09:47:23 am
Sure, but are there any cyborgs?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 10 January, 2022, 09:53:51 am
The Burgundians - A Vanished Empire, a history of 1111 years and 1 day. - Bart van Loo

Excellent on the country that nearly was and the formation of the low countries as separate political entities. van Loo writes well and is funny in places too. Nice to see the 100 Years War from a point of view that isn't English or French as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 10 January, 2022, 10:29:42 am
Bernard Cornwell - Uthred of Bebbanburg/Saxon Chronicles. On book 4 now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feanor on 10 January, 2022, 09:57:17 pm
"The Hidden Ways" by Alistair Moffat.

This is an account of Scotland's Forgotten Roads, and I think it was someone on here who recommended it.
It describes historic roads now lost, from pre-Roman times to more recent.

For me, it's a bit heavier on history than I'd prefer, but that's probably my problem not the book's.
I was expecting more of a descriptive narrative of the here and now, with some historical perspective to give it context.
But I found myself skim-reading walls of dense text with dates and historical facts.

As I say, that's probably down to my poor background in history.
An artefact of the options available at school, possibly.
But it's left me with the need to know only the most basic history to put the landscape around me in some context; I really have never gained interest in the battles and dates, the succession of power that was in place at the time.

Call me shallow.
That said, the book is otherwise excellent, and there are several places I now wish to visit by bike!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 January, 2022, 08:33:58 am
Sure, but are there any cyborgs?

Not in that one.  I had a look at some of his other efforts and decided he writes mostly for adolescents.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 January, 2022, 11:42:47 am
Car Hiassons "Bad Monkey", one of his Andrew Yancy yarns. If you're amused by Florida Man, this is the sort of thing to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Beardy on 12 January, 2022, 01:31:46 pm
I’ve just started listening to The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu but after listening to most of the first chapter I’m not entirely sure I’m currently up to their deep and meaningful ideas. I’ve enjoyed their work in the past but the detailed explanations of the thought processes of an ant as it explores for food have quite worn me out. I think I’ll put it aside for another day.
I decided to persevere with it a little longer, and got drawn in a bit. I’ve not finished it yet, but I am now enjoying it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 19 January, 2022, 05:54:26 pm
“Quantum Of Nightmares “,  the latest Laundry Files/New Management book from Charles Stross.   Not exactly a bundle of larfs so far.  I hope nobody gives a copy to Priti Patel, she might get ideas.


Speeding drivers having their heads mounted on motorway gantries is the only nice bit to date(chapter 5).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 19 January, 2022, 06:33:25 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 January, 2022, 02:10:33 pm
“Quantum Of Nightmares “,  the latest Laundry Files/New Management book from Charles Stross.   Not exactly a bundle of larfs so far.  I hope nobody gives a copy to Priti Patel, she might get ideas.


Speeding drivers having their heads mounted on motorway gantries is the only nice bit to date(chapter 5).

I'm on the one before that, Dead Lies Dreaming.  I read it before but the later ones are a bit like Harry Potter novels, swifty forgotten.  I much preferred the days of Angleton, Andy and Mo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: DaveJ on 01 February, 2022, 11:16:09 am
Halfway through “Inhibitor Phase”, the latest volume of Alistair Reynolds “Revelation Space” series .   


Desperate battles, unstoppable enemies, moral quandaries and Pigs In Spaaaace ….  :thumbsup:


https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs (https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs)

99p on Kindle today
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 01 February, 2022, 01:32:48 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
How are you getting on with it/how did you get on with it? I think I tried it a very long time ago and failed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 01 February, 2022, 02:25:51 pm
I'm halfway through Sai King's The Institute.  It's good  :thumbsup:.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 February, 2022, 04:50:45 pm
Halfway through “Inhibitor Phase”, the latest volume of Alistair Reynolds “Revelation Space” series .   


Desperate battles, unstoppable enemies, moral quandaries and Pigs In Spaaaace ….  :thumbsup:


https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs (https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs)

99p on Kindle today

Grabbed, thanks
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 01 February, 2022, 04:51:39 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
How are you getting on with it/how did you get on with it? I think I tried it a very long time ago and failed.
Oh finished it in about 4 or 5 sittings, I found it quite interesting at how easily my own thoughts would fit into the thoughts that form the story and not distract from what was going on.

Onto Trainspotting now, which proved a challenge on the 25th when trying to read
Burns since I've got the hang of Welsh's Scots orthography which differs significantly in places from Burns which kind of sets what everyone else uses, Ay no. (Ae No)


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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 February, 2022, 05:20:39 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
How are you getting on with it/how did you get on with it? I think I tried it a very long time ago and failed.
Oh finished it in about 4 or 5 sittings, I found it quite interesting at how easily my own thoughts would fit into the thoughts that form the story and not distract from what was going on.

Onto Trainspotting now, which proved a challenge on the 25th when trying to read
Burns since I've got the hang of Welsh's Scots orthography which differs significantly in places from Burns which kind of sets what everyone else uses, Ay no. (Ae No)


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I read one of his years ago about the delights of football hooliganism. Can't remember the title. Good though.

Spaintrotting always makes me think of the holiday squitters.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 February, 2022, 06:40:42 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
How are you getting on with it/how did you get on with it? I think I tried it a very long time ago and failed.
Oh finished it in about 4 or 5 sittings, I found it quite interesting at how easily my own thoughts would fit into the thoughts that form the story and not distract from what was going on.

Have you read any Ford Madox Ford and/or EM Forster? I love both and keep thinking I should give Woolf a go but haven’t got round to her yet. From what I know about them, I think I would like To The Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway especially.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 01 February, 2022, 07:00:17 pm
No I haven't... To be investigated and added to the pile of books...

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 01 February, 2022, 07:05:40 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
How are you getting on with it/how did you get on with it? I think I tried it a very long time ago and failed.
Oh finished it in about 4 or 5 sittings, I found it quite interesting at how easily my own thoughts would fit into the thoughts that form the story and not distract from what was going on.
Phare do's.

Have you read any Ford Madox Ford and/or EM Forster? I love both and keep thinking I should give Woolf a go but haven’t got round to her yet. From what I know about them, I think I would like To The Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway especially.

Howard's End last year and A Passage to India ages ago, so maybe A Room with a View or The Good Soldier after I've worked through the Christmas windfall - Bob Mortimer's autobiography, the latest Frantzen, My Name is Leon (Kit de Waal), and something called Descent by someone called Tim Johnston. I think I'm still too scared of Virginia Woolf.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SteveC on 01 February, 2022, 08:45:15 pm
Following on from the latest Rick Stein telly series, where he mixed art, poetry and literature with the cooking, I mentioned to MrsC that I might try some Virginia Woolf. I got about half way through Mrs Dalloway a couple of years ago. Not sure why I didn't finish it, lack of time, probably.
MrsC suggest Flush which is the biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog. Very pleasant read. As the copy I got was the Kindle complete works (99p) I have a fair bit more to try now!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 03 February, 2022, 08:15:38 am
Mrs Dalloway is currently being read (aloud) by Sian Thomas on R4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013rb6 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013rb6)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 February, 2022, 09:15:47 am
Mrs Dalloway is currently being read (aloud) by Sian Thomas on R4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013rb6 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013rb6)

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 03 February, 2022, 09:27:42 am
Mrs Dalloway is currently being read (aloud) by Sian Thomas on R4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013rb6 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013rb6)

 :thumbsup:
Is that abridged or the whole thing?
I have this (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Virginia-Woolf-Collection-Audiobook/B08XQWDVB3?) but not got round to it yet.

I'm currently enjoying The Song of Achilles (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 03 February, 2022, 10:57:23 am
8 x 15 minute episodes. So I'd guess abridged, or very very fast.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 February, 2022, 11:39:23 am
I'm currently enjoying The Song of Achilles (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles)

Was discussing that with a colleague recently. Fantastic book. Said colleague also recommended her Circe, which sounds like it's very much along the same lines.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: chrisbainbridge on 03 February, 2022, 05:56:49 pm
  Very much enjoyed Circe.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 06 February, 2022, 12:11:42 am
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/can-science-fiction-wake-us-up-to-our-climate-reality-kim-stanley-robinson


A hike with KSR.    I've not read his latest one yet.   
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 06 February, 2022, 12:39:10 am
I've not read his latest one yet.

It's much like his others, only with less hiking and more blockchain.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 February, 2022, 05:37:43 pm
Termination Shock, the most recent offering from Neal Stephenson.  Near-future setting – COVID–19 has been followed by COVIDS–23 and –27 – with a sort-of climate-changey theme.  Panning out quite nicely, though the main question so far is: will the Queen of the Netherlands get off with the hunter of feral hogs?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ashaman42 on 10 February, 2022, 05:42:40 pm
Finished On The Road a couple nights ago.

I really didn't get why it's raved about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 10 February, 2022, 07:47:35 pm
The latest from Chris Hammer “Opal Country”, another outback crime novel.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 10 February, 2022, 07:52:59 pm
Finished On The Road a couple nights ago.

I really didn't get why it's raved about.

Maybe best read in adolescence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 10 February, 2022, 08:02:06 pm
I bought "the great railway bazzar" not long after I finished reading "kingdom by the sea".

So far I've determined that you could now title it "railway journeys you can no longer do"

There is no Paris-Istanbul train
An American getting into iran is only slightly less plausabe than a brit
Taking a bus across Afghanistan, no ta
Through the kyber pass, you're having a laugh.
I suppose the journey in Turkey and India might be possible without suffering from deth.

He's now trying to get to Ceylon which I believe nö longer exists.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 10 February, 2022, 08:13:40 pm
To the Lighthouse, Woolf V.
How are you getting on with it/how did you get on with it? I think I tried it a very long time ago and failed.
Oh finished it in about 4 or 5 sittings, I found it quite interesting at how easily my own thoughts would fit into the thoughts that form the story and not distract from what was going on.
Phare do's.
   ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 10 February, 2022, 08:16:25 pm
I missed that at the time...

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 14 February, 2022, 11:03:36 pm
Rivers of London series by Ben Aasonovitch.  Just finished Foxglove Summer (though the library provided the sequel out of sequence).  Very readable but it could be better - most books end very quickly/abruptly (Foxglove and Broken Homes most obviously) - could be really quite good if only ...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 February, 2022, 11:15:19 am
Finished On The Road a couple nights ago.

I really didn't get why it's raved about.

Maybe best read in adolescence.

If you were a teenager in the 1950s, perhaps.

I probably should give Kerouac another go. I formed an opinion about him ~30 years ago, but I've changed a bit since then. Maybe he has too...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 February, 2022, 11:21:43 am
My recollection of reading “On The Road” while not a teenager was that I quite enjoyed it but then I, like Kerouac, was probably drunk at the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 15 February, 2022, 01:00:36 pm
He'll be 100 next month.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 15 February, 2022, 04:04:28 pm
My recollection of reading “On The Road” while not a teenager was that I quite enjoyed it but then I, like Kerouac, was probably drunk at the time.
I was sober when I read it, and quite enjoyed it.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 15 February, 2022, 05:18:34 pm
It's one of those books that's OK, probably had its time and place, but I can't say I'd want to read it again, or can explain its persistent popularity. It's not that good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 February, 2022, 05:57:16 pm
He'll be 100 next month.

Or at least he would be if he hadn’t died in 1969 :P
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 15 February, 2022, 10:41:03 pm
I read it about 10 years ago (or 20 - it's much the same to me now) and thought everyone in it needed a bloody good slap. One of the most irritating books I've ever read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 16 February, 2022, 11:06:59 am
It was that the subjects needed a "bloody good slap" that made it enjoyable.
If they had been dull boring standard 1950s kids it would have been a children's book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 16 February, 2022, 12:07:12 pm
He'll be 100 next month.

Or at least he would be if he hadn’t died in 1969 :P
Indeed.  He's exactly 95 years older than my youngest.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 February, 2022, 03:54:45 pm
Termination Shock, the most recent offering from Neal Stephenson.  Near-future setting – COVID–19 has been followed by COVIDS–23 and –27 – with a sort-of climate-changey theme.  Panning out quite nicely, though the main question so far is: will the Queen of the Netherlands get off with the hunter of feral hogs?

(click to show/hide)

Not quite up to the standards of Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon but still a cut above yer average techno-thriller nonse.

Now onto Graham Hurley's Last Flight To Stalingrad which may or may not be part of his loosely-connected Wars Within series.  We'll have to wait and see whether Dieter Merz turns up.  I expect he will.  Mr Hurley has been busy since the plague struck, having published no fewer than five novels in the past couple of years :jurek:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: coops456 on 22 February, 2022, 03:57:39 pm
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.  Just finished Foxglove Summer (though the library provided the sequel out of sequence).  Very readable but it could be better - most books end very quickly/abruptly (Foxglove and Broken Homes most obviously) - could be really quite good if only ...
I really like this series, so much so that I read them (and the graphic novels) from the library and then bought the audiobooks, which are probably even better. It feels so grounded in reality despite being full of acktul magiks, and the characters are pleasingly diverse and also fun. Novella What Abigail Did That Summer is probably my fave cos young Abigail kicks arse and the foxes crack me up.

Just finished Richard Osman's second Thursday Murder Club, which I enjoyed more than the first.
In a complete change of style, I'm now reading the phenomenal The History Thieves by Ian Cobain, about how the British state has consistently hidden or obfuscated its actions at home and abroad - to the point that you are left wondering about the accuracy of anything written about British history, certainly in the 20th century. Absolutely mind-blowing. >:( :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 22 February, 2022, 04:17:58 pm
The latest 'Detctive Gallileo' offering from Keigo Higashino, "Silent Parade".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 February, 2022, 06:14:50 pm
To my great astonishment, Dieter Merz has not yet showed up but his wife has, as a corollary of being the ex-wife of another protagonist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 22 February, 2022, 06:51:41 pm
Novella What Abigail Did That Summer is probably my fave cos young Abigail kicks arse and the foxes crack me up.
I love his use of yoot speak.
What I liked less in later books is the dropping in of "this obviously happened in a short story/graphic novel".  I think the idea od add-in graphic novels is okay, but I would like a series of books to run without needing to read up on other media.
The juxtaposition of cop drama and magic makes the magic seem less afar fetched and more real, a bit like the vampire in shadow of a vampire.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrazyEnglishTriathlete on 23 February, 2022, 08:50:22 pm
The Race Against the Stasi - Herbie Sykes - an account of Dieter Wiedemann, the GDR cyclist who defected to the west during trials for the Olympics in 1964.  Part cycling biography, part love story, part harrowing account of living during the formation of a police state, woven together expertly and intriguingly.  I haven't sat down and read so much of a book in one go for years.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2022, 11:54:52 pm
Having finished Last Flight To Stalingrad* on the Tube just now I've started the same author's Kyiv.  Said city is about to fall to the Nazis.  Sounds familiar.  What, if anything, can the plucky BRITISH double agent do to help the Soviet Union?  Does she know what her boss at MI6, a Mr Harold Adrian Russell Philby, gets up to in his copious free time?  Will Dieter Merz put in an appearance?  Gimme a chance, I'm only on chapter two…

* Dieter Merz does appear, albeit briefly.  Hurrah!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 25 February, 2022, 12:07:42 am
I have reached the final chapter of The Great Railway Bazzar.
A journey (in reverse) of one I'd really like to do, like really really.
Sadly for the time being and probably forever unless there is a complete failure of the Russian Imperial Empire, the closest I'll get to it is watching Mr Palin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 March, 2022, 07:42:45 pm
Having finished Last Flight To Stalingrad* on the Tube just now I've started the same author's Kyiv.  Said city is about to fall to the Nazis.  Sounds familiar.  What, if anything, can the plucky BRITISH double agent do to help the Soviet Union?  Does she know what her boss at MI6, a Mr Harold Adrian Russell Philby, gets up to in his copious free time?  Will Dieter Merz put in an appearance?  Gimme a chance, I'm only on chapter two…

* Dieter Merz does appear, albeit briefly.  Hurrah!

Well, that was grim.  No happy ending, and no Dieter Merz either, though MI5's Ursula Barton, the thoroughly nasty SS Standartenführer Kalb and token Good German Walter Schultz of the Abwehr all put in repeat appearances.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 03 March, 2022, 07:47:15 pm
Reading Frederick Forsythe's "The Devil's Alternative" again as it has the subplot about Ukraine independence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 March, 2022, 07:48:49 pm
Another slice of Aussie outback crime fiction, The Stoning by one Peter Papanathanasiou. As good as Jane Harper’s The Dry or Chris Hammer’s Scrublands.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 03 March, 2022, 10:34:42 pm
I was reading Douglas Stuart’s 'Shuggie Bain’, which is excellent and brutal ...

Just finished it.  Excellent, but not an easy read in many parts.  A bit too close for comfort at times.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 03 March, 2022, 10:35:54 pm
Another slice of Aussie outback crime fiction, The Stoning by one Peter Papanathanasiou. As good as Jane Harper’s The Dry or Chris Hammer’s Scrublands.

I really liked Scrublands - Might give this a try next.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 03 March, 2022, 10:52:32 pm
Travels with a donkey in the cevennes RLS

The first chapter was oddly familiar
Then I realised I've not long read Tim Moores travels with a donkey, and that they both told of the same struggles of getting said donk to do anything.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 04 March, 2022, 07:52:03 am
I’m trying to read the lipogrammatic Gadsby, by Ernest Vincent Wright, but it’s quite hard going!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 04 March, 2022, 09:05:11 am
Another slice of Aussie outback crime fiction, The Stoning by one Peter Papanathanasiou. As good as Jane Harper’s The Dry or Chris Hammer’s Scrublands.

I really liked Scrublands - Might give this a try next.

Also try Hammers latest, Opal Country, a stand-alone.

For earlier Aussie stuff, Peter Temple's 2 "Broken Shore" books are good too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 March, 2022, 11:36:51 am
Revisiting Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, which should keep me busy for a day or two.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 04 March, 2022, 08:41:15 pm
I've got that in a shelf sone where... I didn't realize it was 3 books, thought it would be another year long effort like war and peace was.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 06 March, 2022, 08:01:35 pm
Travels with a donkey in the cevennes RLS

The first chapter was oddly familiar
Then I realised I've not long read Tim Moores travels with a donkey, and that they both told of the same struggles of getting said donk to do anything.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk
"Spanish Steps"?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 06 March, 2022, 08:02:34 pm
That's the one

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 14 March, 2022, 11:21:48 pm
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
I picked it up from the library for #1 son to read and I'm a bit surprised that he went the distance.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 15 March, 2022, 01:04:59 am
Revisiting Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, which should keep me busy for a day or two.

Now onto volume 2.  “Tifty Lamont” has to be the worst name for an organised crime boss evvah.  But at least we can be grateful that the USAnian military didn’t genetically modify COVID-19 to turn a bunch of Death Row prisoners into what they thought would be super-soldiers but turned out to be ravening and near-indestructible vampires with inhuman strength and bad attitudes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 15 March, 2022, 10:54:49 am
I’m trying to read the lipogrammatic Gadsby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby_(novel)), by Ernest Vincent Wright, but it’s quite hard going!
Well, I got about 15% of the way through, and very little had happened, so I put it in the 'glad I've tried' pile.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 March, 2022, 09:24:17 am
Joe Ide's The Goodbye Coast, Philip Marlowe transplanted to LA 2021.  I enjoyed his "IQ" novels, but this makes a pleasant - and successfiul - change.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 March, 2022, 09:58:53 am
Was reading trying to read The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalyse.  Lovers of the late, ungreat Chic Murray would appreciate it, it's full of  irritating, repetitious phrases just like his "humour" was, stuff like "I had my hat on my head, at least I knew it was my head because my hat was on it". Arseholery, in other words.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 March, 2022, 11:31:25 am
I am not reading Waterloo Sunrise: London From The Sixties To Thatcher by John Davis because it is Bad Form to read a bok you’re about to give someone else as a present and my own copy will be along next month.  But you, Constant Reader, should read it because the author is my brother-in-law and a Sound Chap and needs cheering up because his Mum died last week.  A snip at only thirty of the BRITON'S pounds.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 April, 2022, 10:40:13 am
I'm reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy again.  Very, very good but not to be read if you need something cheerful, not that any of his stuff is. I read this one when it first came out in 1985: 37 years on, I think I've recovered.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 April, 2022, 03:29:53 pm
James Oswald’s latest Inspector McLean All That Lives. It’s ok, like many “series” books that’ve been going for a while.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 02 April, 2022, 03:37:11 pm
Dominion - Tom Holland

Not about Christianity per say as a religion though there is a lot in there about the history of Christianity, but more about the impact of Christianity on Western thinking. Excellent so far.

One hilarious one star review on Amazon complains that it focuses too much on religion - well yes its a book about how a religion affected society wtf did they expect it to contain?

Maybe they thought it would be about being Spiderman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 April, 2022, 05:43:48 pm
James Oswald’s latest Inspector McLean All That Lives. It’s ok, like many “series” books that’ve been going for a while.

Ooh, a new one!  Having finally got through Justin Cronin's triple-breezeblock I'd just started revisiting William Gibson, but he may have to take a back seat for a bit now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 03 April, 2022, 01:20:26 am
Mieville's Kraken, the library have supplied it in EXTRA LARGE HARDBACK edition.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 03 April, 2022, 02:43:19 pm
Brideshead Revisited.  A bit odd, but very readable.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 05 April, 2022, 11:10:19 am
Well, finieshed the Inspector McClean, and felt. a little disappointed at the number of unresolved threads.
Anyway, now on to Betrayal, David Gilman's second outing for his character Dan Raglan aka The Englishman, a sort of British Orphan X or Reacher I suppose. Shallow but entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: coops456 on 06 April, 2022, 09:39:38 am
Quite enjoying Bonita Norris' The Girl Who Climbed Everest. Even more extreme than audaxing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 06 April, 2022, 02:35:14 pm
The Order of Sounds by Francois J Bonnet.

Fluvial Forms and Processes by David Knighton.

My Heart Is A Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones.

Sam

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 April, 2022, 02:55:39 pm
Fell off the end of Blood Meridian and decided to re-read No Country for Old Men.  The film is really true to the novel: I can hear Tommy Lee Jones' voice in the sheriff's interludes.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 April, 2022, 06:13:28 pm
I see that James Oswald has also been a busy boy during teh Plague, having released a new Constance Fairchild bok at the tail end of 2021.  This has become fairly silly very quickly and will almost certainly get a good deal sillier as DC Fairchild gets mixed up with MOAR Things that Are not Dreamed of in Horatio's Philosophy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 07 April, 2022, 01:40:37 pm
Twelve Caesars - Mary Beard
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 April, 2022, 07:56:16 pm
Professor Larrington informs me that the latest instalment of the Rivers Of London series has just been published.  Presumably in these Days of Plague not even Ben Aaronovitch can delay publication indefinitely…
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 09 April, 2022, 11:28:33 pm
^ I already haz my library booking.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 April, 2022, 08:40:35 am
^Got it on Google Books yesterday. Now 64pp in so it's not going to last long.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 10 April, 2022, 03:22:48 pm
Never do.  Mieville is a big shock in comparison, I would have finished a river of London in the time it took me to not get through half of Kraken.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Andy64 on 10 April, 2022, 04:50:54 pm
Rather than start a different thread, I thought this might be the best place to post this.
Amazon Kindles are reduced for now. Basic one is £39.99, Paperwhites/Kids £99.99/£94.99.
So if you want one, the reduced prices usually last a week or so
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 10 April, 2022, 05:25:33 pm
To Drown in Dark Water by Steve Toase
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 April, 2022, 07:57:09 pm
Waterloo Sunrise by John Davis, as previously noted.  So far we've had the Introduction and chapters on strip clubs, fashion and restaurants.  Just started the one about housing.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 April, 2022, 08:53:03 am
Never do.  Mieville is a big shock in comparison, I would have finished a river of London in the time it took me to not get through half of Kraken.

Kraken is a right cynical pot-boiler. I reckon he was just turning the handle and thinking the punters would buy it anyway.  It put me right off him, though.  Embassytown was OK, though, if you liked Kafka's In the Penal Colony.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 11 April, 2022, 11:30:17 am
I’m enjoying it, but it does have some issues: un/ill-explained plot, heavy use of the thesaurus for no good reason, short dabbling in side plot that doesn’t get expanded for no discernible reason.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 11 April, 2022, 12:16:47 pm
The Regulators by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman.  I'm about halfway through and struggling because it's just a bit shit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 11 April, 2022, 03:05:23 pm
The Regulators by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman.  I'm about halfway through and struggling because it's just a bit shit.
;D Must say that is my general sentiment about King.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 11 April, 2022, 03:46:27 pm
I gave up on the execrable Lisey's Story, but other than that I find him very readable (I've read about 50 of his books and collections).  À chacun son goût, of course, but I really rate his characterisation and enjoy his yarns.  I prefer the non-supernatural stuff (Dolores Claiborne, Blaze, Misery, Shawshank...) to the supernatural.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 11 April, 2022, 04:50:10 pm
I’m enjoying [Kraken], but it does have some issues: un/ill-explained plot, heavy use of the thesaurus for no good reason, short dabbling in side plot that doesn’t get expanded for no discernible reason.

Yes: sometimes I had the impression that he was using the thesaurus at random and not bothering too much about meanings, leaving the connections as an exercise for the student.  IOW, condescendingly bullshitting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 11 April, 2022, 07:44:59 pm
Does the River of London improve on the last one, if not, I won't bother following the thrilling adventures of Peter delivering food and being told for the 9,565,461st time where his mum is from.

Never managed to get to the end of a China Mieville book, there's only so much suffering I can do under the avalanche of superfluous detail.

I have, on the other hand, quite enjoyed the works of Stephen King – there are a few misses, of course – but he's really written some great stuff. Admittedly, a lot of it has been turned, with a few exceptions, into some terrible movies.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 11 April, 2022, 10:07:47 pm
They didn’t have the latest from Mr Aaronovitch is Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles chiz, so I'll either have to buy it online or launch An Expotition to travel the whole mile-and-a-bit to Waterstones in 'stow Central.  In any case it’s going to take a while to finish my b-i-l's tome as it’s too weighty to be comfortably read in bed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 12 April, 2022, 10:13:33 pm
Crossroads by Jonathan Frantzen. More dissections of dysfunctional American family life. Funny bits. Poignant bits. Squirmily embarrassing bits. Masterfully structured and plotted. I found the end somewhat underwhelming and then found out it's the first of a trilogy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: coops456 on 13 April, 2022, 12:11:31 pm
The Pride of the Lionesses by Carrie Dunn, covering the changes to women's football with the professionalisation of the WSL. It's not a history of the game (for that see her previous work, The Roar of the Lionesses) but more a snapshot of events over the 2017-19 seasons concluding with the 2019 World Cup.
It raises some very interesting issues about the drawbacks of turning professional, and around the relationship and balance between grass-roots opportunities, investment, and national team success. A timely read with less than 100 days to go before England hosts the Euros in July.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 April, 2022, 01:54:38 pm
They didn’t have the latest from Mr Aaronovitch is Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles chiz, so I'll either have to buy it online or launch An Expotition to travel the whole mile-and-a-bit to Waterstones in 'stow Central.  In any case it’s going to take a while to finish my b-i-l's tome as it’s too weighty to be comfortably read in bed.

Launched an Expotition to Waterstones only to discover that they ent got it in yet chiz.  But I did manage to score a bunch of the related graphic novels so perhaps I shall at last be able to find out what some of the Mysterious Stuffs in the books for e.g. the Haunted BMW are all about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 14 April, 2022, 12:33:13 am
Local library had the graphic novels, though I don't like their referencing in the books - it's too much into the "you need to read these to know what's going on" and less a clin d'oeil.

Finished Kraken, it was as poor as has been suggested upthread - if anything it gets progressively worse as the book goes on (I thought it started well).  A shame as I did like City & the City and his short stories.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 April, 2022, 12:48:56 am
Sadly I have subsequently discovered that there are (at least) nine “Rivers Of London” graphic novels and Waterstones only had five.  Of them.  So the Haunted Pikey Old Beemer may yet have to wait chiz.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: graculus on 14 April, 2022, 09:21:05 am
Sadly I have subsequently discovered that there are (at least) nine “Rivers Of London” graphic novels and Waterstones only had five.  Of them.  So the Haunted Pikey Old Beemer may yet have to wait chiz.
I have the first six.
The haunted BMW is in the first.
(IMHO No.s 1 & 3 are OK; 2 & 4 are excellent; 5 is a bit of a dud; 6 is so-so. I'm not sure I will buy any more)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 14 April, 2022, 10:13:41 am
I think it was clear in the last one that he'd run out of stuff to write about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 25 April, 2022, 01:55:43 pm
Well, having mamaged not to finish the latest Donna Leon / Brunetti offering Give unto Others, about financial shennanigans at a charity, it just didn't hold my atrention, I'll be trying the latest Aaronovitch, Amongst our Weapons, myself.  I'm not holding out a great deal of hope for it TBH, I expect "more of the same" and the writing isn't enough in itself to keep me interested. We'll see.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 25 April, 2022, 10:49:21 pm
Embassytown by Mieville, the focus on language brings to mind Babel 17 by Delaney.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 April, 2022, 07:35:03 pm
Well, the Aaronovitch was actually 95% ok,  perhaps because it was a bit of a wait, and because there seems to be a bit of progression. Now onto Brian McGilloway’s The Empty Room about a missing teenager, set in his home town (as are most of his books) of Derry.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 April, 2022, 07:39:31 pm
I really have to finish Count Zero so's I can attack my unread stack of Aaronovitch – 1.5 books and 9 graphic novels – but in spite of having been without the Big Computer for more than a week I've spent far too long poking random links in Wikinaccurate instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 April, 2022, 07:56:00 pm
I really have to finish Count Zero so's I can attack my unread stack of Aaronovitch – 1.5 books and 9 graphic novels – but in spite of having been without the Big Computer for more than a week I've spent far too long poking random links in Wikinaccurate instead.


You keep getting interrupted......
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 April, 2022, 09:30:52 pm
I see what you did there ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: coops456 on 04 May, 2022, 11:12:10 am
Listened to the latest Aaronovitch on Audible - first time I've heard the book before reading it. As always, Kobna Holbrook-Smith does an excellent job of narration.

Really enjoyed Ned Boulting's How I Won the Yellow Jumper - written in the pre-Sky days but very entertaining.

Now coming to the end of Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez. Slightly above "meh".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 May, 2022, 12:39:16 am
Because going to Fort Larrington for a couple of days I decided to start the new Stuart MacBride on my Kindle for convenience's sake.  Books are heavy and it’s a long way* to where my motor-car is parked.  Five unsolved and bloody killin's in the backstory plus one more as it starts and only 20% through it so far.  This at least partially makes up for the lack of Ash Henderson and Mad Alice even though it’s set in “Oldcastle”.

* about 10 yards from the Grand Portico of Larrington Towers
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 07 May, 2022, 12:41:57 am
Have picked up a book called the grand prix sabateurs about pre-wwii grand prix drivers who took up super secret intelligence service work to help establish the French resistance.

It obviously also talks about the betwixt war races.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 May, 2022, 12:53:03 am
Have picked up a book called the grand prix sabateurs about pre-wwii grand prix drivers who took up super secret intelligence service work to help establish the French resistance.

It obviously also talks about the betwixt war races.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

:thumbsup:

Read that when it first came out, having been a reader of Joe Saward's blog for many a year.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 07 May, 2022, 01:06:35 pm
Got from the library:
Pterry - Johnny and the dead
Colfer - Hitchhiker's guide part 6 of 3
Sheldon - 10,000 Ly from home
No idea whether any of them will be any good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 May, 2022, 02:08:51 pm
The Colfer is a Rubbish :hand:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 07 May, 2022, 08:00:56 pm
The Colfer is a Rubbish :hand:
To be fair so were parts 4 and 5.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 May, 2022, 08:16:39 pm
Troo, dat.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Butterfly on 07 May, 2022, 10:41:45 pm
Listened to the latest Aaronovitch on Audible - first time I've heard the book before reading it. As always, Kobna Holbrook-Smith does an excellent job of narration.


K H-S is utterly brilliant. I love his narration.

I'm listening to the Dresden Files at the moment. I think I'm nearly at the end of the full length novels and I haven't read the short stories yet. James Marsters' narration improves a lot through the series - there was far too much sighing in the first 4 or 5 and he is much more convincing in the later books. The books themselves improved as well. The humour is much smoother in the later books and the constant sexualisation of every female character is toned down a bit. I'm finding other books a bit too much of a change of pace, so I'm going to finish these before going back to something a bit calmer.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 07 May, 2022, 10:53:23 pm
Yay! Another gory killin' :thumbsup: Albeit in flashback :-\
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 08 May, 2022, 12:00:24 am
Have picked up a book called the grand prix sabateurs about pre-wwii grand prix drivers who took up super secret intelligence service work to help establish the French resistance.

It obviously also talks about the betwixt war races.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

:thumbsup:

Read that when it first came out, having been a reader of Joe Saward's blog for many a year.

It's all rather interesting, I read a fair bit about the inter-war years of racing after playing the much maligned Spirit of Speed 1937 for a bit which I actually quite enjoyed playing.
now getting into the SOE training, well actually right on the end of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 08 May, 2022, 07:36:45 am
Local library had the graphic novels, though I don't like their referencing in the books - it's too much into the "you need to read these to know what's going on" and less a clin d'oeil.

Finished Kraken, it was as poor as has been suggested upthread - if anything it gets progressively worse as the book goes on (I thought it started well).  A shame as I did like City & the City and his short stories.

I quite enjoyed Kraken, just an increasing need for suspension of disbelief.

I've just finished Imperial Mud, the Fight for the Fens by James Boyce, an aussie who spent some time in Norfolk. Fascinating to put the actions, resistance, and the people into the 3-400 year process. Driving back home across the fens from Hull last week was particularly interesting.

Also trying to read Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver and really struggling to engage with it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 May, 2022, 10:40:10 am
Yay! Another gory killin' :thumbsup: Albeit in flashback :-\

Yay!  Another stiff :thumbsup:

Edit: two, in fact, but one was an accident.  Although the victim did get partially et by kittehs.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 08 May, 2022, 10:50:09 am
I quite enjoyed Kraken, just an increasing need for suspension of disbelief.
I since read Embassytown which I thought was significantly better.  Kraken did feel like he rolled a dice every chapter for a new denoument and new factions/characters - there was too much and the story was very muddled.  Embassytown and The City & The City were both much better structured with a clearer narrative that actually built well together.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ElyDave on 08 May, 2022, 01:02:53 pm
I quite enjoyed Kraken, just an increasing need for suspension of disbelief.
I since read Embassytown which I thought was significantly better.  Kraken did feel like he rolled a dice every chapter for a new denoument and new factions/characters - there was too much and the story was very muddled.  Embassytown and The City & The City were both much better structured with a clearer narrative that actually built well together.

I've only read a couple of his, Perdido Street Station and Kraken, saw the TV adaptation of The City and The City which I thought quite good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 08 May, 2022, 02:44:02 pm
In unconventional fashion I have not read Perdido, because my library doesn't have it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 May, 2022, 06:10:01 pm
Yay! Another gory killin' :thumbsup: Albeit in flashback :-\

Yay!  Another stiff :thumbsup:

Edit: two, in fact, but one was an accident.  Although the victim did get partially et by kittehs.

That all got rather silly in the last hundred-odd pages :-\

Currently doing Charlie Stross' Escape From Yokai Land wot is a novella and approximately volume 7.5 of The Laundry Files.  Won't take long.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 09 May, 2022, 05:12:49 pm
Just finished the Fitzgerald translation of the Iliad, narrated by Dan Stevens on audible. Absorbing and delightful. I could listen to him all day. Now onto the Odyssey while I ponder which of the Posthomeric translations to acquire.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 May, 2022, 05:00:02 pm
Quantum Of Nightmares, the second in Charlie Stross' “Tales Of The New Management” series.  Not at all influenced by Mary Poppins, oh no.  Feature a Several of the characters from Dead Lies Dreaming and, er, some new ones.  Not a Laundry File in spite of what the publisher has seen fit to put on the cover.

If disgraced former International Development Secretary Piggi Patel ever read these books we are doomed.  OK, MOAR doomed.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 May, 2022, 07:49:10 pm
I came here to berate the Rivers Of London graphic novel series for spoiling the pictures but they’re actually pretty close to the ones in my head-branez.  Though “graphic short stories” would be a more accurate description.  Now I'd better get back to Waterloo Sunrise before Professor Larrington duffs me up or infects me with Teh Plague.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 18 May, 2022, 08:17:26 pm
Duncton Wood, it's very good
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 May, 2022, 10:14:00 am
The Dark Flood the latest Benny Griessel from Deon Meyer.  A run of the mill police procedural, but interesting to me for it's window into South Africa.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 May, 2022, 05:34:25 pm
Yay! Another gory killin' :thumbsup: Albeit in flashback :-\

Yay!  Another stiff :thumbsup:

Edit: two, in fact, but one was an accident.  Although the victim did get partially et by kittehs.

That all got rather silly in the last hundred-odd pages :-\

I didn’t last nearly that long (and 400 plus pages was too long to sustain that style of prose anyway). First one of his I haven’t finished. Oh well.

On to Overboard, the new V.I. Warshawski from Sara Paretsky.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 May, 2022, 05:50:16 pm
The Dark Flood the latest Benny Griessel from Deon Meyer.  A run of the mill police procedural, but interesting to me for it's window into South Africa.


The last South African police procedural I read was by Tom Sharpe…….   I believe it got him deported.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 30 May, 2022, 07:25:09 am
Just given up on, "Operation Pedestal" by Max Hastings.  Suggest you save your pennies for something else.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 May, 2022, 09:34:12 am
Too late.  It’s up there \\\\ on the Unread Shelf ov Shame.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 30 May, 2022, 02:01:20 pm
Too late.  It’s up there \\\\ on the Unread Shelf ov Shame.
Leave it there. That, or tear the pages out and stick 'em on the nail in the door.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: IanDG on 09 June, 2022, 01:39:47 pm
Into the Remote Places by Ian Hibell

I can no longer consider avoiding broken glass and dog turds along the disused railway path out of town a challenging bike ride.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 09 June, 2022, 01:49:33 pm
Dad's Army
About the village cricket team including the head of PE at school wot won some cup at Lords in 1985

I was shit at cricket at school, and rugby which was his other sport, and hockey and football that were only in the curriculum so that the pitches wouldn't get trashed in spring and the AstroTurf could be justified.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 June, 2022, 07:47:28 pm
Having finished (and enjoyed) Emma Viskic’s fourth Caleb Zelic (Deaf white PI with an indigenous wife) outing Those who Perish I’ve just collected the latest Mick “slow horses” Herron, Bad Actors
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 13 June, 2022, 01:59:18 pm
o goody, sa mr larington, there is a new mark bilingham out :thumbsup:

The Murder Book.  And it’s a a pukka Thorne too, not one where he pops up anonymously on p374.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 June, 2022, 05:12:34 pm
Well the Slow Horses were their usual selves, with the added bonus that they ended with the same number as they started (and apparently are being depicted in an Apple TV+ drama for good measure). No onto Barbara Nadel’s latest Ikmen story Bride Price. (And the Billingham is likely to be waiting for at the library soon. I do hope it’s better more to my taste than some of his recent oeuvre).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 13 June, 2022, 08:09:36 pm
Well the Slow Horses were their usual selves, with the added bonus that they ended with the same number as they started (and apparently are being depicted in an Apple TV+ drama for good measure).

I'll not take that as a spoiler given that the number may be the same but the names might not be.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 June, 2022, 11:58:57 pm
o goody, sa mr larington, there is a new mark bilingham out :thumbsup:

The Murder Book.  And it’s a a pukka Thorne too, not one where he pops up anonymously on p374.

Finally started this while waiting for an interminable search to finish hunting through a bazillion small text files for a string which, as it turned out, wasn’t there anyway :facepalm:

Starts with a nice DETHY killin' which is always a good sign.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 27 June, 2022, 01:14:20 pm
Having battered through "when you dead, you dead" by a former 24hr mtb race foe (his best result 1st, mine 29th...)

I've gone and picked up some book called endless perfect circles by some ultra runner nut who suddenly switched to cycling.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 27 June, 2022, 04:18:02 pm
Just finished the latest rivers of London (speedy delivery by the library of Birmingham).  It were okay, more of the same which I guess is what you should expect at this point.
Back to balancing a couple short story books, including the awesome le Guin (I could read it faster but I’m taking my time so it lasts).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 29 June, 2022, 11:23:13 pm
Just started “Parable Of The Sower” by Octavia Butler.  Well written, but I’m getting the impression it’s not a feel good book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 30 June, 2022, 12:04:34 pm
I have just finished James Holland's latest opus "Brother in Arms" which follows the Sherwood Rangers from D-Day to VE-Day.
A gripping and detailed account of tank warfare and the way it affected the crews. All those idiot politicians who keep harking back to WWII as our glory days can f**k right off it was a completely horrific for those who took part.
Good book but I do have to take issue with his conclusion that they were extraordinary men, they weren't, I think the point is that they were ordinary men asked to and in the most part accomplishing extraordinary things at great personal cost.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 June, 2022, 07:44:10 pm
I have just finished James Holland's latest opus "Brother in Arms" which follows the Sherman Rangers fro D-Day to VE-Day.
A gripping and detailed account of tank warfare and the way it affected the crews. All those idiot politicians who keep harking back to WWII as our glory days can f**k right off it was a completely horrific for those who took part.
Good book but I do have to take issue with his conclusion that they were extraordinary men, they weren't, I think the point is that they were ordinary men asked to and in the most part accomplishing extraordinary things at great personal cost.

My uncle was a tank driver in North Africa. Just an ordinary guy. You might like to watch “Lebanon”, a film from the POV of an Israeli tank crew during the 1972 Israeli-Lebanon conflict. Compared to Das Boot. And if you like books about the realism of warfare, try “Send Down a Dove” by Charles McHardy, about an British submarine at the end of WW2. My (submariner) father was impressed by its accuracy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 July, 2022, 12:42:27 pm
o goody, sa mr larington, there is a new mark bilingham out :thumbsup:

The Murder Book.  And it’s a a pukka Thorne too, not one where he pops up anonymously on p374.

Finally started this while waiting for an interminable search to finish hunting through a bazillion small text files for a string which, as it turned out, wasn’t there anyway :facepalm:

Starts with a nice DETHY killin' which is always a good sign.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 02 July, 2022, 02:36:24 pm
Just started “Parable Of The Sower” by Octavia Butler.  Well written, but I’m getting the impression it’s not a feel good book.


Now finished.  I think I'll be ordering the sequel to depress myself further.


Climate change leading to food & water shortages in the USA. Almost complete social breakdown outside isolated, fortified communities & company towns where everyone is reduced to debt slavery. Drug crazed arsonists & cannibals.   Written in 1993, set in 2024.  Not an implausible future, the dates are probably out by 20-30 years.


https://kara.reviews/parable-of-the-sower/
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 02 July, 2022, 03:29:22 pm
Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim opus, one end to the other. Currently on vol 7 or 8.  Hell, MrsT reads so much high-faluting stuff I have to keep things in balance.

Interesting mythology contrast with Good Omens.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 02 July, 2022, 11:58:18 pm
Just finished reading "Only you can save mankind" (by PTerry) to #1 son.  I'm not a PTerry fan, but I thought it was brilliant, should be on the national curriculum as year 7-9 reading, it's a great discussion point about the alienation from violence and the whole "good guy shooting bad guys" thing, but it also has some decent writing tricks that are well telegraph and easily accessible to a young reader.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 July, 2022, 11:09:55 am
I have thus far enjoyed Martin Walkers jaunts through the Dordogne with a flic (the Bruno, Chief of Police series), and I appreciate that even a dozen books in the scene needs be set for new readers, but it really shouldn’t take the first quarter of the book! So, I’ve given, probably permanently, and move£ on to Tim Weavers latest David Raker, The Black Bird.

Prior to the Walker, I read a new-to-me author, Trevor Wood, and his first Jimmy Mullen outing The Man on the Street, a pleasant and undemanding amble through Newcastle with our homeless ex-serviceman-with-PTSD-as-detective protagonist. ‘Twas ok.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 July, 2022, 08:46:20 am
I have just finished James Holland's latest opus "Brother in Arms" which follows the Sherman Rangers fro D-Day to VE-Day.
A gripping and detailed account of tank warfare and the way it affected the crews. All those idiot politicians who keep harking back to WWII as our glory days can f**k right off it was a completely horrific for those who took part.
Good book but I do have to take issue with his conclusion that they were extraordinary men, they weren't, I think the point is that they were ordinary men asked to and in the most part accomplishing extraordinary things at great personal cost.

My uncle was a tank driver in North Africa. Just an ordinary guy. You might like to watch “Lebanon”, a film from the POV of an Israeli tank crew during the 1972 Israeli-Lebanon conflict. Compared to Das Boot. And if you like books about the realism of warfare, try “Send Down a Dove” by Charles McHardy, about an British submarine at the end of WW2. My (submariner) father was impressed by its accuracy.

Thanks for the recommendations I'll look them up.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 15 July, 2022, 06:03:34 pm
The library has finally coughed up Bellingham’s The Murder Book.  A lot better than his last couple IMO, back to vintage Thorne. But…. annoyingly (and the editor left it in) there is mention of a “signed credit card slip”. WTF? It has been perhaps a decade (or more) since we had to do that rather than enter a PIN. Grrrr.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 15 July, 2022, 08:43:21 pm
The library has finally coughed up Bellingham’s The Murder Book.  A lot better than his last couple IMO, back to vintage Thorne. But…. annoyingly (and the editor left it in) there is mention of a “signed credit card slip”. WTF? It has been perhaps a decade (or more) since we had to do that rather than enter a PIN. Grrrr.
Here in Germany I have to sign credit card slips weekly.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 15 July, 2022, 08:57:45 pm
The library has finally coughed up Bellingham’s The Murder Book.  A lot better than his last couple IMO, back to vintage Thorne. But…. annoyingly (and the editor left it in) there is mention of a “signed credit card slip”. WTF? It has been perhaps a decade (or more) since we had to do that rather than enter a PIN. Grrrr.
Here in Germany I have to sign credit card slips weekly.

Yeah, I know (at least Germany accepts credit cards now) but the book’s set in that there London.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 17 July, 2022, 09:45:55 pm
Well, the Billingham was, IMHO, a cut above his last couple of offerings, even if the finale was somewhat contrived. Now onto Ajay Chowdbury’s second outing for Indian ex-detective Kamil Rahman, The Cook.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 18 July, 2022, 11:47:55 am
Just started Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42969704-thirst) by Heather Anish Anderson. I have no experience of thru-hiking very long trails (I don't think the Ridgeway counts), but have often wondered what it's like to just drop out of the world and walk for a few months.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 21 July, 2022, 01:15:25 pm
Oooh!  I hadn’t noticed that Dave Hutchinson had a new “Fractured Europe” book out.   Edit - coming out , September apparently.  And a TV adaptation as well, when they finish it.


https://twitter.com/rebellionpub/status/1489279770084978688 (https://twitter.com/rebellionpub/status/1489279770084978688?s=21&t=h0oGfo5pJj4FQj_CAFEffg)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 21 July, 2022, 02:16:24 pm
Oooh!  I hadn’t noticed that Dave Hutchinson had a new “Fractured Europe” book out.   Edit - coming out , September apparently.  And a TV adaptation as well, when they finish it.


https://twitter.com/rebellionpub/status/1489279770084978688 (https://twitter.com/rebellionpub/status/1489279770084978688?s=21&t=h0oGfo5pJj4FQj_CAFEffg)

Excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 21 July, 2022, 02:34:14 pm
Oooh!  I hadn’t noticed that Dave Hutchinson had a new “Fractured Europe” book out.   Edit - coming out , September apparently.  And a TV adaptation as well, when they finish it.


https://twitter.com/rebellionpub/status/1489279770084978688 (https://twitter.com/rebellionpub/status/1489279770084978688?s=21&t=h0oGfo5pJj4FQj_CAFEffg)


Thanks. I read the series straight through, having found it via this thread.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 15 August, 2022, 04:31:05 pm
Not reading , but I've read most of these in the distant past when I was a small person.   https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/set-14-slightly-foxed-cubs-ronald-welch/


Ronald Welch's stories of the military Carey family. 



Superior "Boys Own" stuff as I recall.  Though however fond my memories are,  I doubt I'll be splashing out £££ for the re-issued set!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 15 August, 2022, 09:37:00 pm
I just finished Andy Weir's latest.  It's basically a much sillier re-hash of The Martian, with a sarcastic alien and lots of scienceing the shit out of things.  As such, it's much better than Artemis, which was just plain bad.

It would probably have benefited from being written by Arthur C Clarke in the late 70s.  At least then the science montages could have been a bit more considered, and the random sexism wouldn't been so conspicuously out of place.

If you enjoyed the Bobiverse series, you'll probably like this.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 August, 2022, 01:04:58 pm
Re-reading Dan Simmons' The Terror, having watched the serial on Amazon.  The book is by far superior, of course.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 21 August, 2022, 07:07:18 pm
In a change from my usual guff (just finished Cold Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs) I’m giving Chris Brookmyre’s latest The Cliff House  a spin. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 21 August, 2022, 10:08:32 pm
Re-reading Dan Simmons' The Terror, having watched the serial on Amazon.  The book is by far superior, of course.
(click to show/hide)

His Hyperion Cantos series is rather good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 August, 2022, 08:42:42 am
Re-reading Dan Simmons' The Terror, having watched the serial on Amazon.  The book is by far superior, of course.
(click to show/hide)

His Hyperion Cantos series is rather good.

Indeed. I read those as they came out and I've been back to them a few times since.  I've rather liked his later stuff too, Drood and The Abominable. Not so keen on the one about Sherlock Holmes and Henry James.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 27 August, 2022, 11:43:47 pm
Like Hyperion I much much more than the second.

Reading The Laundry Files series (annoyingly not much coverage from the library).
On top of Computer Nerd + Maffs and Physics + Spies + Bureaucracy + Cthulhu (which is already possibly too many flavours for the dish) he decided to add the idea that each book would be written in the style of a articular spy novelist.  I found this was okay for "Atrocity Archive" but I found the James Bond theme of "Jennifer Morgue" detracted from the story and was far too dominant in the telling.
For a reasonably compact story I think he could have elaborated more on some ideas, some of the background theories referenced are just name-called and a bit of elaboration would have helped, even if it's just to make the storytelling more of a story and less of a "shout out".  I also feel that some of the explanation was misweighed - for example at the end of the second story in "Atrocity Archive" I had pretty much figured out what was going on (I feel it was telegraphed enough that most people would) but when he goes into the explanation he rushed it so that I didn't feel that he actually explained anything more than letting me know I had guessed right - I wanted more expose of why and how.  I also feel that at times too much explanation is given for things that are really obvious (e.g. the Newton's cradle at the end of the second story didn't need a paragraph of more explanation).
I'll see what book 4 offers as the library has it, then decide on whether to splash out (nearly the cost of a pint!) on the third.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 August, 2022, 01:05:57 am
He got bored with the pastiche after the 4th book, so that’s one thing fewer to worry about :D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 28 August, 2022, 01:15:13 pm
So the cliff house was mostly ok, enough that I might try some of his back catalogue. Now onto another in the growing offering of “Outback noir” (Jane Harper, Chris Hammer, Peter Papathanasiou) this time the debut novel from Shelley Burr, WAKE ( an acronym for Wednesday Addams Killed Evie) about a PI who specialises in finding missing children, only this particular one is tied into his family story too.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 29 August, 2022, 12:01:45 pm
He got bored with the pastiche after the 4th book, so that’s one thing fewer to worry about :D
Yebbut, does he not also abandon the main character at this point too?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 August, 2022, 12:40:25 pm
He got bored with the pastiche after the 4th book, so that’s one thing fewer to worry about :D

You got through four. I managed the first and called it a day, it was basically a ream of nerd jokes that had some superficial charm but rapidly got tired and tedious. I'm not sure how he got a series of novels out of it. Not my cup of tea. I'm thinking I don't actually like anything.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: coops456 on 31 August, 2022, 01:56:43 pm
Not reading , but I've read most of these in the distant past when I was a small person.   https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/set-14-slightly-foxed-cubs-ronald-welch/

Ronald Welch's stories of the military Carey family. 

Superior "Boys Own" stuff as I recall.  Though however fond my memories are,  I doubt I'll be splashing out £££ for the re-issued set!
These are great books, with real historical detail. As a geeky 9 year-old, I was fascinated to learn about armour and surcoats, helms and lances. As a geeky 40 year-old, I was far more aware of the absence of female characters, of the graphic but not gratuitous violence.

Hurrah for public libraries!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 31 August, 2022, 11:32:37 pm
I managed the first and called it a day, it was basically a ream of nerd jokes that had some superficial charm but rapidly got tired and tedious.
I liked the first book better than the second.  I think many of the nerd jokes are not accessible enough to even a nerdy audiences as you need to score highly in Maths, Physics, Computers AND Great Old Ones to get them.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 09 September, 2022, 10:43:22 am
Ive just started the latest (pair of) Charlie Parker offerings from John Connoloy, The Sisters Strange and The Furies. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: The Family Cyclist on 09 September, 2022, 10:55:15 am
I needed a book a few weeks back ahead of an 8 hour ferry ride, no bookshops near where we were staying so raided the charity shops and got the secret race by Daniel Coyle/Tyler Hamilton for the princely sum of one pound

I'd finished it by the time I got off the ferry, really well written and showed a sad state of cycling where it was who could dope best really and how riding clean wasn't an option especially in the Grand Tours
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 09 September, 2022, 10:58:53 am
Just arrived, Treacle Walker by Alan Garner.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 09 September, 2022, 12:42:30 pm
Sailplanes, 1920-1945 by Martin Simons.  I say "reading", but it's more looking at the three-views and pondering which one to scratch a plan together for the next model.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 09 September, 2022, 01:14:41 pm
Re-reading Neal Stephenson's Anathem.  Already read it a couple of times but the last time was a good few years ago and there's a lot in it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 09 September, 2022, 02:30:42 pm
Re-reading Val McDermid's 1979 prior to taking on the next volume in the series, the imaginatively-titled 1989.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 September, 2022, 08:27:16 pm
I enjoyed The Sisters Strange but The Furies not so much. Now reading the usual police procedural trash, in this case Carnival Blues by Damien Boyd.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 12 September, 2022, 09:22:31 pm
Re-reading Val McDermid's 1979 prior to taking on the next volume in the series, the imaginatively-titled 1989.
It was published in August last year. Good to see that I'm not the only one with a memory like a thingy.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 September, 2022, 10:05:12 pm
I'm reading the latest Inspector Mclean book, but even I'm starting to get a bit tired of the whole 'he works too hard, oh dear something odd has happened to Emma again' thing, and if I have to read the name Jane Louise Dee again I might have to poke my eyeballs out with a pencil.

I think this happens with these series, I get too fed up with the same character foibles being rehashed every book. Same with Rona Mcleod, etc.

I expect there'll be yet another new JD Kirk book out by the time I'm finished this one though. I could read something more worthy in the pile, but I probably won't. Maybe another Ann Leckie.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 September, 2022, 11:03:34 am
I have the same issue, plus the same with Peter James' and Peter Robinson's characters - and to a certain extent McDermids Hill/Jordan series - inevitable, as you say.

I seem to have gravitated to antipodean authors - Jane Harper (ignore the second in her ouevre), Chris Hammer, Shelley Burr, Emma Viskic, Peter Papathanasiou.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 September, 2022, 10:38:12 am
I felt the urge to read The Sotweed Factor by John Barth again, but found that neither Google Books nor Kindle offer it, although Amazon do have it on pre-order  at 17€80 (gulp).  Curiously, though, both offer, at prices up to 8€50, a long hudibrastic poem of the same name, supposedly by one Ebenezer Cooke.  Now Cooke is a character from the novel, who writes the poem in question, which figures in the novel. That got me head-scratching for a bit until I realized it's probably a text for students so that they don't have to wade through the book and risk learning some decent English, poor dears.

Anyway, our paper version dates from the 60s and is loose-leafed from re-reading, so I'm pissed off.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 14 September, 2022, 10:45:34 am
Started on Hide and Seek, I should probably have read Noughts and Crosses first, but meh!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 September, 2022, 09:19:34 am
Dirt Town a debut from Australian Hayley Scrivenor, again set in a slowly dying outback town (a common trope it seems in modern Australian crime fiction), examining the events around the disappearance of a young girl, but seen from the perspective of other children and adults in the town, as opposed from an outsider.  Surprisingly (for me) engaging.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrazyEnglishTriathlete on 16 September, 2022, 11:50:37 am
Wizardry Quested by the late Rick Cook.  It was published in 1996 and I have finally succumbed to a second hand copy, having read the other highly entertaining books in the series that explore how a Silicon valley programmer would cope in a world of magic.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 16 September, 2022, 02:56:02 pm
The newspaper magnate in Val McDermid's “1989” in no way is intended to resemble Robert Maxwell and I'm sure it's just a coincidence that she’s chosen to name his daughter “Genevieve”.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 October, 2022, 02:17:39 pm
o goody sa mr larington sounding for all the world like wet-weed fotherington-tomas. o goody there is a new rebus out.

“A Heart Full Of Headstones”.  Title implies killin's :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 October, 2022, 03:13:52 pm
Mr N. Stephenson's opus Termination Shock, which had me yawning and carping "travelogue" for the first 200pp but fortunately has >700pp and livened up considerably before the middle.  Nearing the end now and still don't know if the goodies or the baddies are going to win, nor yet who are the really good goodies and vv, since he makes you like both sides.  When I do find out I'm not going to tell you.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 October, 2022, 03:42:21 pm
I already know.  It's the C@#£&*()’ NO CARRIER
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 October, 2022, 10:28:40 am
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: The Family Cyclist on 21 October, 2022, 12:23:15 pm
A shadow above which is about the return of ravens, reallzybgood so far. Did a little service in the shop as was on a stand on the shelf as a promoted book. Replaced it with crow country by mark cocker as a similar book which I've previously read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 21 October, 2022, 12:40:33 pm
Encouraged by this very thread, I'm giving Wolf Hall another chance – it's discursive; nay, very rambling, she said, he said, they said, style; verily, did annoy me last time. I did leave with the impression that even people who weren't call Thomas back then were in fact actually Thomases. Even the women.

Seems to be flowing a bit easier this time. Perhaps you need to be in the mood. Mind you, I'm only 5% in.

Books I won't be re-reading:

The Martian.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 23 October, 2022, 06:17:53 pm
Just finished Silverview, Le Carré.
If you've read any of his stuff you won't find it surprising.  Usual story of untrustworthy types doing things from shady to downright illegal for motives varying from venal to altrusitic. Won't re-read it, but it was a pleasant diversion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 27 October, 2022, 12:20:17 pm
A cheerful chap from the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia has just handed me a shiny copy of Russell “RussInCheshire” Jones' magnum opus “The Decade In Tory”.  Should keep me busy for a day or two.  Mr Jones has already been commissioned to produce Vol. 2 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 October, 2022, 11:28:40 am
I have now finished this.  Far from being a mere rehash of Mr Jones' tweets, entertaining as that would be, this is a meticulously referenced history of the maelstrom of bigotry, malignancy, corruption and ineptitude we've lived under from the election of gammon-faced pig-botherer Cameron to the end of 2020.  Though it does have jokes in it too.

Living through it, when the news of such high crimes and misdemeanours trickled out via the media as from a landlord shower was one thing.  Getting them over the course of a day or two is like being exposed to a tsunami of shit.  I might have to give my b-i-l a copy for Xmas.  Because he’s an historian, obv, not because he’s a Tory (which he isn’t).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 06 November, 2022, 11:05:25 am
(click to show/hide)

It was well written as usual (except for “leaped” in stead of “leapt”) but….. meh. No explanation as to one main characters plight, too many disparate threads, and no comeuppances to speak of. 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: BrianI on 26 December, 2022, 09:38:19 pm
I'm really enjoying Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem (English translation by Ken Liu)   :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: I had gotten out of the habit of reading, until I started this book :-) And yes, I have the next two books in the trilogy on my Kindle as well!

Looks like there is a Netflix series of this coming out eventually as well!

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 27 December, 2022, 09:00:57 am
I'm really enjoying Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem (English translation by Ken Liu)   :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: I had gotten out of the habit of reading, until I started this book :-) And yes, I have the next two books in the trilogy on my Kindle as well!

Looks like there is a Netflix series of this coming out eventually as well!

I hope they don't decide that it needs lots of rockets roaring in vacuum and has to end with a gallant but conflicted ex-marine saving the day with a CGI explosion.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 27 December, 2022, 10:50:18 am
I was thrilled to find a copy of  Nazis on the Nile: The German Military Advisers in Egypt 1949-1967 (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61311866-nazis-on-the-nile) by Vyvyan Kinross (https://twitter.com/vyvyankinross)  under my Christmas tree.



Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jurek on 31 December, 2022, 03:07:08 pm
Just finished reading On The Marshes by Carol Donaldson.
A non-fiction recounting of a woman who's relationship has broken down and she decides to walk from Cliffe Woods on the Hoo Peninsular to Whitstable (in a series of walks).
I read it in conjunction with an OS map of the area, Google maps and occasional visits to The Kent Messenger's  website.
It may interest anyone who has participated in the FNRttC to Whitstable, or any of my daytime rides to the same destination as the route she took is pretty much the same as the one we rode.

I thought I was knowledgeable about the area, however, I never knew that the vicar of the church in Upchurch where we naturally re-group - the one with the double spire - was the father of Sir Francis Drake.
Also, the Russian submarine which is moored in Rochester, is not the only sub on The Medway. There are at least three others - one of which is clearly visible.
Recommended.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 31 December, 2022, 03:30:04 pm
I recently discovered that there were sequels to Connie Willis's Doomsday Book, which I read as a teenager, so I've been working my way through the series in order.  I note that bumbling Oxbridge academics are pretty much timeless, but the first book stands out as a product of that awkward period between the invention of practical mobile phones and writers accounting for them in their storylines.  It could also do with a find-and-replace of 'laser' with 'LED', and it makes an interesting read post-COVID.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is an amusing homage to Three Men in a Boat, and it's probably just as well that I didn't discover it until after I became familiar with the original.

Currently waiting for Blackout/All Clear to start making sense...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 31 December, 2022, 03:59:33 pm
Just finished reading On The Marshes by Carol Donaldson.
A non-fiction recounting of a woman who's relationship has broken down and she decides to walk from Cliffe Woods on the Hoo Peninsular to Whitstable (in a series of walks).
I read it in conjunction with an OS map of the area, Google maps and occasional visits to The Kent Messenger's  website.
It may interest anyone who has participated in the FNRttC to Whitstable, or any of my daytime rides to the same destination as the route she took is pretty much the same as the one we rode.

I thought I was knowledgeable about the area, however, I never knew that the vicar of the church in Upchurch where we naturally re-group - the one with the double spire - was the father of Sir Francis Drake.
Also, the Russian submarine which is moored in Rochester, is not the only sub on The Medway. There are at least three others - one of which is clearly visible.
Recommended.

Thanks. I've ordered it.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Jurek on 31 December, 2022, 04:18:04 pm
Just finished reading On The Marshes by Carol Donaldson.
A non-fiction recounting of a woman who's relationship has broken down and she decides to walk from Cliffe Woods on the Hoo Peninsular to Whitstable (in a series of walks).
I read it in conjunction with an OS map of the area, Google maps and occasional visits to The Kent Messenger's  website.
It may interest anyone who has participated in the FNRttC to Whitstable, or any of my daytime rides to the same destination as the route she took is pretty much the same as the one we rode.

I thought I was knowledgeable about the area, however, I never knew that the vicar of the church in Upchurch where we naturally re-group - the one with the double spire - was the father of Sir Francis Drake.
Also, the Russian submarine which is moored in Rochester, is not the only sub on The Medway. There are at least three others - one of which is clearly visible.
Recommended.

Thanks. I've ordered it.  :thumbsup:
I'll be surprised if you don't enjoy it.
Somewhat fittingly, my bookmark for this borrowed tome is the return half of a railway ticket from Whitstable to Bromley South from earlier this year.

ETA - She also takes a dive onto the island that is your home, which happens to be uncharted territory for me.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: nicknack on 07 January, 2023, 07:42:53 pm
Just finished reading On The Marshes by Carol Donaldson.
A non-fiction recounting of a woman who's relationship has broken down and she decides to walk from Cliffe Woods on the Hoo Peninsular to Whitstable (in a series of walks).
I read it in conjunction with an OS map of the area, Google maps and occasional visits to The Kent Messenger's  website.
It may interest anyone who has participated in the FNRttC to Whitstable, or any of my daytime rides to the same destination as the route she took is pretty much the same as the one we rode.

I thought I was knowledgeable about the area, however, I never knew that the vicar of the church in Upchurch where we naturally re-group - the one with the double spire - was the father of Sir Francis Drake.
Also, the Russian submarine which is moored in Rochester, is not the only sub on The Medway. There are at least three others - one of which is clearly visible.
Recommended.

Thanks. I've ordered it.  :thumbsup:
I'll be surprised if you don't enjoy it.
Somewhat fittingly, my bookmark for this borrowed tome is the return half of a railway ticket from Whitstable to Bromley South from earlier this year.

ETA - She also takes a dive onto the island that is your home, which happens to be uncharted territory for me.
Thanks. I did indeed enjoy it. Although I was slightly disappointed to find that I only knew 2 of the people in it.  ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 January, 2023, 02:52:31 pm
David Cloud-Atlas Mitchell's Utopia Avenue. 1960s pop group, the trials, tribulations and triumphs thereof, not necessarily in that order. Sort-of enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 11 January, 2023, 12:43:30 pm
Robert Harris' The Ghost. It's diverting, but has one of my pet hates, poor editing. E.G "..a Sony Walkman digital tape recorder with a pile of MD-R 74 mini-discs.  ::-)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 January, 2023, 08:50:27 am
David Cloud-Atlas Mitchell's Utopia Avenue. 1960s pop group, the trials, tribulations and triumphs thereof, not necessarily in that order. Sort-of enjoying it so far.

Finished it a couple of days ago and wanted more. Excellent, but I'm not sure I'd want to read it twice.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: coops456 on 16 January, 2023, 02:36:48 pm
Currently waiting for Blackout/All Clear to start making sense...
Hope you enjoyed them. I've belatedly discovered Jodi Taylor's series; more disaster-magnet historians getting into mischief across time.  :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 16 January, 2023, 02:43:11 pm
A fairly poor translation of a Witcher novel by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 16 January, 2023, 04:40:13 pm
Currently waiting for Blackout/All Clear to start making sense...
Hope you enjoyed them. I've belatedly discovered Jodi Taylor's series; more disaster-magnet historians getting into mischief across time.  :)

I found them awful.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 27 January, 2023, 12:57:32 pm
All the Light We Cannot See,  Anthony Doerr. A wordsmith. Excellent so far. Pulitzer winner.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 27 January, 2023, 01:37:07 pm
That looks good. I'll put it on the list for when I want something hefty (530 pages).

Currently on the 5th of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie detective series. Funny (in a literary way, so no more than light chuckles) and very good, if you can accept extreme coincidence piled upon extreme coincidence, and tethered near the end of the book to a different pile of extreme coincidences. I can. But I've got 120 pages into this one without a death (except one in the past), without our hero being beaten up or punching a dog, and with but a few fairly explainable coincidences so far. So a bit different from the first 4.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 31 January, 2023, 09:33:27 pm
Having previously poo-poo'ed Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, I did stumble back into in, evidently in a different frame of mind, and rumbled through all three of them apace. Quite a luminous history lesson. You do have to remind yourself periodically that it's fiction and there's some embellishment for the purposes of entertaining the reader.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 February, 2023, 12:30:24 am
Doesn’t have any wolves in it though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 01 February, 2023, 09:13:22 am
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. Thailand after global ecosystem collapse/rampant global warming effects.  Different local factions + westerners all trying to score points off each other. Difficult first couple of chapters since hard to discern a likeable protagonist but once in it's good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 01 February, 2023, 07:40:30 pm
I've just read Cold Water by Dave Hutchinson, his fifth book about events in an alternative Europe. Although It's a standalone novel, and can be read without reference to his earlier series, Fractured Europe, it is set in the same world.

It led me to reread the earlier books, which I am enjoying immensely. I must agree with the earlier posts from 2017 to 2019.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 01 February, 2023, 09:22:48 pm
Doesn’t have any wolves in it though.

All said, there's surprisingly little Wolf Hall featured. You'd probably be able to get your money back if you were really in the trilogy just for the Wolf Halls.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 February, 2023, 07:55:02 pm
Renewing the ongoing battle with John Le Carré, specifically “The Tailor Of Panama”.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 05 February, 2023, 08:06:20 pm
After the Duncton Wood trilogy (I could not stop reading, after all what's a mole to do) I was bought for Chrissymuss - Colditz by Ben MacIntyre a riveting read and as my birt is in January the four books of the Hyddenworld (also btw way a Aladdin mantle lamp to read by if the scroats we call government allow the lights to go out) series, Spring is the first and after a difficult first few chapters (the after effects of brilliant Duncton ?) I am in and well and truly hooked.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 February, 2023, 10:11:42 am
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. Thailand after global ecosystem collapse/rampant global warming effects.  Different local factions + westerners all trying to score points off each other. Difficult first couple of chapters since hard to discern a likeable protagonist but once in it's good.

Finished it: very good and very imaginable, in particular the idea that

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 06 February, 2023, 10:26:11 am
I'm basically going through a book a day at the moment.
Started Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series.
Liking it so far (1st of 5).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 06 February, 2023, 10:55:05 am
Currently on the 5th of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie detective series. Funny (in a literary way, so no more than light chuckles) and very good, if you can accept extreme coincidence piled upon extreme coincidence, and tethered near the end of the book to a different pile of extreme coincidences. I can. But I've got 120 pages into this one without a death (except one in the past), without our hero being beaten up or punching a dog, and with but a few fairly explainable coincidences so far. So a bit different from the first 4.

That's a coincidence ;)

I won't say what I thought of the denouement of #5.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 06 February, 2023, 12:57:08 pm
I take recommendations from Spooners very seriously.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ian on 07 February, 2023, 09:19:29 pm
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. Thailand after global ecosystem collapse/rampant global warming effects.  Different local factions + westerners all trying to score points off each other. Difficult first couple of chapters since hard to discern a likeable protagonist but once in it's good.

Finished it: very good and very imaginable, in particular the idea that

(click to show/hide)


(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 08 February, 2023, 10:40:41 am
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. Thailand after global ecosystem collapse/rampant global warming effects.  Different local factions + westerners all trying to score points off each other. Difficult first couple of chapters since hard to discern a likeable protagonist but once in it's good.

Finished it: very good and very imaginable, in particular the idea that

(click to show/hide)


(click to show/hide)

8 billion and counting...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: CrazyEnglishTriathlete on 10 February, 2023, 10:41:35 am
Chasing After Danger by Terence O'Brien

Bought this out of curiosity, because my cycle commutes have been taking me past Fairoaks Airfield (Chobham), and its Wikipedia entry led me to him, as he had flown there in training.  Well-above-average WWII memoir told in a way that puts a lot of today's news into perspective.  I have two more instalments to read when I get home.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 10 February, 2023, 01:05:52 pm
Son & his partner gave me 3 Paolo Bacigalupis for my barfday.  First one was about deprivation & factions in Thailand being bloody 'orrible to each other. Started another last night: it's about water domination games in Colorado, IOW about deprivation & factions being bloody 'orrible to each other. Didn't fancy more systemic/systematic misery so moved on to third. To judge from the first two pages it's about deprivation & factions being bloody 'orrible to each other in the subcontinent.  PB must get a kick out of being a miserable bugger/possible Guardian columnist, but he can do it ohne mich.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: cygnet on 10 February, 2023, 10:22:49 pm
After the Duncton Wood trilogy (I could not stop reading, after all what's a mole to do) I was bought for Chrissymuss - Colditz by Ben MacIntyre a riveting read and as my birt is in January the four books of the Hyddenworld (also btw way a Aladdin mantle lamp to read by if the scroats we call government allow the lights to go out) series, Spring is the first and after a difficult first few chapters (the after effects of brilliant Duncton ?) I am in and well and truly hooked.

I have somewhat belatedly (as in 25years intervening period) acquired (missing from my bookshelves) volume 2 of the Book of Silence, so have been rereading Duncton Wood to reacquaint myself with moledom. Just started on my recent purchase!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 10 February, 2023, 11:11:20 pm
Just finished Stephen King's “Billy Summers”, in which the paranatural and supernormal are limited to a couple of oblique references to the Overlook Hotel and Hemingford Home.

Back to John Le Carré-on-spying it is then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 12 February, 2023, 09:05:59 pm
The Race Against the Stasi - Herbie Sykes - an account of Dieter Wiedemann, the GDR cyclist who defected to the west during trials for the Olympics in 1964.  Part cycling biography, part love story, part harrowing account of living during the formation of a police state, woven together expertly and intriguingly.  I haven't sat down and read so much of a book in one go for years.

I have been searching backwards through this thread for something new that appeals and this was the second that I found, the first being Jurek’s recco for Carol Donaldson’s On the Marshes. But as I want something NOW, and On the Marshes is not on Kindle, yours wins.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Snakehips on 12 February, 2023, 09:45:55 pm
I was thrilled to find a copy of  Nazis on the Nile: The German Military Advisers in Egypt 1949-1967 (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61311866-nazis-on-the-nile) by Vyvyan Kinross (https://twitter.com/vyvyankinross)  under my Christmas tree.
Which I have now read and can thoroughly recommend.

P.S. I am rather a slow reader.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 13 February, 2023, 02:40:22 pm
I'm also reading a Christmas present: "First Man: The Life of Neil A Armstrong" by James R Hansen. It is interesting.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 13 February, 2023, 05:29:46 pm
Keigo Higashino’s Death in Tokyo, the third of his Detective Kaga books.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: slope on 13 February, 2023, 08:08:20 pm
Again, repeat, subsumed and just as consumed as the first time - The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 February, 2023, 08:32:04 am
L'Ombre Chinoise, a 1931 Maigret about a murder in the Place des Vosges, not far from where we first alighted in Paris in 1972.  Our first restaurant dinner in France was a couple of hundred metres away on Bd. Beaumarchais. It's probably a pizzeria or a hamburger joint these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 14 February, 2023, 11:40:26 am
Again, repeat, subsumed and just as consumed as the first time - The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis

I've read a few Kingsley Amis novels and generally found them to be irritating. The Old Devils is an exception, amusing and humane.

Lucky Jim is the other exception.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: slope on 15 February, 2023, 11:38:01 am
I've read a few Kingsley Amis novels and generally found them to be irritating. The Old Devils is an exception, amusing and humane.

Agreed. Not unlike Brydan and some of his poetry, dare I suggest?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 February, 2023, 10:35:32 am
Peter May's final book A Winter Grave. Set in 2051 in a Scotland suffering from climate change (albeit an uexpectedly cold and wet change) with flashbacks to 2023. Not sure how I'll get on. My first exposure to him was the Lewis trilogy, which I enjoyed, but others I've tried I've not really engaged with.

Aaand I didn’t gel with this one either. So, trying an older Karin Slaughter Triptych. Better than expected.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 21 February, 2023, 06:08:21 pm
Halfway through Stuart MacBride's “The Dead Of Winter”.  Only two killin's?  What’s that all about ???

Edit: livened up a bit towards the end :thumbsup:

Also the author acknowledges one Tom Chicken at his publisher.  My evil cow-orker Mr Watkinson set his account up at the BigCo.  Username KFC :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 27 February, 2023, 01:43:37 pm
Well, the Peter May didn't last long, I just can't get along with his style. And the Karin Slaughter was, for trash fiction, not bad but waaay too long (and that seems to be a trait of her writings sadly), so now I'm on something I'm finding thoroughly enjoyable, My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby, he of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears.  This is his first novel, before he got well known with Blacktop Wasteland. It is excellent.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: orienteer on 27 February, 2023, 04:38:32 pm
The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak.

Based around the troubles in Cyprus in the 1970s, and a descendant's life in north London in the 2010s.

It's been a long time since I've finished a novel, this one was both enthralling and written in short chapters moving between time periods and characters, including a fig tree with conciousness.
.
Also intriguing as we we had an unexpected day in Cyprus in 1974 (due to runway problems in Rhodes), two weeks before the Turks invaded the north of the island. We took the opportunity to hire a taxi for the day to tour the island, including the north.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 01 March, 2023, 11:57:39 am
On to the latest Jane Harper "Exiles". Not started it yet, so remaims to be seen. My wife (who loved The Dry) failed to get beyond a couple of chapters. I've liked all but her second outing (Force of Nature), so who knows.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 14 March, 2023, 12:33:33 am
“A Short History of Nearly Everything”. - Bill Bryson.

What an incredibly sad book. He spends 563 pages extolling the sheer cleverness of the human species and then, quite succinctly, a mere 10 concluding that despite all this cleverness we are destroying everything. It was published 20 years ago, so I think he’s actually very prescient. I still think that had the effort been made by the right people at the time we would have had a fighting chance of turning it round.

Instead, we invaded Iraq.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 14 March, 2023, 08:02:28 am
Philip Wylie wrote a novel about destruction of the world through humanity's abuse of its environment in 1972.  He didn't include climate change, blaming rather widespread chemical pollution, but the fundamentals - i.e. profit and convenience trumping all other considerations - were right.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1044551
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 14 March, 2023, 10:02:47 am
Just finished Stephen King's “Billy Summers”, in which the paranatural and supernormal are limited to a couple of oblique references to the Overlook Hotel and Hemingford Home.
I enjoyed that one, too.  Now reading Duma Key at a rate of about one page per night...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 28 March, 2023, 01:34:17 pm
After a short break in Barcelona, I'm re-reading (after c40 years) Homage to Catalonia. I struggled with it the first time, not least because of the abbreviations of the numerous republican-sympathizing parties and militias, and the subtle differences in their aims and ideals. I must be more patient these days; and Wikipedia helps. And I must have missed the humour the first time round because some of it is funny - which is not something I associate with Orwell.

I've just finished the chapter where he's returned on leave from the front line in May 1937 to a seething Barcelona, when the civil-war-within-the-civil-war breaks out. The description of his personal experiences are fascinating, but he finishes the chapter with: "In the next chapter I must discuss as best I can the larger issues...if you are not interested in political controversy and the mob of parties and sub-parties with their confusing names (rather like the names of the generals in a Chinese war), please skip". I'm tempted. I wish he'd given a similar warning before the boring Goldstein manifesto bit in 1984.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 March, 2023, 06:26:19 pm
(https://live.staticflickr.com/1636/24698139381_5f1de103c1_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/DCuqnk)
Orwell (https://flic.kr/p/DCuqnk) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr

(http://legslarry.org.uk/BikeStull/coat_48.png)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 28 March, 2023, 07:10:32 pm
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History by Peter Frankopan

Climate change from when the Earth first had a climate to now.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 06 April, 2023, 01:34:41 pm
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman.
Is this where the character Death, WHO TALKS LIKE THIS, originates?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 06 April, 2023, 01:46:35 pm
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman.
Is this where the character Death, WHO TALKS LIKE THIS, originates?

No, Death was already a well-established/loved character in the Discworld books when Good Omens was published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 06 April, 2023, 02:40:33 pm
I picked up The Fireman by Joe Hill after reading some of his short stories. I prefer less cerebral horror when the insomnia is bad, but I'm really struggling with this. Each element I can point to which of his dad's (Stephen King, if you didn't know) stories he took it from, and a third of the way through I've realised I don't have it in me to read yet another book from the King family in which Our Hero has to Protect Their Child against the Real Monsters Who Are Other Humans, especially Sadistic Religious Fanatics.

If I hadn't been reading it on a kindle, I'd have probably thrown it across the room at the part where a pregnant woman in the second trimester swung from a tree and was thankful when the "rubbery lump" of her pregnancy cushioned her from a rough landing in a partially-demolished house.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 06 April, 2023, 02:47:11 pm
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman.
Is this where the character Death, WHO TALKS LIKE THIS, originates?

No, Death was already a well-established/loved character in the Discworld books when Good Omens was published.
Thank you. I was curious.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 06 April, 2023, 02:48:20 pm
YOU'RE WELCOME.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 06 April, 2023, 03:11:50 pm

If I hadn't been reading it on a kindle, I'd have probably thrown it across the room at the part where a pregnant woman in the second trimester swung from a tree and was thankful when the "rubbery lump" of her pregnancy cushioned her from a rough landing in a partially-demolished house.

Sam
Was she pregnant with a space hopper??
 :o
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 06 April, 2023, 03:52:17 pm
I don't know if I can continue reading long enough to find out. At this point in the books, she's still pregnant. She has just been assaulted by a group of teenage girls blissed out on a telepathic fungus that has colonised their brains, who cut off her hair and broke her teeth while forcing a stone into her mouth, which they then gaffer taped shut. So...

Men writing women, eh?

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 10 April, 2023, 03:41:01 pm
Finished "Good Omens". Whizzed through "Double Cross" by Ben Macintyre (about misinformation in WW2).
Now on "How to be a Footballer" by Peter Crouch, picked up very cheap in a 2nd hand book shop. It is quite amusing. Then spotted that his ghostwriter is Tom Fordyce, who is also Geraint Thomas' ghostwriter. That explains a similarity in structure and tone between the two books... Though also, I think both sportsmen have similar senses of humour about being professional sportsmen.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Bluebottle on 10 April, 2023, 04:34:31 pm
How Music Works by David Byrne. Absolutley fascinating and there seems to be something new being brought up continually.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feanor on 13 May, 2023, 12:37:55 pm
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

A fictional account of the history and mathematics of cryptography, told via two interleaved stories, one based around Bletchley Park and Alan Turing during the war, and another based around early Internet pioneers set in the 1990s.  The stories are not just interleaved, but also intertwined. Several of the characters in the modern story are descendants of the characters in the earlier one.

He's gone to some lengths to research and discuss the actual maths, and although it's not important to the understanding of the storyline, it does add a depth which is interesting to me.
(I did an evening class at Aberdeen Uni many years ago, on the subject of cryptography and cryptanalysis. We got homework! A short paragraph of cyphertext which we had to try to decode using the techniques discussed in class.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 14 May, 2023, 12:30:00 am
I picked up The Fireman by Joe Hill
I did read the rest of your posts, but I spotted your mistake at this point.  I read "Horns" on Gaiman's recommendation, but it was bad enough that I wouldn't read anything else he writes.  Then again I am also not a fan of his dad's work.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 May, 2023, 12:46:29 am
Finally struggled through to the end of Sleep No More, in which Greg Iles takes aim at fellow Rock Bottom Remainder Stephen King, and misses by a country mile.  Also features prosecutor-turned-novelist Penn Cage, who is introduced as having written a novel featuring prosecutor-turned-novelist Penn Cage.  This is all a bit meta for this unlettered oaf.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 16 May, 2023, 09:52:07 pm
I'm new to Irish writer Sebastian Barry having read Days Without End earlier in the year, and then picking up Old God's Time without realizing it was his latest. It's a hard book to read but superb, nevertheless, and it didn't finish for me after I put it down (IYKWIM) after a breathless denouement. The hardness comes not only from the subject matter - we're talking Irish priests and historic 'cases' here - but also the very slow coalescing of the truth as the novel progresses. Our central character's confusion regarding his own harrowing family history and a cold case two ex-colleagues come to ask him about (he's a 9-month-retired policeman, living alone in Dalkey) is also ours. But that gives it a foggy, ghostly, haunting feel until the fogginess disperses and the ghosts seem to be banished. A satisfying ending, if not a happy one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 May, 2023, 10:49:10 am
Just finished a thing called There Is No Antimemetics Division, something of an SF farce by a gent who signs himself qntm pronounced quantum.

Quote
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.

Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams...

But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war?

Welcome to the Antimemetics Division.

No, this is not your first day.

https://www.amazon.com/There-No-Antimemetics-Division-qntm/dp/B0915M7T61

As you might gather, qntm is a computer guy. I found it helped to imagine the whole thing taking place in a computer. But it doesn't.

I wouldn't be surprised if qntm were OTP. He'd fit right in.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 17 May, 2023, 11:07:55 am
Has he seen the fnords?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 17 May, 2023, 01:27:00 pm
Indeed.  I once wrote a computer game in which you could accidentally trigger an attack by invisible fnords. A distant drone waxed into a roar the closer they got.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 18 May, 2023, 02:49:39 pm
"Season of Skulls" by that nice Mr Stross has just turned up.    :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 18 May, 2023, 03:13:22 pm
I'll wait a year and get it half price.

Meanwhile, after The Antiemetics Doo-Dah I've nearly finished another slim volume by qntm, a rather funful frolic called Ed.  I wonder if he's going to do another called vi and a couple more called lex and yacc. (One of Ed's conjectures is that the universe runs on Linux.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 18 May, 2023, 08:49:28 pm
"Season of Skulls" by that nice Mr Stross has just turned up.    :thumbsup:

Started it. I wonder who this early passage could refer to
(click to show/hide)

I am surprised at his writing this time, as he has so far moved from his normal present tense narrative to past tense.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 May, 2023, 10:04:08 pm
The Footprints Of God.  Having previously done Stephen King, Greg Iles turns his attention to Dan Brown with a mashup of pseudo-religious claptrap and technobobbins.  While it is every bit as bad as it sounds it is still 4.726 times better than anything that ever escaped from Dan Brown's word processor.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 21 May, 2023, 11:37:27 pm
"Season of Skulls" by that nice Mr Stross has just turned up.    :thumbsup:

Started it. I wonder who this early passage could refer to
(click to show/hide)

I am surprised at his writing this time, as he has so far moved from his normal present tense narrative to past tense.


Just finished this.  I can now return to trying to read “Pride And Prejudice “…….
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 May, 2023, 07:53:54 am
I can now return to trying to read “Pride And Prejudice “…….

Watch the Beeb serial first.  I found it quite amusing to see what bits were pure JA and which were Beeb inventions.

"Lady Catherine de Bourgh will never know" became one of our family catchphrases.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Blodwyn Pig on 22 May, 2023, 08:15:33 am
“Johnny Ginger’s last ride, by Tom Fremantle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 22 May, 2023, 08:29:04 am
I can now return to trying to read “Pride And Prejudice “…….

Watch the Beeb serial first.  I found it quite amusing to see what bits were pure JA and which were Beeb inventions.

"Lady Catherine de Bourgh will never know" became one of our family catchphrases.
I prefer the Kiera Knightly / Matthew McFadden film (available on Netflix).

I love JA though. She's so funny. Most of the adaptations (including that one) take her & themselves far far far too seriously.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 May, 2023, 10:36:54 am
I can now return to trying to read “Pride And Prejudice “…….

Watch the Beeb serial first.  I found it quite amusing to see what bits were pure JA and which were Beeb inventions.

"Lady Catherine de Bourgh will never know" became one of our family catchphrases.
I prefer the Kiera Knightly / Matthew McFadden film (available on Netflix).

I love JA though. She's so funny. Most of the adaptations (including that one) take her & themselves far far far too seriously.

She has become something of a religious figure for some.  [Even] Kipling spoke of her with reverence.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 May, 2023, 04:37:46 pm
Whit Stilman’s Love & Friendship is by some distance the best Austen adaptation ever. Very, very funny and the only one I’ve seen that really captures what Austen is about.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 May, 2023, 04:46:56 pm
Cheers, I've put it on the list.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 23 May, 2023, 04:29:01 pm
Same.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 23 May, 2023, 05:07:03 pm
There's always the danger that you'll disagree with me. But if you do, you'll be wrong.  :)

Anyway, books...

I've just started volume one (books 1-4) of Simon Raven's Alms For Oblivion series. My dad is a lifelong fan of Raven and has many times over the years exhorted me to try his books so I thought it was about time - especially as vol.1 was 99p for Kindle the other day.

Really enjoying the first book, The Rich Pay Late. A bit dated in some respects, and a lot of the stuff that would have seemed awfully, awfully shocking when the books first came out all seems a bit tame now, but it's well written, funny and an easy read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 May, 2023, 04:16:08 pm
Resisted the temptation to buy the newest Jo Nesbo today, mostly coz I still haven’t read his last offering yet, but didn’t do likewise for the new Mark Billingham.  Which is apparently the first of a new series featuring a Declan Miller and set in Blackpool.  Though I expect Tom Thorne will find a way to sneak in for a cameo.  He always does.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 May, 2023, 04:21:11 pm
Dennis Lehane’s “Small Mercies”, set against the Boston school busing controversy of 1974.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 29 May, 2023, 08:21:44 pm
Revisiting Martin Amis’ London Fields. I remember this positively but this time round I am struggling to remain engaged.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 29 May, 2023, 08:37:15 pm
Last week, whilst at My Pal Penelope's she was reading "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian". I recall reading that some years ago and enjoying it - I think it may have been serialised on Radio 4 at a time when I was driving between schools. I found my copy and have started to read. But I can't remember a lot about it...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 02 June, 2023, 04:43:03 pm
Dennis Lehane’s “Small Mercies”, set against the Boston school busing controversy of 1974.

And very excellent it was too. I may try some others (I was put off years ago by Shutter Island). Now on to the more workaday third (and last) Jimmy Mullen outing for Trevor Wood.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 02 June, 2023, 08:09:02 pm
I have interrupted the Ukrainian tractors and have purchased for a mere £6, from World of Books, "Every Good Boy Does Fine", by Jeremy Denk, an autobiographical tome subtitled "A love story in music lessons". It was recommended to me by Colin, our choir Mus Dir, and I'm really enjoying it. I don't think it would be everyone's cup of tea, but every chapter includes a "play list" and since the author is a concert pianist, most of those pieces are for piano. I have played quite a few of them, so I can relate
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 June, 2023, 05:47:42 pm
I can with reasonable confidence say that Mr L. will enjoy the latest offering (The Last Dance) from Mr Billingham. I certainly am.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TheLurker on 19 June, 2023, 12:48:48 pm
Ben Aaronovitch, "Amongst our Weapons".

Kept me amused for most of Friday and a bit of Saturday, but unlikely to re-read it so off to Oxfam with it in a few days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 20 June, 2023, 12:56:40 pm
HAving dispensed with Dec Miller and Posh over the weekend, it's now time to try the latest Harry Hole from Jo Nesbo, Killing Moon.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 22 June, 2023, 08:28:56 pm
Not started reading either yet, but the latest Ben Aaronovitch novella “Winter's Gifts” and, somewhat belatedly given its publication date of 2011, the sixth and last instalment of Malcolm Pryce's Louie Knight/Aberystwyth Noir series “The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still” touched down on the doormat today.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 23 June, 2023, 10:04:52 am
I'll wait until BA's latest comes down in price: 9€ is too much for a mere novella. I'd wear it out in no time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 25 June, 2023, 05:14:11 pm
The Nesbo was pretty good, a 4* rating. And the translation was good too, removing a lot of the (to native English speakers) stilted language from the original Norwegian.

Now to a new “Aussie Noir” author, one Garry Disher and “Peace”
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 July, 2023, 01:44:28 pm
The Disher was okay, although the ending was a bit trite. Now 90% of the way through Tim Weaver's latest Raker,  "The Last Goodbye".  An improvement on earlier offerings, in that our hero isn't so gung-ho macho in loads of improbable fights.  Not bad.

Next up will liley be the final Peter Robinson, "Standing in the Shadows". I don't have great hopes as his last couple of offerings were showing the age of the author and how out of touch with modern life he seemed to be. We'll see.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 July, 2023, 01:47:48 pm
He had been living in Canada for a long time which may explain the zeitgeist.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 08 July, 2023, 12:54:55 pm
Well I fitted in a Damian Boyd Nick Dixon outing Death Message. Tripey but expectedly so.  Then I started the Peter Robinson. My considered verdict is don’t bother. A tissue thin plot readily discerned within the first hundred pages (probably less, ICBA to look and check) with masses of padding about food, art, music, personal relationships etc. etc. and anachronistic (and to my mind inaccurate - ground piercing radar anyone? Thought not) language Didn’t bother finishing it. Not a great legacy.

I don’t mind tripe when that’s what I expect, but Robinson is billed as “The master of the Police procedural”.

So, tripe it is, and the latest Martin Walker “Bruno” book, Chateau under Siege
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 09 July, 2023, 06:51:45 pm
The Nesbo was pretty good, a 4* rating. And the translation was good too, removing a lot of the (to native English speakers) stilted language from the original Norwegian.

Now to a new “Aussie Noir” author, one Garry Disher and “Peace”
Book translators are underrated, IMHO. Good ones need to be able to offer almost as much creativity as the original writer, sometimes more. I remember reading a French edition of Fredric Brown's short-shorts, and before one of them the translator added a personal touch in eplaining what he had done. Frome memory, it went something like "As the net story is simply a long series of puns leading to a final absolutely awful punch line, it is impossible to translate. I have therefore rewritten it in French with appropriately awful puns, and included the original so that readers can decide for themselves if I have been successful"

Brown's original is evil in its puns, but the translator managed to outdo him in the final one.

Chapeau!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 12 July, 2023, 11:53:35 am
So, having disposed of Martin Walker's latest terrorist-plot-in-the-Dordogne offering, it's on to SA Cosby's latest, All the Sinners Bleed

He's an author I'd recommend, his novels set in the largely Black communities of present day Virginia.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 July, 2023, 05:15:04 pm
And so to MW Cravens Dead Ground the 4th in his Washington Poe/Tilly Bradshaw series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 21 July, 2023, 11:41:11 am
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/18/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-by-gabrielle-zevin-review-when-game-boy-meets-game-girl)

Far too many of the 69 books I've got through this year have been recommendations from No2Daughter who's ideal book is a 'spice' laden romance with faeries. I've read everything Sarah J Maas has ever written.

Despite the slightly YA feel of the description (presumably that's due to any mention of video games?) this feels a lot more grown up. I am loving it- the characters are so 3 dimensional I have had to stop myself from googling their output.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 July, 2023, 04:40:41 pm
Charlie Stross's sensitively-titled Season of Skulls, hoping to find out how CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN can be resolved but rather suspecting that dear Charles has painted himself into a corner.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: TimO on 22 July, 2023, 10:56:14 pm
I read Steven Gould's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gould) novel Jumper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumper_(novel)), which was better than I expected, and then binge read the two sequels, Reflex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_(novel)) and Impulse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_(Steven_Gould_novel)), which I think were even better.

Even though all three novels are based upon the basic concept of teleportation, the second and third add in some entirely new twists and perspectives. I don't think they're necessarily great works of literature, but they appear well written to me, and I enjoyed the storylines and originality a great deal. I'm definitely going to read the fourth novel in the series, and then probably be annoyed that there's not a fifth one yet!

If you like pulp science-fiction, fantasy, or even just original concepts, I'd recommend them. :thumbsup:

I think I watched the film, or at least some of it, but as I recall it wasn't as good as the books (or as memorable!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 23 July, 2023, 11:49:27 am
The (relative) proliferation of outback noir (the closest I’d come to it before were the novels of Peter Temple) as a result of the success of Jane Harper’s The Dry has led me to Chris Hammer (pretty good), Peter Papathanasiou ( 50/50 so far) and now Garry Disher. Most of his output remains unavailable in the UK (well, sensibly anyway, Amazon, for example, had one available from the US at £78 plus £10 delivery….. ) however his latest series, the main character being Constable Paul Hirsch are available from our library group (SELMS). So far I’ve read Peace (2nd in the series) and am halfway through Consolation (3rd). I’m enjoying them, set as they are in rural South Australia somewhere between Adelaide and Brocken Rock, in the mid-north.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 23 July, 2023, 12:30:27 pm
Not started reading either yet, but the latest Ben Aaronovitch novella “Winter's Gifts” and, somewhat belatedly given its publication date of 2011, the sixth and last instalment of Malcolm Pryce's Louie Knight/Aberystwyth Noir series “The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still” touched down on the doormat today.
"Winters Gift" is on my Library waiting list.  Picked up the first of the Aberystwyth Noir series and the Librarian complemented it as a decent choice.
I am finishing off the last of the Holmes/Cthulhu books first (it's becoming a bit of a chore honestly).
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 25 July, 2023, 04:05:10 pm
Just finished The Abominable by Dan Simmons, whose Hyperion I enjoyed a great deal, only to find some weird mishmash of pre-WWII spy caper and dodgy mountaineering.
Have now started Fire Season by Phil Connors. I am entirely unfamiliar with his work, but I at least know absolutely nothing about fire lookouts so my disbelief can take a nap.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 July, 2023, 04:12:55 pm
Have now started Fire Season by Phil Connors. I am entirely unfamiliar with his work, but I at least know absolutely nothing about fire lookouts so my disbelief can take a nap.

Sam

George R Stewart's Fire is very good in that respect.  It dates from 1948 but it's still a very good read, as are his other novels.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Woofage on 01 August, 2023, 11:34:53 am
A couple of recommendations (I recently listened to audio-book versions on Borrowbox):

The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer (read by the author) - hilarious, and made more so being read by Mortimer. Crime, murder, romance and squirrels. What's not to like?

The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell (read by Bill Nighy) - hard to believe it's a true story the beginning is so bizzare. A (mostly) heartwarming story of a man's friendship with a penguin, set against a backdrop of the different aspects of life in turbulent South America. I chose this completely at random but absolutely loved it.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 01 August, 2023, 11:55:45 am
Jon Krakauer's Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.  Uncomfortable reading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 01 August, 2023, 04:27:34 pm
Have just finished "...Barring Mechanicals... from London to Edinburgh and back, on a recumbent bicycle" by Andy Allsopp in which this forum gets a mention...

This was a diversion from "Romantic Outlaws, the extraordinary lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelly" by Charlotte Gordon which seemed like a good concept in principle but in fact is fairly indigestible. I may give it another go and see if I can read a bit more of it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 07 August, 2023, 08:19:22 am
Another M W Craven offering FEARLESS, a kind of Reacher-ish storyline, possibly the first of a new series (although originally written as a spare time project). Quite entertaining.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 08 August, 2023, 09:56:10 pm
Having finally finished the illiad I'm now reading Niel Gunn's "Second sight" which I'm rather enjoying when I get a chance to read.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 09 August, 2023, 12:51:00 am
I read Steven Gould's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gould) novel Jumper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumper_(novel)), which was better than I expected, and then binge read the two sequels, Reflex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_(novel)) and Impulse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_(Steven_Gould_novel)), which I think were even better.

Even though all three novels are based upon the basic concept of teleportation, the second and third add in some entirely new twists and perspectives. I don't think they're necessarily great works of literature, but they appear well written to me, and I enjoyed the storylines and originality a great deal. I'm definitely going to read the fourth novel in the series, and then probably be annoyed that there's not a fifth one yet!

If you like pulp science-fiction, fantasy, or even just original concepts, I'd recommend them. :thumbsup:

I think I watched the film, or at least some of it, but as I recall it wasn't as good as the books (or as memorable!)

I enjoyed those, in a YA kind of way.  Science fiction done right, in that it takes one macguffin (humans who can teleport) and explores its implications without ever trying to explain how it works.  (I particularly liked the way that the different people have very different ways of establishing their destination.)  Lovely in places, silly in others.  I expect you'll enjoy Exo.

The film, on the other hand, was shite.  One of the books is an attempt to redeem it by means of a coherent back-story, and is best considered not to be part of the series.


ETA: I discovered a TV adaptation of Impulse.  This was a lot less shit than the Jumper film, though only loosely follows the book.  The implications of teleportation takes a back seat to the sexual assault trauma storyline (which is very well done - I assume Gould's influence), and it got cancelled after the second season.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: andrewc on 09 August, 2023, 08:41:46 am
Not a book.  There is talk of webcomics on Charles Stross's blog & someone posted a link to this.  http://www.mechmaster.co.uk/cg-lair/daleks/secemp000.htm


There be Daleks.......



https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/08/summer-webcomics.html#comment-2175108
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 14 August, 2023, 02:05:17 pm
Just finished Stephen King's “Billy Summers”, in which the paranatural and supernormal are limited to a couple of oblique references to the Overlook Hotel and Hemingford Home.
I enjoyed that one, too.  Now reading Duma Key at a rate of about one page per night...
Oh my goodness!  I finished Duma Key last Friday.  I had no idea that it had taken me five months to read  :o!  I really struggled to motivate myself to get past halfway, but it picked up quite a bit towards the end.  I've only given up on one Stephen King novel (Lisey's Story) and I was determined not to with this one.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 14 August, 2023, 02:09:52 pm
Three men in a boat. Jerome.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 15 August, 2023, 02:25:30 pm
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/18/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-by-gabrielle-zevin-review-when-game-boy-meets-game-girl)

Far too many of the 69 books I've got through this year have been recommendations from No2Daughter who's ideal book is a 'spice' laden romance with faeries. I've read everything Sarah J Maas has ever written.

Despite the slightly YA feel of the description (presumably that's due to any mention of video games?) this feels a lot more grown up. I am loving it- the characters are so 3 dimensional I have had to stop myself from googling their output.

My finger is so firmly on the pulse:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/11/levelling-up-how-gabrielle-zevins-gaming-novel-became-the-book-of-the-summer
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 15 August, 2023, 06:07:42 pm
From that review I have learned that the book is about:
- the meaningless of life
- the coming-of-age of 2 artists and an industry, presumably the video games industry
- video games
- the possibility of infinite rebirth
but (and?) that it has resonated with a lot of people. 

I suppose I'll have to read it to find out more, but only once Phineas Finn is done, and that might be some time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 19 September, 2023, 11:33:49 pm
Jon Krakauer's Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.  Uncomfortable reading.
While i have been book stalking you, I might sit that one out.

Finished winters gifts a couple weeks ago and promptly forgot it.  Enjoyoying the Aberystwyth noir series to some extent, but the constant “one paragraph” narrative is getting on my nerves.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 19 September, 2023, 11:42:05 pm
The Ascent Of Rum Doodle by W E Bowman  (mountaineering for St Custard's - but in English!)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ruthie on 20 September, 2023, 07:22:34 pm
Trying to read Falling Upward by Richard Rohr, because a musician I like was inspired to write a beautiful song after he read it.

I struggled with Breathing Underwater and described his writing style as ‘almost unreadable’, which made me unpopular with a group of potential ordinands and senior clergy - they all seem to think he’s the bee’s knees. It was better on my second attempt.

I’m afraid I find this one incredibly difficult. Long woolly sentences that don’t really say anything. There’s something about the syntax that gets in the way. Maybe I’ve spent so long with academic writing that I’m spoiled for this sort of thing.

Luckily I remembered a copy of The Satsuma Complex that needs to be returned to its owner, so I’m going to read that instead.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 23 September, 2023, 07:31:33 pm
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/18/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-by-gabrielle-zevin-review-when-game-boy-meets-game-girl)

Far too many of the 69 books I've got through this year have been recommendations from No2Daughter who's ideal book is a 'spice' laden romance with faeries. I've read everything Sarah J Maas has ever written.

Despite the slightly YA feel of the description (presumably that's due to any mention of video games?) this feels a lot more grown up. I am loving it- the characters are so 3 dimensional I have had to stop myself from googling their output.

My finger is so firmly on the pulse:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/11/levelling-up-how-gabrielle-zevins-gaming-novel-became-the-book-of-the-summer

I found it OK. Obviously not as taken with it as you, and seemingly, everyone else. I didn't find the characters 3D enough to care that much. But I was amused by the idea of Solution. Oh, and I enjoyed it way more than I enjoyed Phineas Finn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 25 September, 2023, 02:58:16 pm
The delightful (so far) Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrel.  The opening, at least as far as I have read, is rather reminiscent of Jane Austen but, being set in 1857 and chapatis appearing mysteriously in unexpected places, one suspects the delightfulness will soon be mitigated...

Dunno how we missed this when it came out, in 1973.  We used to ransack W.H.Smith's in Paris every few weeks back then.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: woollypigs on 26 September, 2023, 07:10:55 am
Listening to The Expanse, book 7. Sadly the narrators voice has become too Zen/ASMR/relaxing to me. I have to be active while listening, if I sit and rest while listening I just drift off into zzzzzz.

I might have to go back to paper format like good old days of book 1 and 2 :)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 26 September, 2023, 09:06:40 am
I'm working my way through the entire back catalogue of Peter James'- Detective Roy Grace.

I don't know why, the author is sexist & racist and the characters are both unconvincing and somewhat dull.

I've never been "dangerously moist" in my life and all the women are either victims or outstandingly beautiful or both.

The blurb describes him as "a tenacious yet troubled detective known for his unorthodox methods" yet the books go into tedious (and if you read a lot of them) repetitive telling-not-showing detail of how all the procedures are followed.

I haven't seen the TV adaptations, apparently John Simm stars. Which gives it an air of competence I'm not getting from the poor writing.

Anyway, on book (checks) 7, and book 19 Stop Them Dead (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70020989-stop-them-dead) was released today. It only takes me 3 or 4 days to get through them.

As recommendations go, this one isn't glowing, is it?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 September, 2023, 03:28:48 pm
IIRC there was a one-off short story featuring Grace and Rebus and it was not up to Sir Ian's usual standards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: FifeingEejit on 26 September, 2023, 04:48:22 pm
Having finally finished the illiad I'm now reading Niel Gunn's "Second sight" which I'm rather enjoying when I get a chance to read.

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

Moved onto "A Room with a view", they've moved onto Rome, it's interesting enough but as usual i'm not picking it up as easily as I should.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 26 September, 2023, 05:58:09 pm
Just finished 'Terminal world' by Alistair Reynolds. Steampunk meets Vernor Vinge's "Zones of Thought"

I worked out the hidden twist very early on, but it isn't developed. The geographical and calendar clues to where the story is set are copious, and I found them amusing.

Special shout re the Carnivorgs, or Vorgs. Feral cyborgs that use human body parts that the previous owners are rendered incapable of needing, while the Vorgs "Feed/On/Brain/Tissue/Give/Me/Brains"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 September, 2023, 10:11:41 am
The delightful (so far) Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrel.  The opening, at least as far as I have read, is rather reminiscent of Jane Austen but, being set in 1857 and chapatis appearing mysteriously in unexpected places, one suspects the delightfulness will soon be mitigated...

Finished it.  Was right: although the attitudes that shaped Jane Austen's work persisted the ending, and most of what went before, is not very similar.

Bloody good, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Auntie Helen on 30 September, 2023, 10:52:51 am
The delightful (so far) Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrel.  The opening, at least as far as I have read, is rather reminiscent of Jane Austen but, being set in 1857 and chapatis appearing mysteriously in unexpected places, one suspects the delightfulness will soon be mitigated...

Finished it.  Was right: although the attitudes that shaped Jane Austen's work persisted the ending, and most of what went before, is not very similar.

Bloody good, though.
if you can find the book Zemindar by Valerie Fitzgerald that’s really worth a read. Covers the buildup to the revolt of 1857 and the siege of Lucknow.

It also has the mysterious chapattis.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 September, 2023, 02:18:59 pm
The delightful (so far) Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrel.  The opening, at least as far as I have read, is rather reminiscent of Jane Austen but, being set in 1857 and chapatis appearing mysteriously in unexpected places, one suspects the delightfulness will soon be mitigated...

Finished it.  Was right: although the attitudes that shaped Jane Austen's work persisted the ending, and most of what went before, is not very similar.

Bloody good, though.
if you can find the book Zemindar by Valerie Fitzgerald that’s really worth a read. Covers the buildup to the revolt of 1857 and the siege of Lucknow.

It also has the mysterious chapattis.

Ta, I'll have a gander. My previous reading on the topic was Flashman.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 October, 2023, 01:46:47 pm
Having abandoned the thrid offering from Peter Papathanasiou - supposedly a "fast paced crime thriller", but in fact a moribund and sluggish disaster of a book, I've started on Mick Herron's "The Secret Hours". Predictably excellent. A sort of pre-cursor to the Slough House series, or at least with hints of the past of a number of the protagonists.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 19 October, 2023, 02:18:25 pm
The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell. Set in the 1940's: Westerners complacently while Japan looms over the horizon.  Good.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Quint on 20 October, 2023, 10:18:24 pm
Having just finished the four books I got for last Christmas (The Hyddenworld series by William Horwood - 4 books) which were hard to put down, I went on a visit to my local bookshop in Woodstock where I stumbled upon The Restless Republic by Anna Keay about the short time Britain was a republic, very readable so much so that (again) I couldn't put it down, I wish all history was written like this. I am now bereft and unable to find anything to read
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 28 October, 2023, 05:35:45 pm
Having abandoned the thrid offering from Peter Papathanasiou - supposedly a "fast paced crime thriller", but in fact a moribund and sluggish disaster of a book, I've started on Mick Herron's "The Secret Hours". Predictably excellent. A sort of pre-cursor to the Slough House series, or at least with hints of the past of a number of the protagonists.

Well that was a solid 4 stars. It lost the fifth with a contrived and, given the supposed intelligence of the characters, unbelievable denouement. It did, however, shed light on the back story of 2 of the main characters of the Slow Horses series, ‘though I suspect one will be bowing out.

Now on to John Connolly’s Land of the Lost Things a sequel 15 years in the coming.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 30 October, 2023, 02:43:52 pm
Just finished Minarets in the Mountains by Tharik Hussain (https://www.waterstones.com/book/minarets-in-the-mountains/tharik-hussain/9781784778286).  Well worth a read in my view.

I'm part way through Justin Butcher's Walking to Jerusalem (https://www.waterstones.com/book/walking-to-jerusalem/justin-butcher/9781473673694), which seems somewhat apt at the moment.

I also recently picked up copies of The Sea Ahead (Shally Hunt)  (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Ahead-Cape-Wrath-Riviera/dp/1840244348) and Andrew Eames' Blue River, Black Sea (https://www.waterstones.com/book/blue-river-black-sea/andrew-eames/9780552775076), both of which I've just started.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 30 October, 2023, 04:03:20 pm
The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell. Set in the 1940's: Westerners complacently bickering while Japan looms over the horizon.  Good.

Finished last week. Rapacious rubber barons, scheming women, geriatric generals, towering racism and precipitous pratfalls.  Bloody good.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 30 October, 2023, 04:25:19 pm
I'm working my way through the entire back catalogue of Peter James'- Detective Roy Grace.

I don't know why, the author is sexist & racist and the characters are both unconvincing and somewhat dull.

I've never been "dangerously moist" in my life and all the women are either victims or outstandingly beautiful or both.

The blurb describes him as "a tenacious yet troubled detective known for his unorthodox methods" yet the books go into tedious (and if you read a lot of them) repetitive telling-not-showing detail of how all the procedures are followed.

I haven't seen the TV adaptations, apparently John Simm stars. Which gives it an air of competence I'm not getting from the poor writing.

Anyway, on book (checks) 7, and book 19 Stop Them Dead (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70020989-stop-them-dead) was released today. It only takes me 3 or 4 days to get through them.

As recommendations go, this one isn't glowing, is it?

And that's me done. All 19. What a load of tripe.

Up next- more fantasy romance.

It's entertainment, OK. Not every novel has to be improving literature.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 30 October, 2023, 04:32:17 pm
The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell. Set in the 1940's: Westerners complacently bickering while Japan looms over the horizon.  Good.

Finished last week. Rapacious rubber barons, scheming women, geriatric generals, towering racism and precipitous pratfalls.  Bloody good.

 I read that years ago.  I'd had to read The Siege of Krishnapur as one of my set texts when I was at school. Have you read Troubles?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 01 November, 2023, 11:47:38 am
I read Troubles a few years ago. I think I was put off it for ages because I had entirely the wrong idea of what kind of book it was but I absolutely bloody loved it. Kind of Evelyn Waugh-esque in its ability to be both very funny and very bleak at the same time, and as well written as anything Waugh did, but without the "of their time" attitudes.

Really must get around to Siege of Krishnapur and Singapore Grip some time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2023, 07:40:26 pm
Past Lying, #7 in Val McDermid's Karen Pirie series.  Bit light on killin's so far and the prime suspect is unlikely to be arrested due to being dead.  Hmmmm.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 November, 2023, 09:07:26 am
The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell. Set in the 1940's: Westerners complacently bickering while Japan looms over the horizon.  Good.

Finished last week. Rapacious rubber barons, scheming women, geriatric generals, towering racism and precipitous pratfalls.  Bloody good.

 I read that years ago.  I'd had to read The Siege of Krishnapur as one of my set texts when I was at school. Have you read Troubles?

No.  I dunno, I tend to avoid stuff about la condition irlandaise these days.  Didn't even want to watch Branagh's Belfast film and I come from the place. Well, a few miles away.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 06 November, 2023, 10:23:55 am
The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell. Set in the 1940's: Westerners complacently bickering while Japan looms over the horizon.  Good.

Finished last week. Rapacious rubber barons, scheming women, geriatric generals, towering racism and precipitous pratfalls.  Bloody good.


May I recommend 'The Plot' by N. Dorries?  Due for publication in a day or three.

I need someone to read it so I don't have to.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 06 November, 2023, 10:51:35 am
I shall wait eagerly until it's remaindered and then ignore it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 November, 2023, 11:46:45 am
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53044468033_f1d1fa5ca3_o.png) (https://flic.kr/p/2oPmLiF)
I heart image editing software… (https://flic.kr/p/2oPmLiF) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 06 November, 2023, 01:23:43 pm
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53044468033_f1d1fa5ca3_o.png) (https://flic.kr/p/2oPmLiF)
I heart image editing software… (https://flic.kr/p/2oPmLiF) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr

I'm nicking that...  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 November, 2023, 01:44:40 pm
The price stickers were robbed off of an apparently genuine picture of the “autobiography” of colossal bellend Piers “Morgan” Moron :demon:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Beardy on 06 November, 2023, 02:00:31 pm
I’ve just finished An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka and really enjoyed it. I’ve read his Alex Verus novels, which I also found very good which is why I grabbed this new one when I saw it.

I was somewhat discombobulated when I  realised that this is the first book in a new series which is only just published, and because even I read faster than the author writes, I’m now going to have to wait while he gets on with it. Then I’ll read that faster than he writes the next one and I’ll have to wait. And repeat.

I know this is a first world problem, but it’s still annoying.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: spesh on 06 November, 2023, 07:07:43 pm
I’ve just finished An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka and really enjoyed it. I’ve read his Alex Verus novels, which I also found very good which is why I grabbed this new one when I saw it.

I was somewhat discombobulated when I  realised that this is the first book in a new series which is only just published, and because even I read faster than the author writes, I’m now going to have to wait while he gets on with it. Then I’ll read that faster than he writes the next one and I’ll have to wait. And repeat.

I know this is a first world problem, but it’s still annoying.

Quoth readers of the A Song of Ice and Fire series: "Oh, puh-leeeeeeeese..." :demon: ;)

(A Dance with Dragons came out in 2011 - the last I'd seen, George R. R. Martin was practically admitting that it might be 2025 before the next book, The Winds of Winter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winds_of_Winter#Writing_history), is finished.)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 November, 2023, 09:11:44 pm
I'm working my way through the entire back catalogue of Peter James'- Detective Roy Grace.

I don't know why, the author is sexist & racist and the characters are both unconvincing and somewhat dull.

I've never been "dangerously moist" in my life and all the women are either victims or outstandingly beautiful or both.

The blurb describes him as "a tenacious yet troubled detective known for his unorthodox methods" yet the books go into tedious (and if you read a lot of them) repetitive telling-not-showing detail of how all the procedures are followed.

I haven't seen the TV adaptations, apparently John Simm stars. Which gives it an air of competence I'm not getting from the poor writing.

Anyway, on book (checks) 7, and book 19 Stop Them Dead (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70020989-stop-them-dead) was released today. It only takes me 3 or 4 days to get through them.

As recommendations go, this one isn't glowing, is it?

And that's me done. All 19. What a load of tripe.

Up next- more fantasy romance.

It's entertainment, OK. Not every novel has to be improving literature.

I can recommend JD Kirk's Logan series. At least there's a decent selection of choice swearing in it, and they're not up their own arse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 06 November, 2023, 11:43:36 pm
Just finished the third book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's eminently readable Children Of Time series.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 07 November, 2023, 08:29:41 am
Just finished the third book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's eminently readable Children Of Time series.

Kept bouncing off that but I'm finding it hard settling to anything these days.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 07 November, 2023, 09:18:09 am
The Girl in the Spiders Web the 4th in the Stieg Larson Millenium trilogy, by one David Lagercrantz. It passes the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: eckagain on 12 November, 2023, 09:56:03 am
I've just started 'End To End', by Paul Jones, lent to me by a friend.
In introducing his own cycling credentials, he says he's done "lots of things on a bike but endurance cycling is not one of them."
But he certainly gets it!
He refers to audax saying that he likes to dot watch audaxers (and Transcontinental riders) "in their quest for utter degradation and fatigue, sleeping for seven micro-seconds in a farmer's gateway with a discarded copy of Razzle and a used prophylactic for a pillow."

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 13 November, 2023, 05:10:20 pm
I've just started 'End To End', by Paul Jones, lent to me by a friend.
In introducing his own cycling credentials, he says he's done "lots of things on a bike but endurance cycling is not one of them."
But he certainly gets it!
He refers to audax saying that he likes to dot watch audaxers (and Transcontinental riders) "in their quest for utter degradation and fatigue, sleeping for seven micro-seconds in a farmer's gateway with a discarded copy of Razzle and a used prophylactic for a pillow."


Thanks for the heads up; I've just started it and it looks like it'll be a good read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 13 November, 2023, 09:05:16 pm
Just finished the third book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's eminently readable Children Of Time series.

One scene in that broke my heart.

"Have you got anything to eat?"
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 18 November, 2023, 06:16:15 pm
Just finished the third book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's eminently readable Children Of Time series.

I might give them a try.

Any recommendations for anything else? I liked the Ann Leckie and Becky Chambers space ones. I've run out of stuff on the Kindle and I could do with a rest from pot boiler crime novels for a bit.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 19 November, 2023, 04:01:02 pm
Well, I gave up on the John Connolly after only about a quarter, then skimmed the last quarter of the McDermid (the outcome was pretty obvious from around half distance - The Wire in the Blood it wasn’t!)

So a trip to the library tomorrow (as it’s opposite the dentist where I’m going anyway) to collect a few reservations including the latest from Michael Connelly and Lee/Andrew Child.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 20 November, 2023, 04:19:12 pm
Just finished reading A Series Of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler (writing as Lemony Snicket) to my six-year-old - it was about 4 or 5 months of bedtime stories in 13 volumes.  I'm feeling a little bit bereft now, because I was enjoying it so much.  In spite of being rather dark, they're definitely suitable for young-ish children as well as young adults and the young-at-heart.

It's full of wonderfully absurd passages like this:

Quote from: Lemony Snicket
The phrase "in the dark," as I'm sure you know, can refer not only to one's shadowy surroundings, but also to the shadowy secrets of which one might be unaware. Every day, the sun goes down over all these secrets, and so everyone is in the dark in one way or another. If you are sunbathing in a park, for instance, but you do not know that a locked cabinet is buried fifty feet beneath your blanket, then you are in the dark even though you are not actually in the dark, whereas if you are on a midnight hike, knowing full well that several ballerinas are following close behind you, then you are not in the dark even if you are in fact in the dark. Of course, it is quite possible to be in the dark in the dark, as well as to be not in the dark not in the dark, but there are so many secrets in the world that it is likely that you are always in the dark about one thing or another, whether you are in the dark in the dark or in the dark not in the dark, although the sun can go down so quickly that you may be in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, only to look around and find yourself no longer in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, but in the dark in the dark nonetheless, not only because of the dark, but because of the ballerinas in the dark, who are not in the dark about the dark, but also not in the dark about the locked cabinet, and you may be in the dark about the ballerinas digging up the locked cabinet in the dark, even though you are no longer in the dark about being in the dark, and so you are in fact in the dark about being in the dark, even though you are not in the dark about being in the dark, and so you may fall into the hole that the ballerinas have dug, which is dark, in the dark, and in the park.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: graculus on 20 November, 2023, 05:11:00 pm
'There are known knowns....'
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Steph on 21 November, 2023, 12:41:23 pm
Legs, re loose ends etc...

It is a technique I use myself, because of my style. I start with building a character, then tell a tale from their point of view, and (almost always) in first person. That means, to steal from your quote, that they are in the dark about anything they don't witness and get informed about. That means other characters, built the same way, have their own lives and stories. From my own point of view, that means I am given opportunities to tell those tales in a subsequent novel precisely because of the ambiguities and loose ends.

I suspect that Mr Handler may be working the same way, as a sales technique. I might, of course, be wrong. After all, I just write romances!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 21 November, 2023, 01:04:16 pm
Legs, re loose ends etc...

It is a technique I use myself, because of my style. I start with building a character, then tell a tale from their point of view, and (almost always) in first person. That means, to steal from your quote, that they are in the dark about anything they don't witness and get informed about. That means other characters, built the same way, have their own lives and stories. From my own point of view, that means I am given opportunities to tell those tales in a subsequent novel precisely because of the ambiguities and loose ends.

I suspect that Mr Handler may be working the same way, as a sales technique. I might, of course, be wrong. After all, I just write romances!

You're absolutely right, there are prequel and related spin-off works.

The device that Handler uses is to write from the point of view of the fictitious Mr Snicket, who is tangentially involved in the plot, but is writing as if piecing together evidence and research from varied sources about the Baudelaires' story, and that therefore he isn't privy to all the details.  Furthermore, the final instalment emphasises that the children's story is only part of a continuum of interlinked and overlapping stories.

There is one particular McGuffin, the significance of which is never explained.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SpaceBadger on 21 November, 2023, 01:09:39 pm
I decided to give The Silmarillion a try, having always enjoyed The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Big mistake.

It couldn’t be more different.

It’s the biggest load of self-indulgent wankTM I’ve ever read. A story should be just that. Creating an entire and often impenetrable supporting history to some of the best books, written in a maddening style, is what is needed. Said no one, ever.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 21 November, 2023, 05:26:57 pm
It’s the biggest load of self-indulgent wankTM I’ve ever read. A story should be just that. Creating an entire and often impenetrable supporting history to some of the best books, written in a maddening style, is what is needed. Said no one, ever.

Wasn't it a bunch of backstory bits put together by JRR's heirs and shoved onto the market to make a fast buck after he died? 
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SteveC on 21 November, 2023, 06:25:17 pm
Not quite. I think JRRT always wanted the Silmarillion to see the light of day, but not until after his death.
Unfinished Tales however...

I never managed to finish the latter and I was a real Tolkien nerd as a teenager.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 22 November, 2023, 11:20:01 am
.... Creating an entire and often impenetrable supporting history to some of the best books, written in a maddening style, is what is needed. Said no one, ever.
But the stories that became The Silmarillion were written (and re-written) first, and then The Hobbit & LotR came along afterwards.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 22 November, 2023, 04:50:34 pm
Digging up early Neal Stephensons, finished The Diamond Age the other day and am now some distance into Snow Crash.  Still enjoyable despite references to tape as a future storage medium, even in nano-devices.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Feanor on 23 November, 2023, 07:01:19 pm
I've just started into Stephenson's 'Quicksilver', the first of the Baroque Cycle.
It's a fair tome, with dense very small-point text filling every page!

And despite my Forum Name, I'm in general agreement about the Silmarillion being a load of self-indulgent wank...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SpaceBadger on 23 November, 2023, 07:43:51 pm
I've just started into Stephenson's 'Quicksilver', the first of the Baroque Cycle.
It's a fair tome, with dense very small-point text filling every page!

And despite my Forum Name, I'm in general agreement about the Silmarillion being a load of self-indulgent wank...

Phew. That could have got awkward (you bad person, you) ;D
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Robh on 23 November, 2023, 07:56:28 pm
I've just finished 'Joe Country', which is the 6th of 8 (so far) Slough House books by Mick Herron. Great stuff, genuinely lol in places, and a very impressive feat in maintaining such a high quality of invention and character development over the course of so many books. I'm not sure now whether I want to go straight onto the remaining 2 of the series, or take a break and fish something else out of my pile of books waiting to be read. The thing is, I doubt any of them will be as much fun to read.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 24 November, 2023, 03:46:16 pm
Somewhat belatedly goven that it was published in 2011, Malcolm Pryce's “The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still”.  It is making me laarrff.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 25 November, 2023, 01:45:09 pm
A new author for me, tho’ obviously one well reviewed recently (or I’d not have got the bees to read), one Jordan Harper. The book is “Everybody Knows” set in the LA PR business. It’s pretty good, good enough thus far that I’ll try his previous offerings at some point.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 26 November, 2023, 04:13:41 pm
Finally onto Mark Billingham's “The Last Dance”.  Thorne hasn’t put in an appearance (yet?) but DS Dave Holland is surely his ex-sidekick.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 30 November, 2023, 04:44:45 pm
The latest Lincoln Lawyer offering from Michael Connolly “Resurrection Walk. Pretty good so far. And one of the plot devices is that there are gangs in the LA Sheriff's dept. And the book I was just reading, also published this year, “Everyone knows” had the same plot device. The also both reference the White Fence gang. Spooky
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 December, 2023, 11:28:04 pm
Having rapidly disposed of Stephen King's “Holly” while moggie-minding last week it's time for his half-as-thick-again “Fairy Tale”.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 10 December, 2023, 09:30:23 am
The Crystal Cave (again) Mary Stewart.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: SoreTween on 14 December, 2023, 08:42:15 pm
I read Steven Gould's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gould) novel Jumper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumper_(novel)), which was better than I expected, and then binge read the two sequels, Reflex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_(novel)) and Impulse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_(Steven_Gould_novel)), which I think were even better.

Even though all three novels are based upon the basic concept of teleportation, the second and third add in some entirely new twists and perspectives. I don't think they're necessarily great works of literature, but they appear well written to me, and I enjoyed the storylines and originality a great deal. I'm definitely going to read the fourth novel in the series, and then probably be annoyed that there's not a fifth one yet!

If you like pulp science-fiction, fantasy, or even just original concepts, I'd recommend them. :thumbsup:

I think I watched the film, or at least some of it, but as I recall it wasn't as good as the books (or as memorable!)

I enjoyed those, in a YA kind of way.  Science fiction done right, in that it takes one macguffin (humans who can teleport) and explores its implications without ever trying to explain how it works.  (I particularly liked the way that the different people have very different ways of establishing their destination.)  Lovely in places, silly in others.  I expect you'll enjoy Exo.

The film, on the other hand, was shite.  One of the books is an attempt to redeem it by means of a coherent back-story, and is best considered not to be part of the series.


ETA: I discovered a TV adaptation of Impulse.  This was a lot less shit than the Jumper film, though only loosely follows the book.  The implications of teleportation takes a back seat to the sexual assault trauma storyline (which is very well done - I assume Gould's influence), and it got cancelled after the second season.
Encouraged by these reviews I've read the (4 book) set.  I did get a bit bored by Exo.  The continuous action of the first is not sustainable without becoming bumwad but really, Exo contains a mahoosive resolution to a couple of story lines crammed into the last 10 pages.  The 95% of pages leading up to it are interesting in their own stead but so unrelated to the ongoing threads.  Then crash bang wallop 5 minutes at the typewriter just short of the end credits and decades of back story / threat neatly resolved.  The only other disappointment was in book 2:
(click to show/hide)

Yet book 2 created an obvious (to me) avenue to be explored, maybe it will be in the next.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: L CC on 15 December, 2023, 09:37:50 am
No1Daughter has been rewatching The Expanse and I discovered I had Leviathan Wakes in my Audible Library. It's good. Now on book 2.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 15 December, 2023, 04:40:26 pm
Timescape by Gregory Benford, a 1980 novel about communication across time by means of tachyons. It's bloody good but of course full of off-target foresights* about the future.  But funnily enough he does mention that in 1937 the US Dept. of the Interior made a thorough prediction of future trends and completely missed atomic energy, computers, radar, antibiotics and WW2.  Still, despite the "anachronisms", lots of fascinating fictional physics and organic chemistry, the latter of which had better not come true but wouldn't be at all surprising.

* Hell, Fred Hoyle had his protagonists using room-temperature semiconductors in 1964.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 17 December, 2023, 12:13:59 pm
The Crystal Cave (again) Mary Stewart.

The only Merlin worth the candle.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 20 December, 2023, 10:48:24 am
Quartered Safe Out Here, George Macdonald Fraser's 1993 memoir of his time fighting the Japanese in Burma in 1945. Very absorbing, salted with <splort!> moments.  Highly recommended if you can stomach statements such as "I first smelt Jap..." without getting all latter-day PC.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: redshift on 20 December, 2023, 10:11:54 pm
Quartered Safe Out Here, George Macdonald Fraser's 1993 memoir of his time fighting the Japanese in Burma in 1945. Very absorbing, salted with <splort!> moments.  Highly recommended if you can stomach statements such as "I first smelt Jap..." without getting all latter-day PC.

That's a good book, I haven't read that one in years. As for political correctness, he never struck me as someone afraid of language, and he did write Flashman.  Oh, and the Michael York Musketeers films were him as well.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 20 December, 2023, 10:53:02 pm
A Traveller's Year: 365 Days Of Travel Writing In Diaries, Journals And Letters, compiled by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison.  A thumping great breeze block of a bok which Miss von Brandenburg gave me for Xmas/birthday a Several of years ago and has only just crawled out of the “to read” pile.  Mostly Victorian- and Edwardian-era chumps so far, but then I've only reached January 9th and Ernest Shackleton failing to reach the East South Pole.  Mott The Hoople's Ian Hunter appears in it, thobut.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 28 December, 2023, 11:36:28 am
The Truth Behind The Irish Famine. Jerry Mulvihill.

Incredible. Should be required reading in British schools.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sg37409 on 30 December, 2023, 12:50:03 pm
Just finished Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart.  Excellent. Less bleak than Shuggie Bain (though still very bleak at times) and more enjoyable all the way through.  I loved it
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 30 December, 2023, 06:35:07 pm
Based on recommendations on this forum I finished "the unbearable lightness of being in Aberystwyth", "Jumper" and am now reading "leviathan wakes".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Redlight on 12 January, 2024, 02:40:30 pm
Anyone interested in reading a book that hasn't yet been published?

I'm looking for a handful of people who have a good knowledge of bike racing and would be willing to read the near-final draft of my novel and (gently) let me know if I've made any mistakes in my accounts of racing in the 1960s-70s.

The story isn't about cycle sport as such - it's actually about searching for truth and then being unsure how to respond when it's found - but several of the principal characters were pro cyclists and so there are several chapters that feature detailed accounts of imaginary races, either to progress the plot or illustrate their characters.

I've followed races and read numerous biographies and other books about racing, but I've never raced myself. So, while I've tried to reflect what I think goes on in the peloton and off the bike, my nightmare is that I'm published and a week later somebody pops up to point out a glaring trivial mistake (e.g. "everyone knows that Belgian riders in the 1970s NEVER wore white socks") that undermines the entire book's credibility.

It's a chunky book - 115,000 words (a typical paperback is about 90,000) but I've been told by those who've already read it that it's a page-turner and the descriptions of races are 'more interesting than expected'. It's also been longlisted for a number of 'first novel' awards. I'm afraid all I can offer by way of recompense is my thanks, a credit in the published book and (of course) a free copy! But you will at least know the ending before everyone else  :)

If you're interested, please DM me or reply here, as you prefer. I can send it as a standard PDF or in a larger type version that works better on Kindles.

Thanks
Rob
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 January, 2024, 08:57:57 am
Just finished Gregory Benford's 2017 novel The Berlin Project.  Very unusual, given that it's about the physics and engineering of the Manhattan Project, that he himself is a physicist who understands all the scientific issues and who knew and studied under some of the people who worked on the Hiroshima bomb, many of whom figure in the book.  In fact, all the principal characters, with one not very significant exception, existed; and the protagonist, involved with the project since before it had a name, not only existed but was his father-in-law.

I'm glad to have read it: it puts several things, and indeed several people, in a very different light.

Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fimm on 24 January, 2024, 09:55:05 am
Nothing.

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 24 January, 2024, 10:05:06 am
Master and commander. Patrick O'Brien
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: rafletcher on 24 January, 2024, 02:54:59 pm
Garry Disher's latest "The Way it is Now".  Crime novel set around the Melbourne suburbs. He's relatively newly popular in the UK (perhaps the Jane Harper / Chris Hammer influence) but writes well. Unfortunately (for me) what of his back catalogue is held by our library is predominantly audiobooks.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 24 January, 2024, 04:19:42 pm
Just started The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley. Starveacre was okay, but I wouldn't agree with the hype. Hoping for something a bit more.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: hubner on 28 January, 2024, 10:44:16 pm
I've started Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 29 January, 2024, 12:47:49 am
Just started The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley. Starveacre was okay, but I wouldn't agree with the hype. Hoping for something a bit more.

Sam

Miss von Brandenburg and Professor Larrington both endorse it; the latter was on some author panel thing at Foyles alongside Mr Hurley when “The Loney” was first published.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Legs on 29 January, 2024, 01:01:18 pm
Having rapidly disposed of Stephen King's “Holly” while moggie-minding last week it's time for his half-as-thick-again “Fairy Tale”.

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I'm stuck in the middle of Fairy Tale.  I want to finish it so that I can move on to something different, but, faced with the choice of picking it up in the evenings or turning over and falling asleep, I'm finding that sleep is winning hands-down.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Regulator on 29 January, 2024, 01:05:52 pm
I've just finished re-reading Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time to Keep Silence.  It's a very thin book but very thought provoking.

I'm also re-reading Jose Saramago's Journey to Portugal.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 29 January, 2024, 06:27:00 pm
I'm slowly working my way through An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong.  It's not the sort of book you can read while tired, and the prolific footnotes are a bit of a pain in FBReader.

It's all about the sort of perspective you get from living with a barakta (who, as it happens, asked my why the infrared LEDs on her monitor were flashing in her face earlier[1]), but with far more dimensions.  Contains naked mole rats or traces of naked mole rats.


[1] It's got a thing that detects whether there's someone sat in front of it.  I was astounded that she could see the IR well enough to be annoyed by it.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 29 January, 2024, 06:34:01 pm
Have you ever read about Temple Grandin, Kim?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Kim on 29 January, 2024, 07:23:06 pm
I'm certainly aware of her (occupational hazard of knowing autistic people whose special interest is autism).  I think there was a documentary at some point...
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 29 January, 2024, 07:50:49 pm
Yes, at least one.  She mainly sticks in my mind (apart from her autism) because of her work for the humane treatment of animals, especially in the Chicago stockyard/slaughterhouses.  She is a fantastic example of why it is wrong to dismiss autistic people, which, sadly, happens all the time.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Tim Hall on 29 January, 2024, 11:38:50 pm
The latest (I think) Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club offering , "The Bullet That Missed". In my head Ron's voice is that of Stan from Ed Reardon's Week.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 30 January, 2024, 04:58:47 pm
Does Elgar feature?!
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 30 January, 2024, 08:01:22 pm
I hate to break the news to you but…

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Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 02 February, 2024, 11:46:58 pm
Yes, I knew that - but are you saying he doesn't live on in your head?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: fd3 on 21 February, 2024, 08:34:37 pm
As a Bowie obsessive I was surprised to DNF "age of bowie" which I had heard much good.

Immediately forgettable and dull.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: sam on 27 February, 2024, 09:01:37 pm
(https://iili.io/JGtsGBp.jpg)

Research.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Canardly on 27 February, 2024, 10:06:41 pm
Frank Herbert; Heretics of Dune. Excellent, always something new to be found when rereading.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Robh on 27 February, 2024, 10:25:21 pm
A bio of Bill Evans - 'How My Heart Sings'. Very good but it's taking an age to get through it because I have to go off to listen to each album as it gets discussed in turn.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 28 February, 2024, 11:04:29 am
I hate to break the news to you but…

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Google Books probably hasn't heard. Their front page just announced "NEW from H.G. Wells".
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: ravenbait on 11 March, 2024, 03:15:56 pm
Just finished Faber's Under the Skin, the one that was made into a movie with Scarlet Johannsen and shot using unsuspecting members of the public around Glasgow.

Having already read The Crimson Petal and the White, I'm starting to think Mr Faber has a thing for disfigured/scarred women.

Sam
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Peter on 11 March, 2024, 05:55:40 pm
Horned Pigeon, a book by George Millar, who was in The Rifle Brigade in North Africa in WW2.  Marginally relevant for me as I was in their cadet force (it was compulsory, even for cowards).  It's about his capture and subsequent attempts to escape.  I won't say anymore, other than that it's very long but well worth persevering with.  Have any of you read it?  George Millar has a wiki page, if you want to check.  A fascinating character.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Ham on 15 March, 2024, 01:08:51 pm
Not what I'm reading, but I just discovered this Grauniad series

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/the-books-of-my-life

It's quite quick and easy to see if you share commonality with a contributor, and (as you might expect if you are being interviewed) there are some interesting choices.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: jwo on 18 March, 2024, 07:07:01 pm
I've just started 'End To End', by Paul Jones, lent to me by a friend.
In introducing his own cycling credentials, he says he's done "lots of things on a bike but endurance cycling is not one of them."
But he certainly gets it!
He refers to audax saying that he likes to dot watch audaxers (and Transcontinental riders) "in their quest for utter degradation and fatigue, sleeping for seven micro-seconds in a farmer's gateway with a discarded copy of Razzle and a used prophylactic for a pillow."


Thanks for the heads up; I've just started it and it looks like it'll be a good read.

Just finished this; highly recommended and up there with the best of cycling themed paperbacks. It is very well written and far more than an account of end to end records, more of the journey than the destination. Very audax-adjacent with several members of this forum getting a mention including Steve Abraham and the much missed Damon Peacock. Anyone who has participated in and suffered in an endurance event will find resonances thought this book.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Efrogwr on 18 March, 2024, 07:56:11 pm
I've just started 'End To End', by Paul Jones, lent to me by a friend.
In introducing his own cycling credentials, he says he's done "lots of things on a bike but endurance cycling is not one of them."
But he certainly gets it!
He refers to audax saying that he likes to dot watch audaxers (and Transcontinental riders) "in their quest for utter degradation and fatigue, sleeping for seven micro-seconds in a farmer's gateway with a discarded copy of Razzle and a used prophylactic for a pillow."


Thanks for the heads up; I've just started it and it looks like it'll be a good read.

Just finished this; highly recommended and up there with the best of cycling themed paperbacks. It is very well written and far more than an account of end to end records, more of the journey than the destination. Very audax-adjacent with several members of this forum getting a mention including Steve Abraham and the much missed Damon Peacock. Anyone who has participated in and suffered in an endurance event will find resonances thought this book.


IDidn't report back! I agree wholeheartedly with jwo.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: T42 on 24 March, 2024, 04:35:07 pm
Re-reading KSR's The Years of Rice and Salt. The first 650 of its almost 800pp are fascinating and enjoyable, but

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I'm grinding through it, though.
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 March, 2024, 12:53:28 pm
Not what I'm reading, but I just discovered this Grauniad series

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/the-books-of-my-life

It's quite quick and easy to see if you share commonality with a contributor, and (as you might expect if you are being interviewed) there are some interesting choices.

"Benjamin Myers: 'My comfort read? Viz'"

Explains a lot.  ;D

I love Julian Barnes and I share his love of EM Forster, Ford Madox Ford, Persuasion and Middlemarch, so perhaps I ought to investigate some of his other recommendations.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: Nuncio on 25 March, 2024, 01:59:05 pm
I read his (Benjamin Myers) The Perfect Golden Circle a couple of years back and thought it was weird, in a good way, and that I must try another. And then forgot. Can you recommend one?
Title: Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 March, 2024, 03:17:57 pm
I read his (Benjamin Myers) The Perfect Golden Circle a couple of years back and thought it was weird, in a good way, and that I must try another. And then forgot. Can you recommend one?

My impressions of Benjamin Myers are based largely on having read Gallows Pole, which I absolutely loved, so I would definitely recommend that.

"Weird in a good way" sums him up pretty well for me!