Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 846687 times)

Rhys W · « **Reply #2375 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.

Dibdib · « **Reply #2376 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...

fuzzy · « **Reply #2377 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.

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #2378 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.

alexb · « **Reply #2379 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.

Feline · « **Reply #2380 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!

clarion · « **Reply #2381 on:** 16 May, 2012, 01:13:10 pm »

Quote from: 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.

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.

her_welshness · « **Reply #2382 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'.

clarion · « **Reply #2383 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.

citoyen · « **Reply #2384 on:** 17 May, 2012, 12:38:36 pm »

Quote from: 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.

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.

clarion · « **Reply #2385 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

red marley · « **Reply #2386 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. 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.

BrianI · « **Reply #2387 on:** 18 May, 2012, 06:25:40 am »

Sphere, Micheal Crichton.

andrewc · « **Reply #2388 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.

microphonie · « **Reply #2389 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.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #2390 on:** 25 May, 2012, 03:20:42 pm »

Reamde by Neil Stephenson

hmm. Possibly better than Cryptonomicon. A LOT better than Snow Crash, thankfully.

interzen · « **Reply #2391 on:** 25 May, 2012, 03:36:26 pm »

Quote from: mrcharly on 25 May, 2012, 03:20:42 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.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #2392 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.

ferret · « **Reply #2393 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,

Tom B · « **Reply #2394 on:** 27 May, 2012, 01:33:15 pm »

Do You Speak English? 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

tiermat · « **Reply #2395 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...

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2396 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

CrinklyLion · « **Reply #2397 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.

Quint · « **Reply #2398 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

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2399 on:** 19 June, 2012, 02:07:24 pm »

Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon series. Quite fun.

Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 846687 times)

fuzzy

red marley