What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Guy]

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

[Vince]

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?

[Mr Larrington]

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.

[tiermat]

Started, and have nearly finished "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.

It's only short (96 pages), but a very very good read.

[Deano]

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!"

[Peter]

Obviously a fast worker!

[Mr Larrington]

I've finally finished "The Trial".  It's only taken nineteen years

[Mr Larrington]

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.

[itsbruce]

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.

[Mr Larrington]

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.

[jogler]

This

http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/bcq_questions_book.pdf

[Guy]

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..."

If Attanasio had learned to write properly this book would be half the thickness and twice as enjoyable. Still really interestingly weird thobut.

[citoyen]

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...

[citoyen]

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.

[Guy]

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

[Mr Larrington]

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".

[Ruth]

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.

[andrewc]

Just finished The Rhesus Chart , the latest installment in Charles Stross's "Laundry" series.    Good toothsome fun...

[citoyen]

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.

[interzen]

"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.

[Aidan]

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.

[Vince]

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!

[spindrift]

"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.

[interzen]

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.

[citoyen]

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).