What books are we reading at the moment ?

[ian]

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).

[Snakehips]

The Joyful Environmentalist    .....    https://www.isabellosada.com/the-joyful-environmentalist     landed on my doormat today.

[hatler]

Just finished Exactly by Simon Winchester, the history of metrological precision. Really engaging and fascinating.

[T42]

Wandering through The Baroque Trilogy and taking time to savour it.

[TheLurker]

... 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.

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.

[DaveJ]

The Golem and the Djinni.  Rather enjoying it so far.

Before that it was 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.

[Mr Larrington]

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”, wot DJ Random handily played me yesterday.

[pcolbeck]

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.

[tiermat]

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.

[T42]

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.

[Mr Larrington]

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

[ian]

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.

[hatler]

Upheaval by Jared Diamond. I'm a bit of a sucker for his work.

[L CC]

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?

[ian]

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.

[T42]

Nah. I quite like Aa but I can't stand DrW.

[Ham]

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?

[FifeingEejit]

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.

[ian]

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.

[Efrogwr]

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

[ian]

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.

[Canardly]

The Three Body Problem Cixin Lui.

[Mr Larrington]

Belatedly starting Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series.  Indications good thus far.

[ian]

The Three Body Problem Cixin Lui.

I'm pretty sure that this book bored me so much that bits of my brain fell off.

[Mr Larrington]

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”
Bah: getting them wrong. “Writing”, not “drawing”