What books are we reading at the moment ?

[andrewc]

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. 

[her_welshness]

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.

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!

[Jasper the surreal cyclist]

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.

[citoyen]

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.

[JStone]

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.

[Flying_Monkey]

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.

[Karla]

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. 

[her_welshness]

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'. 

[JStone]

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.

[Feline]

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

[ian]

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)

Alas, all concept and no trousers. Despite several hundred pages, there appeared to be no discernible plot. The entire Concern was little more than a large, dumb variety MacGuffin that had awoken, surprised to find it had been transplanted into the pages of the book. The main protagonist showed about as much puzzlement at finding himself in the midst of this grand multi-universe traversing scheme as someone popping down the road and noticing the corner store had inexplicably closed an hour early. Oh well, I’ll pop to Tesco Express instead, he might have uttered and got on with it. The main villain appeared to be Cruella de Vil without the dobermans (and at least Dodie Smith bothered to give her some colour). Vast amounts of time and written real-estate were invested in developing another character (who, again lazily, was a rehash of Harry Enfield’s Loadsamoney, to the extent that you are left waiting for him to shout ‘bish bosh loadsadosh’ at any moment) for him to do nothing more than hand a box to our disinterested protagonist and then inexplicably get himself killed a few pages later. The ending, well, suddenly special powers sprout from our good guys. Again totally inexplicably. Oh, and it might all have been in someone’s imagination. Or not. It’s hard to care, other than the prelude and ending, this idea wasn’t even explored and so was quite successful in generating no tension. There book occasionally left the reader to wade through some (possibly computer-generated) cod-philosophical waffle in the middle and, as a boon, there’s plenty of toe-curlingly bad lit sex. The writing itself is utilitarian, the occasional metaphor falls loudly to the floor (see bad lit sex for some spectacularly bad examples - I’ve no idea what playing a flute with your feet entails, but I certainly wouldn’t want it to happen to my cock, thanks Iain). Oh, and on the bad sex theme, another of the characters exists to provide the bad lit sex services for our disinterested protagonist while doing the cod-philosophising. Otherwise, she’s just mysterious and turns up to give our protagonist a wank and mumble about all context being an illusion before disappearing to leave our character to wander into another scene (she's so mysterious that she wears a veil, geddit?). The structure of the book seems to have involved a lot of cut and paste and as such stutters between episodes. Bless you, word processor. It tries to be clever. It should have tried to be a story. I dunno, mostly disappointed that it is a good premise, however approached. Though, admittedly the best approach in this case would have been to leave it in the bargain bin.

[Tom B]

'Who Is Mr Satoshi', a first novel by Jonathan Lee discovered in the library. Looking forward to the last 100 pages this evening 

[her_welshness]

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

[Notsototalnewbie]

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.

[rower40]

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 

+1. The book must be a plague carrier, as I'm all flu-afflicted within a week of buying it.

[her_welshness]

And the winner is:

In an upset, 2010 Man Booker Prize goes to 'The Finkler Question' | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times

Chuffed for Howard Jacobsen. 

[Jasper the surreal cyclist]

I have not read the winning tome. But on past form I have never been able to finish a Jacobsen novel.

[clarion]

I enjoy the essays and reviews by Jacobson which occasionally appear in the Guardian Review.

[Flying_Monkey]

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.

[Zoidburg]

Surface Detail - Ian M Banks.

[itsbruce]

Archy and Mehitabel, by Don Marquis

[Mr Larrington]

Nerd Do Well ~ Simon Pegg

Watch Spaced instead.

[Mr Larrington]

The Children Of Men ~ PD James.

I wish I'd thought of that as a plot...

[Bledlow]

Metamorphosis by Franz K.

I suddenly realised I'd never read it, despite having read most of his books.

[her_welshness]

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.