What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Mr Larrington]

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.

[Flying_Monkey]

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.

[Wascally Weasel]

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.

[Furious]

I was given almost all of the Harry Hole series for my birthday.
That should keep me busy for the summer...

[Torslanda]

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 . . .

[Mr Larrington]

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

[Rhys W]

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.

[LindaG]

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.

[Furious]

...

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...

[clarion]

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.

[jogler]

^^^
I started this book but couldn't get into it so DNF

[clarion]

Took me a few goes to get started, but I'm up to page 68, so I guess I'm reading it now

[Furious]

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.

[mrcharly-YHT]

"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.

[Wowbagger]

"Knowing how to stop... A technique for the prevention of wrong use of the self" by F. Matthias Alexander.

[IanDG]

Currently reading 'Cider with Roadies' by Stuart Maconie

[Mr Larrington]

Currently reading 'Cider with Roadies' by Stuart Maconie

Much better than Pies And Prejudice.

[mrcharly-YHT]

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.

[Quint]

Didn't we all ?
                                       

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.

[Ham]

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.

[Mrs Pingu]

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.

[Billy Weir]

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.

[Biff]

Through Hell for Hitler: A Dramatic First-hand Account of Fighting on the Eastern Front with the Wehrmacht: Amazon.co.uk: Henry Metelmann: Books

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.

[Deano]

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.

[mark]

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.