Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ?  (Read 835717 times)

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6275 on: 19 March, 2021, 08:46:26 am »
Waiting, as I do, for actual print books (as a reservation is only 70p), I'm still watimg for "What will burn", but making do with the latest Mick Herron / Slow Horses outing "Slough House".  Excellent.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6276 on: 19 March, 2021, 11:04:48 am »
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tiermat

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6277 on: 19 March, 2021, 11:35:05 am »
 :hand:

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I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6278 on: 19 March, 2021, 07:51:33 pm »
Joe Country by Mick Herron and waiting the new one to come out in paperback.
Never knowingly under caffeinated

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6279 on: 12 April, 2021, 03:45:39 pm »
Ducks, Newburyport

I don't think I would have bought this if I'd read a review, nor could I have coped with it as a written book, even when I could read.

It's really really really good as an audiobook. Of course it is. It's an internal monologue, listened, it becomes your internal monologue.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6280 on: 14 April, 2021, 10:00:01 am »
Ian Rankin - "The Falls"

I'm pleased to turn once more to Rankin, another meticulous clockwork plot, shot through with wit, reflecting our own changing times, the flawed detective exploring his own unravelling to gain the insight required to unlock the puzzle. Rebus.

And the voice, the sometimes delicate, by turns brutal prism of Scots dialect, nicely translated for a sassenach ear. I really love how he leads the reader in, always adding to our knowledge without ever talking down.

Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk


Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6281 on: 14 April, 2021, 12:26:36 pm »
I am trying to read The Kingdom, the latest breezeblock-sized not Harry Hole offering from Jo Nesbo.  It is slow going, promises of killin's notwithstanding.  So slow, in fact, that I've got Julie Fanselow's Traveling The Lewis & Clark Trail running as an experimental side project.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6282 on: 19 April, 2021, 12:14:34 pm »
The latest D.I. (now D. Super) Banks from Peter Robinson. It's ok.

ETA: I didn't persist, it just didn't engage me. Now trying another of my so-so authors, Peter May, and his latest offering The Night Gate.  It's an Enzo story, so lightweight. Will have to see if it grips my attention or not. I love the Lewis trilogy, but have generally struggled to maintain interest with subsequent offerings (and, indeed, prior ones)
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6283 on: 19 April, 2021, 01:16:40 pm »
Adrian Czajkowski, 'Shadows of the Apt' *Tchaikovsky for publication purposes)

Just coming to the last two in this series. Rather interesting premise, but the plotting can beseen as reflecting obvious Earth real-life history. The premise:

A fantasy world filled with lots of different races of humans, each race (kinden) having a non-human 'totem' that affects their physical nature and mindset. For example, Mantis Kinden are near-psychopathic and very efficient killers. Wasps are utterly nasty empire-builders.

Each kinden has an Art, a sort of magic trick, that can be deployed. This can involve, e.g, wings, so that wasps have 'light airborne' troops, and flies are rather short people who are employed as messengers.

The kinden, and individuals within them, are divided between the Apt and Inapt. 500 years before the time of the books, the world was run by the Moth mystics with their Mantis troops, but there was an Apt revolution. The difference between Apr and Inapt is the ability to use machinery and carry out certain aspects of abstract reasoning. For example, the Inapt can use swords, bows, etc, but cannot work door handles or read stylised maps. They have other abilities, depicted as being just as valid.

The technology is a sort of steampunk. As an example, there are many 'automotives', many of which are walkers. A typical aircraft is an ornithopter, made of wood and silk, powered by a clockwork motor and armed with two Roman style repeating ballistae. The engine can be rewound by trailing a drogue chute, which does rather impinge on the laws of thermodynamics except in very specific circumstances, such as soaring unpowered flight on thermals being used to gain the necessary potential energy for rewinding.

Not too badly written, if a little repetitive now and again, but any set of books whose lead character is a bald, dumpy and middle-aged man is worth a look.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

ravenbait

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6284 on: 03 May, 2021, 04:13:16 pm »
I've currently got Dan Simmons's Hyperion on the go, also Jeff Vandermeer's Hummingbird Salamander, and The Overstory by Richard Powers.

Hummingbird Salamander is very different from Vandermeer's earlier stuff (Area X, Borne, Dead Astronauts), and I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I suspect it's because the voice is very much that of his protagonist, and for me it's overly contrived and doesn't flow as naturally as the earlier weirdness.

Hyperion is a tour de force. It's really quite something.

I want to like The Overstory more than I do. I keep putting it down because it feels too much like a book I'd be made to read for school.

Sam
https://ravenbait.com
"Created something? Hah! But that would be irresponsible! And unethical! I would never, ever make... more than one."

ian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6285 on: 04 May, 2021, 11:00:22 am »
I started reading The Overstory about two years ago, I think I'm still in the 40% complete doldrums. Good luck.

ravenbait

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  • Pudge controls the weather.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6286 on: 04 May, 2021, 11:22:29 am »
I started reading The Overstory about two years ago, I think I'm still in the 40% complete doldrums. Good luck.
I'm finding that I pick it up, think about how old I am, how much longer I might exist on this Earth, and all the books yet unread that I could be reading instead of this one. Then I go and get one of those.

Sam
https://ravenbait.com
"Created something? Hah! But that would be irresponsible! And unethical! I would never, ever make... more than one."

ian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6287 on: 04 May, 2021, 11:36:33 am »
I should just give up to, I'm not going to finish it. It's not a bad book, it's well-written, but it's overly worthy stodge, and it's always a bad sign when you get to the end of a long section and look at the per cent complete and think, fuck, it's not even moved a single per cent. How can that be?

Occasionally I feel the urge to improve myself with proper literature, more often than not these days, I regret it. Long books in which lots of words happen and not much else.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6288 on: 04 May, 2021, 02:38:51 pm »
Currently reading Perdido Street Station and rather enjoying it.

And a friend bought it for me so that's even better.
Miles cycled 2014 = 3551.5 (Target 7300 :()
Miles cycled 2013 = 6141.4
Miles cycled 2012 = 4038.1

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6289 on: 04 May, 2021, 03:08:59 pm »
I started reading The Overstory about two years ago, I think I'm still in the 40% complete doldrums. Good luck.
I'm finding that I pick it up, think about how old I am, how much longer I might exist on this Earth, and all the books yet unread that I could be reading instead of this one. Then I go and get one of those.

Sam

I felt like that about the last Stephen R Donaldson book I tried to read. My thoughts can be summed up as two-stage:
1. How much more of this stuff is there?
2. [Endreads] Sod this for a game of book-reading soldiers.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6290 on: 13 May, 2021, 04:02:30 pm »
I am reading Emily Chappell's 'What goes around'.
I've had this from charity shops twice before and never got around to reading it.
Bought it again last week and it is beautifully written. A nice read - unless anything horrible happens in the second half.
Never knowingly under caffeinated

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6291 on: 14 May, 2021, 09:32:30 am »
just started Tim Weaver's latest "Missing Pieces", a non David Raker standalone. Set in the US so maybe an attempt to break that market.

ETA: It has the alternating “now” and “before” chapter arrangement. Not one of my favourite devices. I’ll see how it goes.

ETAA: It didn't. The format deprives the narrative of pace, and the writing isn't so good I'd read it for the language alone.  Not sure whats next, possiblt the new-to-me Dale Brown's "Tiger Claw" - some mindless escapism.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6292 on: 14 May, 2021, 11:24:19 am »
Just finished Charlie Stross's two Edinburgh krimis, Halting State and Rule 34.  Shame he abandoned the third in the series, they were great fun.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6293 on: 14 May, 2021, 11:42:40 am »
Just finished Charlie Stross's two Edinburgh krimis, Halting State and Rule 34.  Shame he abandoned the third in the series, they were great fun.


He said real life events are making it almost impossible to write near future fiction.  A real shame. 



“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don’ like to bug you, but I need a second opinion . . .”


"Wow, that’s something out of the ordinary. A two-wetsuit job means kinky beyond the call of duty. "
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6294 on: 16 May, 2021, 10:30:48 am »
I finished the Emily Chappell book "What goes around" yesterday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read about a subject that doesn't mean much to me by an author that I wouldn't usually consider.
Beautifully written and I've just ordered her one about the European endurance race - another aspect of cycling that I would usually pass by.

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.
Never knowingly under caffeinated

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6295 on: 16 May, 2021, 11:04:24 am »
Just finished Charlie Stross's two Edinburgh krimis, Halting State and Rule 34.  Shame he abandoned the third in the series, they were great fun.


He said real life events are making it almost impossible to write near future fiction.  A real shame. 



“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don’ like to bug you, but I need a second opinion . . .”


"Wow, that’s something out of the ordinary. A two-wetsuit job means kinky beyond the call of duty. "

Good old Embry - made me quite nostalgic.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6296 on: 17 May, 2021, 09:05:27 am »
I finished the Emily Chappell book "What goes around" yesterday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read about a subject that doesn't mean much to me by an author that I wouldn't usually consider.
Beautifully written and I've just ordered her one about the European endurance race - another aspect of cycling that I would usually pass by.

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.

Doesn't look lile it, but you can ask her yourself

https://twitter.com/emilychappell?lang=en
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6297 on: 17 May, 2021, 10:28:21 am »
Just finished "A Great and Terrible King" - Marc Morris the biography of Edward 1st. Really interesting especially on how his reign changed and shaped English / Scottish relationship from then until now really. The medieval aristocracy really were a bunch of back stabbers.

Started on "Aden Insurgency - the save war in Yemen 1962-67" Jonathan Walker

Reading this mainly because my dad was involved in the early part of this. He was clerk to one of the generals.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6298 on: 17 May, 2021, 11:16:53 am »
Like Ashaman42, Perdido Street Station, maybe for the 3rd time. Read it when it came out 20 years ago, and at least one other time in between. C. Miéville does rather enjoy wallowing in crud, but it's fascinating crud.

Later books of his, e.g. Kraken, came across as somewhat pathetic self-parody, though they bucked up a bit with Embassytown - touch of Kafka there.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #6299 on: 17 May, 2021, 11:29:14 am »
I finished Perdido yesterday and loved it overall.

Last night I started Kerouac's On The Road but only chapter one read so far.
Miles cycled 2014 = 3551.5 (Target 7300 :()
Miles cycled 2013 = 6141.4
Miles cycled 2012 = 4038.1