What books are we reading at the moment ?

[peliroja]

Still reading An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper-class Idiots in Charge by John O'Farrell. Very hilarious and a good grounding in all the history we really ought to know by now. 

[alan]

This Sceptered Isle:The Dynasties

[RJ]

Günter Grass's what?

Fixed.  Missing " ] " 

I'm about to start Günter Grass's Peeling the Onion - (presumably unintentionally) ironically shelved by Borders under "fiction" ...

It's an autobiography (well, memoir) ...

[Palinurus]

Not sure if it was this thread but someone on here mentioned John Healy's The Grass Arena. Just read that.

Working (People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do)- interviews by Studs Terkel.

David Peace -1980.

Cyclocoss- training and technique by Simon Burney.

Just been scanning the recent posts: The Rings of Saturn is one of the best things I've come across in the last few years- I've lost my copy, I'd like to track that down for a re-read.

[Mrs Pingu]

I am currently having another attempt to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. See if I can get to half way this time!

I thought it was disappointing and overrated - and one of those books that isn't half as impressive if you've ever read any decent science fiction (which of course most mainstream critics and people who give out awards haven't). He's generally got away with quite a bit has David Mitchell - his earlier books, written whilst he was still in Japan, are so 'influenced' by Haruki Murakami that Murakami should sue him. He got away with it, I think because Murakami wasn't so well known then outside Japan as he is now. Since he's stopped trying to be Murakami he's been very windy and pretentious but lacking in genuine spark IMHO.

Oh dear! Well, I'm still reading it, but I didn't get much reading done on holiday <geek> primarily because the only reading I did was about the LHC in New Scientist</geek>
I don't see where the science fiction comes in though... maybe I haven't got to that bit yet.

I do love Murakami, but I'm waiting for his latest novel to appear in prole-back. And the same goes for Iain M Banks. I'm hoping it's better than his last non SF effort which I thought was a a bit pants really.
As for Yann Martel - Pi was ok for a bit of light hollyday reading.
I agree about GG Marquez though - I enjoyed 100 yrs of solitude up until about halfway through and then I just got really pissed off with all the characters and wanted to give them all a big slap round the chops. Oh well, that's what you get based on buying books based on Wikipedia calling them 'magic realism'.....

About the only authors I'm enjoying on a consistent basis at the moment are Murakami and Alistair Reynolds....so that'll be the kiss of death now then. 

As for Christopher Brookmyre, I did read a few of his earlier novels and they're ok for a bit of light hearted nonsense but I object paying money for a book I can finish in a couple of hours these days.....

[ibrahim]

Rahel Levin Varnhagen's letters with Pauline Wiesel, 750 pages of German letters between two nineteenth century women.

A cracking read!

[αdαmsκι]

I've now finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  The book is set in Afghanistan, initally during the Soviet invasion and then follows the lives of the characters after the Soviets leave, civil wall takes place and then The Talibian take control.  The book certainly made an impact on me as Hosseini creates a world of pain as the story unfolds.  He reminds me of Thomas Hardy in the doom and depression that he can create in his writing.  While it is certainly a very powerful story, his writing style leaves something to be desired.  The two main characters are Mariam and Laila.  The first 1/4 of the book is about Mariam, and then suddenly he moves onto talk about Lila for the second 1/4 and you've left wondering why we've just forgotten about Marian.  It all becomes clear, but I feel that would have been a better way to introduce the main characters rather than having two almost separate stories.  I also wonder how accurately the novel is of the situation in Afghanistan.  It sounds plausible, although it's difficult to know for sure especially as Hosseini left Afghanistan in 1976.   

Next up is A Very Short Introduction to Hinduism.

[mark]

My copy of "IBM and the Holocaust" arrived today, looks like it should be an interesting read. Having spent most of my youth being told that WWII was a "just" war and that the the Allies represented the forces of good against the evil Axis Powers, I'm starting to realize just how much was done to aid and encourage the Axis Powers by powerful persons and companies in the various Allied nations.

[rogerzilla]

Vulcan 607.

An amazing logistical effort and an emormous amount of jet fuel to get...er...one bomb on Port Stanley's runway.

[scott]

I haven't read the new version yet, but the trilogy remains one of my favourite things, so I am not sure I would want to!

Yeah; I'm trying to ignore all my real problems and make this  a major life dilemma. 

[nicknack]

Harry Potter. Read 4 and 5 in last 2 days. I really ought to be doing something more useful.

Off to start no. 6 now. 

[Flying_Monkey]

Q by 'Luther Blissett' was superb. Really. For anyone who likes Umberto Eco's historical novels but thinks they could have been more entertaining. Or anyone who likes Neil Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy but wishes he knew a bit more about the actual history of the period and didn't make his characters sound as if they were Americans... or for anyone who loves a densely-plotted, literate, politically savvy, wonderfully-characterised historical novel that is just as much about now.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner and I'm enjoying it very much. I especially liked a bit where she baked scones in the shape of the villagers and then someone turned up for tea unexpectedly and she had to give him villager-shaped scones.

"But Mr Saunter ate the strange shapes without comment, quietly splitting open the villagers and buttering them. He told her that he would soon lose the services of young Billy Thomas, who was going to Lazzard Court as a footman.

'I shouldn't think young Billy Thomas would make much of a footman,' said Laura.

'I don't know,' he answered consideringly. 'He's very good at standing still.'"

[padbeat]

Q by 'Luther Blissett' was superb. Really. For anyone who likes Umberto Eco's historical novels but thinks they could have been more entertaining. Or anyone who likes Neil Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy but wishes he knew a bit more about the actual history of the period and didn't make his characters sound as if they were Americans... or for anyone who loves a densely-plotted, literate, politically savvy, wonderfully-characterised historical novel that is just as much about now.

OK, I'm intrigued - bit of an interesting concept! I think it's worth a punt ...

[mark]

"IBM & the Holocaust" was excellent, very disturbing. Right about the time I finished it my copy of "Internal Combustion" showed up in the mail, which promises to be just as disturbing. It's how the automakers and energy companies maneuvered the industrial world into being dependent on oil and the automobile. Once again I've heard parts of the story over the years, but it will be interesting to have the whole story laid out in front of me.

[Flying_Monkey]

"IBM & the Holocaust" was excellent, very disturbing.

Quite agree.

I am finally reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is mainly hey are selling it for 2.99 in Blackwells in Newcastle. We have this thing at the University called 'The Common Book', which is like a mega-reading group where lots of people read the same book and then the author turns up and gives a talk and answers questions.

[Charlotte]

I've just finished this:

Thompson, Hunter S. Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

A strange choice perhaps, but I wanted to read Thompson's first published book whilst I was actually out in San Francisco where most of the action took place.

It's an amazing record of a phenomenon which few people at the time understood and goes to show that Thompson himself took Gonzo journalism very seriously.  Silly bugger ended up getting beaten up quite badly by several of his subjects, but still managed to remain very even handed in his description of the rest of them.

[Mr Larrington]

Thompson, Hunter S. Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

Read that a few years ago - curiously it was borrowed from a chap who lived about three doors down from the Angels' gaff in Southampton.  An interesting read.

[Wascally Weasel]

Just re-read both volumes of Maus by Art Speigelman and was reminded to question why it is that the people that deny the holocaust often seem to be those that would have most liked for it to have been even more complete than in reality?

After that I'm back onto light reading and the fabulously entertaining alternate history world of 'Agent of Byzantium' by Harry Turtledove*


*I wish he was still this good rather than churning out multi-volume crap like he has been mostly doing for the last ten years.

[Ariadne]

Still hooked on Trollope - though this one, The way we live now, isn't grabbing me in quite the same way. We'll see.

It does give Corvine the opportunity to mutter 'trollop' every time he walks into the room and finds me reading... 

[Tom B]

Last weekend: 'All Families are Psychotic' by Douglas Coupland. Light, enjoyable and sympathetic. I can see why some reviewers thought it was crap, tho.

Just finished: 'Waiting for the Barbarians' by J.M. Coetzee. Beautifully written, originally an allegory of apartheid South Africa but the mindsets it depicts have resurfaced (if they ever went away) in the post-9/11 world.

Now reading: 'The Alteration' by Kingsley Amis. Even more engaging than most alternate histories

[Flying_Monkey]

I am now reading Desert by J.M.G. Le Clezio, which I picked up in Paris last week, as I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of him when it was announced that he had won the Nobel prize.

[Hot Flatus]

I am now reading Desert by J.M.G. Le Clezio, which I picked up in Paris last week, as I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of him when it was announced that he had won the Nobel prize.

What's the Nobel prize?

[groucho]

I am now reading Desert by J.M.G. Le Clezio, which I picked up in Paris last week, as I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of him when it was announced that he had won the Nobel prize.

What's the Nobel prize?

"American academic Paul Krugman has won this year's Nobel economics prize, it has been announced." I would have thought there would be no award this year!

[tiermat]

"Making Money" by T. Pratchett, makes sense in this climate