Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ?  (Read 835402 times)

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5200 on: 10 January, 2018, 10:07:50 pm »
It was the first one of his I read and whilst I haven't read everything yet it's definitely near/at the top of my list.
Miles cycled 2014 = 3551.5 (Target 7300 :()
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T42

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5201 on: 11 January, 2018, 08:23:02 am »
Consider Phlebas for me, I think.  Got a soft spot for Espedair Street, too.

Damn. I wish he hadn't died.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

essexian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5202 on: 11 January, 2018, 01:34:59 pm »
Fire and Fury Michael Wolff.

Listened to this as a download and a good listen it is too: the reader of the book does an excellent job in the way they present the material.

As to the material, the book doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know: Trump is not capable of being POTUS while his team are a bunch of amateurs/ family members  as anyone with half a brain has gotten out or been sacked but its worth a read to help put some of the matters together in a logical order.


Redlight

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5203 on: 11 January, 2018, 02:29:42 pm »
I collected my copy today from the local bookshop and am looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm impressed that they have already managed to get someone capable of reading it all the way through without having to run out of the studio and be sick or double over laughing. Does he/she do the voices too?
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

essexian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5204 on: 11 January, 2018, 02:33:00 pm »
I collected my copy today from the local bookshop and am looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm impressed that they have already managed to get someone capable of reading it all the way through without having to run out of the studio and be sick or double over laughing. Does he/she do the voices too?

Yes he does...  There are several sections which are laugh out loud funny  ;D and one or two.... Trump in Russia...which mind bleach is required for.   :sick:

essexian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5205 on: 12 January, 2018, 02:49:27 pm »
Been busy reading!

George Orwell- The Road to Wigan Pier.

Written in the 1930’s and considering the rise of fascism and the failure of socialism to take advantage of the woeful conditions many people faced at the time (poor housing/lack of social housing/ poor pay and conditions and a restrictive social support service), along with the major differences between book learnt socialist and those who actually live it, this book may seem a little dated (certainly in some of the terms used) but there are direct parallels  between the world then and now thus, despite being 80 years old, it should be read by anyone who has an interest in such things….it is a major shame on my part that I have not read it previously.

Orwell does not like vegetarians or sandal wears!!!!

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5206 on: 14 January, 2018, 07:50:54 pm »
I just finished The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka. If you like the late Sue Grafton's alphabet series with Kinsey Millhone, you might like this.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


robgul

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5207 on: 18 January, 2018, 07:54:44 pm »
I collected my copy today from the local bookshop and am looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm impressed that they have already managed to get someone capable of reading it all the way through without having to run out of the studio and be sick or double over laughing. Does he/she do the voices too?

Yes he does...  There are several sections which are laugh out loud funny  ;D and one or two.... Trump in Russia...which mind bleach is required for.   :sick:

I'm about a quarter of the way through and my reaction so far is that you couldn't make it up . . . if only half is true/accurate then it's worrying to say the least.

My daughter works for the UK publisher and has seen the "cease and desist" letter ... 20 pages of waffle.  And of course Trumps threats to sue aren't going to come to anything as his questioning and defence would mean releasing a lot of information and even, heaven forbid, his tax returns that he doesn't want to be in the public domain.

I see that Michael Wolff has sold the film rights today - guessing at the cast will be fun - although I suppose the guy that does him on SNL would be a strong candidate.

Rob

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5208 on: 18 January, 2018, 08:22:54 pm »
Just starting Charles Stross' Empire Games. Enjoying it so far, even if it does tax my remembering names skills.

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Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5209 on: 18 January, 2018, 08:23:13 pm »
Daemon Voices: Essays On Storytelling ~ Philip Pullman.  An anthology of lectures and essays on, er, writing stories.  Apparently a deeply unfashionable thing to do if you aspire to write "literary fiction" these days but, by his own admission, the good Mr Pullman has no such aspirations, so that's alright then.
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Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5210 on: 21 January, 2018, 10:08:48 pm »
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult was brilliant.  Slightly soft ending but really excellent throughout.  Onto Chris Boardmans bio now, an Xmas present.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5211 on: 22 January, 2018, 08:18:32 am »
Can't settle into a book at present. Having just finished David Brin's Existence I'm having trouble finding anything to match it.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

hillbilly

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5212 on: 22 January, 2018, 04:56:34 pm »
I'm grappling with "Infinite Jest" at the moment.  It's the first book I've had to look up instructions for and to use two bookmarks (one for the main text and one for footnotes). 

To be honest it's hard work and it isn't making much sense at the moment.  I suspect it may be another one of those highly regarded books that are endured rather than enjoyed.  Endured because I'm under the impression that this is a "challenge" and that my intellectual price is at stake.  I'm hoping the enjoyment will come though (online comments are positive, although I do wonder if this is because people want to appear smart rather than because it's actually a pleasure to read - much like, say, Ulysses or War and Peace, the former of which I eventually appreciated on my fourth attempt to read it and the latter which I thought was fine but vowed never to read it again due to the shortness of life).

I've set myself the goal of completing Infinite Jest by the summer, hopefully with an understanding of what it is about.  I'm 100 pages in but thinking of starting again with a notebook so I don't lose track of the story (in part because I'm reading other books in parallel).

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5213 on: 31 January, 2018, 01:30:31 pm »
Anyone else dabbled with Orhan Pamuk? I'm 150 pages into A Strangeness in My Mind (translated from Turkish by the author) and am enjoying it in a cosy, comfort-reading kind of way. It's about Istanbul over the last 50 years or so, mainly through the eyes of an ingenue who moves there from the Anatolian countryside and becomes a street vendor of yoghurt and boza, like his dad.

Riggers

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5214 on: 31 January, 2018, 01:49:19 pm »
Trigger Mortis James Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz, that a chum has lent me. Can't remember when I did last read a Bond book, but I've only read one other.

This one, apparently, has original un-seen Ian Fleming material stuffed in it somehow/somewhere.

The story begins in the lethal world of Grand Prix and an attempt by the Russians to sabotage a race at Nürburgring, the most dangerous track in Europe. Bond is in the driving seat but events swiftly take an unexpected turn, pitching him into an entirely different race with implications that could change the world.

Even through the first few pages, it pretty evident Bond should quit smoking! Smokes like a bloody chimney.

Pussy Galore's in it.
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

tiermat

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5215 on: 31 January, 2018, 03:08:34 pm »
Just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

My god it's odd, not as odd, maybe as Odd Thomas, but still...

I asked one of the guys at work, this morning, if the TV series is weird and he replied with "Well I managed to struggle through 4 episodes then gave up, as it was so odd"

That'll be yes, then...

BTW I am enjoying it...
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 #5216 on: 31 January, 2018, 03:12:01 pm »
Trigger Mortis James Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz, that a chum has lent me. Can't remember when I did last read a Bond book, but I've only read one other.

This one, apparently, has original un-seen Ian Fleming material stuffed in it somehow/somewhere.

The story begins in the lethal world of Grand Prix and an attempt by the Russians to sabotage a race at Nürburgring, the most dangerous track in Europe. Bond is in the driving seat but events swiftly take an unexpected turn, pitching him into an entirely different race with implications that could change the world.

Even through the first few pages, it pretty evident Bond should quit smoking! Smokes like a bloody chimney.

Pussy Galore's in it.

I read Magpie Murders (by AH) from my sickbed over Christmas, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've heard him speaking on the wireless about Trigger Mortis, The Word Is Murder, and a few other things, and am keen to read more of his stuff...

Mrs Pingu

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5217 on: 31 January, 2018, 08:39:11 pm »
Just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

My god it's odd, not as odd, maybe as Odd Thomas, but still...

I asked one of the guys at work, this morning, if the TV series is weird and he replied with "Well I managed to struggle through 4 episodes then gave up, as it was so odd"

That'll be yes, then...

BTW I am enjoying it...

It's a brilliant book!
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ElyDave

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5218 on: 31 January, 2018, 10:10:06 pm »
The Oddessy. Not as good as The Iliad.

Second album syndrome?

For light relief, a marvel comic where Ms Marvel is a 16 year old Muslim girl was a very good read.

Also written a long time apart by different Homers

Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

Also reading A book on Pranayama techniques by Gregor Maehle as my serious read
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

ElyDave

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5219 on: 31 January, 2018, 10:11:48 pm »
Consider Phlebas for me, I think.  Got a soft spot for Espedair Street, too.

Damn. I wish he hadn't died.

I still haven't read everything he wrote.  I started with Iain M Banks, and have only recently moved to Iain Banks.

I have an intention to get a copy of everything he wrote and read them all from start to finish.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

ian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5220 on: 31 January, 2018, 10:34:28 pm »
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.

ElyDave

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5221 on: 31 January, 2018, 11:07:31 pm »
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.

So not his best output then?
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Torslanda

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5222 on: 31 January, 2018, 11:23:48 pm »
You think...?
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

ian

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5223 on: 01 February, 2018, 09:13:43 am »
Back to Robert Heinlein for me - Starship Troopers, very different to the film

I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's shit that been blasted by a giant shittification ray and then dropped in to a shit compactor and compressed with more shit until it's the density of a neutron star made out of pure shit.

So not his best output then?

It's the only one I've read, but I'm not about to try another. Putting aside the offputting fascistic militarism (with none of the tongue-in-cheek irony of the movie) that is expounded over many, many dull pages and achieves the considerable feat of making Ayn Rand seem almost interesting, it's just dull. Endless pages detail the minutia of military bureaucracy and ranks. And frankly, the protagonist is dull. He's the sort of person you'd climb out of the toilet window to avoid talking to at a party. A party on the top floor of a tower block.

Still, finally at the end (where the finallys usually do happen), there's an actual encounter with the enemy (the only encounter, iirc). Could there really be some excitement?

No.  Most, most definitely no.

Unless you're excited, of course, by a couple of the pages detailing troop disposition and patrol patterns. Then they caught an alien and went home for tea and scones or somesuch. The end.

The worst 99p I've ever spent.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #5224 on: 01 February, 2018, 09:33:02 am »
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis,* being the second vol. of the trilogy† begun with Bitter Seeds.  The boy‡ can write and his characters are excellent, but his command of 1940s English English is poor, he being from Over There.  One does not view Buckingham across Green Park, nor does one turn onto Shaftesbury. Nor did one turn onto in 1944, one turned on to. Small things and ignorable enough - you build a sort of mental callus over your critical blisters - that don't stop the books being very enjoyable. Alas, I'll have finished them all by Monday.

*  he of the Clakkers
† only they call it a triptych; it's, like, posher. Ask Mr. Bell.
‡ age 44 or thereabouts
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight