What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Regulator]

I've just finished CJ Sansom's 'Dissolution'.  Unfortunately, I picked up 'Sovereign' first, then 'Dark Fire' and finally found a copy o 'Dissolution' meaning that I have read the books in reverse order... - but they were still good.

I've got the fourth in the series waiting downstairs for me - but I have to do some work before settling down with it.

I can recommend this series if you like historically based murder mysteries.  These books are Tudor versions of  Cadfael's...

[Flying_Monkey]

Just finished Peter Ackroyd's The House of Doctor Dee. He did seem to churn these past/present London occult figure collision novels out for a while (see also Hawksmoor, Chatterton etc.), and this one sometimes just seems like he's writing and rewriting a London historical A to Z. There are some patches are rather wonderful ecstatic writing, but it isn't a successful novel IMHO. I like mine a bit more daring than this, and my favourites in this genre, if you can call it a genre, are Tim Power's The Anubis Gates and Simon Ing's unjustifiably ignored Weight of Numbers (which is a bit like Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon but more disturbing and much better written).

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I am almost ashamed to admit that I have just finished Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind by Virginia Andrews and am just starting If There Be Thorns. I never read them when I was younger so I'm doing it now. Gosh, they're melodramatic faux-Gothic nonsense! 

[Manotea]

Whearas I adored Fever Pitch and High Fidelity (the latter made a good film - can't go wrong with that Cusack fella).

I loved the first page of Fever Pitch. I have moments like that about cycling...

[Jezza]

Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson.

[spesh]

Just started getting into Philip K. Dick's works - I recently read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and I've just started on The Man In The High Castle.

[Zoidburg]

The first is outstanding

The second is the best book about the real nature of evil that you will ever read.

It should be required reading for all politicians.

[Flying_Monkey]

Abso-damn-lutely.

[Tom B]

'The Last King of Scotland' by Giles Foden
Have barely put it down 

[Deano]

I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and found it to be a magnificent book.  It was like sitting in a grand cathedral or place of beauty and allowing one's senses to be filled with the feast upon display.  I didn't find the ending especially uplifting, but I adored the details of life after.

Currently reading Moby Dick.  I should have read it 20 years ago, but my uncle borrowed it and has yet to return it.

[Captain Zep]

Just finished "the Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek.  A comedy about a simpleton soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during the Great War.  I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't heard of this classic until the Radio 4 dramatisation last year.  A precursor in many ways to Catch 22,  Hasek died (long) before he could finish the story - Svejk doesn't even get as far as the front after 800 pages!  Some truly memorable episodes and characters.  Highly recommended to lovers of "silly" stories.

[RJ]

Finished (a week ago) St Exupery's Flight to Arras, which was a pretty interesting read (reflections on a pointless 1940 reconnaissance flight that he and his crew were not expected to survive) and have now picked up Jonathan Weiner's The Beak of the Finch to reread after a gap of several years. It's a popular-science account of the work of Peter & Rosemary Grant on Darwin's finches - and halfway through is as interesting and well-written as I remember it.

EDIT:  It should be  - it won a Pulitzer. 

[PaulF]

I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and found it to be a magnificent book.  It was like sitting in a grand cathedral or place of beauty and allowing one's senses to be filled with the feast upon display.  I didn't find the ending especially uplifting, but I adored the details of life after.

Currently reading Moby Dick.  I should have read it 20 years ago, but my uncle borrowed it and has yet to return it.

Spooky!Just fininshing McCarthy's Blood Meridian and, inspired by watching the whales at Cape Cod,  about to move onto Melville as well.

Blood Meridian is gory and almost as bleak as The Road.

[Deano]

I'll have to read more by McCarthy.  I think there's a copy of All the Pretty Horses somewhere in the house.

Moby Dick is engrossing, so far.  A very dense read.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Just started getting into Philip K. Dick's works - I recently read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and I've just started on The Man In The High Castle.

Don't miss 'Now wait for last year'. Much underrated.

I'm reading Moorock's "Dancers at the End of Time".

Can't believe I've overlooked this for so many years. If you've read Moorock's 'emo elf swordsman' books, forget them. This is totally different, absolutely barking and fantastic.

[Tim Hall]

Just finished Christopher Brookmyre's "A Snowball in Hell".

Tick, v.g.

[Mike r]

I'm in the middle of 'A Passage to India' by E. M. Forster.
It is quite good.

[Flying_Monkey]

I'm reading Moorock's "Dancers at the End of Time".

Can't believe I've overlooked this for so many years. If you've read Moorock's 'emo elf swordsman' books, forget them. This is totally different, absolutely barking and fantastic.

Moorcock can and has churned out vast numbers of books without much regard for whether they are any good or not. Luckily some of them are, and the Dancers books are some of them.

Read 'Mother London' if you want to see what he can do when he makes a real effort. It is a better London book than either Sinclair or Ackroyd have ever done.

[Snakehips]

My copy of  Bloody Victory by William Philpott   http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/Title/9781408701089 hit the doormat with a thud yesterday. It has good reviews , has anybody read it yet ?

[Wascally Weasel]

Preview copy of ‘Pandaemonium’ the new book by Christopher Brookmyre.

[citoyen]

I'm reading David Crystal's The Stories of English right now. It is actually a good read as well as being interesting and well-researched.

Following your recommendation, I have ordered a copy to take on holiday with me. Looking forward to it.

I'm also going to take Lempriere's Dictionary - I had a stab at it a few years ago but didn't really have a chance to get stuck into it, but I'm determined to do some proper reading on this holiday now that the offspring is old enough to mostly look after himself. Will probably take something a bit lighter too as back-up - I've not read any of his stuff before, but based on the comments here, Christopher Brookmyre sounds like an interesting possibility.

d.

[Manotea]

Just started getting into Philip K. Dick's works - I recently read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and I've just started on The Man In The High Castle.

See also 'The  Galactic Pothealer'.

[woollypigs]

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which I find hard to read because I have been told that it was a serious book about war an death and somewhat a bit like 1984.

But it is so funny.

[Jezza]

Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire".

[Greenbank]

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which I find hard to read because I have been told that it was a serious book about war an death and somewhat a bit like 1984.

But it is so funny.

I've got Closing Time by Joseph Heller that is kind of a sequel that I've never managed to finish if you want to borrow it.

The Samurai by Shusaku Endo is the next in my pile.