What books are we reading at the moment ?

[David Martin]

Alternating between Mark Beaumont's book and Richard Matheson's collected shorts, translated into French. Need the practice.

I found the Beaumont book quite heavy going and hard to really engage with.

Tuesday. Tired. Have to do 100 miles today. Headwind. Found a hotel that ripped me off.

x195.

OK, not a strictly accurate reflection of the book... And by the time I got to the end I felt like I'd been through the mill as well.

..d

[pcolbeck]

Amazon just delivered my holiday books (two weeks starting Friday hooray !).

All Quite On the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

I realised last week that I hadn't ever read this. Not sure how it slipped me by.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes / The Amateur Emigrant - Robert Louis Stevenson

I like to read something relevant to where we are going and this fits the bill for the South West of France.

House of the Sun - Alastair Reynolds

A big fat space opera for some light reading.

[αdαmsκι]

Just started Days of Grace, which has been recommended to me by family. I've only read a couple of chapters so far, but it's going well so far and the Independent seemed to like it, too:

[TheLurker]

As (half) promised up thread... scanned images of adverts from, "The Cyclist's Finger-Post"

The Cyclist's Finger Post - a set on Flickr

[Really Ancien]

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. I was early into Bryson, guided by a friend in 1990. I originally read him for his style, which was very influential. I just happened to pick this one up again recently and I'm really enjoying it. If you have never read ,do, and if you picked up when you were in your 20s, but didn't like it, go back and try it again.

Damon.

[tiermat]

I managed to get through 3 whilst on holiday:
The Rider by Tim Krabbe
The Death of Marco Pantani by Matt Rendell
Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life - Mil Millington

All enjoyable.

And Finished "In search of Robert Millar" last night

Time for some new books I think

[Flying_Monkey]

Finally getting round to reading White Tiger, the 2008 Booker winner. It's actually quite good. I don't normally expect that of books that win awards...

[Sergeant Pluck]

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Most interesting so far.

On the other hand, I made a start on James Palumbo's Tomas and I don't get it at all   The book comes with glowing recommendations from all and sundry, including some authors I really enjoy, but I must be missing something. The first review in the Amazon link above says it all.

[alan]

Not a book,but a list.
I am reading thru' the AUK calendar to do a list of audax rides near enough to get to without too much travelling.
Any marked as "no entry on the line" will be ignored 'cause I often don't know for sure if I can attend untill a Friday night.   

[Spinners]

Wing Leader - Johnnie Johnson. I love WW2 biographies and, since reading this in the school library, this one has been a particular favourite of mine for about 35 years!

[Mrs Pingu]

House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds

A big fat space opera for some light reading.

Yeah, I've nearly finished it and it is quite light. Not up to his usual std.

[Bledlow]

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton. I've never read anything by him before, & perhaps that was a mistake. I'm enjoying this one.

Mrs B wants me to hurry up & finish it. She dipped in while I left it unattended, & now wants to read it.

[mark]

The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell

[mike]

The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell

I read that last week.  Angry, isnt he?

now reading Moby Dick. 

[Jezza]

Passage to Juneau - Jonathan Raban
Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore
Blood River - Tim Butcher

[Nuncio]

I read that last week.  Angry, isnt he?

now reading Moby Dick. 

Woody Allen's Zelig's one regret was that he hadn't read Moby Dick - he died after starting it.  Whereas, I think I read in an interview that Woody Allen's biggest regret was the time he wasted reading Moby Dick.  Which is also odd, because he claimed he speed-read it in 20 minutes and summarized it as: 'It's about a whale'.  Sorry, that should have had a spoiler alert.

I'm reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, in translation.

[clarion]

I bought some books at teh weekend, which I'm optimistically carrying about, though I get very little book reading time:

Poet in New York - F Garcia Lorca.  I sat in the sun at the weekend reading this.  Marvellous.  I know his play, 'Blood Wedding' - an upbeat, cheery feel-good musical for all the family - but not his poetry.  Reminds me rather of Neruda.

I also bought Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin, which I have read years ago, but it's probably worth another look.  And Oscar Wilde's Short Stories.  I have a volume of his collected prose, but it's a big book, and a small paperback of short stories is probably ideal for a few snatched moments in a field.

At work, I'm reading a James Herriot book a page or so at a time on the loo

[Mr Larrington]

A Dark Adapted Eye ~ Barbara Vine.  I started it a Several of weeks ago and then put it to one side, so will probably have to start again.

The Burgess Book Of Lies ~ Adrian & Alan Burgess.  Identical twin oiks from Holmfirth climb mountains, drink BEER and get into fights.  Government Health Warning: may contain traces of Don Whillans.

[redshift]

I have hols coming up, so I have stocked up in anticipation:
The Pyjama Game: A Journey into Judo by Mark Law (I think he's attempting to do for Judo what Twigger did for Aikido).
Sea Kayaker's Deep Trouble: True stories and their lessons by Matt Broze
Fastnet Force 10 by John Rousmaniere
Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz.

It's not a disaster fetish, honest...

[mike]

the pajama game is quite good, I read it last year.  Very funny descriptions of training sessions.

[Flying_Monkey]

I am reading Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. It's a wonderful piece of writing and a great story of two young Cree men enlisted into the Canadian army in WW1, and the aunt of one of the boys who takes him home when he is injured. I don't think I have read a better novel about WW1 recently, and what's more, it is also a beautiful story of the fate of the aboriginal people of Canada.

He's had another novel come out recently called Through Black Spruce, which has a little bit set on the island I now live on, and is also supposed to be excellent.

[mattc]

Which is also odd, because he claimed he speed-read it in 20 minutes and summarized it as: 'It's about a whale'.  Sorry, that should have had a spoiler alert.

hangonaminute ... last time he told that joke, it was War and Peace.


Which is about Russia.

[mark]

"Inside the Third Reich", by Albert Speer. Speer was Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production, and ended up conspiring to kill Hitler towards the end of WWII and confessing his guilt during the Nuremberg trials.

[Aidan]

Mark Beaumonts book, finished the first leg  and enjoying it thoroughly so far

[pcolbeck]

A quick review of my holiday reading

All Quite On the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Bloody hell. If you haven't read this then do so. Best read after a few glasses of wine as it's a quite calm book and incredibly traumatic. Made me want to cry. Definitely lives up to it's reputation.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes / The Amateur Emigrant - Robert Louis Stevenson

OK and interesting. Mr Stevenson was well up himself and somewhat self pitying.

House of the Sun - Alastair Reynolds

Not bad. Filled a couple of days reading. My 13 year old finished it in a few days too.

I also read a book about cycling in France by Harry Enfield's dad which was very funny and a book about living in Normandy again quite funny bth curtsey of the gite book shelf.