What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Mr Larrington]

It'll be Mad Max for the lot of us and only those with l33t wheelbuilding 5ki11z wil survive.

[LindaG]

It'll be Mad Max for the lot of us and only those with l33t wheelbuilding 5ki11z wil survive.

 

Better read Jost Brandt then.  I shall post my opinion on here afterwards,

[tiermat]

Back to reading two books at the moment, Put Me Back on the Bike and River of Blue Fire (Tad Williams)

The second one is typical Tad Williams, i.e. he makes Tom Clancy's writing style look concise.  It took me til 3/4 of the way through the first book(City of Golden Shadows) to decide if I was going to continue, and by then I had expended too much time to just give up!  A quick synopsis: Set in a undefined time in the future, where people do all their communication and get all their entertainment on the internet.  The lead character's younger brother falls into a coma after visiting a night club in the virtual world.  She, and others go to find out what happened and who is behind it.  Typically Tad Williams, there are multiple diverging threads which, I suspect, will all come together in the last 10 pages of the 4th book leaving the reader with a load of unanswered questions.

[Juan Martín]

Just finished this.  I'm not sure what to make of it, tbh.  I dislike the worldview that places depravity and bestial behaviour as the default position of the human spirit in extremis.  I just don't think it's true.

I do agree with you on this point. So often these sorts of stories tell of degeneration into the violent downfall of society. I think that I can forgive Cormac McCarthy here – after all in the world of The Road nothing is growing and people fight over the dwindling remnants of civilisation in order to survive. But the man and his son apart, why they are bothering is another question.

But rarely does one read some ‘apocalyptic’ novel in which society is successfully rebuilt (someone is always eating somebody somewhere!). And it can be tedious and somewhat predictable; as you say it seems to be the default setting. Perhaps the desire to read about the successful reconstruction of society after a downfall indicates a particularly YACF type viewpoint.

Or perhaps not.   

[Quint]

The Church seems to feel that we are damned for eternity after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bit much, it was only an apple 

[LindaG]

The Church seems to feel that we are damned for eternity after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bit much, it was only an apple 

Oooh!  I read that book too!  Bit of a curate's egg ...

[Peter]

The Church seems to feel that we are damned for eternity after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bit much, it was only an apple 

Oooh!  I read that book too!  Bit of a curate's egg ...

Try the sequel, the one that starts with Matthew.  The guy doesn't get the girl but it is much more optimistic overall!

[Gareth Rees]

But rarely does one read some ‘apocalyptic’ novel in which society is successfully rebuilt

There's a subgenre along these lines (mostly by British authors) for which Brian Aldiss coined the term "cosy catastrophe": for example, The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and the Tripods novels by John Christopher.

[LindaG]

AC Clarke in Richter 10 (co-authored with someone else)

(click to show/hide)

involved a successful attempt to avert apocalypse.

  Nice book, I thought.

[Juan Martín]

But rarely does one read some ‘apocalyptic’ novel in which society is successfully rebuilt

There's a subgenre along these lines (mostly by British authors) for which Brian Aldiss coined the term "cosy catastrophe": for example, The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and the Tripods novels by John Christopher.

Cosy doesn't sound sexy but when it comes to catastrophes I think it's preferable! But I was thinking yesterday about what happened in Iraq after the fall of SH, and I fear that the spectacularly violent scenario is sadly the more likely one.

I have read the books that you mention, years ago now. In fact I read at least one of the Tripod books when I was at primary school; I remember feeling very grown up doing so! That was over 40 years ago...I feel very old now. Thanks!

[Mr Larrington]

Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.

Aeroplaniacs might like to know that there is a new coffee-table edition of this most excellent tome, containing about 25% less text but lots more pictures of BRITISH aeroplanes, plus a few manky FOREIGN ones.

[andrewc]

Kök & Tvätt    Mosquitoes & misery in Scandinavia.... I've toured in Norway twice, wonderfull place, but so far this isn't inspiring me to visit Lapland.

[Morrisette]

The Road was very depressing. Sadly I don't think it would even take a post-apocalypse horror show to make people behave like that. People reverted to the caveman within inside 48 hours in that football stadium in New Orleans.

[David Martin]

Having finally got up to date with the Joseph Delaney Spooks series (lightweight, seems to be losing it a bit as the series progresses.)
I have turned to the free list on the kindle. Jules Verne Blockade Runners, Frankenstein, which I had never read nor seen the film.
Now working my way through 'The Iron Heel' by Jack London which is interesting.

Then it will be some classic Stevenson 'The Wreckers'

[citoyen]

Started reading Heliopolis by James Scudamore several months ago but didn't get very far. Finally picked it up and made a proper start on it a couple of days ago and got halfway through it in one sitting (ie 160 pages).

Still not sure quite what it's about. Class and money, I think. Plus relationships and sex. It's very modern like that. But it's sumptuous writing, with some wonderful descriptions of food (each chapter is named after something to eat that's significant in the narrator's life). And it's pretty funny too.

d.

[Mr Larrington]

The Ring Of Solomon ~ Jonathan Stroud.  Yes, I do know it's aimed at children and I don't care.  Does it all over Harry Potter And The Train Of Gravy.

[Nuncio]

Just finished Magnus Mills A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in.  For those of you familiar with Magnus Mills, it's more of the same. No other writer is more likely to have me throwing the book away in frustration before retrieving it hurriedly to read on. 

Next is The Sisters Brothers following favourable write-ups up-thread and elsewhere.

[Bledlow]

Just read Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt. The Grauniad review was about right.

"This is a solid account of how Britain's national mapping agency came into being, though it lacks a certain pizzazz. Hewitt works hard to bring the story to life, but it is perhaps inherently undramatic."

A decent read, but not a gripping one.

[clarion]

Having finally got up to date with the Joseph Delaney Spooks series (lightweight, seems to be losing it a bit as the series progresses.)

That's exactly TGL's opinion.  Though it sustains a bit more if you know the places it's set in (close to where we used to live).

I've just finished re-reading the two books of Raffles short stories for the purpose of identifying locations.  News From Nowhere before that, for a similar reason.  Now, I'm on to Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, again for routefinding.  I hadn't realised they spent so long in London before heading to Sussex.

[Tail End Charlie]

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Superb story (loosely based on a real life scenario) about a couple who fight a propaganda war against Hitler after the death of their son in the war. Highly recommended.

[her_welshness]

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Superb story (loosely based on a real life scenario) about a couple who fight a propaganda war against Hitler after the death of their son in the war. Highly recommended.

That is an amazing book 

I've been reading quite a few books lately:

'Saturday' by Ian MacEwan - very good but every implausible book.

'It's all about the Bike' - very entertaining although as I was saying to Clarion and Butterfly the final colour selection for his dream bike is pants quite frankly.

Just reading Orhan Pamuk's 'Museum of Innocence' for our Reading Group and 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' by Mark Haddon. 30 pages in and am already loving it.

[Mr Larrington]

The Rotters Club ~ Jonathan Coe.  I finally got round to buying The Closed Circle so thought I should re-acquaint myself with this first.

[Quint]

The Oyster House Siege by Jay Rayner, I thoroughly enjoyed this, now reading Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell, so far quite good 

[redshift]

The name of the rose. 

Hell's teeth.  I know it's probably lost something in the translation, but really?  I can't remember the last time I read a book as bad as this.  True, there's a story in there, fighting to get out - and I know that that's kind of the point - but bloody hell.

It's the novelised equivalent of climbing Chomolongma.  It's a bloody long way, and you have to be determined to do it, but it takes ages even with crampons and an ice axe, and still you're not sure quite why you've bothered.

[Mrs Pingu]

If you think that about The Name Of The Rose then don't even bother picking up The Island of The Day Before.