What books are we reading at the moment ?

[T42]

Then The Bone Clocks. Loved the writing throughout, but while I could cope with the odd hint of the fantasy in the first few chapters, the full blown anchorites v horologists stuff turned me off. I liked the extended epilogue though - back to earth with a thud. I'll be back to David Mitchell once he's written a 'straight' novel.

That bit reminded me of the old Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides Out and so forth. A wee bit much.  The epilogue was realistic enough to be almost worrying.  I've read similar in other books recently, too.

I'm still on Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.  In between reading sessions I don't feel particularly impelled to get back to it, but when I'm reading it it pulls me along well enough.

[Nuncio]

That bit reminded me of the old Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides Out and so forth.

I've not read those but it reminded me strongly of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

[menthel]

High rise by J.G. Ballard. Might be good, not sure yet as I have only read the first few pages!

And finished. Quite enjoyed it but the ending felt a little weak and willing.

[citoyen]

That bit reminded me of the old Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides Out and so forth.

I've not read those but it reminded me strongly of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

Same here - on both counts (never read Dennis Wheatley, Bone Clocks reminded me of Philip Pullman)

[tiermat]

Having finished Boy, Snow, Bird, I have decided i wanted to read something a bit lighter. So I am now reading "Saint Odd" by Dean Koontz. How the fuck did he manage to get published? I have read better penny dreadfuls, or is that the point?

FFS he spends a whole PARAGRAPH describing a flock to birds landing at the side of a lake!!!

[lisat]

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.  Picked up in the hotel book swap after finishing the 2 "airport fodder" thrillers.  So far so good.

[Steph]

Having finished Boy, Snow, Bird, I have decided i wanted to read something a bit lighter. So I am now reading "Saint Odd" by Dean Koontz. How the fuck did he manage to get published? I have read better penny dreadfuls, or is that the point?

FFS he spends a whole PARAGRAPH describing a flock to birds landing at the side of a lake!!!

Dean Koontz is an odd writer, in that occasionally he can produce something that is not only gripping but bloody terrifying. There are scenes in 'Phantoms', 'Watchers' and 'Twilight Eyes' that cut right to the nightmare lode. But I said 'scenes' deliberately. A lot of his writing is dorss, most of it in fact, and when he tries to do 'art' it is shite. A good writer could well cdaptivate the reader with a full paragraph describing said flock of birds landing; he isn't one. He is also a right-wing gun-freaqk nutjob, and some of his books carry little polemics about things along the lines of the Waco seige.

I stopped reading him a LONG time ago, after the first of the Odd books. Which are unmitigated shite.

[citoyen]

The Hollow Crown - Dan Jones

Popular history by the one off the telly who isn't Peter Snow's son. It's OK but a bit try-hard. One of those swashbuckling wordsmiths who thinks "conditions affecting France" is too dry and would rather write "conditions afflicting their French cousins across the sea"; instead of being sentenced to hang, perps are sentenced to "swing on the hangman's rope". He gets points for going against 500 years of pro-Tudor marketing to point out that they were a bunch of fatherless chancers, but loses points for turning the main protagonists into pantomime heroes and villains.

[Mr Larrington]

I rather like the Odd Thomas series, because I am irredeemably shallow.

[Steph]

I've always found you rather tall and wide...

[Riggers]

Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 11 of 14.

I'm skipping passages now.

[Mr Larrington]

Greg Iles' "The Bone Tree".  Only bok 5 of the series of, so far, 5.  Follows on immediately after "Natchez Burning".

[ian]

I could never get Dean Koontz. I didn't know he was a nut until this thread, but it's unsurprising. I just looked on the interwebs and Oh God That Hair. Anyway, the books read peculiar. It's a thing, trust me. You can't write without things inadvertently leaking out of your brain. It's like parking an old car on the driveway, there's always a oil stain underneath.

Just finished Charlie Parker 13. Marvellous. Read it in two sittings. If you like spooky, crime shenanigans you can't go far wrong. As a boon it's marvellous written.

Found a virtual pile of Vonnegut that I got for 99p some time back and am starting to re-read (actually I'm not sure I ever read Sirens of Titan), as it's been an awesome number of years. God knows what they were putting in his coffee.

[Mr Larrington]

Greg Iles' "The Bone Tree".  Only bok 5 of the series of, so far, 5.  Follows on immediately after "Natchez Burning".

Hmm.  Enough killin's to leave a further episode thinly populated with major characters but enough loose ends to make one inevitable.  Also full of Wrong about the relative top speeds of the German-and USAnian-market Audi S4.

Now on "22 Dead Little Bodies" by Stuart MacBride, billed as "A Logan & Steel short novel".  Only one dead little body so far but it's early days yet.

[CrinklyLion]

Just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
Feel like a grown up again. Loved it's meaty thought-provoking deceptive simplicity.

I bought that as a random pick to read on the train.  Liked it so much I subsequently bought a second copy for my ex BiCL's christmas pressie.

[Mr Larrington]

OK, it turned out that the first stiff was a dead big body, followed at intervals by four more.  Add to it the twenty-two little ones and Mr MacBride would be up for an award for the killin's/page ratio, except that one of the little bodies was a pigeon and a further twenty were budgies.

[citoyen]

Found a virtual pile of Vonnegut that I got for 99p some time back and am starting to re-read (actually I'm not sure I ever read Sirens of Titan), as it's been an awesome number of years. God knows what they were putting in his coffee.

After reading Cat's Cradle, I came to the conclusion that Vonnegut was the only sane one among us.

Anyway, Vonnegut. Good idea. The perfect antidote to the turgid overwritten prose of the telly historian I've just been ploughing through. I'm now reading Mother Night.

I've never read Sirens of Titan either but I've got it in the pile. May read it next.

[menthel]

The Simpsons and their Mathematics. Its very interesting but quite frankly some of the maths is a bit beyond my tiny mind.

[Bledlow]

I've just finished re-reading The Malacia Tapestry. My old copy hasn't fallen apart yet, helped by being untouched for many years.

I'd forgotten why I'd not re-read it for a long time. Basically, because Perian de Chirolo is such an annoying shit.

[billplumtree]

The Shepherd's Life, by James Rebanks.  A beautifully described, unromanticised account of life as a hill shepherd.  Swallows and Amazons it ain't;  it's about a very particular culture and heritage, by someone very obviously proud of his place in it.  It's about feelings of duty towards that culture, and about a sense of place and belonging - that makes it sound old-fashioned, which is a bit ironic given that he tweets his daily life to a bazillion followers.

And, quite apart from how good it is, I just love the fact that this book exists and has given hill farmers an eloquent and well-received voice.

[rafletcher]

John Connolly's latest "Song of Shadows". And the latest Mark Billingham "Time of Death" awaits at the library.

[Mr Larrington]

A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)

[Kim]

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

'nuff said, really.  Also, footnotes - glorious footnotes - all the way down.   

[rafletcher]

A new Mark Billingham, you say?  Thorne?

(Reaches for shopping list)

Yep, new Thorne.

[pcolbeck]

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

'nuff said, really.  Also, footnotes - glorious footnotes - all the way down.   

Thanks - that's now on my Amazon wish list !