What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Mr Larrington]

Just finished Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles.  I was expecting a luvvie-filled version of that Simon Pegg thing I dissed the other week, but it was rather better than I had feared.

[Deano]

The new Robert Jordan.

I started reading the series about 15 years ago, dammit, so I'm going to finish it, even if he did have the bad taste to die before he'd completed it.

[Mr Larrington]

Last Chance to See ~ Mark Carwardine.  The Sequel featuring Mr. S. Fry.  I re-read it to confirm my suspicions that rather more of it is ripped off from DNA than the author gives credit for.

It is.

[DaveJ]

The newest Iain M Banks Culture novel,  Surface Detail, onna Kindle.

It's my first ebook-only purchase.

It was mine too, and while I enjoyed the story, the mess that the publishers have made of the formatting is irritating.

Dave

[mark]

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter. Thirty pages in and it promises to be an excellent read.

this book represents a return to dead trees after a bunch of reading on the Kindle. The Kindle is a great thing to have, but e-book readers will never completely replace real books, just augment them.

[Tail End Charlie]

I'm still reading "Waterlog" by Roger Deakin and thoroughly enjoying it.
Recently finished "Attention All Shipping" by Charlie Connolly which is a tour around the areas of the shipping forecast with all the attendant tales. Also recommended.

[spesh]

Ubik, by Philip K. Dick. Another brain-twister...  

I've got a couple of Charles Stross books lined up next - Singularity Sky, and it's sequel, Iron Sunrise.

[clarion]

Just finished another random one off the shelves at work:

Wilt On High by Tom Sharpe.

Oh dear.

Unlike Toekneep and LEE, who specifically mentioned this one as a book which made him laugh out loud, I felt it was very dated and limp humour, like an embarrassing 80s ITV sitcom.

I got to the end.  It was OK, but didn't go anywhere.  It felt like Sharpe wanted to go outside and shout 'bum' and 'willy' but felt he had to put it down on paper.

As I was putting it back on the shelf, I noticed a book entitled 'Growing Up In The Swinging Sixties' by Susan Cleeve.  It appeared to be a school book, published in 1980, so the perspective was interesting.

I was pulled up short by a mention of Stevie Wonder, which described him as 'The blind negro singer'.

[tiermat]

I started Stephen Leather's "Rough Justice" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Justice-Spider-Shepherd-Thrillers/dp/0340924942)on Wednesday night, and finished it last night!

This is exceptional for me, as it usually takes me a good month to finish a book, sometimes longer!

Anyways it's a good book

[jogler]

British Gypsum's "White Book"

[Mr Larrington]

British Gypsum's "White Book"

Follow it up with this: Clicky.

[jogler]

Only had a v.quick scan of the first third-ish.
Big Problem
NO PICTURES

[citoyen]

Just finished another random one off the shelves at work:

Wilt On High by Tom Sharpe.

Oh dear.

Unlike Toekneep and LEE, who specifically mentioned this one as a book which made him laugh out loud, I felt it was very dated and limp humour, like an embarrassing 80s ITV sitcom.

I had my Tom Sharpe phase as a teenager in the 80s. I found his stuff very funny then, but it was the right time and I was the right age. I don't remember Wilt On High specifically but the Wilt books generally were quite amusing. Not sure I'd feel the same about them now, though - I can well believe they'd be dated.

d.

[clarion]

It doesn't feel fair taking a fairly throwaway book from about twenty years ago and subjecting it to a new eye.  Tom didn't ask me to read the book, after all

[Clandy]

To Kill A Mockingbird.

[citoyen]

On Tour by Bradley Wiggins - his frank diary of the 2010 Tour de France, illustrated with lots of lovely black & white pictures. Nice.

It doesn't feel fair taking a fairly throwaway book from about twenty years ago and subjecting it to a new eye.  Tom didn't ask me to read the book, after all

I've been (re-)reading a lot of PG Wodehouse lately and although his stuff seems dated, this isn't an obstacle to enjoying it - to be fair, much of his writing probably seemed dated even when it was new, so in that sense it's timeless. Maybe we'll look back on Tom Sharpe in the same way in years to come.

d.

[The Seldom Killer]

Having attended the Thoughtbubble comics con in Leeds at the weekend, I am perhaps understandably working my way through a tasty haul of graphic novels.

Currently on my platter is the eighth trade paperback collection (TPB) of the series 100 Bullets, which began life as a dark "moral proposition scenario" story and has evolved into a quasi-conspiracy theory style story. Possibly one of the best and most original tales of our modern era.

Along side that is the first TPB of Elephantmen, which currently centres around a futuristic genetic mutation scenario. It's difficult to define exactly what the story is about but it is very compelling and beautifully drawn.

[Tom B]

'In the Land of Invented Languages' by Arika Okrent  - most entertaining 

[mark]

"Their Finest Hour", the second volume of Churchill's history of WWII. Back to Kindle for this one, and it turns out that the tables, maps and charts in this edition are so poorly scanned as to be worthless. Increasing the font size doesn't help either. Luckily the text more or less clarifies what the charts, tables and maps are trying to say, so it's no big deal, but it's something to think about when choosing between the electronic and paper versions of the same book.

[Flying_Monkey]

Pirate Utopias by Robert Lambourne Wilson - it's a great piece of anarchist history about the Barbary Coast nations from the 16th to the 18th Centuries.

[tiermat]

Nemesis by Jo Nesbø

Slow to start with, but is picking up a bit.  Dunno if I can relate to the main character, hence why it is a little hard for me to get into.

[Mr Larrington]

Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.  Recounts how in the post-war period BRITAIN had super-triff jet aer-o-planes built by brown-coated Men in Sheds and test-flown (and frequently crashed) by Chaps with moustaches and Brylcreem.  And how we contrived, by the usual BRITISH combination of muddle-headedness, unscientifically-applied gittery and the odd b0rken Comet, to piss it all away to the point that we are shortly to have an aircraft carrier with no fixed-wing aircraft.  On it.  With a name like James Hamilton-Paterson, the author is probably a Chap too.

If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).

[Tom B]

Hand-grenade Practice in Peking: My Influence on the Cultural Revolution by Frances Wood

An account of a year's study in Peking in 1975. Title a little flip, but for me, who studied there 5 years later, it's a wonderful evocation

[Nightfly]

Just finished both Al Humphrey's books - Moods of Future Joys & Thunder and Sunshine. Not bad.

[Quint]

Bloody hell, a man after my own heart

                                                                    

Present book Gods Executioner (Oliver Cromwell and the conquest of Ireland) very well written and a real eye opener
    

Empire Of The Clouds: When BRITAIN'S Aircraft Ruled The World ~ James Hamilton-Paterson.  Recounts how in the post-war period BRITAIN had super-triff jet aer-o-planes built by brown-coated Men in Sheds and test-flown (and frequently crashed) by Chaps with moustaches and Brylcreem.  And how we contrived, by the usual BRITISH combination of muddle-headedness, unscientifically-applied gittery and the odd b0rken Comet, to piss it all away to the point that we are shortly to have an aircraft carrier with no fixed-wing aircraft.  On it.  With a name like James Hamilton-Paterson, the author is probably a Chap too.

If I had a time machine I would return to the period, find out which blithering idiot came up with the idea to give all our jet engine technology to the bloody Americans1 and beat some sense into him with Mr Shovel here.

1 - Who repaid this act of largesse by bankrupting BRITAIN and gifting jet engines to the Soviet Union (while simultaneously executing the Rosenbergs for sending nuclear secrets in the same direction).