am currently re-reading it by stephen king.it is a great book imho (def one of his best that i have read along with salem's lot).
will be re-reading red dragon by thomas harris next which is also fantastic (i first read it coming back from edinburgh on national express)
as the silence of the lambs film had just come out (hearing the hype about it e.t.c) thought i'd start with red dragon first (still have to read silence of the lambs,but have read hannibal which although good,i didn't enjoy as much as red dragon). giblets 🙂
I really enjoyed Shada, the Douglas Adams/Gareth Roberts Doctor Who book. Next on the pile is The Bourne Identity. I've read a few of the Eric van Lustbader Bourne books but never any of the proper Ludlum originals.
After that, I can't really avoid it any longer, I'm going to have to read A Song of Ice and Fire again. I've been putting it off and putting it off. It's now been long enough that I have forgotten most of everything and can't join in the arguments about the telly series.
Razzle
Hunger games trilogy. First one was in one sitting. The following two were no where near as good.
I know it is supposed to be a teen book. But I enjoyed the first installment.
There's a good website that summarises each chapter, if you wanted to save on a complete re-read. Think it's called the Tower of the Hand or something similar. Nicely laid out, used it to refresh my memory between his books.After that, I can't really avoid it any longer, I'm going to have to read A Song of Ice and Fire again. I've been putting it off and putting it off. It's now been long enough that I have forgotten most of everything and can't join in the arguments about the telly series.
I'm tackling [i]Omensetter's Luck[/i] by William Gass atm - top drawer.
Currently reading Danger UXB, story of WW2 bomb disposal teams in the UK, battling Germany fuze technology to try and stay alive.
NB Fuze is the correct spelling for an electro-mechanical anti-tamper device..
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+1 hunger games in one sitting. Just one of those books, easy to read decent story.
Now on the sound and the fury
IT is a great book, read it many times.
I'm just finishing Cryptonomicon again. That's brilliant.
Lined up are a number of Rouleur's and then loads of Kindle books I bought but just haven't started including...
the Dice Man
Life of PI
Carabanchel: The Last Brit in Europe's Hellhole Prison
Un Lun Dun
Cornbread
How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Beer Right for the First Time
And an RHS 'How to garden' book because all I've ever done is cut the lawn and our new house has a huge garden with beds, lawn, pots, trees, bushes and decking.
Dice Man is an awesome read........
Dice Man is an awesome read........
Just finished Conquistadors of the Useless in the bath yesterday. Period autobiography of French mountaineering in the 50s. Good read in a stiff upper lip/Gallic shrug way.
Coming close to finishing the complete Sherlock Holmes. Great for reading on the train. Other than a bit of telly I new nowt much about it before. Probably best broken up with other books though.
Will soon be asking the same question for when I'm done. I'm through a good few Jules Verne books and HG Wells and have another 2 years of train commutes to go!
Finally read Douglas Adam's The Salmon of Doubt (with a quick break to do the Dirk Gently books, before reading the unfinish script chapters), obviously I'm quite late to the party on this, but what a loss of a great intellect.
Dan Simmons Flashback, very enjoyable & a nice twist on a twist @ the end.
Just started the Niven/Benford's Bowl of Heaven, not sure what to make of it, but the aliens have just appeared, so we'll see.
A book half as good as Cryptonomicon is the what I'm currently pining for, the humour in it had me laughing out loud alongside a very entertaining characters/story.
Re-reading the John Connolly Charlie Parker books.
Dark, intelligent and humorous - brilliant books.
A hitch hiker guide to the galaxy are fantastic books
Currently reading Game of Thrones series... highly recommended. Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit is also a fantastic series to read.
Dan Brown books are also very good (Devinci Code/Angles and Daemons etc)
prisoner of zenda
39 steps
cloud atlas
will be starting world war z
Was given 'how to get stuff done', got halfway through and couldn't be bothered, now reading Blood Meridian, early days, (he's just got a saddle) but so far so good, still trying to get around his writing style, found myself wondering a few times who exactly of the two he was referring to when there's two characters interacting but quite like it.
Just been through a few Arthur C Clarke books that my brother lent me, enjoyed them all: Childhood's End, The City and the Stars, The Fountains of Paradise and Rendezvous with Rama.
Currently Kindling my way through this bunch:
The Rook
The Healing of Luther Grove
Safe House
Boneshaker
Wool
Eagle in the Snow
Private Peaceful
The Secret Garden
"About face" by Colonel David H Hackworth (1988)- A truly fascinating account of the mindset of a "warrior" who realised the futility of war. As a senior officer in Vietnam, he turned against the administration at the time and went public with what he saw as its wasteful expenditure of men and materials in a war that could not be won. What makes a book almost 25 years old so relevant, is that the Americans in Iraq / Afghanistan have failed to learn any lessons from the Vietnam debacle when engaging in Counter insurgency conflicts.
The second book is "Bearback" by Dr P Garrod. A brilliant and inspirational account of 4 years traveling around the world on a BMW GS (the old kind). By far and away the best of its genre I have read to date.
Picked up Shane McGowan's autobiography at a car boot sale yesterday. Looking forward to starting that; I suspect it will be highly entertaining 🙂
Robinson Crusoe
I'm alternating between CJ Box(Joe Pickett) books. Lee Child(Jack Reacher) and Ed McBain (87th precinct) The Ed McBain's can be had on the Kindle lending library
2 weeks into my broken wrist recovery, and the book count is climbing:
Empire of the Clouds - James Hamilton-Paterson
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Terrific! Just amazing to read about societies attitude to risk and danger as little as 60years ago.
Paradox - Jim Al khalili
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Bit of a head scrambler in places, but a valid attempt to explain quite a bit of the weirdness in Quantum Physics to the layman (btw, the "Jim meets" series from Surrey University is well worth watching on you-tube, for intervies with people like BrianCox / David Attenbough etc)
LONDON UNDER - Peter Ackroyd
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An unsual slant on the history of our capital city. Perfect for learning quirky and odd things, like what is a "hydraulic catafalque" for example!
More to follow next week 😉
Just finished "World War Z" quite liked it but not awesome, did lead me to make quit e afew references to Zombie survival in the alst few weeks.
Now reading the Rosie Project - about a guy with Aspergers trying to find a wife, quite funny and poingnant so far.
Dont bother with "world war z", its utterly shite. Brooks has milked that so much its a crime. first twenty pages are ok, then its the same thing repeated.
Things I have read and enjoyed recently are;
Englands Lane by Joseph Connolly
The Engagement by Georges Simenon
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
If you liked school you'll love this by Irvine Welsh
Reheated Cabbage also by Irvine Welsh (ok, not as good as the one above)
I went through the Ian Rankin's pretty quickly recently too, actually liked the newer ones with Malcolm Fox more than the John Rebus ones to be honest, is that heresy with Rankin fans?!?!
Reading The Dirty Dozen at the moment, have a few randoms from the Library at the moment and will make a second attempt on "The Book of Dave" by Will Self soon... then its about time I went back to Harry Flashman.... huzzar!...
Anna Karenina, incredible book, I'm 830 pages in out of 867 so will finish it tonight, the stream of conciousness nightmare towards the end is an incredible bit of writing.
Think I'll either read The Grapes of Wrath or Farewell to Arms next, got about a dozen books in the pile to get through, have Transition by Ian Banks too, so who knows.
Picked up Shane McGowan's autobiography at a car boot sale yesterday. Looking forward to starting that; I suspect it will be highly entertaining
I'd be amazed if he hadn't needed a lot of help in writing that, how the hell would he remember any of it!
I held it in for ages but I have to totally disagree with BristolPablo, World War Z is ace (do not watch the film trails & think the book is anything like that either). Much better than the oft repeated "night of the living dead" theme, boringly looped in the "walking dead". Follow it with Richard Matheson's "I am legend", again don't let the film fool you.
z1ppy, no dramas, literature tastes are very personal, I cant imagine many other STWers enjoying Simonen as much as I did..... I have to be honest, the whole zombie fad has passed me by which is probably why I didnt enjoy it but I didnt think that the "first hand accounts" of the zombie outbreaks were particularly well written which is probably what grated me. You probably have to believe it can happen to enjoy it because as fiction, its not that great. Simply put, good idea, poorly executed. I suppose given the stuff I have listed above, its clear that Sci fi, aliens and similar fiction genres arent really my thing!...
[/arts student]
'Fugitive Pieces' - Anne Michaels. Great novel so far.
BP no worries & indeed I agree about literature tastes, some book threads on here, leave me regularly bemused by the lack depth of my reading. The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same thing... I can't stand the stuff my partner reads (thrillers before you thing 50 shades) & she wouldn't read mine...
Just been on a John Wyndham theme with three short story collections followed by Chocky and finishing with The Day of the Triffids,(a brilliant unraveling of society tale).
Now onto Olaf Stapledon's Last and First men.
Think I might follow that up with the Hitchhikers set as it's been years since I last went through them and after seeing the awful movie the other week I need to scrub the memory with the genius of the original texts! 🙂
Currently reading "A Farewell to Arms" by Hemingway. To be honest, I'm not enjoying it as much as I expected to. The guy sure had a way with words, but the story isn't really doing it for me.
Last book I really enjoyed was The Picture of Dorian Gray. Now that's a great story, superbly written.
transmute
and finishing with The Day of the Triffids,(a brilliant unraveling of society tale)
I dug out an old Penguin paperback copy of this my parents must have brought way-back-when (cost 3/6 !!) having never read the book, and well, it really translates well to the sort of fears we still have in 2013. I'm quite suprised that "The Kraken wakes" hasn't been made into a blockbuster film also
I'm very nearly at the end of [i]The Great Book Of Amber[/i], the complete run of Roger Zelazny's Amber series. I bought all the original five Corwin books as they came out from the early 70's, but I never followed up with the second five, the Merlin sequence.
Having found a web resource with every Zelazny book, and Larry Niven book, in EPub, I started re-reading the Amber books right through, that's 2580 pages on my iPad! Really, really enjoying re-acquainting myself with these books all over again.
I [i]love[/i] Zelazny as a writer, terrific use of prose.
I've got The Kraken wakes on the shelf to come! 🙂
I'd remembered the Triffids from the BBC adaptation (well worth a watch!) when I was young, but when it came to reading the book it was nothing like the 'veg horror' I was kinda expecting! 🙂 A timeless story, vividly written with little scientific fancy. It always seems like you could wake up tomorrow and find that life has slipped into the world of the book.
I'm now a confirmed fan of Wyndhams practical writing style. 🙂
This ^^^ again! lol
I remember being scared witless as a kid with the BBC series, but i'm sure if i saw it now the "deadly Triffids" would be laughably lame! But reading the book, the Triffids are actually a secondary plot device rather than the main stream and it comes as a bit of a suprise about the bleakness of the piece at times.
just finished "eat and run" by scott jurek, and read "born to run" by chris mc dougal about 4 times. now reading, the body doctor, spontaneous healing, and the inner running & outer running.
Finishing a biography of Patrick Leigh-Fermor. Received it for Christmas and just got round to it.
Really excellent read although it does have a bit of a name-dropping theme in parts.
I've got The Kraken wakes on the shelf to come!
Bloody loved that booked when I read it - think I was 13 or not far off. Must go find another copy.
I'm churning my way through Mark Beaumonts "The Man Who Cycled The World". Not exactly Hemmingway but its a good read.