What book are you reading?

[yenrod]

I bought a book last week for 2 quid ~ aint even started it...

 

[TheDoctor]

Just finished 'Midwich Cuckoos' for the umpteenth time, and now getting going on 'Day of the Triffids'.
Except I'm reading Ringworld as well. Also for the umpteenth time.

 

[John the Monkey]

As first sentences go, that's got to take the gold medal! I love Orwell's style of writing and his integrity, even if I don't always agree with him.

I was given the Penguin collection of his essays on various topics as a gift sometime ago, a wonderful book.

My home read is now "Lunar Park" (Bret Easton Ellis). It's quite odd.

 

[Aperitif]

The Woods by Harlan Coben - second only to Lee Child for eminently readable stuff.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Just finished The Electric Church by Jeff Somers (it's a decent SF thriller)

Really? I thought it was cack!

I am currently reading a biography of Anais Nin... whilst at the point I am at, she is now still married to two different men who don't know it, she has at least stopped having affairs with her father, brother and every other man she meets...

 

[Dayvo]

The Woods by Harlan Coben - second only to Lee Child for eminently readable stuff.

The Innocent by the same author is very good indeed.

 

[Trillian]

the scimitar and its forbears, the history of the reliant car company

 

[Hilldodger]

the scimitar and its forbears, the history of the reliant car company

You got a Scimi?

If ever the fateful day arrives that my Capri has to come off the road I'd replace it with another Scimitar. Wonderful, much under rated and very affordable motor cars.

 

[John the Monkey]

Anyone read much Iain M. Banks? I've finished my train book ("I am Legend") and have a choice of "The Algebraist" or "Inversions" for my next read - any recommendations as to which should go first..?

 

[barq]

Doing a PhD made me all but stop reading books for pleasure but it was kind of a new years resolution so I've got a few non-academic books by my bedside now:

A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin - A concise fantasy novel that doesn't use Tolkien as the template. Le Guin does that clever thing you sometimes find in Sci-Fi where an improbable story tells you something rather profound about our current society. Apparently it is intended for kids but I thought it was quite adult and a fairly serious piece of literature. There is a distinctly un-Harry-Potter-ish Japanese film/anime called Tales from Earthsea from later on in the Earthsea series.
Counterknowledge - Damian Thompson - All about the rise of conspiracy theories, quack medicine and dodgy science. If you like Ben Goldacre's Bad Science website/column you'll like this. Oddly Thompson doesn't do the full Dawkins and exempts religion from his critique except where it clashes with science (so the creationists still cop it ).

 

[John the Monkey]

Counterknowledge - Damian Thompson - All about the rise of conspiracy theories, quack medicine and dodgy science. If you like Ben Goldacre's Bad Science website/column you'll like this. Oddly Thompson doesn't do the full Dawkins and exempts religion from his critique except where it clashes with science (so the creationists still cop it ).

Francis Wheen's "How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World" and Ophelia Benson/Jeremy Stangroom's "Why Truth Matters" cover similar ground and are excellent reads too. Straying slightly further from that, but still linked to scepticism of that sort is Jonathan Rauch's "Kindly Inquisitors" is superb.

 

[NickM]

Anyone read much Iain M. Banks? I've finished my train book ("I am Legend") and have a choice of "The Algebraist" or "Inversions" for my next read - any recommendations as to which should go first..?

Neither. The earlier "Culture" books are his best, IMO. I would start with the first, Consider Phlebas.

I'm reading "My Fault" by Billy Childish. Bleak, but gripping. I grew up in the same time and place as the author. Childhood is no party, but at least I didn't suffer like him.

 

[John the Monkey]

Neither. The earlier "Culture" books are his best, IMO. I would start with the first, Consider Phlebas.

Thanks for the recommendation - the two mentioned are the only two on the shelf though

 

[Trillian]

You got a Scimi?

If ever the fateful day arrives that my Capri has to come off the road I'd replace it with another Scimitar. Wonderful, much under rated and very affordable motor cars.

I want to get one, just not gotten round to it yet...

 

[microphonie]

Originally Posted by microphonie
Just finished The Electric Church by Jeff Somers (it's a decent SF thriller)

Really? I thought it was cack!

I am currently reading a biography of Anais Nin... whilst at the point I am at, she is now still married to two different men who don't know it, she has at least stopped having affairs with her father, brother and every other man she meets...

But I'm not as interlektchewal as you! Mind you, I'm not the one reading a smutty biog...