Just finished: In Pharaoh's Army - Tobias Wolff's memoir of his time in Vietnam. Very sad, but often darkly amusing.
Just started: Toni Morrison's Beloved. Have never quite gotten around to reading this - spellbinding (and pretty scary) thus far.
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Occasional STW book club thread... what ya reading?
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Just got given "The Book with No Name"
Looks good, been recommended
Posted 1 year ago # -
Finished Chasm City, Alastair Reynolds, a few weeks back. Not bad, but not as good as Revelation Space, feels like it was perhaps written more quickly.
Currently reading the Penguin Modern History of Russia by Robert Service.
Got China Mielville's Iron Council to read next. Woop!Posted 1 year ago # -
Just finished Aron Ralston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Gripping!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just about to start "Boy racer" Cav init
Posted 1 year ago # -
Still going on "Shakey: The Neil Young Biography". It's a biggun. But bloody great.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Still going on "Shakey: The Neil Young Biography". It's a biggun. But bloody great.
Great book! Read it just after a 1000 page biography of Oppenheimer which is probably even better...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hoy's autobiography which is quite good actually. I liked Cav's book too.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Wave watchers companion. Pretty good so far. I also liked the chaps first b
ook cloud watchers companion.Posted 1 year ago # -
Just getting to the end of Zero History, the final part of William Gibson's ‘Hubertus Bigend’ trilogy. Read it when it came out last year, but decided to read all three books, Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History one straight after another. Much easier to keep all the various characters straight when they vary in significance and profile across the series. Brilliant books, not really SF, but very difficult to define. Not sure what I'm reading next, there's several books waiting to be read.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Got China Mielville's Iron Council to read next. Woop!
Just started this myself as it goes. Heard it's a bit weaker than PSS and The Scar so interested to see how it turns out.Not got anything serious on deck - quite fancy Franzen's last one that was praised to ths skies - Freedom. Anyone read it?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I needed something to tax the brain so am re-reading Silence of the Lambs.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Also reading Alistair Reynolds at the mo - can't remember the name right now. Just finished Matter by Ian M Banks which I really enjoyed :nerd:
Posted 1 year ago # -
God is not great by Christopher Hitchens - critique of the damage done and flawed basis of all organised religon
Posted 1 year ago # -
'Bound for glory' autobiog of Woody Guthrie. Fantastic so far.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Bonkers, clever, gripping and funny in equal measure.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Im awaiting the arrival of 'The wise mans fear' The second part of the trilogy that started with 'The name of the wind' and out this very day.
Ive been waiting for the lazy bugger to finish this for around three years- ever since I finished the first book, Hope its as good as that.Posted 1 year ago # -
'Bound for glory' autobiog of Woody Guthrie. Fantastic so far.
Ooh that sounds interesting.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Power Of Now, (A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment) By Eckhart Tolle
Posted 1 year ago # -
1000 years of annoying the French. Funny, yet educational.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just finished this
Haven't read much of his stuff for quite a while, but I must say I was really impressed. Nasty stories of normal humans being placed in most non-normal circumstances.
Now on to this for a light hearted contrast.
TM
Posted 1 year ago # -
"The art of happiness" by the Dalai Lama. Only just started so can't give a review as yet.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Finished rereading "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by Terry Pratchett last night. Starting rereading "The Algebraist" by Iain M Banks tonight.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just finished PSS by China Med, enjoyed it - now on Surface Detail Iain M Banks also good sf fun.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Absolutely gripping book. Only problem is that I get off the train and on my bike after work and cane it up the hill forgetting that I'm not a pro rider, and I'm on a Hard Rock circa 1985...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just starting to re-read the Arabesk trilogy by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. Been a bit 'off' reading recently so I am hoping that this will bring back my mojo.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Jupiters Travels by Ted Simon.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Human Factor by Graham Greene. Not his best, but still a good read.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Before that it was "Wonders of a Godless World" by Andrew McGahan
Posted 1 year ago # -
"The Shaman and Snow White"
Been reading it many times these last few weeks!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Garry_Lager - Member
Got China Mielville's Iron Council to read next. Woop!
Just started this myself as it goes. Heard it's a bit weaker than PSS and The Scar so interested to see how it turns out.
Ah, is Perdido Street Station good? I started with the Scar and found it pretty dark, but gripping, and it was a toss-up which way to go for the second.
Also read The City and the City, which was kinda cool but very different.Posted 1 year ago # -
Currently alternating between Prehistoric Cumbria by David Barrowclough and re-reading Ancient Energies of the Earth by David Cowan.
Next up, Prehistoric Lancashire, also by David Barrowclough, and Lancashire's Sacred Landscape edited by Linda Sever.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence, took me a few goes to get through the over flowery introductory chapters, but a continually wet week in Devon helped and I'm really amazed by it now. I should have persevered with it before, it's a completely different book beyond about page 60. Keep switching to the net though to get proper maps as the tiny ones in the paperback are useless. Before that I'd been reading Britannica and Nat Geo for months, hadn't touched a proper book for a while. Oh, Gorky Park and Polar Star too, but they were revisits not fresh reading.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ah, is Perdido Street Station good? I started with the Scar and found it pretty dark, but gripping, and it was a toss-up which way to go for the second.
Perdido is very good, yeah, although I'd say the Scar was better overall. Or rather PSS has better ideas / world building / is a better story than the scar, but Mieville was a better writer when he wrote the Scar. So it's sort of even (PSS features a truly awesome set of monsters though - the Slake Moths
Also read The City and the City, which was kinda cool but very different.
).
Don't read a huge amount of SF/fantasy these days, but was knocked out by The Scar. It should be used in creative writing classes - so difficult to maintain the narrative energy in a story like that but he pulls it off absolutely no problem.
Posted 1 year ago #
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