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Just finished: [i]In Pharaoh's Army[/i] - Tobias Wolff's memoir of his time in Vietnam. Very sad, but often darkly amusing.
Just started: Toni Morrison's [i]Beloved[/i]. Have never quite gotten around to reading this - spellbinding (and pretty scary) thus far.
Just got given "The Book with No Name"
Looks good, been recommended
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!
Just finished Aron Ralston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Gripping!
Just about to start "Boy racer" Cav init
Still going on "Shakey: The Neil Young Biography". It's a biggun. But bloody great.
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...
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Hoy's autobiography which is quite good actually. I liked Cav's book too.
Wave watchers companion. Pretty good so far. I also liked the chaps first b
ook cloud watchers companion.
Just getting to the end of [i]Zero History[/i], 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, [i]Pattern Recognition, Spook Country,[/i] and [i]Zero History[/i] 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.
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.Got China Mielville's Iron Council to read next. Woop!
Not got anything serious on deck - quite fancy Franzen's last one that was praised to ths skies - Freedom. Anyone read it?
I needed something to tax the brain so am re-reading Silence of the Lambs.
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:
God is not great by Christopher Hitchens - critique of the damage done and flawed basis of all organised religon
'Bound for glory' autobiog of Woody Guthrie. Fantastic so far.
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Bonkers, clever, gripping and funny in equal measure.
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.
'Bound for glory' autobiog of Woody Guthrie. Fantastic so far.
Ooh that sounds interesting.
The Power Of Now, (A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment) By Eckhart Tolle
1000 years of annoying the French. Funny, yet educational.
Just finished this
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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.
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TM
"The art of happiness" by the Dalai Lama. Only just started so can't give a review as yet.
Finished rereading "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by Terry Pratchett last night. Starting rereading "The Algebraist" by Iain M Banks tonight.
Just finished PSS by China Med, enjoyed it - now on Surface Detail Iain M Banks also good sf fun.
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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...
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.
Jupiters Travels by Ted Simon.
The Human Factor by Graham Greene. Not his best, but still a good read.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Before that it was "Wonders of a Godless World" by Andrew McGahan
"The Shaman and Snow White" 🙂
Been reading it many times these last few weeks!
Garry_Lager - MemberGot 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.
Currently alternating between [i]Prehistoric Cumbria[/i] by David Barrowclough and re-reading [i]Ancient Energies of the Earth[/i] by David Cowan.
Next up, [i]Prehistoric Lancashire[/i], also by David Barrowclough, and [i]Lancashire's Sacred Landscape[/i] edited by Linda Sever.
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.
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 😯 ).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.
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.
the quiet american - graham greene
then
the old patagonia express - paul theroux
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
It's a slow starter but has grown on me.
Stephen Donaldsons The Runes of the Earth the first book in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Saver
It's very desperate story of a young France German lad and his time at the Russian front finally ending up as a prisoner of war