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@tom-b I’ve got an anthology of Kafka’s from 20 odd years ago and tried (but failed) to get through the Trial. I think the trial is referring to the reading experience rather than the subject matter!!
At about the same time I read Kelmans how late it was - another bag o sh**e - I’ve now decided life’s too short for rubbish books just because they’re seen as worthy 😂
Hahaha yeah I'd tend to agree!
@white101 Catch 22 is well worth persevering with. I think that I've said earlier on this thread, the none linear nature of it means that it can be hard to realise where you are with it (it was for me anyway) Maybe switch to something easier and come back to it post Covid brain fog? We suffered exactly the same post Covid issues 😔
@Tom-B I think thats good advice. I've popped it back on the shelf and picked up The Thursday Murder Club.
Over xmas (or as it was known in this house the omicron period) I managed to finish off Simon Armitage’s book Walking Home. A trip down the Pennine Way. Very entertaining.
I'd recommend anything by Simon Armitage, book or TV. Often very funny, always well written. I think in All Points North he has a few pages about dealing with his car insurance company after he makes the change to full time writer. It puts his premium up, and they justify it by saying that he'll be more at risk from the public as a poet than as a probation officer. 😀
Just finished Martha Well's murderbot diaries series, which are mostly novellas, but Network Effect just won this years Hugo for best novel. Not only good stories, but seriously funny as well. A cyborg designed for killing things which has overridden the systems designed to control it and like to spend it's time watching soap operas...
Also just started Bob Mortimer’s “And Away”. A jolly read.
I have just started John Nichol's 'Lancaster' (a history of the legendary bomber and its crews) – I was almost in tears on the train and that was only three pages into the Foreword.
Half way through the The North Water by Ian Macguire , there is a tv series coming soon which is meant to be good so thought I’d try and get the book in first as I really struggle to read the book if I’ve seen a tv or film version first . The book has been great so far
I'd watched the TV series and then got the book for Christmas - halfway through. Both great, and the TV series is a great adaptation of the book.
Sad Little Men – Private Schools and the Ruin of England, Richard Beard
Listened to the audiobook, and while it's a good listen/read, I did find it a little repetitive. I think it's really a good long essay rather than a book?
I have just started John Nichol’s ‘Lancaster’
Len Deighton's Bomber is always a good recommendation if you enjoy Lancaster.
Had a spurt recently after not reading very much for a while. Got through three LJ Ross crime thrillers set up in Northumberland, they were mildly entertaining.
Picked up some Stephen King books for the first time in a LONG time - I'd forgotten just how good a read he is, I properly tore through The Outsider and Billy Summers. Let It Bleed is on the reading pile (along with a few more LJ Ross books) and I will be picking up Mr Mercedes, Finders Keepers and End Of Watch from the library (or charity shop) in the near future.
Currently reading the latest John Connolly novel, "The Nameless Ones". Cracknig read, as always
also on the reading pile are two christmas presents, Mark Cavendish's new "Tour de Force" about this years tdf and the green jersey, and Dave Grohl's "The Storyteller"
I have just started John Nichol’s ‘Lancaster’ (a history of the legendary bomber and its crews) – I was almost in tears on the train and that was only three pages into the Foreword.
D'you know, that went back onto the "To Read" pile for me - I was expecting the story of the plane rather than the crews, and everything I read seemed a tad hysterical and one-paced (I didn't get very far, TBH). Not saying it's not good, and I definitely WILL read it, I was just expecting it to be something slightly different.
Just pulled the Cruel Sea off the shelf after 3 decades! This in spite of having lots of new books to read too. I have to say it is utterly brutal compared to the film.
Also keen to learn a bit more about the Spanish Civil War so have bought Beevor’s book on the subject. Although it is criticised by some it seems to give a good overview.
The White ship by Earl Spencer.
A good read so far.
Just finished The Handmaids Tale and The Testaments.....both were stunning. I suppose 'a feminist 1984' is a phrase that could be used to both praise and dismiss them depending on your stand point. For me, they are a sort of feminist 1984, slightly more accessible as she doesn't delve as deep into the thought process behind the totalitarian regimes' workings as Orwell did. Certainly not books that I'll forget in a hurry.
Next up is No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. It seems fairly batshit, it's the first book for my new book club that starts next Thursday.
The "old mans war" series by John Scalzi some fine military SF with a lot of of humour. Some of the best I have read for a long time. aliens are weak tho - they just behave like people
Started re-reading the Slough House series, as I definitely missed bits / can't remember who did what the first time around.
Taking a break from science fiction until some paperbacks are released.
Just finished 'Trespass, crossing the lines that divide us'. Thought provoking and anger inducing. I am proper radicalised now!
Before that I raced through Dune so I could finish it before seeing the film. Loved them both.
Currently reading World War Z. I never saw the film but I hear it's nothing like the book. The oral history interview format was a bit weird to start with, but I'm really getting into it now. It's well written and nothing like the slightly trashy horror I part imagined it to be.
Currently reading Jimmy the Hand one of the Rift War spin offs by Raymond E Feist then having a break from that series as it has 23 books
Looking forward to reading With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge
Vietnam Perkasie by W D Ehrhart
Pilgrim Days by Alastair Mackenzie
Then back to the Rift War Saga
The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi
Been on my Kindle for 3 years, so thought I'd better give it a go. Seems good
The “old mans war” series by John Scalzi some fine military SF with a lot of of humour. Some of the best I have read for a long time. aliens are weak tho – they just behave like people
Yeah, agreed. The first one was entertaining and a quick read - just the thing to slip in between more heavyweight books. Like an amuse bouche. 😀
I'm currently reading Elvis Priestley's book about being an F1 pit crew. Entertaining and written well enough for what it is. I have a huge stack of books - paper and electronic - to read next, but I'm not sure what it will be.
I've been reading this on and off for a very long time. I really like it.
Currently coming to the end of "The Moth and the Mountain".
A book written about a chap injured in, but survives the first world war. Post war in the 30's when there is a lot of hype around being the first to conquer Everest, he comes up with a plan to be the first to reach the summit.
His method of doing so is to buy a tiger moth aeroplane, fly it there (despite not knowing how to fly, nor having permission from any authorities to use their air space). Then land on the Lower slopes of Everest before climbing in his hobnail boots (despite never claiming any hills, let alone mountains before).
You'd think this fiction, but no - true story. Not reached the end yet, but somehow I think he's about to perish on the mountain.
Quite a good read as it happens. As you'd expect, he's quite the eccentric chap!
I feel like I'm vaguely familiar with that story @scruff9252 might give it a whirl at some point.
Year Of The King, by Anthony Sher - his account of playing Richard III at Stratford in (I think) '84. Cracking read. 🙂
More Joseph Stiglitz, this time "People Power and Profits" -he speaks so much sense!
Also more Herman Melville, this time "Bartleby" - quite a mysterious and charming short story.
If audiobooks count, The Beastie Boys book. Written by the surviving members and read by all sorts of celebs from LL Cool J to Ben Stiller and Jarvis Cocker.
The descriptions of NYC around 81 for music obsessed teens are superb. Lots of punk, then discovering Hiphop. Also stories of crazy antics, studio innovations and maturing from obnoxious ****s.
Really enjoying it.
Recently finished Anxious People by Frederik Backman. Really enjoyed it, found his style of writing quite refreshing. A comedy based on odd personality traits. Some proper laugh out loud moments in a really rather bizarre setting.
Currently half way through Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. First science fiction novel in ages and it’s a great read so far. Didn’t know what to expect, but some really interesting theories based on evolution of our, and other, species.
Diddly Squat by Clarkson. Not really a book, just a collection of his column stories but it is quite amusing.
tjagain sed> aliens are weak tho – they just behave like people
Aliens are peoples too.
I'm currently reading Tom McCarthy's Making of Incarnation. It's possible he's trying too hard to appear clever again but I'll reserve judgement 'till I finish.
wordnumb. The best SF IMO has aliens that do not behave like people. See the Dwellers in Iain M Banks for an example. Its a really difficult thing to write but opens up loads of possibilities. Or Nivens Puppeteers
They're still people, just not your sort of people. Best not objectify them or they might abduct and probe you, like in that documentary Fire In The Sky.
Year Of The King, by Anthony Sher – his account of playing Richard III at Stratford in (I think) ’84. Cracking read. 🙂
Really really enjoyed this, thoroughly recommended if you have any interest in actors and acting. 🙂
Next up - Pirates, Punks And Politics, about the radical left-wing German football club FC St Pauli. 🙂
Full Tilt....from Ireland to India by bike.
Dervla Murphy.
A journey undertaken in the early sixties, entertaining and unbiased by recent events of history.
While searching for a copy of 1984 that's somewhere in the house (I think...) I came across "Dark Alchemy", a fantasy short story collection which I apparently bought in 2007 but have no memory of... So that. It's fairly lightweight, must be said - another amuse bouche as @IdleJon so aptly puts it 🙂
These days I tend to go to the BT phone booth library in a neighbouring village. Slim pickings on last visit, so it’s ‘Origins’ by Dan Brown.
Romesh Ranganathan’s latest one
Finished Charles Stross’ ‘Quantum Of Nightmares’ his latest in his new series based in the world of ‘The Laundry’, and I really enjoyed it, but then I like everything of his I’ve read.
Just started re-reading for the umpteenth time William Gibson’s ’Pattern Recognition’, just love Gibson’s books, (who’d a thunk it!) and never really get tired of reading them, particularly the ‘Blue Ant’ series.
Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion - Michelle Janikian
Secret Santa gift. Bit of a stretch to say I'm reading it, the intention is there, sort of.
Finished No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood....very witty, it'd probably do everyone posting on here good to read the first part of it. It was fairly abstract though, I just didn't get certain parts of it at all. Should be plenty of room for discussion of it at book club this Thursday though.
Just picked up Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo and she doesn't use full stops ffs 😭 I might try something easier to read!
Tour de Force - Mark Cavendish.
Very easy to read.
The usual insight into his mind and how the races (plus Le Tour itself) lead him up to Last years Green jersey win.
I have ovecome the lack of full stops, brilliant start so far. Very fast paced.
@roger_mellie trying to get into Slow Horses, having seen a recommendation on another thread on STW that it's the best thing since Le Carre - but I'm finding it heavy going- page 100 and almost nothing has happened. Is it worth pursuing? Does it get somewhere?
and never really get tired of reading them
I had a go at Virtual Light a while back, and it's really bad. Pretty incoherent, clunky, and the "tech" has aged really quite badly.
Just finished River of Time by John Swain.
I've read a lot about Vietnam over the years but not a lot about the end of the war and the disaster that befell Cambodia in the late seventies. South east Asia also seems to draw all sorts of romanticism out of writers.
Half way through Life After Dark by Dave Haslam. Billed as a ‘history of British nightclubs and venues’. It’s well researched but more a collection of facts rather than telling any sort of history or story at all. Needs a damn good edit tbh!