A books thread – read, reading…

Highly recommend the Ghost Runner

If he’d lived anywhere less inconspicuous a film would been made years ago….

In the last few weeks I’ve read:
christopher Fowler – Bryant & May – The Burning Man
Charles Stross – The Annihilation Score
peter Fhamilton – The Naked God
Monday Kaling – Is everyone hanging out without me?
Darren Humphries – London Dark
Neal Stephenson – Seveneves
And I’ve just started
James Craig – Nobody’s Hero
Rowan Moore – Why we build
Jonathan Meades – Museum without walls
And as long term projects
Jim Baggott – Atomic
David Edgerton – Britains War Machine
Tom Vanderbilt – Traffic

toppers3933 – Member

I’ve been reading all the jack reacher books over the last few months. Totally brainless but a bit of a change from the usual mountaineering and history books i usually read.

Interesting how the character evolved. Jack used to wear a watch. Then at some point he didn’t need one because he always knew what time it was! Don’t know what his body count is, but in a few of the books they needed a backhoe to dispose of them.

Can’t handle midget Tom Cruise playing the role in the film, since Reacher is always described as huge, and much of the narrative is devoted to reactions to his size. I would have suggested The Rock (Duane Johnson) but he is now pumped up to cartoon levels. Maybe Dolph Lundgren, but he’s getting a little old.

Oh yeah, I wrote a book myself, and it’s about[/url] mountain[/url] biking[/url].

Been rereading early Tom Sharpe stuff “Indecent Exposure” etc – still causes spluttering 🙂

Also an eBook by Frederic Fenger, ideal if you like mucking about in small (very) boats, and his cruise through the West Indies on a sailing canoe in the 1910s.

Just finished Bad Omens…. awesome Pratchett stuff!
Jo Nesbo’s The Bat has been a good holiday read, and for a bit of light relief I’m partway through The Rise of Islamic State by Patrick Cockburn.

I’m on my annual book reading bash – just completed I am Pilgrim by the chap who wrote several Mad Max screenplays. Very good modern day detective novel/ thriller.
Cryptonomicon sat in front of me, partially blocking the view + coffee, waiting to be opened. I could opt for The Rider first as it looks rather lighter.

Dividing the Great

Cryptonomicon is great, persevere with it.
If you like it then The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon is worth reading (much, much shorter as well).

Cryptonomicon is great, persevere with it.

Well, the first half is great, the second half is a mess, imo. 🙂

Probably the best book I’ve ever read:

I’m gutted as I seem to have lost my copy.

dannyh – I’ve just bought a 2nd hand copy from amazon. £0.01 + £2.80 postage.

Forgot about Geronimo by Tim Moore – riding the 1914 Giro d’Italia route on a period bike. Very funny.

idlejon – Longitude’s very short – get stuck in!

Interesting – I read Galileo’s Daughter by Sobel a few years ago, and didn’t enjoy it at all. There are a few other books by her I’m interested in, but G’s D has really put me off.

I read Longitude and loved it, then tried another by Sobel and couldn’t get on with it at all. Longitude is ace. 🙂

I recently read Ian Banks last book, The Quarry. I’ve read all of his (non-sci-fi) books over the years and have enjoyed every single word he’s written.

I finished it on the plane home from a holiday a few weeks ago and cried for most of the flight: it felt like I’d lost a best friend. The obvious autobiographical nature of the book gave a typically Banks’ insight into his own view of life, his character, his illness and his impending death.

Very sad, but if you’ve ever read a Banks novel and identified with any of his heroes, this book should be on your reading list. Just don’t read the end in public!

Not long finished:

Their Lips Speak Of Mischief by Alan Warner, a Withnail-ish departure from his normal settings for one of my favourite authors;

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, feminist dystopia which is depressingly more relevant now than when it was written;

Harvest by John Crace, which I’d been meaning to read for ages and finally got to on holiday the other week. Really good.

Just started on We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas, which looks quite similar in many ways to Jonathan Franzen’s wonderful The Corrections. Got Kim Gordon’s Girl In A Band waiting there too.

You have to read the Death of Bunny Munro.

I thought this was very poor, a real one trick pony of a book. Once you got the idea that the central character was utterly depraved it really didn’t have much else to offer.

Just finished The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon, the sequel to her début novel The Bone Season. Liner notes indicate that the début was a massive success – loads of translations, movie rights sold for loads of money. The series is planned to run to seven books and I can hardly wait, the first two were excellent, I can see why the first generated such interest – a new take on the sci-fi / fantasy genre. Worth a look

idlejon – Longitude’s very short – get stuck in!

Ok boss. 😀

Quite enjoyed The Martian. There was a thread on it on here which recommended The Stone Man, which I just finished. That was good.

Just started The Stone Man. Been looking for some good science fiction since finishing the Martian, and I thought I’d give this a punt based on your recommendation. Not very far in at all really, but it’s already got me gripped.

Recently read Stone Man, & Tin Men, the first being the better of the two, though neither are bad books, but neither really a patch on The Martian. Found Neal Stephenson “Seveneves” to be a bit of a departure from his normal style, and ppl expecting more of his old style will be disappointed, still found it a good read in a more “sci-fi epic” way.

Got lined up… John Scalzi’s “The End of All Things” (might have to re-read “The human division” again, just because I like it so much) also have James S. A. Corey’s “Nemesis Games” along with Terry Hayes “I am Pilgrim”

Also just finished One Man And His Bike.
Absolutely brilliant ,so many places I now want to visit.
Why no pictures in the book though?

Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea tuned up in the post last week. Read it over a a couple of train rides.

I don’t think I’ve been so emotionally overwhelmed on finishing a book for a long time. So much said with so little.

Also finished The Old Man and the Sea, fantastic, joins the will read again (and again) pile.

Also finished Half a War by Joe Abercrombie, another very good read if you like light fantasy, good end to the trilogy. I don’t think anyone does hard bastards quite as good.

Need to have a peruse through this thread for something else to read.

@Gatsby read the quarry last year might have been the only fiction I read last year I thoroughly enjoyed it. Banks was one of the greats.
Read Extreme Centre by Tariff Ali it’s a political polemic and would probably upset anyone of a Daily Fail disposition.
Currently reading The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay as it’s an uplifting page turner.

I have just finished The Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum and now on the classic Riddle of the Sands. Impending major medical work sees me building up a good stash to read, I have an atlas on the history of Russia (restless Empire) as well as book on Russia leading up to the Great War (Towards the Flame) and a really interesting looking book on East Prussia. Am forcing myself not to read them!

If you liked Longitude, there is John Keay’s The Great Arc, the story of surveying in India from the southern tip to the height of Everest.

Recently finished: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids.

Currently reading: Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness (Arab travellers in the Far North). Also a book about Norse Mythology, forget what it’s called though…

I’ve run out of cycle touring books, so just reading anything that comes up cheap / free, on Kindle. Currently reading Carlton Leech’s book about his time as a general thug / minder. I wouldn’t mess with him… 🙂

Next up will be re-reading Justin Kronin’s “The Passage” & “The Twelve”, a post apocalyptic zombie fest, hopefully in time for the third & final part to come out. Zombie fest probably does them an injustice, as they are brilliantly written.