What are you reading at the moment?

gavin_axecaster

Re-reading Terry Pratchett's "Watch" books from the Discworld series.
I've read them multiple times but this is the first time I'm reading them as their own series back to back. Such a joy reading the humour and style he had in his prime.
(IMO "Thud" is the last of the true Discworld books, before the effects of Parkinson's stood out in his writing.)

Octahedron

I'm studying Australian literature, and also 'gothic' literature. Therefore, I'm reading Australian literature and 'gothic' literature. Got 16 books to read all-up! 

boogieman

gavin_axecaster;747297" said:

Re-reading Terry Pratchett's "Watch" books from the Discworld series.

I've read them multiple times but this is the first time I'm reading them as their own series back to back. Such a joy reading the humour and style he had in his prime.

(IMO "Thud" is the last of the true Discworld books, before the effects of Parkinson's stood out in his writing.)

I started one of the discworld books many years ago but didn't really get into it. Then I heard a bit of one on R4extra the other day and thought it was pretty good, I should give TP another go I think.

Snap

So many "great books" just aren't IMO.

Roberto Bolano - heralded as the greatest south american author etc etc. Well, having read a couple of his, I don't agree. Annoying, yes, but not great.

I've just started a re read of the Malazan Book of The Fallen. Even better second time round. Currently on book number 2, Deadhouse Gates. I plan to read the whole lot (Erikson's and Esslesmont's) in sequence.

lloyd

lloyd said:

Just bought my books for my upcoming holiday:

I'm With The Band-Pamela Des Barres

The Heroin Diaries-Nikki Sixx

And a couple recommended in this thread:

Post Office-Charles Bukowski

More Than This-Patrick Ness

I'm With The Band-Pamela Des Barres - excellent honest memoir of an interesting life lived during a great era of music, recommend this to any fans of the 60's/70's not hugely graphic but plenty of anecdotes about meeting the greats (and not so)

The Heroin Diaries-Nikki Sixx - good read, no fan of the Crue's music but they knew how to party/fuck themselves up

Post Office-Charles Bukowski - glad I gave him another go, really enjoyed it, easy to read, looking forward to some more of his work

More Than This-Patrick Ness - not for me to be honest, got a couple chapters in, the story/premise is good but for me the writing style put me off continuing unfortunately.

DesVegas

Reading T Pratchet's Snuff right now .. very good, not great so far, but very good .. will then go back to Congo

xSkarloey

WG Sebald, The Rings of Saturn.

HAL9000

Skarloey said:

WG Sebald, The Rings of Saturn.

I quite fancy this - How you finding it? Any good?

John_P

Just read the first half of the new (and very sadly final)  Terry Pratchett - Shepherds Crown.      Very good so far. 

Nikko

'Dark Days' - D. Randall Blythe

Grunfeld

Seb Hunter's "Hell Bent for Leather" -- which I heard about from this thread so passing it on... gawd it's a funny book.  Great read.

The other book is cos I was carrying too much pork around my middle (and I've reduced my weight by a stone since doing this).  I  remembered when I was vegan I was slim and felt great.  I wanted some of that slimness again but didn't want the whole tree hugging bit.  This is an awesome cookbook:  Thug Kitchen. 

It's not a diet book; I didn't want a diet, I wanted to cut out the crap.  And this is the way I cut the unnecessary crap which piles on the inches and pounds.  Efficient!

d8m

Reading this.

Its making me want to find a really good online multiplayer game.

Paul_C

back to the 80s for me at the moment with Julian May's The Many Coloured Land.

Recent reads include Terry Pratchett's last, which was ok I guess (as mentioned earlier he hadn't much that was up to his best for quite a long time), Dome City Blues (free sci-fi from Amazon via Bookbub, which picks out free or cheap books from various sites in any genre you choose) which wasn't bad.

I've got SOOOO many books both on kindle and sitting on shelves, so I shouldn't "waste" time on re-reads, but I do like to remind myself of books from time to time, and there are some that I have read loads of times, nevertheless being post-50 means that book-reading time is running out, however slowly

Grunfeld

I don't play video games now but I used to love STARCRAFT.  Totally loved it. 

So last night I downloaded "Stay Awhile and Listen" by David Craddock.  It's about the origins of Blizzard.  Today I had nothing to do other than sit in my son's flat while the double glazing was installed and I've read most of this book. 

Brilliant!  The only caveat is you might have to be a fan of at least one Blizzard game to love it.  Dunno though, there's a lot of the Nintendo Game Boy era in there too.  It's just full of fascinating stuff about how video games were actually created:  the people involved, what they were like, how they actually did it, the dumb luck of different people coming together in the earliest days of the video game industry.

I got the book through StoryBundle -- who offer a cluster of books at a "pay what you want" rate every few months.  It's pretty good if you're an avid reader.  Sometimes the writing is a bit scratchy but this book about Blizzard is quality - kind of "good journalism" level, i.e. easy read and informative.

axisus

Just started the biography of MP Alan Johnson. He came from an extremely poor family. I feel real sorry for his mum, she had a hard life. As a kid you kind of go with the flow, but as a parent you shoulder all the responsibility.

Gru

The BFG
Currently on Chapter 11.

Skipped

Just read the new Lee Childs book.
For me this was a slight dip in form - the first I have noticed in 20 books.
The subject matter is a bit dark. Can't say what as it is slowly revealed to the reader...

Skipped

Now reading the new David Cameron Bio. Not that one. The other one. It is an eye opener. If you have seen the author doing Newsnight and the rest you may have assumed that he is 100% pro Cameron. But the book is very critical of Dave.
The section on Libya is astonishing. Cameron being brushed off by Merkel. Then Obama. Then his own advisors telling him it is a very bad idea (to intervene) because Cameron has done no post conflict planning. But he tells them all he is going to do it anyway.

xSkarloey

De Profundis by Oscar Wilde, a letter written by him in prison to the little bastard who helped get him into trouble.

Wilde brought a lot of it on himself but the sections where he writes of never seeing his kids again are heartbreaking.

The most elegantly written rant in the language.

Snap

Drew_fx said:

Right now I'm reading The Scarlett Gospels by Clive Barker - a sequel of sorts to The Hellbound Heart.

Any good? I loved his earlier stuff up to Everville, but Sacrament, Galiliee, COldwater Canyon etc were all pretty rubbish. Mister B Gone is good, but short.

The Great & Secret Show, Evervelle, Imajica and Weaveworld though are superb