What are you reading at the moment?

boogieman

EricTheWeary said:

boogieman said:

Second Sleep by Robert Harris. Very odd. I’m 100 odd pages in and have no idea what’s going on or where the story is headed. 

I have read this. I heard an interview with Harris on the radio when he was promoting it ( last year?) and effectively he gave spoilers for the entire thing so I knew exactly where it was headed! 

I have read a few of his novels although it's going back a bit now and it's been a bit hit and miss. Archangel is the one I remember as the best and not a terrible film of it either. Although over 20 years since I read it.  

I picked it up on the strength of Fatherland being very good. 

I twigged the current one was going to be a bit odd when anachronisms popped up early on. I initially thought it might be a mistake but then thought no editor worth his salt would allow matches or a grandfather clock in the 15th century.  

guitars4you

pigface said:

EricTheWeary said:

I Just Can’t Stop It - Ranking Roger. 

Will put that on my list. I loved The Beat in my wild and dissipated youth :-).

I'm busy with this one at the moment. A scholarly tome on the history of intelligence (the spying kind) from the Bible to modern times. For fans only, I suppose, but I am enjoying it. Close to 1000 pages of small print which is leading me to believe that I need new reading glasses.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l1ceq79v6kuvc8z/secret_world.jpg?raw=1

Might have a look at that in due course - Saw a great documentary a couple of years ago about QE 1st secret service with Francis Walsingham - Some think skulduggery started with the likes of Dulles - I know a bit about such intrigue with the Roman Empire 

HAL9000

EricTheWeary said:

I have read a few of his novels although it's going back a bit now and it's been a bit hit and miss. Archangel is the one I remember as the best and not a terrible film of it either. Although over 20 years since I read it.  

Re-read Archangel a month or so back. Still as good as I’d remembered. Also, An Officer and a Spy is pretty excellent.

fob

Just finished Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.

One of the 'big' sci-fi books that I hadn't read. Not awful but not great. It started well enough and, for me, had a bit of a Peter F Hamilton vibe to it (although the whole book would just be the opening chapter for Hamilton.)

The ending felt like a bit of a let-down in terms of plot and also because it used the modern sci-fi writer's (or publisher's) trick of using a chapter ending as a book ending. Trilogies used to be three separate stories not one cut into three. I probably won't bother with the others.

hollywoodrox

Just dipped into the power of now in paperback  . Buy loads of books on amazon But never seem to get chance to read them. Just bought one called moths , set in a dystopian world after an apocalyptic event , 

Logie

Shit loads of guitar mags on Readly

Greatape

This thread.

But bookwise, just started 'White Bicycles' - Joe Boyd's autobiog.

pigface

guitars4you said:

Might have a look at that in due course - Saw a great documentary a couple of years ago about QE 1st secret service with Francis Walsingham - Some think skulduggery started with the likes of Dulles - I know a bit about such intrigue with the Roman Empire 

Walsingham features strongly in this one. It's a long read, though. I'm on page 498 and WWI hasn't started yet ...

VimFuego

pigface said:

guitars4you said:

Might have a look at that in due course - Saw a great documentary a couple of years ago about QE 1st secret service with Francis Walsingham - Some think skulduggery started with the likes of Dulles - I know a bit about such intrigue with the Roman Empire 

Walsingham features strongly in this one. It's a long read, though. I'm on page 498 and WWI hasn't started yet ...

no spoilers please, I want to see how it ends.

RocknRollDave

Currently reading:

Stuart McBride - The Coffin Maker's Garden. Typically grim detective stuff. I also read Mark Billingham's books and, to be honest, I get the characters from these two author's works mixed up as they're so similar. I enjoy them both, though, so that's OK.


Just finished:

Carlos Santana - The Universal Tone.   Interesting enough glimpse into his early life in Mexico, starting a band in the 60's, working with the likes of Bill Graham and Clive Davis etc. Gets a bit mystical and spiritual, which I had to take with a pinch of salt, but enjoyable all the same.


On my To Read pile:

Skin - It Takes Blood and Guts. Autobiography from the Skunk Anansie frontperson.
Pete Townshend - The Age of Anxiety. A novel. About a Rock Star. And, yes, it's THAT Pete Townshend. If I am honest, I bought it to see if it's really as bad as I expect it to be!

Philly_Q

Nice to see this thread back.  After taking over 18 months to read Drood, by Dan Simmons, a fictional tale featuring Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, I am now reading:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Offset

Just started 'Chastise' by Max Hastings.  The story of The Dambusters raid.

SteveRobinson

The New Wilderness by Diane Cook. 

The city is an unhealthy place so a group of people choose to live outside in the wilderness. They still have to comply with rules enforced by the Rangers but otherwise live as nomads on their wits and what they can hunt or gather. 

Offset

Philly_Q said:

Nice to see this thread back.  After taking over 18 months to read Drood, by Dan Simmons, a fictional tale featuring Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, I am now reading:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Wow.  Last Dan Simmons I read was the Hyperion Cantos.  Last Wilkie Collins I read was The Woman In White.  I think Drood is firmly on my list,

VimFuego

picked up Cormac McCarthy's "horse" trilogy in a charity shop the other week, near the end of the middle one (The Crossing). Difficult to describe, very spare and tight writing, no fat at all, so there's no wasted words. You really have to focus and think, it's the closest I reckon you could get to poetry in prose form as every word, phrase, paragraph etc. is so carefully chosen.

westford

Finished reading Inspection by Josh Malerman recently. It was alright, I liked the concept but it was slow to get going and then the ending felt a bit rushed.

Now reading Raft by Stephen Baxter.

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Philly_Q said:

Nice to see this thread back.  After taking over 18 months to read Drood, by Dan Simmons, a fictional tale featuring Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, I am now reading:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Wow.  Last Dan Simmons I read was the Hyperion Cantos.  Last Wilkie Collins I read was The Woman In White.  I think Drood is firmly on my list,

When I say I took 18 months to read Drood, there was nothing wrong with it.  Covid got in the way - no commuting and therefore very little reading. 

Before that I was reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood, followed by a book about The Mystery of Edwin Drood, followed by two other authors' attempts to complete The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

So I seem to have established a pattern of connecting each book I read to the one before.  I might try to keep that going.

Cols

Re-reading The Lies Of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.  I’d forgotten how bloody good The Gentleman Bastard Sequence was.

fretmeister

Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential.

boogieman

Dave Grohl’s autobio The Storyteller. He can write but it’s a strange book. He gushes like crazy (and actually quite annoyingly after a while) about his Mom (sic), Pantera, Paul McCartney and AC/DC but only spends about 20-30 pages * on Kurt and Nirvana. Maybe not much love lost there? I dunno. 

* Edit: I went back and counted and it’s actually 60 pages, spread over a couple of chapters. He still makes much more of a deal about his first band and the Foos than Nirvana, which seems odd to me considering it was his big break. I’ve finished the book now, he’s VERY gushy about his kids…. I get he’s a proud dad but it’s cloyingly OTT.