What are you reading at the moment?

HAL9000

Grunfeld;576321" said:

A couple of things on the go but I've nearly finished this one:



Andy Weir, "The Martian"



I've not enjoyed a book this much for ages.  I'm savouring it, deliberately dragging it out despite it being a page turner.  I guess it's science fiction but I think only by default of the setting.  Just utterly brilliant so far, no idea how it's going to end.  Super enjoyable read, highly recommended. 

Reading this at the mo. Very enjoyable.

Skipped

I am reading Born to Drum by Tony Barrell.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22635854-born-to-drum

The chapter on attitudes to female drummers is great. Short extract:

One of them, Michèle Drees, a regular at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, struck a chord when she talked about the phenomenon of “the before and after face.” Often, she said, when she was about to play the drums, she would see facial expressions registering shock or incredulity: this was a woman? Playing the drums? But after she had performed, demonstrating her proficiency on the instrument, these expressions would be replaced by looks of pleasant surprise and appreciation: this woman  really can play! I had seen this expression metamorphosis firsthand when I watched Drees give an impromptu performance at the 2012 London Drum Show. Dozens of men were aghast as she sat behind a kit and laid down some cool jazz grooves, before switching to another kit and pounding out rock beats.
Mindy Abovitz had her own before-and-after-face story, demonstrating the assumptions that are sometimes made about female drummers before they have even struck a note. “I was going to play a show, opening up for another band,” she said, “and a guy walked up to me before I’d started playing and said, ‘You know, I give drum lessons.’ I was like, ‘Do you?’ And then I sat down on the kit and I played my set—probably harder than normal—and when I got off he was like, ‘Oh, you don’t need drum lessons.’”
 

d8m

Nice easy read.

boogieman

Stuart MacBride's latest, The Missing and the Dead. At least he's back to writing Logan McCrae stories again after the last truly dire Ash Henderson effort. Have to say though, this one is nowhere near as good as his previous McCrae books. I hope he gets back to form soon, he can be an astonishingly good writer.

Got Jack Kerouac lined up next.

Myranda

I have a stack of books to read. I like reading so buy books, friend know I like reading so they buy me books for birthdays and the like... but I don't have time/energy needed for all the studying I'm meant to do in addition to work...

So now I have a backlog of books to read that's large enough I genuinely don't know where to start.

I've got classic books like 1984, Brave New World and Animal Farm, assorted sci-fi, the Game of Thrones books, a pile of technical computey books, a library of books on hacking and penetration testing... I think I could spend a year reading what I have if I ever found the time, and yet I haven't started on it...

Even lunch breaks at work are no good for reading - we get half an hour and half of that is queuing for then eating lunch... 15 minutes barely feels like you're getting started.

And I keep looking at threads like this and thinking "ooh that sounds like a good book I should get it!"

breakstuff

Close to the Bone by Stuart Macbride again.Just refreshing my memory before reading his latest one,The Missing And The Dead.

Love his books so much.

boogieman

breakstuff;634943" said:

Close to the Bone by Stuart Macbride again.Just refreshing my memory before reading his latest one,The Missing And The Dead.

Love his books so much.

I love his stuff too, usually. The latest one is very different though, much slower pace (no spoilers but he's been sent away from Aberdeen to the sticks as a "development opportunity") and the black humour that was such a great feature of his earlier books is not much in evidence. At least it isn't Ash Bloody Henderson and DI Steel is always good for a bit of light entertainment.

PolarityMan

I'm re-reading the revelation space universe books by Alasdair Reynolds at the moment.

breakstuff

Yeah I noticed the change of location @boogieman and wondered what,if any,effect in would have.
I didn't mind the Ash Henderson books TBH but I agree,they're not to the same standard as the Logan books.I think we can identify with the characters in the Mcrae books more.They just seem more real with more realistic dialogue,whereas the characters in the Henderson books are a bit more caricature like.
You're right about DI Steel though.Possibly one of my favourite ever written characters.

jellyroll

Just finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, very good. Now reading Letting Go by Philip Roth.

Paul_C

re-reading The Sprouts of Wrath and thinking that I've got to start buying the rest of Robert Rankin's books that I've not read (I own about 15) plus the first three of the Brentford Trilogy - which I leant to someone years ago and never got back

xSkarloey

@boogieman What Kerouac are you going to read?

I'm reading Planet Ponzi a book on economics by Mitch Feierstein.

Also thinking of starting on Proust again. But I'm a very lazy reader so my attempt will probably fail again.

boogieman

On the Road.

lloyd

Nearly through with "Coming Up for Air" by George Orwell, enjoyed it so far. It's a very good account of what life was like way back when.

Clarky

Game of Thrones vol I <-- fun

and

Spanish Grammar <-- not fun

Jalapeno

Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle - just started book 2 - ruddy marvellous !

Heartfeltdawn

On the go right now:

-Arguably by Christopher Hitchens

-the entire Doctor Who 'New Adventures' range released by Virgin

-More Than A Game by John Major

TheBlueWolf

Just finished 'Rivers Of London' by Ben Aaronovitch. It's about a serial killer and has a few spooky twists. Totally awesome

Grunfeld

TheBlueWolf said:

Just finished 'Rivers Of London' by Ben Aaronovitch. It's about a serial killer and has a few spooky twists. Totally awesome

I'm on book 3 at the moment.  Good series so far!

TheBlueWolf

Grunfeld said:

TheBlueWolf said:

Just finished 'Rivers Of London' by Ben Aaronovitch. It's about a serial killer and has a few spooky twists. Totally awesome

I'm on book 3 at the moment.  Good series so far!

Im planning to get the next two over the weekend. I read the first one in one sitting it was that awesome!