Books - What are you reading?

Brideshead Revisited, this is the Evelyn Waugh I have read the least because one of the central characters reminds me painfully of a dead friend. I am loving every word and marveling at some of the passages/jokes.

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Very little of the UK's oil imports are from Saudi, so most petrol you buy won't include it.

Oil is fungible enough, though, that the fact you're using petrol at all sort of benefits them anyway. So ride your bike more if it bothers you...

Started The Road to Oxiana yesterday. I know it's written in a different time, but the racial stereotyping is making it quite difficult for me to get into. Maybe it'll get better as he travels further east...

Sounds like the book I need right now!
I'm tip-toeing around No Name by Wilkie Collins, deciding wether to commit to such a beast of a tome. Anyone read it?

Just finished Running with the Kenyans, an interesting account of a journalists time running in Iten, although it doesn't really draw any conclusions.

Struggling my way through The Outlander. Was billed as being McCarthy-esque but it's understandably not at that level.

Started reading Emily Chappell's book.. Pretty much couldn't put it down

without a doubt one of my favourite books, like you say, heart wrenching and also v funny. the old bbc series is really good too.

“The wines were too various,” he said; “it was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault. It was the mixture. Grasp that and you have the root of the matter. To understand all is to forgive all.”

@Brameses taken out of context there it seems almost impossible to believe it not from Withnail.

Yep, it was a good read and has prompted me to (re)read some of his others (Our Man In Havana first methinks).

New book club book is Nora Webster by Colm Toibin.

I like the idea of taking photo's of the books I've read, ala @moocher, but I'm all kindle, all the time now, so no dice, but in the last year or so, I have read

colson whitehead - john henry days
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1841155705?keywords=colson%20whitehead&qid=1454923667&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luminaries-Eleanor-Catton/dp/184708432X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454923779&sr=1-1&keywords=luminaries

Andy Weir - The Martian
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/1785031139/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454923913&sr=1-1&keywords=the+martian

Ryunosuke Akutagawa - Hell Screen
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Hell-Screen-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/014119572X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454923959&sr=1-1&keywords=hell+screen

Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ocean-at-End-Lane/dp/1472228421/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454923999&sr=1-3&keywords=neil+gaiman

Simon Rich - What in God's Name
http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Gods-Name-Simon-Rich/dp/1846688493/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454924077&sr=1-5&keywords=simon+rich

James Sallis - The Long Legged Fly
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Legged-Fly-James-Sallis-ebook/dp/B00820PJTW/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454924107&sr=1-4&keywords=james+sallis

David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bone-Clocks-David-Mitchell/dp/0340921625/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454924136&sr=1-1&keywords=bone+clocks

Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Echo-Harry-Bosch/dp/1409139484/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454924244&sr=1-1&keywords=black+echo

Markus Zusak - The Book Thief
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0552773891/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454924301&sr=1-1&keywords=the+book+thief

Me too, was the quickest I've managed to read a book in years. Finished it within a couple of days.

Didn't get on so well with Julian Sayerer's courier book though.

What is the Luminaries like?

dense, slightly archaic prose, possibly historically accurate, lots of different viewpoints, and an ending that I wasn't satisfied with despite having slogged through said dense prose to get to it.
It's an interesting read, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone. Think I wanted more action/drama for my buck, and didn't really get it.

I'll leave it on the bookshelf then.

Superb book

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Enjoyed it. Pretty fun account of riding the Great Divide.

Been reading a lot of Tom Drury at the mo, its real good stuff.

No, that's not possible.

My brother works in an organisation which looked at whether we could know with certainty that non of our oil comes from IS. Basically, the market for crude oil is so murky you have no idea.

I'll come back and update this post with links if I can find good sources in English.

@starfish&coffee
thanks. in the meantime, more cycling, less driving. not that i do very much.

Just started reading Infinite Jest, see you on the other side...

I just finished The Mayor of Casterbridge. First Hardy novel I've got through, but with such a great start it was quite an attention grabber. I do like his writing style and the way he captures the place and the atmosphere so well, but I'm not sure I'm completely with him on the messages of the book.

Turgenev. Sketches from a Hunter's Album. Short stories detailing the inexplicable actions of Russians back in the 1800s. Really good as long as you accept it is just snapshots of life and there will be no resolution to anything.

Perhaps 10% through infinite jest now. Yet to find the joy.
It's not (yet) Moby Dick, Auster, Dickens.
Seems to be tennis and drugs. And presumably that's what's the Ilie Nastase biography is for.

Thanks, downloaded and hopefully I'll have time to read it soon. Wiki says he did the research in Vivo with Harper Lee.

I'm reading the 'The Sky Beyond' by Sir Gordon Taylor at the moment. He flew in WWI and was one of the pioneers of trans-oceanic flight. It's great and I'd highly recommend it. In a similar vein to Ernest Gann's 'Fate is the hunter', I guess.