Books - What are you reading?

i finished it and still don't get everyones love of it.

I have just finished Stoner, which I thought was both excellent and depressing. Just before that I read Pulp. I quite enjoyed it but research suggests I picked a bad book to introduce myself to Bukowski. I'm going to give Post Office a go on I think Luci's suggestion.

I've been meaning to try Gravity's Rainbow again, but I think i'll leave it a bit.

Read these in Feb. Poor showing, not enjoying much at the moment. Stuck on IJ still.

@root I thought stonor was excellent. Reminded me of The Human Stain.

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Only skim read the undivided past. History. Bit boring. For me, anyway.

Escape from Baghdad! Saad Z Hossain. Truly excellent. Almost finished it and really don't want it to end.

Read these in March. Very much enjoyed Wool. Have pretty much given up on infinite jest now.

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I read Wool last year and have since read loads more Hugh Howey books and short stories, not found one that I haven't loved yet.

Picked this up after your recommendation and I'm really enjoying it. Nice one!

@CogSucker - the two followups to Wool are worth reading too then. will keep an eye out

they definitely are! Book Two 'Shift' is especially good.

Over last week's holiday I read:
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Ham on Rye & Factotum, Charles Bukowski
King Rat, China Miéville

Unfortunately no spine photo as I'm on Kindle.

I didn't much like King Rat compared to the City and the City. I'm giving Miéville another go at the minute with Kraken. Having read the blurb for Wool though, I think I will add that to my list as it looks right up my street.

Kraken and King Rat are shit, I got halfway through The City and found it to be a snorefest.

Whatever the title of the one about the world on rails was ok, but took a decent run up to finish, which is frustrating as Perdido St is one of my all time favourites, so he can clearly write interesting fiction when the mood takes him.

It's just not taken him that direction in any of his recent books.

I'm re-reading the Dune series now, I last read them when I was 13 or so, it's been quite funny having memories of what I was up to then triggered by certain passages in the books.

Are the sequels to Dune any good? I only ever read the 1st one

Kraken is a rip-off of Neverwhere. Although I did prefer it, probably as Gaiman's writing is a little childish.

The City is similar in vein to Embassytown, insofar as he takes an esoteric concept and stretches (rather than expands) it into a story universe. It's a good example of a book that would be better as a short story.

Railsea tho. Lame finish. Too much predictability.

I have had to make myself finish all the recent ones, I could not put Perdido st down.

It was definitely a struggle through King Rat. I'd of left it, but I hadn't any more books downloaded.

Yeah!? Nice. It was already good in the beginning but the last few chapters are really something else. Especially liked how some of the more outrageous elements are dripped in slowly until you realise that you are not at all reading the story you thought you were. And some of the little bits of humour had me actual lolling, which puts it in the rarefied company of Milligan, Pratchet, Rankin and O' Brienn/O'Nolan

I've given up on Kraken. It was, as you stated, shit.

Finished Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End the other night (first thing I've read on kindle). Some interesting ideas, but didn't do much for me as a novel. I'm still in the mood for more scifi, just not sure what to pick. Iain M. Banks is a favourite out of the current sf writers I'm familiar with, but I think I've already read all of his scifi stuff.

Edit. ...hadn't realised Banks had died.

Late to the party but currently reading H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. Beautifully written, utterly absorbing.

I just finished No Country For Old Men by Cormack McCarthy. I really enjoyed it but did anyone else find the end dragged a bit?

I made a pretty good dent in The Martian by Andy Weir last night. So far the set up and the storyline is great but the style of writing is absolutely awful. It has the potential to be really tense but it seems to be trying to be light hearted, using words like "booya", which just comes across as annoying. Is it too much to ask for a really miserable book about a man slowly dying alone on a deserted planet?

Also, can anyone recommend any interesting, well written science fiction? Along the lines of Philip K Dick. I've already read the Hugh Howey books everyone's been enjoying lately. Another case where I enjoyed the story and ideas but not the writing style.

I've enjoyed most of the stuff I've read from the SF masterworks collection. Off the top of my head Starmaker, Flowers for Algernon, The Forever War and I Am Legend. Also a big fan of Sirens of Titan, but I dig Vonnegut anyway.

I loved the Martian