Books - What are you reading?

I was given a copy of China Miéville's The City and The City at christmas and it's finally made it to the top of the To Read pile.

About halfway through and I'm really enjoying it. First of his books i've read and i think i was expecting something quite different. Nicely understated, the central premise isn't dealt with too heavy handedly, and it kind of feeds the mystery of the story to you in a nicely measured way - not too flashily. I'm awful at review-lets, sorry.

I really like a lot of his books, my fave was Perdido Street Station which I really want to read again but can't find in the flat.

I quite enjoyed that one, King Rat and Kraken were not very good.

Anyone following 9M9H9E9?

No, but i've read about it/them and it's pretty intriguing. Reminds me of that twitter choose your own adventure someone did, but much more crackers.

EDIT: a cursory browse revealed a constantly updated epub format download, so i will be having a read in order.

Shit had me glued to my screen and now I'm hanging on every post.

I just did a few pages from the start (can't really get into it now as i'm...ahem...working) and it's already appealing. Got a sort of Burroughs stream of consciousness thing going on.

I defy you not to read the whole lot in the next 24h.

Yeah, well i'm whacking it on my kindle so we'll see how much work/childcare gets done now :-)

I asked her if her ability to see all those extra dimensions allowed her to see into the future. She told me that she could only see extra dimensions in the feedrealm. It allowed her fight against Q more effectively because she can process information on a different level.

She explained, "When you look at a digital picture, you can process a huge matrix of color values all at once. If you tried to process the same picture by looking at a list of color codes for each point, like R:101, G:254, B:017, it would take forever and be incomprehensible. For certain problems, I have the same advantage over you that you have over a guy reading a list of color codes on a ticker. I can see many things all at once. But I can only see extra dimensions in the feedrealm. Here outside the realm, there seems to be only three dimensions plus one timeline. I can't see beyond that. But I can imagine beyond it."

awsome

Station Eleven - 5 chapters in - tension is mounting!

Nabokov: anyone read anything other than Lolita? I'm toying with bumping Bend Sinister to the top of the pile to read next.

Do it! Nabokov is probably my favourite writer, try Pale Fire as well.

Actually I have a copy of that too. Sounds well postmodern :-)

I've read 3 Murakami books (Kafka on the Shore, Sputnik Sweetheart & Wind Up Bird Chronicle) over the last month or so.

Have never enjoyed reading so much.

Managed to read Sputnik Sweetheart in just a day, never read a book anything like as quickly before.

I think there's still a few of Murakami's to read but then what?

I fancy reading Lolita, mainly because I like the movie versions, wonder if I should try some other Japanese/Asian authors though since I've gotten on so well with Murakami. Any suggestions?

Edit: Should have looked into it properly, not just gone by which of his books Waterstones sells, there are plenty more!

David Mitchell is pretty Murakami-esque and I enjoy them about as much. Number 9 Dream is good.

Anyone read 'The Stone Man' by Luke Smitherd?

It's not perfect, but I really enjoyed it. Quite creepy, and kind of reminded me of Wyndham and the like in many ways. Just bought a copy for a mate's birthday and it made me think I'd like to read more of his books.

Cheers, I'll have a look for some of his stuff.

Is everyone here using old school book books or have you all updated to e-readers? I've thought about getting a Kindle for a while but I've just bought 6 2nd hand Murakami's from Abe books for little over £16, that aint gonna happen with a Kindle is it?

I've just finished that. I really enjoyed it.

Apart from the fact that my flat is setting to crush the one below it with the weight of all the physical books, I can't see the point of changing to a kindle yet.

My partner owns one and I've used it and enjoyed it, but I'd sooner have a paper one.

I love my kindle because it fits nicely in a jacket pocket and I can have it with me with no hassle.

I kindle when I travel, but it wont ever replace actual paper books. Its a fantastic thing to have especially if you are on the move a lot, I carry a huge library whenever I want saving weight and space. I think it has its place alongside physical books as an alternative for different purposes.

I'm halfway through Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" at the moment.

It's a relatively easy going read, but feels a bit like it's written specifically for movie adaptation - Everything is on the surface, laid out for you to see.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. The first half was good but it's got a bit weird, in a twee sort of way. I am assuming something awful is going to happen and this weirdness is merely a literary device to lull the reader into thinking all is well. If this pending tragedy involves the death of the protagonist's lady-friend I'm going to feel cheated.

I'm guessing it's a sign of the times, but there's a lot of lighthearted boozing going on in this book, although very little smoking.

I'm almost all on Kindle, find it much easier to use.

Can lay it flat on a table whilst you're eating, built-in backlight for flights, reading whilst gf is asleep, syncing between phone and kindle - if I'm going out and don't want to carry stuff then I can just pick up where I left off on my phone, much easier one-handed reading on the tube. Plus obviously having a load of books on it.