Books - What are you reading?

It's a no from me.

Just passed the half way point of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Foer. This is a story about a boy dealing with his father's death in the Twin Towers. He's a special boy - different - fascinating. He becomes for me someone I'd love to meet and chill with - he's only 9 years old but with issues - maybe autistic - that open his mind - wish I could open mine!

The original with Charlton Heston is much much better. Legend

Yeah Omega Man at least retains the social commentary they opted to totally remove from will smiths.

Thanks, I'll check the new book out.

read these over the last month. Annie Proulx is ace. Was slighly disappointed by Shift, had high expectations following Wool. Bob Dylan was interesting enough.

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Kind of following in from the above post, I've just finished Wool and have Shift on my bedside table.

What do people usually do here - have a break and read something else, or just plough through a series till they run out of books?

Just cracked out Ultimate High. The story of this guy.

Only read one book this month but it was the very excellent Kraken by China Mieville.

Picked up Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy after putting it down a few months backs. Violent, grim, bloody, seemingly nihilistic; yet stunning.

I read The Plot Against America recently after hearing it discussed on A Good Read on R4. I'd not thought a lot about the Trump parallels until I was a little bit of the way in, and I don't completely buy them now, but it would be interesting to hear Philip Roth's thoughts on Trump.

All in all, there were aspects of the book I really liked - the characters, the integration of real events/views/people into fiction - but also some bits which seemed a little bit clunky, especially the 'twist' at the end which explains how the 'real' history and the fiction realign.

I'd still recommend it though. Take the dust jacket off before you read it in public though - I was getting some funny looks on the tube before I realised it was probably people seeing the swastika on the cover and thinking I was some kind of white supremacist.

This morning I finished The Vegetarian by Han Kang, which is excellent. Quiet, sparse, and very sad and disturbing.

My mom stopped by and gave me an early christmas present - her old copy of Ludwig Goldscheiders 'Leonardo da Vinci'. Lovely book, even with the 'cheeky' placing of the title on the cover, as she put it (she's a signwriter and typographer).

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...and the last months reading:
'Entering Space' was a really good read, with some thought provoking facts.
'Paddle you own Canoe' was slightly amusing at first, but the joke got old soon.
'Seveneves' was kinda like a civilisation size Martian story. Wanted to love it, but it was just a bit too long and lost it's momentum.

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Just got finished reading I.T by Stephen King for the first time.

*** spoiler alert***

The bit where Bev just sleeps with everyone was a bit weird.

Really like IT. Towards the end it all goes a bit mental but some of the early stuff when they are children in the town is I think among his strongest work.

THIS IS BATTERY ACID YOU BASTARD!

Is that right? Last read it 20 years ago at least, i think its my 2nd favourite King, after the one with shawshank redemption in.

i have a a few copies of his notebooks etc, nothing like a bit of genius to make you feel inadequate. i went to the masters antique fair in chelsea a few years ago and they had some of his actual sketchbooks for sale. breathtakingly expensive!

I always thought that too.

Elephant Complex by John Gimlette, compelling insight to life and history of Sri Lanka.

Dazzling, strange, conflicted and beautiful. As we journey through this amazing country I can't put the book down.

Free books
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Can anyone recommend me a book on the history of the USA/North America? I'd like it to be short and accurate.

Just signed up for Audible. What should be my first picks?
New to the whole audio-book thing, but thinking that if there are probably some gems out there that will win me over.

(I used to scoff at podcasts until I heard Serial. Now I get trough 4-5 podcasts a week.)

Read these in Jan, apart from the Eggers which has been on the go for months.
Homicide was by far the best.

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I read about half of Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs on a train today. I'm finding it pretty hard going!