Books - What are you reading?

Autumn Journal by Louis MacNiece.

Again, Backlisted inspired.

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis.

King Lear as I'm reading St. Aubyn's reinterpretation of it, Dunbar, next.

The Adam Thorpe novel?

Yup. It’s fantastic. You read it?

Yes, not long after it was published, and remember thinking then how it was much better than the reviews suggested. Time has been kind to it, deservedly.

Think I'll re-read it this winter.

I’ve been enjoying the ‘Boundary’ series by Simon Winstanley. The sciences stuff reminds me of Michael Crichton, in its attention to detail and realistic extrapolation of existing theories etc.
Just started the recently released 4th book which seems up to par so far.

Are there any alternatives to Audible for audiobooks? I've used Audible in the past and sort of struggled to find stuff I was interested in.

I'm currently enjoying Charls Stross' latest in the 'Laundry Files' series, The Labyrinth Index
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36053406-the-labyrinth-index
but if you haven't read any yet, I'd recommend starting at the beginning with The Atrocity Archives.

Right then this is a long shot but..

a retired coroner criminologist who has just written a book about his past . He may of lived in cumbria as he talked about one of his last jobs being the mass shooting by a taxi driver. He was on jeremy vine but i dont know the name of the author or title healsi covered jill dando case and the paper boy carl bridgewater murder.

This?

You the man eone fantastic.

Just chewed through a bunch of fiction, including the Stross book named above (the first four are the best, but it’s surprisingly readable for a series on its 9th instalment) and the surprise fourth book to Dave Hutchinson’s Europe series. Have decided to slow this down by reading some non-fiction about Chernobyl (by serhii plokhy) which is pretty excellent. Not sure if I’ll finish it but it’s keeping me distracted

Just read the last Hutchinson. I loved the first two,the third and in particular this one were weaker I thought, the plot became incomprehensible unfortunately.

Europe in Autumn and Europe in Winter are the most original and interesting SF books in recent years however.

I was very disappointed by the Chernobyl book, after the excellent reviews. I don't think reading it in translation helped but I thought it was weak on the science and far too heavy on interminable Soviet politics

I finished reading Earth Abides by George R Stewart. Pretty decent post apocalyptic stuff, published in 1949 so pretty ahead of it's time. It could have done with a bit of an edit though, certain sections really dragged and I lost interest completely towards the end.

I also finished Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk the other day and absolutely loved it. The best thing I've read in ages. It's the first thing of hers that I've read, excited to pick up something else by her.

Just started The Trial by Kafka and finding it slightly heavy going. I love The Castle and Metamorphosis so going to stick with it.

I am not reading this
yet
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/10/what-not-lost-feminist-novel-that-anticipated-brave-new-world-finally-finds-its-time

but it looks interesting.

Finally got round to reading The Road. Kind of liked it but found the style a bit heavy-going and repetitive at times (I suspect that was the intention). Glad it was fairly short, anything longer would have been hard work.

Also read Sea of Rust by Robert Cargill which I really enjoyed, possibly due to it being a bit more lightweight than I expected

I was tempted to give sea of rust a go. worth it, you reckon?

I've been really enjoying re-reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Loads of stuff I'd forgotten about.

I'm reading Torpor by Chris Kraus at the minute. It's the first thing I've read of hers. I'm about halfway through and enjoying it so far although the non-linear narrative is throwing me off a bit. I haven't had as much time as I'd like to read recently so it's a bit disorienting dipping in and out.
Hoping to finish it before I get to my mum's on Christmas eve, it has a very minimal cover that proudly states "BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF I LOVE DICK".
Having said that, next on my list is Story of The Eye by Georges Bataille. As long as my mum doesn't read the blurb I should be alright though.

I definitely enjoyed it. It's not too long and fairly fast paced in the main.

It's one of those that had been on my Kindle for a while and I hadn't fancied it for some reason but I felt it was better than the blurb.

I really enjoyed Sea of Rust

Might give Sea of Rust a punt, sounds like the sort of sci-fi I'm into!

I'm reading a collection of essays by Paul Auster call the Art of Hunger, which is very good. In particular the essay on Louis Wolfson is fascinating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wolfson_(writer)

Louis Wolfson (born 1931 in New York)[1] is an American author who writes in French. Treated for schizophrenia since childhood, he cannot bear hearing or reading his native language. He invented a process which consists of immediately translating every English sentence into a foreign phrase having the same sound and sense. He lived in New York, then in Montreal after his mother's death. Since November 1994 he has lived in Porto Rico where he became a millionaire on 9 April 2003 after winning the jackpot in a lottery game.

!

Just read the autobiographies of Steve Jones and Viv Albertine, and John Robb's Oral History of Punk. Three really good takes on the era, the music, the politics, the characters. If you were to just read one, I'd pick Viv's.

Still only read his New York trilogy. This sounds interesting.