Books - What are you reading?

I'm reading Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse at the minute. I'm really struggling to pay attention and I'm not sure why. Will persevere for a bit though.
Just finished Mr Kafka and Other Stories by Bohumil Hrabal yesterday. A really good collection of his short stories. I only discovered his work a few months ago and now I can't get enough of it. That was the 4th book of his I've read in a very short space of time.

Currently on audiobook : The spy and the traitor
Non-fiction .
It’s the story of Oleg Gordievsky a KGB agent that flipped for MI6. Really bland and mundane in a brilliant way. It’s the world that early Le Carre used to describe.

Recently read Love is Blind : William Boyd. It’s kinda trash in the way that Boyd is a sort of great writer diluted. Another sprawling historical backdrop but his characters are more basic than usual as is the plot. The whole thing is a little easy and dialled in. Still decent.

Halfway through
Time’s Arrow : Martin Amis
It’s ok in the way that you feel Amis is talking down to you, simplifying things for your feeble mind. But a life in reverse as an exercise...sssgood.

Anyone have any experiences with audiobooks? Might want to start listening to them on my commute as I was an avid reader on the train but can't read anything anymore as I commute by bike now.

What's the easiest way to try them? Just want something idiot proof to put them on my phone.

I used/use Audible. You sub for a month for £7ish and each month get a book. You can buy more books if you want but I don't get through that much so I ended up using it for a few months, "buying" some books and then cancelling the subscription.

There's also tonnes of free stuff out there but I wanted specific books.

Thanks, I'll use the free trial and give it a go.

Another audible user and big fan, like hippy said, it's £8/month for one book but every day is a book on sale for £1.99 or £2.99 so I pick up a couple of these a month and I generally try and pick up some longer duration ones, why spend £1.99 on a 6 hour book when I can get a 40 hour one :)

Just finished Robicheaux by James Lee Burke. Not read a book for years so this one was a long time coming... anyone into crime fiction I'd suggest anything by James Lee Burke.

Finished Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K Dick. It was pretty good! Not up there with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or A Scanner a Darkly for me but still worth a go.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Huh?

Aka Bladerunner

Every time I read one of his books I get to the end and my thoughts are basically summed up by: "???"

Ubik is pretty good if you've not read that one.

I read that recently! It was ok but wasn't as big a fan of most of the other stuff I've read of his.

I read HMS Ulysses, Alistair MacLean's first novel, last week. I've read plenty of his other stuff but this was a lot different in tone. A good read on the futility of war.

Hey LTC Hrabal is great-I got into a lot of Czech writers when I used to go out with a girl from Prague. The Czechs have a sense of humour which is similar to us British people, so you can kind of relate to it. I love Philip K Dick as well-what an amazing guy he was. Very dark and tortured. I managed to get through his semi-autobiographical book 'Valis' which blew my mind completely! The guy is a genius

Any suggestions for other similar Czech authors to look into? I can't think of any others apart from Kafka! I'm off to Prague in July and reading Hrabal has made me extra excited.

Karel Čapek, especially War with the Newts. He's also the person who coined the word robot.

Jaroslav Seifert won the Nobel prize for his poetry. If you like sad moving poetry

Hey ltc where are you going in Prague? what are your plans? I went there with a local and had a great time. It makes me nostalgic. I remember going into a church that had been converted into a club. The lager is the best in the world and the goulash and dumplings (Knedliki) are great. I remember they serve you at your table with litres of beer and mark a piece of paper for each beer you've had. You'll have a great time!

this is good

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I haven't really got any solid plans yet! I'm off to a festival a couple of hours outside of the city over the weekend but me and my girlfriend decided to head over a couple of days early because our friends' band happen to be playing there. I've been a few times but only ever for a few hours at a time and on a very tight budget when on tour with a band so suggestions of things to check out or good vegan food spots would be appreciated!

Thanks all for the author/book suggestions. Will pick a few bits up.

I went about twenty years ago, so regretfully I can't offer any tips - If you learn one or two phrases like 'Ahoy' or 'Dobry den' they'll appreciate it, then they'll launch into English because they love to practice their English. If you mention you've been reading a couple of their authors they'll love it because it means you appreciate their culture. Be careful not to use 'Czechoslovakia' of course because they split into two countries in the 80's. Try their national aperitif which is called 'Becherovka' - a kind of herbal drink which tastes to us English a bit like the cough medicine we used to have when we were kids (a bit like Jaegermeister). Prepare for them to be sarcastic in a very English way..as I said their humour is very similar to ours! Be sure to tell them you're not American-they used to be a bit anti-American when I was there last, because a lot of Americans went over there to live cheap and they tended to think all Americans were rich....

Nice, will be sure to try some Becherovka! I'm in Italy at the minute, the people running the venue we were at in Perugia insisted we try some of their local digestifs which ranged from "not particularly pleasant" to "potentially physically harmful" in flavour. So hopefully an improvement on that!

Just finished reading Burmese Days by George Orwell. I really wasn't in to it.

It's no Keep The Aspidistra Flying that's for sure

I've not read that yet! Opted for Burmese Days instead for this trip. Will pick up a copy. I think my favourite of the Orwell I've read is Homage To Catalonia. I need to re-read 1984 at some point.