Books - What are you reading?

I've read The Boys in the Boat by the same author which I enjoyed.

The blurb doesn't sound that much like something I'd normally read but I do really like his writing style, might have to pick a copy up!

^^^^^ I saw a great documentary, by Ric Burns, about the Donner party (the mistype ' the Dinner Party' is ghoulishly apt) 30 years ago. It might now be available on line somewhere.

Finally finished ghost wars and really enjoyed it but not gonna lie, 740 pages was long, definately will read some more Steve Coll but need something lighter first so think it will be Range by David Epstein. Takes me to four down for the year though which I would be happy if I could maintain.

Any of you fine folks interested in any of these? All pop maths and pop science. I recently started an OU course in Arts & Humanities and am no longer interested in pretending to be a mathematician or a physicist. PM if you're into anything, they're all off to the chazza shop soonish otherwise.

5 books in so far for me this year. The pile of stuff I already own that I've not yet read is hovering at a steady 116. Amazon wishlist was something like 400+ the last time I bothered to count it. Perhaps this year will be the year I crack most of the existing pile? Gonna have a good go, anyway.

I've been rewarding myself with a Shadowrun novel each time I finish reading a proper book. They are such trash. Wonderful, wonderful, 1980s cyberpunk trash. Terrible dialogue, terrible characters, big dumb action plots. I love it.

Oh, and I also enjoyed Dead Pig Collector by Warren Ellis yesterday, which barely counts as a book. More like a pamphlet. A good pamphlet, though, and now I know how to dispose of a dead body! So, very useful, too.

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I've just finished the Three Body Problem.

I should have liked it but just found it hard work for some reason.

I've just ordered the first Game of Thrones book and another one I've never heard of before called Portnoy's Complaint By Philip Roth

Currently reading Range - 1/3 of the way through and enjoying.

Yeah - i felt the same. I wish the concepts had been handed to Ian Banks or someone to turn into a story. Might be the translation, but I just found it desperately clunky to read even the thinking behind it was clearly very impressive

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Brilliant book, read it when I was 18 a few months before I first experimented. Recommend Candy Coloured Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby by Wolfe too

Orange Sunshine sounds interesting, will check

Interesting (and huge) thread on the Acid 'thumbprint' initiation for wannabe members of the Dead's 'Family' here:

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1427364/page//fpart/all/vc/1

I’m on the second book now. Really enjoying it - keep forgetting it’s in the same series as the first book though as it’s yet to properly tie in other than off-hand references.

Thanks for the suggestions, will check them out.
Wolfe's ability to make you actually hear a character are remarkable. The whole book was Ken Kesey shaped.

Currently reading A Column Of Fire. Definitely my last Follet novel.

Kind of related: anyone know of bayonet/screwfit light bulbs that have blue light filtered out of them? So, a standard shaped bulb with a coating that removes blue light? I've seen red lights that plug directly in to 240V plugs but I want to replace the bulb in my bedside light for a "sleep friendly" option.

The blue light thing might be a myth: https://time.com/5752454/blue-light-sleep/

(Note that this isn't a peer reviewed paper but it should prod people to do some more research.)

Re-reading the James Lee Burke Robicheaux series... seriously good crime books about a New Iberia detective... I think Burke pretty much started the ex-alcoholic detective genre.

Yeah, rodent (nocturnal bastards) study versus human study. I'll wait for the next one.

I found these (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lighting-Science-Good-Night-FG-07003/dp/B07HJBZ628) but they're full size E27 fitting and I need the smaller size for bedside lamps.

All I know of it is the "In the Electric Mist" film, which did make me think I should investigate the books some time. Last crime writer I read much of was Chester Himes, so it would be a bit of a culture shift.

Oh, I need a pair of those too! Please update if you find some.

It took me 2 hours to read the first 19 pages of Ulysses. It was hard but also pretty funny and had some genuinely beautiful - legibly beautiful - lines.

White breast of the dim sea. The twining stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the harpstrings, merging their twining chords. Wavewhite wedded words shimmering on the dim tide.

You Died
It's a dark souls retrospective by a couple of fans.
I'm loving it, but I love the game too so am a little biased.

Those crime novels by Burke are fantastic, They led me to Robert Crais and Michael Connelly who have written some great crime fiction.

Read 29.
Watchmen and The Sot-weed Factor were my highlights

Good list

Yup.
Pretty niche
Really enjoyed it along with the art book

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The Terror by Dan Simmons.

Amazing telling of the fatal mission to find the North West passage to the North Pole.

The detail of ship life, rigging, clothes, navy life, snow and esquimaux.

Took a while to get into it but one in it is compelling reading.

Simmons research and attention to detail in all his books has been the hook. Some other books disappoint since I started going through his collection.