Books - What are you reading?

I have memories of really enjoying Ready Player One but Ready Player Two was bobbins. The pop culture references were really shoehorned in and half of it read like it was regurgitating stuff from Wikipedia.

Just started this. Amusing so far

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Very good review this. I’ll stick to the Peter Weir Film then.

I've seen the film. They dropped everything that was shit about the books. Books a big disappointment.

What are your thoughts on Amos Oz?
Can't decide whether he's a solid heavy weight, like Coetzee for example, or more in the Ian McEwan/Sadie Smith category.

Lol... I loved the master and commander series and listened to loads of them on audiobook. I was about 15 at the time and was wondering about revisiting them but maybe not... maybe I’ll read some Sharp and Flashman instead!

Any recommendations for spacey sci fi books? Nothing to heavy...

I found the Ware Tetralogy by Ruby Rucker interesting.

I wanted to get into Sci Fi and went for winner's of the Philip K Dick award's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick_Award

Iain M Banks, start with Consider Phlebas

Not sure I'd rank the Culture books as "nothing too heavy".

The Sirens Of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut? Not really classic sci-fi but spacey and good fun.

Non Stop by Brian Aldiss is the only other thing I've read recently that might fit the bill.

Thanks all, will have a look at those suggestions!

John Brunner for a hit of dystopia.

Quite a misanthropic hint of dystopia. Read a few Brunner books and I ended up disliking the author quite a lot.

All these suggestions are oooold. Did everybody stop reading SF before the millennium? (He says, having mostly stopped reading SF by the millennium)

If I were going to make a not-too-heavy 20th century recommendation, I think it'd be Neuromancer and the sequels. Cyberpunk has never been better than that.

The Rudy Rucker books @SideshowBob recommended are a lot of fun, fwiw.

I found the Deathstalker series by Simon R Green pretty entertaining

I bow to your more recent assessment of him, I last read his books in the early 90s.

Weeeell, I read a few of his books and he does some things that really tick me off about an author, but may not matter to others. For instance, he tends to put in a character who is all-wise and respected by everybody automatically etc and is a not very subtle representation of the author. My reaction to that is "I bought your book, isn't that enough? Surely I don't have to worship you as well." Unless it's a Robert Heinlein book (he did this all the time), where my reaction is "Get to fuck, you fucking Nazi!"

Stand on Zanzibar is an epic book, no doubt about it, (though also has one of those omniscient author avatars) but I found the take on humanity soulless. Also, you're clearly meant to find Chad C. Mulligan (Brunner's version of himself) immensely wise and amusing. I thought he was tedious.

Struggling through the audiobook of the Gallows Pole : Ben Myers

It’s good and all just lumpen and cold and cruel (as it should be). There’s a couple of funny smutty jokes at the start.

Did everybody stop reading SF before the millennium?

shots fired ;)

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, really really interesting concepts and also big fuck-off spaceships

A Long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers (and all the sequels) absolutely fits the OP's request of not too heavy

Can anyone recommend a good bedtime reading light?

I do a lot of my reading in bed at night and my partner is pretty sensitive to light in the bedroom. Most of the time I use the backlight on my kindle which is excellent, but inevitably I sometimes want to read a paper book. I’ve tried a few clip on reading lights but they’re always terrible quality... the clips never stay in place, the light is rubbish etc. My current one is shown in the picture but it has a loose connection and flickers badly. Any suggestions for a good quality replacement?

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Lencent are very good. Rechargeable, good clip and different brightness modes.

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End to End by @pj_(pj) sounds ace.

https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/paul-jones/end-to-end/9781408712726/

A review here from road.cc

https://road.cc/content/review/end-end-paul-jones-283669

Paul Jones is on here?! Got the book a few weeks ago and just started reading.

Catching up on this thread..

Master and commander.. read all of these during the first lockdown and thoroughly enjoyed them (read forester as a kid so sorta nostalgia).

Sci-Fi.. the three body problem surely qualifies as a 21 C classic. Even I've read it and my sci fi extends to Dick.

Stefan Zweig.. Beware of Pity was consumed by my wife but I prefer Roth for my AH empire kicks..

I actually bought a physical book rather than kindling.. Geoff was another lockdown fave.. haven't read this..

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Absolute fakenger confirmed.