Books - What are you reading?

I'm a huge Philip K Dick fan and re-read The Man In The High Castle last year. I wasn't a huge fan this time round! The first time was a while ago but it felt very dated. Having delved into his work a lot more since the first time I read it I really don't rate it compared to a fair amount of his other stuff.

Valis freaked me out eons ago, haven’t read it in decades though.

Valis is fucking mental.

Have you reinforced your walls? For throwing the Peterson book at them.

I read the majority of it on the train

I agree with this. First time I read it (in my early teens) it blew my tiny mind. Subsequent reads, not so much.

Going to re-read Asimov Foundation books soon in preparation for the forthcoming television.

Going to re-read Asimov Foundation books soon in preparation for the forthcoming television.

There's likely to be a rather large gap between the books and the TV series. For a start, it looks as if they haven't done this:

Hari Seldon: Hi, I'm Hari, the Empire is going to fall apart.
Author: After the Empire fell apart...

Hopefully they'll also avoid the sillier plot holes and give some depth to the characters.

Mr Asimov was a top bloke but there's a reason his best books were about robots.

I can remember almost nothing about Foundation other than it jumping across huge timespans. Be interesting to see how they deal with that aspect of it on the telly.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell was beautiful and moving. I’ve also recently listened to. Dawn by Octavia E Butler - I found it incredibly challenging and made me very uncomfortable but in a mostly good way. Made me realise I’d probably slightly overdone it on the dystopian fiction this year.

Made me realise I’d probably slightly overdone it on the dystopian fiction this year.

I agree, too much LFGSS can really get to you.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell was beautiful and moving.

I read that earlier this year, it was hard work but so creative. I really liked the journey of the flea chapter.

I've been alternating between reading classics and reading lighter things like Beryl Bainbridge in between. Just finished Moll Flanders, which I loved.

This list looks like it has some great books

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/03/akala-bernardine-evaristo-ben-okri-and-more-pick-20-classic-books-by-writers-of-colour#comments

I’m reading the 22 murders of madison May
So you don’t have to…it fucking sucks…avoid

I'm reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It's spooky haunted house stuff done quite well! Better than I was expecting.

^ I liked that a lot. The ending stayed with me for weeks after.

I'm re-reading The Satanic Verses at the moment and struggling to find what I liked so much in it last time.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is very good too. Even the title is creepy.

I'll add it to the reading list, thanks!

This is a fantastic little read. A definite recommendation 100%

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Just ordered a copy, sounds interesting!

Reading Stephen King's The Stand at the minute after a bit of a distopian binge. Bit long and supernatural for my liking but still mostly enjoyed it. However I read The Dog Stars by Peter Heller before this and really enjoyed that for a similar, post virus/apocalypse vibe and Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton before that which I also thought was great

+1 for that Solzhenitsyn ^

Great book, plus, short too

Yeah, read that at school and at least once since then. English teacher was a diamond, she gave me a copy.

If you enjoy that I'd highly recommend As far as my feet will carry me by Josef M Bayer. True story of how a German soldier escaped a Siberian prison camp and walked 8,000 miles to freedom.

My favourite book. Quite possibly one of the most brutal but best final paragraphs

Absolutely, it really drives it home. It's probably a result of the translation from Russian but the whole book is incredibly cut and dry, and subtlety ruthless, it really gripped me.

@EB Thanks for the recommendation, i'll check it out. I'm plannning on tackling Solzhenitsyn's Gulag archipelago at some point too.

I read The Road To Wigan Pier this week and i thought it was very good. The second part of the book was particularly interesting. It's essentially Orwell's views on why socialism isn't going to work in the UK and why it will ultimately push people into fascism unless the class divides are overcome. There is a great chapter on the socialists obsession with machines and automation, with some eery predictions for future. I would definitely recommend it.

Next up is Greed Is Dead by Paul Collier and John Kay. So far so good.