Books - What are you reading?

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-Book-Ghost-Stories-Elizabeth/dp/0141442360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290079938&sr=1-1"]The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce Penguin Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Michael Newton: Books[/ame]

This.

Pretty good stuff.

I found 'Homicide' a bit worthy. Effete journalist a bit awe-struck by real American men/detectives..
Just finished Pynchon's Inherent Vice and the Keith Richards autobiography. Both great.. (Richards book surprisingly good...). Halfway through a cracker; Pakenham's 'The scramble for Africa', and started Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest'; a book I've wanted to read for a long time... (And I hate the Smith/Eggers axis of evil....)

Weird, I've just started reading homicide as well...

Just read the first two Millenium things (cheap on Kindle store) and onto the third. They're not as bad as i thought they'd be. Good characters at least.

Bought Homicide but not got around to reading it yet.

So close to the end of Last and First Men, FINALLY. Going to embark on the Gormenghast trilogy next.

Also reading a compendium of design essays written by Pentagram partner and Harvey Denton lookalike Michael Bierut. Sounds dry but they're really interesting and not at all as po-faced as most graphic design writers.

sounds good^
Im on 'The Peregrine' by J.A.Baker
nature innit

Oh! Gormenghast trilogy!

heads excitedly to Foyles

Richard Dawkins
The Greatest Show on Earth.

A rebuttal of creationism and intelligent design
He is my personal hero :)

I've heard this is excellent dan

It is! I had been meaning to read it for a long time and then it was on the counter at Fopp when I was buying a DVD - at only £1 (!) I couldn't resist. Best quid I've ever spent. You can borrow my copy after if you like?

I found 'Homicide' a bit worthy. Effete journalist a bit awe-struck by real American men/detectives..

Each to his own - I very much disagree

Weird, I've just started reading homicide as well...

Nice - you'll love it. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it more or less had I not watched The Wire first, as there are a lot of parallels and connects between the characters and situations.

Also reading a compendium of design essays written by Pentagram partner and Harvey Denton lookalike Michael Bierut. Sounds dry but they're really interesting and not at all as po-faced as most graphic design writers.

Michael Beirut is a fantastic writer - 79 short essays is one of my favorite design books of all time. Considering the work he's done and who he is, his approach is refreshingly frank and unpretentious.

Whenever I think of him, I'm always reminded of his "Coke. PERIOD" cameo on Helvetica :)

Yeah, that got a few chuckles when I saw it in the cinema

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i4PHqG4wdw

"Any questions? Of course not."

Going to embark on the Gormenghast trilogy next.

Gormenghast is so, so good. Except the last book - I believe he wrote it in the throes of Parkinson's Disease. I really couldn't get my head around it, especially compared to the immense genius of the first two books.

'Dispatches' by Michael Herr.

Incredible account of an embedded journalist during the Vietnam War. well written and he just sucks you in to the Vietnam conflict. it is one of those books that as you near the end and there become fewer and fewer pages until the book is over you begin to feel gutted as you want more

I'm enjoying a re-read of Shakespeare's Sonnets in the company of Don Paterson. Paterson's a poet first and foremost (his Landing Light is stunning) and he approaches the sonnets as a craftsman appraising the work of another. It's a beautiful Faber hardback as well.

Dispatches id a very important book which did a lot to explain the reality of Vietnam. Herr worked as a consultant on Apocalypse Now which has been described as a merger between his book and Heart of Darkness.

I have just finished reading Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, although a work of fiction, an amazing but troubling book about the Vietnam war.

http://www.bryanappleyard.com/2010/07/karl-marlantes-interview/

What do people think of Donna Tartt? I'm intrigued and would like to know please.

I read The Little Friend first and loved the overall mood and tone of it. Found it extremely evocative and quite disturbing. Then I read and was captivated by The Secret History. Loved it and have been meaning to re-read it for ages.

I've just recently seen lots of reviews in which she gets slated for being pretentious (mostly due to the Ancient Greek references it seems). Was just reminded of the Secret History while trawling amazon this morning and wondered what the denizens of this thread thought?

The Secret History is incredible in the way it stays with you for a long time after you finish the book. Very disconcerting. Really need to re-read

I hardly ever read these days though and I blame it on the bike - I read voraciously on the tube in the days before I cycled everywhere. When I'm at home there's always some else more pressing to do.

IMO its the biggest downside to being a cyclist.

i totally agree (about severely restricted reading oppotunities afforded by cycling everywhere). iphone addiction isn't helping my cause any either.

looking forward to keith richards biog too. it was on offer in waterstones for £15 the other day.

Reading Freedom by Johnathan Frantzen at the moment and it's shite. No idea why it has been so hyped up.

I am also reading the Beckett biography by James Knowlson which is ace. I really recommend it if you have even the slightest interest in Beckett.

I fucking love Beckett.. Not ashamed to say I used to lay flowers on his grave.

This is a fucking great bio!

right now, this awesomely bitchy extract of critiques of other songwriters by steven sondheim.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/nov/24/stephen-sondheim-on-lyrics

I hardly ever read these days though and I blame it on the bike - I read voraciously on the tube in the days before I cycled everywhere. When I'm at home there's always some else more pressing to do.

IMO its the biggest downside to being a cyclist.

+1,000,000

Really frustrating. Whenever I'm ill, injured or have too many important meetings (can't turn up sweaty) I destroy a book a week on the tube, at the moment I'm struggling to read at all.

Ham on rye, bandini quartet, tokyo year zero. peas.

+1,000,000

Really frustrating. Whenever I'm ill, injured or have too many important meetings (can't turn up sweaty) I destroy a book a week on the tube, at the moment I'm struggling to read at all.

Do what I do.

Drink lots of tea and sit down to piss.

Every time I go to the lavvy I take a book, and refuse to leave the loo for a good five or ten minutes.

Several visits a day, plenty of R & R time spread throughout the day, reading accomplished.

Another trick, if you tend to plonk in front of the telly with the wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/gimp, choose a half hour slot in the telly schedule to just switch it off and open a book. Less of a commitment to sitting in silence side by side for the whole evening.