Books - What are you reading?

I picked up Stargazing as a cheapo, total chance buy a few years ago; I also really enjoyed it.

So, what cycling books would people recommend I put on my xmas list? I think The Rider by Tim Krabbe is the only cycling book I've read, which is a very very poor show considering how much I enjoy the two pass-times.

Actually forget about the recommendations, there are threads about such things already on here, obviously.

I read Stargazing a few years back. Awesome book.

Bought the new Isaac Marion book, well paid for, waiting for it to be printed.

Only 500 being printed, all being signed by the author.

With Warm Bodies being a movie now, due for release next year, it seems like a sound investment.
Hopefully it will be huge and launch his career to superstardom (it should do Warm bodies was fucking amazing)

Re : Philip Roth above, I finished The Human Stain not long ago, quite hard going, but worthwhile. Also just finished Brett Easton-Ellis' Lunar Park, at first try I didn't enjoy it as I wasn't able to visualise the setting properly (utterly wanky description, but maybe you get me) on a second reading though I guzzled it up, dark and eerie. I'm currently bustin' Iceberg Slim's Trick Baby, a headlong plunge into alcoholism accompanied by 50's underground American slang and a total lack of respect for the law. A bargain at only £2 in Fopp.

On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks for like the 20th time. So so good.

Just finished this: [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultralight-Backpacker-Complete-Simplicity-Comfort/dp/0071368280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324302114&sr=1-1"]The Ultralight Backpacker : The Complete Guide to Simplicity and Comfort on the Trail: Amazon.co.uk: Ryel Kestenbaum: Books[/ame]

I'm now determined to plan some tent-free overnighters for when it warms up a bit and have started "trimming the fat" from my bag!

^nice i want cycling the pacific coast for christmas im also reading "chavs demonisation of the working classes", quite interesting.

Started Blindness by Jose Saramago this morning - have high hopes.

is good book...

I'm reading the first book in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series. It's dreadfully embarassing but thank god I got it on the kindle so no-one can tell on the bus. Really enjoying it.

I'm reading the first book in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series. It's dreadfully embarassing but thank god I got it on the kindle so no-one can tell on the bus. Really enjoying it.

Just finished it.

Hmmm, won't be rushing straight onto the second one, but was OK

I think the tv programme got it better in terms of using the characters and situations, but I love the moral bleakness of the landscape, and I love the idea that this fantasy universe is just as chaotic, unfair, and brutal as our one. There's a real sense of danger when the characters are in trouble because you know that writer will not give a fuck and will kill off anyone, no matter how popular they are, if that's what the situation demands. More writers should do this imo.

^^ The second one is better, so far at least. I actually found the first book hard to read as I was a huge fan of the TV show and the fact that I knew what was going to happen was a bit tedious although there is some interesting political subtext in the book that is not mentioned or glossed over in the TV show.

^Why are you embarrassed about it?

Haven't watched the TV series.

I felt there was no real ending, and felt like I have been forced to read the second one (which is obviously what he wants)

Still can't decide if I like the different narratives by chapter setup

What do you mean no real ending? With what gets born in the funeral pyre (don't want to spoil it for anyone else) and the death of one of the main protagonists, the more of the second book that I read the more I convince myself that the first book is only there to set the scene for the rest of the story (don't forget that it is seven books long and counting).

As far as the different narratives goes, it does take some getting used to but as you get to know the characters you begin to realise what their goals are and actually empathise with them more, certain situations that some of the characters find themselves in in the second book help this greatly; so it has grown on me.

A Song of Ice and Fire is great fantasy. I've recently finished the fourth book, and looking forward to reading the 5th. There's nothing embarrassing about reading it, unless you're afraid of someone looking over your shoulder at one of the dirty bits...

But why is the 5th book the same price on the kindle as the hardback?

Yup in that the last chapter feels more like a prologue to the second book, and felt like two almost separate stories going on at once, sure it will all pull together at some point in the future books

Friend of mine is doing a book review column for askmen.com, but not of recent releases, but of classics, and maybe some unheard of books that are really good. He's called it "Shelf Awareness"

First one is of Hunter S. Thompson's The Great Shark Hunt. You can read it here:
http://uk.askmen.com/entertainment/entertainment-news_3800/3828_hunter-s-thompsons-the-great-shark-hunt.html

A Song of Ice and Fire is great fantasy. I've recently finished the fourth book, and looking forward to reading the 5th. There's nothing embarrassing about reading it, unless you're afraid of someone looking over your shoulder at one of the dirty bits...

But why is the 5th book the same price on the kindle as the hardback?

I've got one more chapter to read in book 2. I've absolutely loved them from start to finish, and I'm not a "book person".

Getting the both parts of the 3rd book for crimbo, can't wait. Find them really engrossing, and love the writing style.

I hear they get a bit more fantasy as they go along, not sure how I'll take to that, loving the sword on steel focus of it.

There's nothing embarrassing about reading it, unless you're afraid of someone looking over your shoulder at one of the dirty bits...

^Why are you embarrassed about it?

It does get a bit close to fantasy parody at times, doesn't it? 'AND THUS ASTRAGOTH DID STAND WITH HIS MIGHTY STEEL IN HAND AND LOOKED TOWARD A RED DAWN AND HIS WOMAN DID LOOK UPON HIS MANHOOD WITH AWE' kinda thing.

It's really good but it does exist in a fantasy universe, and that - Tolkien aside - is always a bit cringey. It is a good book tho.

This just landed on my desk. Very much looking forward to reading it.

Tree of Codes: Amazon.co.uk: Jonathan Safran Foer: 9780956569219: Books

So many books by Stephen Fry.
If I was to read just one or two which ones should I get?

Boring me with my poor grasp of English...

How to Write in Psychology: A Student Guide: Amazon.co.uk: John R. Beech: 9781405156943: Books

I've just finished The Balloonist (from recommendations in this thread) and really liked it, didn't like Gustav very much.

And Stars and Bars by William Boyd- Any Human Heart is one of my most favourite ever books and Stars and Bars is really really good- subtle and funny although set in about 1983, and I found it really hard to shake off the feeling that it was the 60s.

Also A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks, reminded me of Saturday (McKewan) a lot but much much better- the blurb on the back of the book says it's the Circle Line which ties the characters together; the first chapter makes it quite clear that it's really a dinner party, but the recurring motif is a cyclist riding on the pavement without lights who keeps whizzing past various characters throughout the book, and at the end one of the characters "finds a bicyclist with no lights coming towards him through the box, going against not one but two red trafffic signals, balancing his almost-static bicycle with smart pedal work as he forded through the twin stream of green-lit cars and lorries, then, as death brushed either shoulder, fishing a mobile phone from his pocket and initiatig a call. While the traffic braked and swerved round him, he put both feet down so he could shake his spare fist more vehemently against them."

Smart pedal work? Nice way of saying trackstanding. Maybe I should put this in Spotted, could be someone on here..