Books - What are you reading?

^ I would recommend Murakami's unofficial 'rat triology' (Pinball, Hear The Wind Sing, Wild Sheep Chase) as an emotional journey which will take you a while to get over. I've re-read them all 2-3 times and at the end I'm still in bits. Mega.

oooh, thanks for this reminder.

I read The Quantum Thief and forgot about the later ones.

The Secret Race Tyler Hamilton
Racing through the dark David Millar
Seven Deadly Sins David Walsh

In addition to these^ Armstrong exposure books just read:
The Race to the Truth, Emma O'Reilly

Apart from the fascinating details of the doping story and Armstrong's ruthless treatment of omerta breakers (publicly calling her an alcoholic, and a whore), the story of the only woman soigneur and the respect she earned is inspirational (Not badly written by her ghost writer Shannon Kyle)

I started on Hear The Wind Sing yesterday, got Pinball lined up for after. I read Wild Sheep Chase a few months ago. I was my first Murakami after trying 1Q84 and not getting past a few chapters - found it wasn't going anywhere and I gave up. I wasn't quite sure what to make of Sheep Chase either but when I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Yeah, the later Muru isn't as good as the early. Although I've heard the new one, currently on my shelf, is a return to form.

Good thing about the early Rat books which you're reading is they really flesh out that friendship. Makes the Sheepchase ending very powerful.

So true. I know endings are tough to get right, but I do wonder if this alone accounts for the fact that so many people (across the board, not just in books) seem to get it wrong.

People just run out of steam, they have to finish the book, the money's running out, they don't appreciate the importance of a good epilogue, they haven't thought through what all that great beginning is supposed to amount to in the end.

And another plug for Nicole Cooke's book 'The Breakaway'. (I've already done two other threads.) It's just about the best of those cycling biographies that you can get.

Finished Pinball 1973 a few days ago. About half way through Blind Woman, Sleeping Willow but I'm going to take a bit of a fiction break, so I picked this up yesterday:

I just finished DUNE for the first time.

I loved it and was excited about reading the sequels but pretty much everyone has told me not to bother because they're guff. I'm sad now.

late to reply to this but.... I'm exactly the same. It bores the shit out of me. I've never made it more than 50 pages in.

I did exactly the same and started the first sequel. It was guff. It's now sitting, partially read, on my kindle, and has been since May. Really annoying.

ahh I'll swerve it then and not taint the experience of the first book. I've not heard one person say a good thing about the sequels yet.

I thought the prequels were decent (but not great) and a nice read. I forced myself through the first sequel and a bit of the second but they weren't worth it.

Did you read Colourless? What did you think?

^ I've heard good things. Hoping to pick it up myself once I've finished what I'm on at the moment.

Finally managed to bully my way into, and out the other side of, The Vorrh. Catling's writing style is initially offputting. It's an onslaught of adjectives. Exactly the kind of writing I hate. But, having persevered with it, I'm glad that I got through it, because it's a damn good book. It's tricky to condemn the writing style altogether, as it occasionally gels perfectly with the overall strangeness of the book. Odd and imperfect, but definitely a country mile ahead of most cliched fantasy novels.

Was compelled to read this after reading a blurb about it on /r/books. I devoured it in one sitting, constantly checking the page count and telling myself I really should get to sleep but couldn't put it down, I needed to see what happened. Don't you just love it when you get a book like that?

In the end I got to sleep around 4am (and felt like death when the kids woke me up at 7 demanding breakfast).

Great premise, a bit let down by the ending though, sadly.

Inequality and the 1%by Dany Dorling

Tried reading Catch 22 over the weekend but cannot for the life of me get into it. Decided to shelf it for now and started reading Slaughterhouse Five instead.

I have just started reading this after seeing so many people rave about it on Facebook. Enjoying it so far.

I'm re-reading the Millennium Trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc). It's great if I skip / skim the boring bits.

1Q84 looks ace, there's a free sample for Kindle on Amazon, I've grabbed that.

I've decided to only buy first editions (of new literature) from now on. Does anyone else do this?

recently read Peter Hook - Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division

then read Benard Sumner's Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and me (for balance)

now reading John Lydon's Anger is an Energy

which is fucking amazing so far

no I buy all mine second hand from amazon because I'm a pauper.

I don't do this. I'm also fairly confused as to why anyone would. What's the thinking behind it?