Books - What are you reading?

Fight Club

The Bourne films are vastly superior to the total fucking dreck that Ludlum wrote

I found the Bourne films very "meh" compared to the books.

The Bourne films are vastly superior to the total fucking dreck that Ludlum wrote

The 8? Eric Van Lustbader sequels (to the original trilogy) are no better.

Reading Capital by John Lanchester for our current book club.

Previous book was The Salt Path by Raynor Winn which is an interesting read but not particularly deep.

Just ordered Permanent Record by Snowden because I want to be on yet another Govt watchlist.

Snowden was on Joe Rogan this week, was basically a three hour monologue, so even if you don;t like Rogan, is still a reasonable listen

Currently reading Bill McKibben - Falter, is well done so far and The Art of Statistics by Spiegelhalter which is engaging

Also just picked up Vaclav Smil - Growth but think that might be sat a while before getting tackled

I finished Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut this morning. I'm a bit hot and cold with Vonnegut, really enjoyed this though. Very similar in tone to Slaughterhouse 5 which is my favourite of his. For some reason I'm not keen on his weirder stuff.
That's the 30th book I've read so far this year, which was the target I set myself on Goodreads. I know it's stupid and I shouldn't need a target to encourage myself to read more but it worked!

How you finding Capital? I recently read The Wall and enjoyed it.

Enjoyed it. Bit transparent and trying to avoid being too stereotypical of some characters in places and I wish some of the various characters stories were more prominent but some good observations and humour in there.

Having read a 580 page book for our book club[1] in under a week (and 6 weeks early) I've now earned my reward of reading Permanent Record by Snowden. After that I've got to catch up on some of the book club books I never finished (or even started in some cases) - Tess of the D'Urbervilles - American Pastoral - Stoner - Wuthering Heights - Catcher in the Rye - Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Pregnant Widow (the other 7 I didn't finish didn't score well).

1. Anything over 300 pages and the majority don't finish it in the usual 2 months between meeting, but then we all tend not to start it until a week before we're supposed to meet.
   

Reading Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

Brrrr... creepy. Unique horror.
After Song of Kali decided to read his magnum opus about mind vampires.

Something so original entirely.

Complex and convoluted. Horror and action. Philosophical grimness

At around 800 pages a Compelling read from the outset

I'm reading A Moment of War by Laurie Lee. First thing I've read of his and I'm enjoying it a fair bit. What else of his should I check out? I have to admit his other novels don't sound as interesting.

I loved As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning . Fascinating to see how different Europe was not that long ago.

Snowden's book has been a good read for me. I wrote an article about it on a French book review ("E.J. Snowden is a volcano"). However, if you don't read French you should read the London Review of Books article about him.

I'll try and pick up a copy! I think that's the book before A Moment Of War isn't it?

It is. I haven't read Cider with Rosie since I was at school.

He can do creepy pretty well. I did find the Hyperion books a bit plodding on my recent second read of them but some of the cruciform stuff is so creepy.

just finished Walking On Glass by Ian Banks......hmmmm..... so so.

I read that recently, thought it was rubbish, so boring!

+1 for cider with rosie

Other Iain Banks are much better, think you just got a bit of a duff one

I find him really hit and miss. The Wasp Factory and The Bridge are great. A lot of the other stuff of his I've read is very "blokey" and not great in my experience. Not a big fan of his sci-fi stuff either.

....now on to Balzac's Old Goriot

The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton...pretty male and v much set in Australia but am enjoying it

What's a good starting point for Philip K Dick? I want to get my brother a couple of his books for Christmas, he's never read any. I was thinking Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because it's probably his most famous then either A Scanner Darkly because it's one of my favourites of his or The Man In The High Castle. I don't want to start him off on anything too weird and off putting!

All good choices for Dick entry,I'd go for the man in the high castle myself, also you could try The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, or Flow My Tears...

Also Ubik is pretty easy going