Books - What are you reading?

I just started rereading Day of the Triffids last night; it's only a few months since I last read it too. Actually I think Wyndham is a pretty pedestrian stylist and Triffids is really dated but I still love it. I love the story. As I am riding around I often try to imagine what London would look like a couple of years after the event. The bits of the book where they make trips back in to London are great.
First read it when I was 10 and somehow the situation in it appealed to me. So I guess I wasn't really a people person even back then.

Currently 3/4 of the way through 'It's not about the Bike' and I'm loving it. Cannot wait for the Tour to start :)

I just started rereading Day of the Triffids last night; it's only a few months since I last read it too. Actually I think Wyndham is a pretty pedestrian stylist and Triffids is really dated but I still love it. I love the story. As I am riding around I often try to imagine what London would look like a couple of years after the event. The bits of the book where they make trips back in to London are great.
First read it when I was 10 and somehow the situation in it appealed to me. So I guess I wasn't really a people person even back then.

I think 'pedestrian' is a tad unfair.
It's his simplicity of style that makes his writing so accessible.
That's why you can read his works as a child and really understand it, then return to them time and again as an adult.
I found the Triffids situation thrilling as a kid as well.
I loved how everything in the world could change, literally over night.
I watched the 80's TV series of Day of the Triffids a bit back, and it was really good - dated but good. I like dated stuff though.
Maybe I'm dated...

Viz

Reading this at the moment and really enjoying it

I splurged on three new hardbacks the other day, having loved the previous work of these three authors. A mixed bag in the end:

David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - I was hoping for a return to the form that eh had in Cloud Atlas, and in that regard was disappointed. Having said that, I really loved the novel in it's own right. A really evocative description of a fascinating period in history. Worth it.

China Miéville - Kraken - I have such a love / hate relationship with this author. When he is good, he is astounding. "Perdido St Station" and "The City and the City" are superlative works of imagination and creativity. Thought provoking and fun at the same time. On the other hand, I totally failed to get through Iron Council and had to give up on this, his latest, as well. Totally disappointing.

Scarlett Thomas - Our Tragic Universe - I've only read one of her previous, The End of Mr Y, which was a right rollicking, quirky, intriguing adventure. I loved that one and am totally loving this one too. This one seems a lot more serious, in having metafictional aspects and being much more character, rather than plot, driven. It's really loveable and compelling without being chintzy and boring. Recommended.

^ Very tempted by the new David Mitchell, but hardbacks are so damn expensive.

Just finished this:

Some absolute gems in there, but the final story was a historical dud which left me feeling a tad disappointed.

Wake Up by Jack Kerouac

How you finding London Orbital? Read very mixed reviews.

^ Looks very JG Ballardish

Bill Drummond and Gimpo drove around the M25 for 24 hours - as documented in 45

+1 The Chrysalids. Very good book

I'd been meaning to read 'London Orbital' for years until I read 'Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire', which I didn't enjoy at all, only started to skim-read after a while, and eventually didn't finish. I still want to read LO but my motivation has gone a bit.

Am reading this at the moment after a few friends have recommended it. It's pretty good but I can't rave about it.

Read the Bonfire of the Vanities and the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test prior to picking up Flashman. Both were superb books.

Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Love that book. Read it at the end of my obligatory teenaged beats obsession. Kind of sad in a way... what became of Neal Cassady. I read fun a thing a while back, can't remember what is was called now but it was basically the memoirs of a young impressionable guy with literary pretentions who'd gone to study with a few rapidy ageing beats including Ginsberg in san francisco in the 80s? very funny, heartwarming and pleasanty irreverent. I'll have a look for it now.

Will be starting this (hopefully) today:

Also have this (although I'm having trouble really getting started. I read the "sequel" already...):

on the go.

How you finding London Orbital? Read very mixed reviews.

I'd been meaning to read 'London Orbital' for years until I read 'Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire', which I didn't enjoy at all, only started to skim-read after a while, and eventually didn't finish. I still want to read LO but my motivation has gone a bit.

I find Sinclair massively self-indulgent. London Orbital so far is very disjointed and some parts are very dense. I'm finding it a bit of a labour by enjoyable, largely. My favourite aspect is his inventive and sometimes hilarious turn of phrase:

"Helmets on wheels" (cars)

"Walnut-coloured leisure wives"

These might not tickle out of context, obviously. I think there's quite a lot of humour behind the bleakness.

I've heard that *Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire *isn't that great, but you get the impression that he wouldn't be bothered by any criticism whatsoever, as if he's so sure of himself and the value of his work. Sometimes the prose suddenly charges direction and and I'm left wondering what the train of thought is supposed to be. While understand that this is common in work that has a situationist/psychogeography slant, it doesn't make for much of a page-turner of a book. It seems like he writes for himself and his peers, a suspicion supported by his chum Will Self's rather facetious quote on the front cover. I find him a little bit pretentious and arrogant to tell the truth, but I love and can identify with the subject of his writing and his view of things and places.

I report back when I've got a bit further.

I am reading Daemon by Daniel Suarez
I'm really enjoying it.
Also I have Akira v.1 and 2 from the library.
They too are good.

Is Akira a comic?

Yes, and it's fucking amazing.

Loved the film

China Miéville - Kraken - I have such a love / hate relationship with this author. When he is good, he is astounding. "Perdido St Station" and "The City and the City" are superlative works of imagination and creativity. Thought provoking and fun at the same time. On the other hand, I totally failed to get through Iron Council and had to give up on this, his latest, as well. Totally disappointing.
.

Arse! By chance they were the first two I read and really loved them. On the basis of those two I've started to get hold of the rest for my holiday reading... Let's hope I enjoy them as much and that it's just you that didn't :P

Loved the film

Akira?
Is awesome, only about 10% of the book/ graphic novel/ comic is in there

started 'the strange death of dr kelly' last night. fascinating stuff so far, see how it pans out