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What are you reading? (apart from this)

Started by Ed, February 21, 2007, 04:59:48 PM

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rootofevil

#60
October 24, 2007, 03:49:05 PM
Freakshow was awesome, Sam.



Very blunt with lots of gore to sweeten the pot...my kind of read  :afro:

Ed

#61
October 24, 2007, 05:47:35 PM
Quote from: delboy on October 24, 2007, 08:36:30 AM


I have, though, bought a whole bunch of books this week from the cheap bookstore just across the road. I'm like a kid at Christmas. What shall I read next: Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke, Beneath The Underdog by Charlie Mingus, The Godfather, Sudden Mischief by Robert Parker, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Helen Keller's autobiography, or a collection of Tom Wait's interviews?

Ain't books great?  ;)

Del


Oh, I love second hand book shops - I always buy far more books than I can ever read. Can't help myself. Before I went on my hols, in August, I picked up a two pack of Dean Koontz novels for a fiver. Read one, lost the other ::) Just found it again now.

I keep thinking about getting some audio books, because I don't get as much time to read as I would like, but I generally spend all day listening to music on either an mp3 player or a CD player, so there's nothing stopping me listening to a book instead. Might help the day go faster, too. :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

PaulH

#62
October 24, 2007, 06:18:51 PM
Del - I'd go for the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, but then I like her stuff. I've read Anthem and Atlas Shrugged as well.

I'm currently reading Essential Iron Man vol 1 (I always have a graphic novel in front of the computer that I read while I'm waiting for it to do things), just finished from Asgard to Valhalla, a non fic about the Norse myths and their resonance through the ages and I'm into Club Dead, the third book of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse vampire mysteries.

delph_ambi

#63
October 25, 2007, 03:31:38 AM
'Asgard to Valhalla' sounds interesting. Will have to look out for that one.

Ed

#64
October 25, 2007, 03:56:07 AM
Quote from: PaulH on October 24, 2007, 06:18:51 PM
Del - I'd go for the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, but then I like her stuff. I've read Anthem and Atlas Shrugged as well.

I'm currently reading Essential Iron Man vol 1 (I always have a graphic novel in front of the computer that I read while I'm waiting for it to do things), just finished from Asgard to Valhalla, a non fic about the Norse myths and their resonance through the ages and I'm into Club Dead, the third book of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse vampire mysteries.

Where did you get that, Paul? Online, or in a bricks and mortar book store?
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

PaulH

#65
October 25, 2007, 05:43:18 PM Last Edit: October 25, 2007, 05:57:50 PM by PaulH
I guess it's the Asgard book you're asking about Ed. I got it from my book club, but here's a link to it on Amazon, where it's a darn sight cheaper!  :hot:

http://amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/026-3398377-1489251?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=from+asgard+to+valhalla

PS there's an interesting review on there as well  ;)

Ed

#66
October 25, 2007, 05:59:45 PM
Thanks for the tip. My parents' experience with a book club put me off ever joining one - it became a bit of a pain in the arse when they were obliged to buy something, but didn't want anything that was on offer.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

PaulH

#67
October 26, 2007, 03:40:19 PM
I've actually been with the book club about 5 years and found it pretty good. A lot of the books are cheaper, you can get some lovely special editions and it's also good for picking up books that I wouldn't have found otherwise, like the Asgard to Valhalla book.

Ed

#68
November 04, 2007, 06:07:38 PM
BASS 2007, edited by Steven King, turned up from Amazon yesterday. Now I'm having to use a bit of will power to refrain from reading it until I've finished The Time Traveller's Wife, which I'm enjoying a lot more than I expected to. :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

#69
November 05, 2007, 05:02:15 AM
I finally finished Pompeii, which turned out to be better than the first third suggested, but still not a patch on Enigma. It was one of those books that, for a while, I found hard to pick up once I'd put it down and I ended up reading some non-fiction (and also the competiton entries from here!) inbetween times. But the second half picked up and I finished it in a couple of sittings.

Tonight I shall start another book. Always a wonderful experience.

Del
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Sallyq

#70
November 05, 2007, 05:52:43 AM
I read Pompeii a while back and was a bit disappointed really.

Ed, I've read a few in BASS and to be perfectly honest, if it doesn't pick up from the well-fed, middle-aged, middle America, middle-class angst I've read so far I may not read many more. In particular, in The Toga Party, I found it hard to sympathise with a well-off couple who owned two homes worrying that the tax man would get too much of their estate when they died and going to quite drastic measures to ensure he didn't. I wish I had that 'problem'!

Ed

#71
November 06, 2007, 05:44:24 PM
Sounds a bit dull. I keep thinking about reading the first story, because that's usually the editor's favourite. The first and the last, usually, and maybe one or two in the middle. Most short story collections I've read seem to be like that, anyway.

When I first heard about Steven King being guest editor, my first thought was he would be a strange choice for the role, being that he's all about popular fiction, and he's widely considered to be a genre writer, whereas BASS tends towards the literary end of the spectrum (unpopular fiction, I like to call it :afro: ). So, yeah, I was wondering how it would turn out. I suspect there's some kind of angle that encompasses the whole book, and knowing what it is will put things in perspective and add to the reader's enjoyment of the book. Could be wrong, though :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Ed

#72
December 30, 2007, 04:14:11 PM
I've just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife - today, this morning in fact. I thoroughly enjoyed it for most of the book, but I didn't find the end satisfying. I think it went on a little too long, and would have been better shortened to around three hundred and something pages. Still one of the best books I've read, though. It's beautifully written, and the characters and plot are unique. Well, perhaps not unique, but very original. I would recommend it.

Not sure what to start next. I wanted to read something by F Paul Wilson, because I'm going to be meeting him later in the month, and it would be nice to have something in mind to measure his advice against. But I haven't managed to get hold of anything by him, yet, even though he's written loads of novels. I ordered two of his books from Amazon, but I saw they had their stock of the books down as one apiece, which actually means they haven't got any but don't want to lose your order by telling the truth. This was borne out (IMO) by their confirmation e-mail, which said the order will probably reach me sometime in February, which is after I have returned from the boot camp ::)

I'm probably going to start BASS 2007 next, I think. How did you get on with it in the end, Sally? Did you finish it, or put it down, never to be picked up again? :huh:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

PaulH

#73
December 30, 2007, 08:17:45 PM
Read the Time Traveller's Wife a while back now. Seem to remember some of the descriptions of what she did felt like the author had done all this research and was determined to put it in the book. Also thought the ending was a bit blindingly obvious and not terribly well done. Those two things aside, it was a cracking read.

Currently reading Cold Mountain as I'm tutoring someone who's doing it for English A level. God, it's a dull book. To entertain myself, I'm breaking it up with graphic novel reading!

Ed, I know I've got a copy of The Keep by F Paul Wilson somewhere, just not sure where. If I turn it up soon, I'll PM you to get your address and bung it in the post.

Ed

#74
December 30, 2007, 08:37:00 PM
Oh, that sounds like my idea of hell, reading Cold Mountain. The film made me cringe so much that I couldn't watch it to the end. The book could only be worse, I'm sure.

Very kind of you to offer me The Keep, Paul - that was one of the ones I ordered from Amazon. I'm guessing it was good, because it was made into a film. Don't go to too much trouble trying to find it, though. I'm going to see if my local library's got it, tomorrow, and if that doesn't prove fruitful I'll probably order it from a local book shop. Chances are they can get it a fair bit quicker than Amazon, anyway.

What did you think of the book? Is his writing style similar to anybody else's?
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]
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