This week, I are mostly reading....

Merrick

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Abhorsen - Garth Nix

Ooh, I love that series, it's brilliant.

Blood of the Fold - Terry Goodkind

John

David Keenan England's Hidden Reverse

Backtoblack

I'm reading "Lolita" still, am loving it! Can't rave enough about it. (thanks boss ark)

Dublin's Finest

If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino.

Two chapters in and I haven't a notion what's going on!!

jackbhoy

Dublin's Finest wrote:

If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino.

Two chapters in and I haven't a notion what's going on!!

Read it recently, you really wont know whats going on until the last pages and even then you'll probably need to reread to get it!!

Currently reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell, its excellent (as is Number9Dream also by DM) and is very good follow up Calvino, he lays out his story in somewhat similar fashion but actually goes back to finish stories!!

cashback

Just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I was very impressed by it. It was interesting the way Ishiguro dealt with the central premise of his book, which i won't reveal. Never spelling it out but allowing Kathy, the narrator, slowly drip feed us with clues from her perspective.
Whether or not it's scientifically plausible what Ishiguro describes, he raises important questions about how far society would go to provide it's population with a better lifestyle.

Backtoblack

How to Practise, The Way to a Meaningful Life.
Dalai Lama.

John

cashback wrote:

Just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I was very impressed by it. It was interesting the way Ishiguro dealt with the central premise of his book, which i won't reveal. Never spelling it out but allowing Kathy, the narrator, slowly drip feed us with clues from her perspective.
Whether or not it's scientifically plausible what Ishiguro describes, he raises important questions about how far society would go to provide it's population with a better lifestyle.

I really enjoyed that book, the plot was quite easy to guess but I was sure I was wrong as this is the same guy who wrote Remains of the Day, I couldn't see him venturing down that particular path. I was pleasantly surprised.

FlutterinBantam

Just finished *"A long long way" Sebastian Barry's account on Pvt Willie Dunne's experiences on the front lines in WW1.

Terrific book and extremely well written


*Not 100% sure of the title name

John

Composing With Tape Recorders: Musique Concrete for Beginners by Terence Dwyer

Undergod

Composing With Tape Recorders: Musique Concrete for Beginners by Terence Dwyer

Excellent

Just finished Jennifer Government (ok), The Princess Bride (Great), and I' 100 or so pages into Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. It's extremely ****ing bizzare.

lady_j

Douglas Coupland- Elenor Rigby

Stargal

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things- Jon McGregor

Crucifix

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Only read a tiny bit, but I like it. Never read Vonnegut before.

Dublin's Finest

Newspapers and lots of them.

arbeitsscheuer

Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett.

Pretty good. My first foray into the Discworld novels...

ionapaul

I'm struggling through Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. Read The Name Of The Rose and Baudolino a few years back, both of which I enjoyed, but this one is much more dense and harder to plough through. Anyone have any thoughts on it?

da_deadman

I'm just about to start into Book 6 of The Lord of the Rings - I wonder how it will all end?

And I'm also just after starting 'Human, All too Human' by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Jesus Wept

beermats

arctic_fox

Am reading "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiel Hammet.
The suave coolness of the lead character in this book is not to be underestimated. Makes me want to be a private detective!

arctic_fox

Am reading "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiel Hammett.
The suave coolness of the lead character in this book is not to be underestimated. Makes me want to be a private detective!

lsedov

Hammett is such a classic. Political, well written detective novels aren't too common these days. If you haven't already, be sure to check out his short story collection (one of them), The Big Knockover, which also has some terrific non-thriller stories.

John

Trying to decide between starting
a) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
or
b) The Organization of Behavior by Donald Hebb

jackbhoy

Just finished the excellent For Esme with Love & Squalor by JD Salinger and starting into "Candide, or Optimism" by Voltaire, loving it so far, great way to spend a sick day in bed!!

John

I went with Plath in the end.

Per Liefsonson

Just about to polish off "The Brothers Karamazov". Going to start either "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun or "Oblomov" by Ivan Goncharov afterwards.

Mick86

I havejust finished Charlie's War by David Fiddimore. Naturally it is the second book of a trilogy so I have to buy the first (Tuesday's War) and wait for the third to be published.

Charlie's War follows the hero or anti-hero across Northern Europe in the wake of the allied armies in 1945. He's on a mission to find an ex-girlfriend who has run off with a freelance medical outfit and is travelling with a Major and his driver. Why he is on the mission is unknown even to himself. Along the way he meets some famous people, like Jimmy Stewart, and many weird people- homicidal American Military Policemen, his father, crooked supply NCOs and a Scottish Sniper who like cooking. It's a strange book but strangely unputdownable.

I've moved on to The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I've never read one of her books but I probably will again. The book is about the alleged affair between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's sister, Mary. Unfortunately we know how it ends. Readable but not riveting.

Oral Slang

ionapaul wrote:

I'm struggling through Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. Read The Name Of The Rose and Baudolino a few years back, both of which I enjoyed, but this one is much more dense and harder to plough through. Anyone have any thoughts on it?

Haven't read it myself, but I bought it for my brother last Christmas on a recommendation from a friend & as far as I know he's started it a few times but never gotten through it..

I'm reading The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks - really enjoying it, but I'm sure I'll be pissed off at the end waiting on the next part to come out!

Mrs. MacGyver

Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult

runswithascript

Mick86 wrote:

I havejust finished Charlie's War by David Fiddimore. Naturally it is the second book of a trilogy so I have to buy the first (Tuesday's War) and wait for the third to be published.

Finished Tuesday's War yesterday and highly recommend it. I didn't know there was a sequel so thanks for the info. Parts of the former I didn't get so perhaps we could discuss it when you're finished.

Started Fatherland by Robert Harris yesterday and it's keeping my interest. Das ist v gut! For you, the war is over...

Also reading Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion and enjoying it enough to read every other book he's written.