What book are you reading atm??

Kilgore__Trout

Reading a Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Gives a nice overview of the universe, earth, and scientific discoveries, and better still does it in a light, humourous way. Thing I enjoy most is how he shows the ridiculous sides to some of the major figures that have advanced our understanding of the world.

Read The Postman by David Brin recently too. Yep, it's an old one. And, nope, it's nothing like the film. Well worth a look if you like post apocalyptic fiction.

cloud493

The casual vacancy. Only a fiver in chapters so.

Pumpkinseeds

I'm reading Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis, enjoying it so far, just on to the second short story in this book, which I think is 5 interconnecting stories. Well 1 character from the previous story has appeared in this story.

david75

Shocked to discover i had never read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I'm a big fan of both so I'm at that right now.

Recently just finished Endurance about the Shackletons failed expedition to the Antarctic. Brilliant read.
Trying to find the long way by Bernard moittissiere but can't find it anywhere

ibarelycare

Treasure Island. It's the first book in months that I think I'll actually finish. Since I finished the ASOIAF books, the only ones I've finished are the Hunger Games books (and they were really bad). I've started at least 7 or 8 other books and just haven't finished them cos I got bored or they were crap. My Kindle is full of partly-read books, it's getting confusing!

conorhal

jprboy wrote: »

Yep, well based on one book only.

I was on my first sun holiday back in 1990 (Torremollinos) and, not having brought any books with me, set off to buy one. I was lucky enough to happen upon a fairly meaty looking tome named "Foucault's Pendulum". I have to admit I had never heard of Eco but... Wow! It was brilliant and I'd highly recommend it.

Years later I read my wife's copy of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and after a while I began to think "Hey, this is all a bit too familiar.... it's like that great book I read years ago called .... what was it? Oh, yes, "Foucault's Pendulum" And it's a pretty poor imitation"

I never mentioned this to anyone else but tonight I did a quick search online and found this which says it all really:

While interviewing Umberto Eco in a 2008 issue of The Paris Review, Lila Azam Zanganeh characterized The Da Vinci Code as "a bizarre little offshoot" of Eco's novel, Foucault’s Pendulum. In response, Eco remarked, "Dan Brown is a character from Foucault’s Pendulum! I invented him. He shares my characters’ fascinations—the world conspiracy of Rosicrucians, Masons, and Jesuits. The role of the Knights Templar. The hermetic secret. The principle that everything is connected. I suspect Dan Brown might not even exist."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code

I thought that was a fantastic book too, it's the Anti-Dan Brown in that it's a wonderfully paranoid conspiracy theory that manages to point out how utterly rediculous conspiracy theories are, it sucks you in and almost makes you believe it before pointing out how foolish the basis for doing so actually is.

--Kaiser--

ibarelycare wrote: »

Treasure Island. It's the first book in months that I think I'll actually finish. Since I finished the ASOIAF books, the only ones I've finished are the Hunger Games books (and they were really bad). I've started at least 7 or 8 other books and just haven't finished them cos I got bored or they were crap. My Kindle is full of partly-read books, it's getting confusing!

I've come to the conclusion that if I don' feel impelled to read on after about 50 pages, I just discard the book. Life's too short!

Currently reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, funny and well-written book on nonsense such as homeopathy and Gillian McKeith, why it's nonsense and how to spot other such quackery.

Also re-reading the chilling Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, which is being released as a film directed by James Franco

the_monkey

11.22.63 by Stephen King.

Very good so far and nice Easter Eggs for fans of It

sin_city

Peter Schiff - The Real Crash....guy that predicted the 2008 crash talks about the coming bigger crash. Very interesting.

GLaDOS

the_monkey wrote: »

11.22.63 by Stephen King.

Very good so far and nice Easter Eggs for fans of It

Intriguing! Had heard it was good from my brother who isn't a SK fan.

DenMan

The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma. Really enjoying it!

Vojera

ibarelycare wrote: »

My kindle is full of partly-read books, it's getting confusing!

You should put your books into collections, e.g. Read, Abandoned, Read Later. It'll help a lot.

QuiteInterestin

Just finished Melissa Hills The Guest List. €3.95 in Tesco and wanted something light for the weekend. It was alright, not sure who was in charge of the proofreading though, for the 'twist' (which I saw coming a few chapters in but discounted because is was impossible) to work, 2 of the characters needed to be at least ten years older then described. Hate when books get the basic things wrong :mad:

Tar.Aldarion

Shadow of the hegemon, it's in the enders game series, which has a film coming out soon.

Fox_In_Socks

Just finished MaddAdam by Margarete Atwood. Last in the Oryx and Crake series, sadly.

Auldloon

manyoung wrote: »

The Stand - needless to say, this going to take me ages.

I started reading this on a flight to oz nearly 20 years ago, and finished it in record time! It still remains one of my favourite books but I think I would have preferred the edited version!

--Kaiser--

Auldloon wrote: »

I started reading this on a flight to oz nearly 20 years ago, and finished it in record time! It still remains one of my favourite books but I think I would have preferred the edited version!

My sentiments exactly, good book, could have done with about 400 less words

Killeenadeema

Anyone read the new one JK Rowling?

Lucena

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

My sentiments exactly, good book, could have done with about 400 less words

So you wanted it to have 499,600 words?

--Kaiser--

Lucena wrote: »

So you wanted it to have 499,600 words?

I meant pages...

salacious crumb

Kilgore__Trout wrote: »

Reading a Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Gives a nice overview of the universe, earth, and scientific discoveries, and better still does it in a light, humourous way. Thing I enjoy most is how he shows the ridiculous sides to some of the major figures that have advanced our understanding of the world.

Bryson is fantastic.

Ice Storm

I'm starting On the Beach by Nevil Shute.

I read that it was the inspiration for the Morrissey song 'Everyday is Like Sunday' which in turn has inspired me to read it.

--Kaiser--

salacious crumb wrote: »

Bryson is fantastic.

Only read A Short History of Nearly Everything and didn't like it at all; he only gives cursory info on the various topics, mostly stuff I already knew, and the rest is fluffed out with largely boring and irrelevant biographical pieces about the discoverers

jimgoose

Just finished "A Sniper's Journey", by a Mr. Gary Mitchell.

salacious crumb

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Only read A Short History of Nearly Everything and didn't like it at all; he only gives cursory info on the various topics, mostly stuff I already knew, and the rest is fluffed out with largely boring and irrelevant biographical pieces about the discoverers

Really. I've read three or four of his books and found them all enjoyable and informative. His Shakespeare: The World as a Stage was the one that first piqued my interest.

Mars Bar

I've downloaded A Short History of Everything to the Kindle. Something different for me anyway!

iwantmydinner

Just finished Gone Girl last night; picked out The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood as my next read this morning.

I found Gone Girl to be a quick, easy read and a page-turner, though you couldn't call it compelling, or well-written. At all. I needed something bubblegummy after a tough slog through On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks immediately prior.

I've never read anything by Atwood before, I'm really excited to get home and start in on it!

sinead88

iwantmydinner wrote: »

Just finished Gone Girl last night; picked out The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood as my next read this morning.

I found Gone Girl to be a quick, easy read and a page-turner, though you couldn't call it compelling, or well-written. At all. I needed something bubblegummy after a tough slog through On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks immediately prior.

I've never read anything by Atwood before, I'm really excited to get home and start in on it!

Atwood is amazing. I would absolutely recommend The Handmaid's Tale and the Oryx and Crake series. All dystopian fiction and excellent reads.

iwantmydinner

sinead88 wrote: »

Atwood is amazing. I would absolutely recommend The Handmaid's Tale and the Oryx and Crake series. All dystopian fiction and excellent reads.

Yeah I got straight into it, took a little while to get used to the structure of it but flew through loads of it last night, a real page-turner.

I've never read any dystopian fiction, thanks for the recommendations!

SimonQuinlank

Just finished 'The Corner' by David Simon,and have just started 'Nowhere Men' by Michael Calvin.