What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

Obliq

Not me, yet. This thread is great - off to the library today with a VERY long list of books to look for/order in. Nice!

pH

MrPudding wrote: »

Has anyone one tried Ben Aaronovich's Rivers of London series? Very enjoyable.

MrP

Loved them - end of book 1 was slightly OTT - not really repeated later on - stick with them they're terrific. His witty one liners are superb.

Reading Hamilton's latest - Great North Road - absolutely loving it - and have Hydrogen Sonata and Abercrombie's latest to look forward to. Christmas has come early this year!

MrPudding

pH wrote: »

Loved them - end of book 1 was slightly OTT - not really repeated later on - stick with them they're terrific. His witty one liners are superb.

Reading Hamilton's latest - Great North Road - absolutely loving it - and have Hydrogen Sonata and Abercrombie's latest to look forward to. Christmas has come early this year!

I was lent the first and then chain read the remaining on my kindle. That is the risky thing about the kindle, finish a good book and the next one is just a couple of screen taps away.

I mentioned the Thursday Next books earlier, but I think they are worth mentioning again. The concept is very good, it is set in England, but a slightly different England, the Crimean War is still running in the first book. The main character works in a branch of the police that looks after literary crime, but she get involved in another shadowy group that actually works in books. A friend of mine got me into them, he used this excerpt, which is from a team meeting from the shadowy group:

wrote:

“Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren’t you working on this?’

Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. ‘Indeed. The uses of had had and that that have to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the imaginotransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.’

‘Go on.’

It’s mostly an unlicensed-usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim’s Progress may also be a problem due to its had had/that that ratio.’

So what’s the problem in Progress?’

That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked, but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.’

Hmm,’ said the Bellman, ‘I thought had had had had TGC’s approval for use in Dickens? What’s the problem?’

Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,’ said Lady Cavendish. ‘You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.’

So the problem with that other that that was that…?’

‘That that other-other that that had had approval.’

Okay’ said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, ‘let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC’s approval?’

There was a very long pause. ‘Right,’ said the Bellman with a sigh, ‘that’s it for the moment. I’ll be giving out assignments in ten minutes. Session’s over – and let’s be careful out there.”

Give them a go.

MrP

keane2097

I'd hate to see one of the bad passages.

Bannasidhe

keane2097 wrote: »

I'd hate to see one of the bad passages.

I thought it was funny - but then I have wasted days trying to avoid using had had.

MrPudding

keane2097 wrote: »

I'd hate to see one of the bad passages.

If I had had more time I might have been able to come up with another passage that you might have found more appealing. As it was I was short on time and I thought that that passage I posted was ok. The books really are very good; give them a try even if you don’t particularly like the passage, even if some people think that that passage is funny.


MrP

[-0-]

John Moriarty wrote:

Clear days bring the mountains down to my door-step, calm nights give the rivers their say, the wind puts its hand to my shoulder some evenings, and then I don't think, I just leave what I'm doing and I go the soul's way.

I love this.

pauldla

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones. A colleague lent it to me during the week and I haven't been able to put it down. Well written and passionately argued, it'd make you want to heave a brick at a Tory.

Bannasidhe

pauldla wrote: »

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones. A colleague lent it to me during the week and I haven't been able to put it down. Well written and passionately argued, it'd make you want to heave a brick at a Tory.

Like I need to read a book to make me want to do that!

When I lived in London's East End during the Thatcher years one of my neighbours donated some props from Spitting Image to a jumble sale we were having at the community centre I managed - one of the props was a very realistic looking latex brick. I bought it and spent many many hours fecking it at the TV screen - there weren't many real life Tory's in Hackney so I had to make do...
Wish I still had that brick.

pauldla

Bannasidhe

pH wrote: »

Loved them - end of book 1 was slightly OTT - not really repeated later on - stick with them they're terrific. His witty one liners are superb.

Reading Hamilton's latest - Great North Road - absolutely loving it - and have Hydrogen Sonata and Abercrombie's latest to look forward to. Christmas has come early this year!

Just downloaded kindle ed. of Abercrombie's Red Country- really enjoyed his other books (love the character of Glokta) so am at the hopeful yet concerned just before starting a book by a favourite author place: this is gonna be great / oh pleeese let it be great .

Glokta was done brilliantly.

TheReverend

Lord of chaos, started the wheel of time books at the end of summer

MagicMarker

Think I'll get started on Dune this evening.

GLaDOS

Started a collection of H.P. Lovecraft short stories last week, love his writing style

Read Never Let Me Go and Inverted World yesterday, they were brilliant.

kylith

I'm still trying to work my way through John Dies at the End. My commute in the morning is too short to read, and everyone in work is so friendly that they want to chat at lunch time. I never thought I'd miss my 45 minute commute, and all the people who thought I was a weirdo and avoided me at break times, but I got soooooo much reading done back then.

bnt

Just finished Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, which is a prequel to his earlier book A Fire in Deep - which I've just started.

Deepness is quite the head-wrecker. To summarize: two competing Human groups form a temporary alliance so that they can go off and exploit an alien race. One is a group of traders who live by making deals, while the other is from a totalitarian state which practices a form of slavery through biological warfare. If you think that that's a recipe for trouble, you'd be right. They soon have bigger things to worry about than the aliens, for several decades.

The alien race in question lives under a sun which spends most of its time in a dormant state (the "On-Off Star"), during which the planet goes in to a deep freeze and the inhabitants must go in to deep hibernation. They basically have to rebuild their civilization while their sun is on, doing what they can in less than fifty years. This cycle forms the basis of their culture, including an apocalyptic religion that resists attempts to break the cycle. In this particular cycle, however, they have a slightly mad scientific genius on their side, and progress is rapid.

The way this all plays out, the clash of civilizations as the "On-Off Star" slowly fades back in to its red dwarf state, has to be read. It's a huge book, in size and scope, which took me a long time to read. Well worth it.

TheReverend

Finished lord of chaos, on to crown of swords

Sarky

Mostly papers on transposon-directed insertion sequencing.

*sigh* I'll find time to read a real book soon... I hope...

Turtwig

Sarky wrote: »

transposon-directed insertion sequencing.

If there is no real book on this stuff, why not write one yourself?
I'm being fricking dead serious here. bluey and I are currently doing Nanowrimo, join us, join the dark side! ! !

Sarky

I'd never find the time to do nanowrimo. However, I have vowed with some friends to work on a Lovecraftian parody of 50 Shades whenever I can get round to it.

pauldla

The new Patrick O'Brians arrived in the post last week. I don't do that much fiction, but these books are like catnip to me. I've loads to read at the moment, what with study and work, so I don't really have time to get into two more Aubrey/Marutin books...but I'll just read the first page...and then one more...ah sure, I'm this far in now, I'll get back to Curriculum in Context tomorrow or the next day...I wonder if there are any more of these on Amazon...?

GLaDOS

Sarky wrote: »

However, I have vowed with some friends to work on a Lovecraftian parody of 50 Shades whenever I can get round to it.

I would definitely read that

I've just started Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and it's incredibly interesting so far. It should be of interest to members of this forum, given its premise is that of the devil paying a visit to the highly atheistic society of the 1930's Soviet Union. I'm reading Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's translation, which, after a lot of research, is regarded as one of the best, in case anybody else wants to pick up a copy.

Turtwig

Jernal wrote: »

bluey and I are currently doing Nanowrimo, join us, join the dark side! ! !

Apologies,

bluey, Koth, Tie fighter guy and I.
(Anyone else? )

Bannasidhe

Jernal wrote: »

Apologies,

bluey, Koth, Tie fighter guy and I.
(Anyone else? )

I am acting as support staff to son's OH (and occasional boardsie).

I am exhausted from delivering motivational speeches such as
'Stop thinking so much and start bloody writing!'
'Maybe if you turned the TV off????'
'whaddya mean editing? That's next month - stop moaning and write woman!'
' Yes, I do know for a fact you are currently playing scrabble - did you forget I am one of your opponents???'

MagicMarker

WTF is Nanowrimo?

robindch

Bannasidhe wrote: »

I am exhausted from delivering motivational speeches such as

Was it Ray Bradbury who turned up at a workshop for writers and delivered the following speech:

Ray Bradbury wrote:

Ok, so you good folks want to be writers. So why the fuck aren't you at home writing?!

Turtwig

MagicMarker wrote: »

WTF is Nanowrimo?

National Novel Writing Month - write a 50,000 word Novel during the month of November. It's what guys partake in when they want to impress girls by claiming to be Novelists. Ever wanted to use the pick up line "You know you remind me of an amazing character I created in one of my Novels once." ?

Delirium

MagicMarker wrote: »

WTF is Nanowrimo?

From the NaNoWriMo site:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.

Aenaes

MagicMarker wrote: »

WTF is Nanowrimo?

I've had to Google it twice in this thread already. I forget about it and then think it's some fantasy series.

Just finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Not my usual type of book but I enjoyed it.

8mv

gvn wrote: »

I've just started Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and it's incredibly interesting so far. It should be of interest to members of this forum, given its premise is that of the devil paying a visit to the highly atheistic society of the 1930's Soviet Union.

Great book - I have it in my re-read pile at the mo.

I just finished John The Revelator by Pat Murphy (?) Really good Irish kid with weird childhood up to a point, but kinda fizzles out towards the end. A good set-up yields no dividends.

Just started A Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Only a few pages in so no true feeling for it yet, but if it's only half as good as her other stuff it'll be fine. Also dipping into a book about Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. I'm facinated by the Tudors.

MagicMarker

Just finished Dune, really enjoyed it! Although, I must say, I was looking forward to an epic ending and I don't think I got it. It was rather... eh... flaccid.

Also, I'm not sure I like the idea of appendices in fiction. Once I've reached the main conclusion of the story, I'm not particularly interested in reading on about subtle nuances of certain characters or plot points. I would rather this info, for instance the backstory of the Kynes character, contained within the story itself.

Is the movie worth a look?

Bannasidhe

MagicMarker wrote: »

Just finished Dune, really enjoyed it! Although, I must say, I was looking forward to an epic ending and I don't think I got it. It was rather... eh... flaccid.

Also, I'm not sure I like the idea of appendices in fiction. Once I've reached the main conclusion of the story, I'm not particularly interested in reading on about subtle nuances of certain characters or plot points. I would rather this info, for instance the backstory of the Kynes character, contained within the story itself.

Is the movie worth a look?

Hmmmmm...depends on how you define 'worth'.

The movie, no.
The four part mini series, YES. And its sequel.
Well I haven't seen the Dune mini series but I saw the sequel and it kicks ass.

robindch

MagicMarker wrote: »

Just finished Dune, really enjoyed it!

The later five books are something of an acquired taste, but a taste which -- once acquired -- is never forgotten and rarely equalled.

Together, all six books are magnificent. And more than a little relevant to people interested in the uses of religion.

MagicMarker wrote: »

Is the movie worth a look?

There are two movies -- the earlier one with Sting is dreadful. The later one is better, but captures little, if anything, of the grand sweep of the epics.

MagicMarker

I'm in the mood for some mindless entertainment, so with the movie coming out I think I'm gonna read Killing Floor by Lee Child..

Bannasidhe

Just finished Abercrombie's Red Country - enjoyable enough but not as good as the First Law Trilogy.

Now reading The Mongoliad Trilogy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mongoliad#Subject_of_the_novel_version_of_The_Mongoliad and I must say I am enjoying it.

Dades

I like the movie of Dune with Sting. :pac:

Thought the spirit of it was closet the books. Awesome book. Sci-fi with Muslims!

Bannasidhe

Dades wrote: »

I like the movie of Dune with Sting. :pac:

!

I do too.

robindch

^^^ Yiz like the movie with Sting.

Sheesh, have yiz read the book?

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

^^^ Yiz like the movie with Sting.

Sheesh, have yiz read the book?

It's on my list....:(

Dades

robindch wrote: »

^^^ Yiz like the movie with Sting.

Sheesh, have yiz read the book?

Books =/= Movies!

It's a handy attitude to have as one bad one doesn't ruin the other.

gvn

gvn wrote: »

I've just started Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and it's incredibly interesting so far. It should be of interest to members of this forum, given its premise is that of the devil paying a visit to the highly atheistic society of the 1930's Soviet Union. I'm reading Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's translation, which, after a lot of research, is regarded as one of the best, in case anybody else wants to pick up a copy.

I finished the above last night and I'd give it 10/10. An absolutely brilliant book, and one I would highly recommend.

I've just started Melville's Moby Dick, and what a tome it is. I tend to struggle (i.e. lose patience) with longer works, so I imagine this will take quite a while for me to finish. Still, what an opening paragraph!

Bannasidhe

Dades wrote: »

Books =/= Movies!

It's a handy attitude to have as one bad one doesn't ruin the other.

I consider the Sting/Dune to be a comedy.

Daemonic

MagicMarker wrote: »

I'm in the mood for some mindless entertainment, so with the movie coming out I think I'm gonna read Killing Floor by Lee Child..

Perfect 'leave your brain at the door' stuff. Reacher is almost as cool as Richard Stark's (a Donald Westlake pseudonym) Parker character. Reacher loses cool points because we know his first name :cool:

robindch

Bannasidhe wrote: »

I consider the Sting/Dune to be a comedy.

I've read the book, so the Sting film is a tragedy for me

kylith

Dades wrote: »

Books =/= Movies!

It's a handy attitude to have as one bad one doesn't ruin the other.

Yeah, I became a lot less angry when I started to think of the movies as homages to, or interpretations of, the book, rather than as faithful reproductions.

MagicMarker

Daemonic wrote: »

Perfect 'leave your brain at the door' stuff. Reacher is almost as cool as Richard Stark's (a Donald Westlake pseudonym) Parker character. Reacher loses cool points because we know his first name :cool:

I did almost give up straight away tbh, found it awfully derivative. But glad I stuck with it as it was a really enjoyable page turner in the end. Will defo keep Reacher in mind next time I want a less taxing read.

Next up, I, Claudius.