I'm really enjoying "A History of the World in 100 Objects" at the moment. Is the companion book to the BBC Radio podcast. Great for the ADD generation as you can read it in small chunks / when ever you have a spare 10 minutes to fill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Histo...in_100_Objects

Finished Dirk Gently, ending blew 70% of my mind. Reread the first few chapters, 90% blown. Did some research into the poet that that he kept referencing... 110% blown. WE'RE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS.

Seriously more mind blowing than any movie I've seen, was an ingenious and hilarious mind fuck of a book.

trAse, you have to read The Long Dark Tea Time of The Soul. if you havn't already. it's the second book featuring Dirk Gently. I liked it better than the first.

Just staring in on The Strain trilogy by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro...horrors about a vampiric like virus outbreak in NYC...review well on Amazon, hoping they stand up to the reviews...been ages since I read a good horror book

I cried when Douglas Adams died.

My first true hero author.

Second was David Gemmell.

I cried when he died, too.

*sigh*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuzzy Rainbow

trAse, you have to read The Long Dark Tea Time of The Soul. if you havn't already. it's the second book featuring Dirk Gently. I liked it better than the first.

Onto book #1 of The Dark Tower, hopefully tie me over until The Twelve is released.

I plan on starting The Wolf's Gift by Anne Rice later. This is my first book by Rice so I'm not sure what to expect

Half way through The Strain now, it's decent! Nice setup, likeable enough characters, engaging plot development that's keeping me wanting to just keep reading to see what happens next, nicely creepy without being gore mad and a nice easy to read writing style!

Picked up Richard Dawkin's 'The God Delusion' for a flight down to Sydney. Got seated next to a Hillsong member. Didn't stop me reading the book.

Anyway that was two weeks ago and I'm about halfway through now. It's definitely a little snarky.

I'm also skimming some of the more science based parts as my knowledge/interest in that is limited. I'm more keen on the philosophical/sociological arguments about atheism v religion.

I have recently read the book Life After Death. It is a good book written by Damien Echols.

NERD ALERT: I've been making my way through Frank Herbert's Dune saga ... up to Heretics of Dune presently ...

I picked up Keep the Aspidistra Flying for a bit but it got me down, so went back to Frank

Finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

I was losing interest about the halfway mark and hadn't picked it up in two or three weeks. Fortunately as soon as I did I the story got back into the thick of things and I finished the last 400 pages last week.

Wikipedia seems to indicate the making of the movie has stalled.

Anyhow, wanted to pick up something of Bukowski's yesterday but all the store had was Factotum, but I've already seen the film, so I grabbed The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Hope it's good, can't remember the last sci-do book I read.

Finished Sielnce of The Lambs. Hadn't seen the movie, and a completely enthralling book.

Started Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, then The Bourne Identity arrived, so I've started reading that now.

I don't know why more of people my age don't read books

recently read Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugarman, after a suggestion from somewhere.. i enjoyed it! has anyone read any autobiographies lately that they could recommend??

Reading The China Lover at the moment - picked it up for ¥200 ($2) here in Tokyo and enjoying it thus far, especially the parts relating to the Japanese movie industry in the late 1940s/early '50s (Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa, etc).

Anyone pre-ordered books via iBooks before? I pre-ordered something, was released 10 days ago, but still showing as 'pre-ordered' and asks me to buy it again if I go through the store again....

Just finished Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens.

I'm a big Hitch fan so this was never likely to disappoint and it didn't. It is more a narrative about the evolution of how he thinks what he thinks and why he thinks what he thinks interspersed with a few of his most significant familial and personal relationships. Even when he does delve into his family and friends it is mostly to highlight his thinking abilities rather than getting into the minutiae or ephemera of his relationships.

It's an interesting and original way to approach an autobigraphy and I really enjoyed it. I find the confessional almost gossipy angle that most auto- and bio-graphies take on public figures (particularly on public intellectuals) gets a little boring, so this was fresh-breathing for me.

It also made me sad that he is no longer around to challenge our underlying convictions and the rationales we give on certain issues. If you were anti the Iraq War I think he gives some very good reasons for you to doubt your opposition.

Just finished 11.22.63 by Stephen King.

Loved it. Probably the best thing of his since Hearts in Atlantis.





Next up, Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses.

I'm going to highly recommend The Windup Girl, which I read a couple of weeks ago. Felt a lot like reading William Gibson, though I prefered the writing style in this one. One of those books that does a great job of building up the world that it's set in and has some pretty good characters.

^Wasnt a fan. Gave up about 100 or so pages in. Felt the writing wasn't really engaging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trAse

Onto book #1 of The Dark Tower, hopefully tie me over until The Twelve is released.

Finished The Twelve, was pretty great. I think I liked The Passage more, but the first book in the series is always going to be more exciting. The finale had me on the edge of my seat 4/5


lol, just realised that I'm onto book 4 of The Dark Tower since I was thinking about reading it 2 months ago. Smashing through books!

Yeah I smashed them too trAse. What was the 900 odd page one? Either 3 or 4, well I finished it in 4 days. Quickest I've ever read a book. It helped being on forced leave.

What do you think of the series? I really liked it. Stephen King is a twisted individual and a brilliant story teller. Makes it really easy to picture yourself in the worlds he creates.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kill Whitey

Just finished 11.22.63 by Stephen King.

Loved it.

Read it earlier this year and have to agree, was a great book.

^ Yeah also loved it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derelict

Yeah I smashed them too trAse. What was the 900 odd page one? Either 3 or 4, well I finished it in 4 days. Quickest I've ever read a book. It helped being on forced leave.

What do you think of the series? I really liked it. Stephen King is a twisted individual and a brilliant story teller. Makes it really easy to picture yourself in the worlds he creates.

I love the series to far, and you're spot on about his telling of the worlds. Thought about reading it because it was listed at the end of The Passage. But the foreword in Dark Tower talked about how this was King's LOTR which turned me right off right away... But 2 chapters in I was loving it. Each book gets more and more intense and bizarre, after #2 I thought #3 would plateau a bit... nope.

The one with Susan Delgado was the one I read fast, that story itself is a fucking ripper. I think it's 5 or 6 that drags a bit but overall it's a quality story.

Wizard and Glass I struggled with towards the end... I think. It's been a while since I read it. Maybe I just hated Susan Delgado.

Also Trase, once you're done Wizard and Glass, skip all the way to The Wind in The Keyhole. It was realeased earlier this year after the whole DT series was officially finished years ago, but takes place between WaG and Wolves of The Calla.

The Wind In The Keyhole doesn't really add anything to the Dark Tower series, but it is a great read.

Yeah I wasn't sure where/when to read the newer book. Unless he intended for it to be read after WaG, I may leave it until the end.

Cloud Atlas

Exquisite writing - not much really 'happens' in the book in terms of action, but the writing of Mitchell made me read to the end. Sublime stuff, would read again.
Waiting to see how the movie turns out

On my ebay spree yesterday I bought

Young Female, Traveling Alone sounds like it will be a good read, i hope so
White Line Fever had to buy this, Lemmy is great, but the thing that sold me was the opening for the blurb is "Lemmy should be medically dead"
Adventures with the Voodoo Crew Was only like 3 pounds, so hopefully this makes my train rides better
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close apparently is a movie, but I havent seen, sounds like a great read

The Happiest Refugee - The vietnamese comedian Anh Do's memoirs. Had me glued, his style of narrative kept me reading, and was so easy that I think I could have bowled it over in a day or two. Some seriously funny things, and really touching moments.

currently reading On the Road, absolutely fantastic novels so far.

^ I had a read of the blurb the other day, I was at someones house and I saw it in their bathroom. Looks like it would be a good read.

The Great War - Les Carlyon is a cracker read

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveys

The Great War - Les Carlyon is a cracker read

Yeah, really good book that one, I was thoroughly engaged from start to finish and that's saying something, 'cause it's a fat-ass book! "Gallipoli" was great too.

I just got these in the mail:
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm
1984
Catch 22
A Glorious Way to Die

Looking forward to reading them all! I've read the two George Orwell ones in high school so it will be good to read em again now that I can appreciate them.

You can't go wrong with Orwell, and his custodian novels. Seriously what a champion. I really want to read "down and out.in paris and London London". Can't find that one at dymocks though.

just finished the memory of light... meh... it was good, but not the epicness I was waiting for after 20+ years

About 1/5 of the way through Oliver Stones "The Untold History of the United States" - heavy going but brilliantly fills in the gaps and corrects the standard historical narratives we get fed on the good ol' US of A.

I also started watching the TV series they made of it, which I found helped give you a broader understanding of each period before reading the book for the details.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stargazer

just finished the memory of light... meh... it was good, but not the epicness I was waiting for after 20+ years

I just finished it too. I actually thought it was handled REALLY well. Not the over the top cheesy trash it could've been. Just a gritty battle for the ending of mankind done well.

loved it.

Recently was put on to Papillon by Henri Charrière, thoroughly enjoyed it and read it pretty much all in one sitting.

Quote:

Papillon [papijɔ̃] is a memoir by convicted felon and fugitive Henri Charrière, first published in France in 1969, describing his escape from a penal colony in French Guiana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papillon_%28book%29

Just churned my way through The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart

Headcase of a book, enjoyed it for the most part, didn't love the ending so much, but still a pretty decent read.

Just started on The Twelve - Justin Cronin...book 2 in The Passage trilogy...man-made vampire like creatures created from the strain of an ancient virus...book 1 started out amazing, the background story and main part until the virus broke and shit went to hell in a handbasket was brilliant! It was a shame the 2/3 of the book that followed when it jumped 70 years into the future was painfully average with shitty unlikeable characters...and conisdering it's a 900 page book, that made it tough to get through...but did as I just had to find out what happened, and it does pick up, but yeah, as a whole, was tough going.

The Twelve has started out brilliantly so far, really fucking hope it holds together better than The Passage did...anyone read them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by smorchika

Recently was put on to Papillon by Henri Charrière, thoroughly enjoyed it and read it pretty much all in one sitting.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papillon_%28book%29

Yep it is an amazing tale, though its a shame that there are doubts about how much of it actually happened to him. The movie is pretty good too...

Just finished reading All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings, a good overview of WWII. The use of private letters, diaries etc really hit home how much it affected so many people.

Now on the hunt for some new stuff to read - gonna go google all the books people have posted in here

Finally finished All The Pretty Horses after sitting on the last 40 pages for months. Really enjoyed it up until the last third, just after

Spoiler:

he leaves the prison

, and then my interest just shot down to the ground.

Struggled to read more than a few pages at a time after that until this morning when I picked it up again, got interested and finished the rest off. Actually felt sad at the end there. Walked into work a lil' misty eyed.

I'm on a bit of a "read all the classics" jaunt this year.

So far polished off:

The Old Man and the Sea
Moby Dick
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Dharma Bums
20,000 Leagues under the sea

And currently reading The Three Musketeers.

They're all pretty good, apart from Moby Dick which fucking sucked and was a real slog to get through.

Has anyone read Bailout by Neil Barofsky?


I'm currently finishing a sweet fantasy book (The Black Company) so I'm keen to read some non-fiction for a bit of a change.
Bailout has great reviews and seems to be a good insight into the clusterfuck that is the US federal bailout.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubz

I'm on a bit of a "read all the classics" jaunt this year.

So far polished off:

The Old Man and the Sea
Moby Dick
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Dharma Bums
20,000 Leagues under the sea

And currently reading The Three Musketeers.

They're all pretty good, apart from Moby Dick which fucking sucked and was a real slog to get through.

I've been reading classics over the last few years too, I read The Old Man And The Sea last year and now it's my favourite book. A simple, and very human story, I just love it to bits.

I'm currently reading The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, a biography of Paul Erdős, a very interesting person indeed!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubz

They're all pretty good, apart from Moby Dick which fucking sucked and was a real slog to get through.

Yeah, read that on a "I'm going to read a random classic" whim, so fucking painful...the 40 something page chapter about discecting a whale...christ, talk about too much details

AMERICAN SNIPER, by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice

[quote=Dr Bones;394608570]With no exaggeration, I thought it was one of the most self involved steaming piles of cod shit I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

Here's the book:

I'm a junkie.
Wait no I quit.
Now I'm a junkie again.
No wait I quit again.
Wait, nah, fuck it, I'm a junkie.
No wait, quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.
Junkie.
Quit.

/QUOTE]

haha, isnt that the way of the junkie tho?
Halway through Existence by David Brin - awesome contemporary sci fi