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*What book are you reading? (part 2)

Reading this one

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Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, thanks to campanula

its pretty good, I've not read anything by him before but I like how un fluffy it is. Nods to David Brins uplift saga but where Brin would have swashed a few buckles and spun a yarn of derring do by now this author takes a different approach. What happens when uplift goes badly badly wrong
 
campanula said:
Luna - new moon, Ian Macdonald. gloomy, very gloomy and (so far, 60 pages in), disliking most of the central characters. I always struggle with sf which follows the hackneyed fantasy trope of 'royal' families or general upper echelons of society as the major movers and shakers. Could be distracted by Neil Asher's 'Dark Intelligence' which arrived in the post (Dotty, I finally got to the local PO for you).
Also, just finished Bangkok Eight - John Burdett - a buddhist detective novel - amusing read.
What did you think of 'Foxglove Summer', VP? Aaronovitch has just recently appeared on my radar (Rivers of London) - would definitely read more (would certainly have been drawn towards 'Foxglove Summer' for title alone).
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I liked it. There was some criticism that because it's set in "the sticks", that it's too much of a change of pace from the previous 4 novels, but it manages the great trick of allowing a lot of exposition about the history of the police's occult dept without the usual clunkiness. It's a good novel in an evolving saga.
 
Dickens - Our Mutual Friend.

I have no idea where the plot is gonna end up going but the prose and the characterisations are a source of limitless joy.
 
SpookyFrank said:
Dickens - Our Mutual Friend.

I have no idea where the plot is gonna end up going but the prose and the characterisations are a source of limitless joy.
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Sounds good. On the Victorian classics front, after seeing it come top of that list for best British novel I'm reading Middlemarch which seems to get a mixed reception on here but I'm liking it, though maybe more as a succession of aphoristic/linguistic set pieces than as a story whose progression I care about.
 
'Heat' by Ranulph Fiennes. I thought it was gonna be a lot more about 'just' exploring, but there's an absolute fuckton of military and historical detail in there too, which I am reading with the knowledge of his privileged background. It's different to how I thought in another way too. I pre-judged him - thought he would be much more tory/right wing/bigoted than he actually is. Some of it makes for a pleasant surprise, some of it is definitely tainted by that background. Inevitable I suppose. There's some surprising honesty in there too. I've been chuckling over him getting sacked from loads of postings, and actually working as a mercenary!

Being an explorer is up there with 'inventor' as one of my all-time most desired jobs.
 
All parts of my house are reaching impassable states of squashing but I can only imagine that you, sojourner, read mainly e.books, live in a giant mansion or have 5 thousand bookish friends to donate to, because your reading rate is phenomenal...and books take up space. Of late, I am finding my eyelids are drooping after 10 pages or so and still books are overtaking the place (despite using them as furniture now). I have 2 flights of stairs which are rapidly becoming impossible to use unless you are very thin (or crab along sideways - my solution) and every room has shrunk by several feet due to shelves filling all the walls (the problems of living in the same house for 38years). I am going to box up some thousands and hope I can get World of Books or such to collect a vanload...unless anyone can come up with alternative ways of shedding too many books.
 
campanula said:
All parts of my house are reaching impassable states of squashing but I can only imagine that you, sojourner, read mainly e.books, live in a giant mansion or have 5 thousand bookish friends to donate to, because your reading rate is phenomenal...and books take up space. Of late, I am finding my eyelids are drooping after 10 pages or so and still books are overtaking the place (despite using them as furniture now). I have 2 flights of stairs which are rapidly becoming impossible to use unless you are very thin (or crab along sideways - my solution) and every room has shrunk by several feet due to shelves filling all the walls (the problems of living in the same house for 38years). I am going to box up some thousands and hope I can get World of Books or such to collect a vanload...unless anyone can come up with alternative ways of shedding too many books.
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I don't think it's phenomenal - I just have about 3 or 4 long periods of reading per week :)

And...library books ;)

Do you not have a 'book-cycle' or anything like that round your way? Where you can give away books so people can share them for free?
 
theres a mini library scheme in the states where people put up like american post boxes but they are 'take a book, leave a book' resources. Great idea. The only reason I know of it is because of the anger of residents in a couple of southern states who had the localist scheme shut down citing local planning laws and that. Got it back up and running after a fight but what cunts. Planning my arse. Local goverment stuffed with right wingers who fear books more like
 
sojourner said:
Just finished 'Grief is the thing with feathers' by Max Porter. I think you definitely need to have read Ted Hughes's The Crow to appreciate it, which is a shame, cos I haven't.
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Yunno, I've just finished this as well, disappointed it didn't even last me a day, disappointed in the prose. Still love crows. :D. Good tip about the Hughes reference, maybe I should get to that.

Re-reading Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, greatly re-enjoying them. Illustrates enormous events by the impact they have on a few, related by fate people. Highly recommended.
 
izz said:
Yunno, I've just finished this as well, disappointed it didn't even last me a day, disappointed in the prose. Still love crows. :D. Good tip about the Hughes reference, maybe I should get to that.

Re-reading Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, greatly re-enjoying them. Illustrates enormous events by the impact they have on a few, related by fate people. Highly recommended.
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Yeh, I was a bit disappointed myself.

That PB trilogy though, that's the fucking nuts that is :cool::thumbs:
 
izz said:
Still love crows. :D. Good tip about the Hughes reference, maybe I should get to that.

You might enjoy Crow Country by Mark Cocker, Izz
Orang Utan said:
Just leave books in public places :cool:
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Yep,I tried leaving them in public spaces but I have thousands of the buggers and I was beginning to feel as though I was littering...I estimated, at 5-10 a day, it would still take well over a decade...and I would have amassed heaps more. Failed with e.books and was inevitably always late at the library - heaps of fines.
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I think corvids are remarkable birds - truly love them. When I was small, I used to know an old chap who raised jackdaws and hoodies from babies - they lived in the house, perching (and shitting) and would sit on his shoulder while he was eating dinner - he would reach up and offer them a piece of cheese. Sadly, many of them have taken to loitering in the vicinity of Burger Kings and McDs, getting horribly fat on a diet of chips and 'bread'.
 
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