*What book are you reading ?

[tastebud]

The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi. Excellent of course!

 

[cyberfairy]

I have just finished 'Nightwatch' by Sarah Waters, brilliant book set in World War Two but found the 'ending' slightly too ambigious, again the only problem I had with the superb 'A Child's Book Of True Crime', a bizzare fascinating twist on the murder mystery genre set in Tasmania.

 

[cyberfairy]

Just finished An American Boy' by Andrew Taylor now-absolutely marvellous literary murder mystery/romance set in Regency England. Had to read it in one day as impossible to put down and was bereft when it was over.

 

[fishfingerer]

Halfway through Arturo Barea's The Forging Of A Rebel.

 

[Moggy]

Neuromancer by William Gibson

 

[Philbc03]

I was v disappointed with Neuromancer when I read it years ago. I've avoided Gibson like the plague ever since.

I've just finished reading Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell', which is actually very good. It shats all over Harry Potter from a great height. And now it's the turn of James Wilcox's 'Modern Baptists'. It's shaping up to be quite good.

 

[kins]

I have just finished "essays in love" by Alain de Botton and it was really enlightening. I think anyone who has been heartbroken should read this!! It made a lot of sense to me.

 

[dweller]

I'm reading
Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis
Semi-autobiography by the author of Zorba the Greek.
Its a very nice read.

 

[tastebud]

Just started Ian McEwan: The Child In Time. It's extremely harrowing thus far. Ian McEwan loves to over-intellectualise simple matter - especially pertinent with this book!

Still magnificent though.

 

[maya]

.

i keep meaning to revisit PKD's books- encouraged by recent interest in the A Scanner Darkly film adaption- but the "near breakdown/fragile reality-splits/dark existential Void" mood kind of feels a bit too close to my own UnReality darkness at the moment...

 

[fishfingerer]

I was v disappointed with Neuromancer when I read it years ago. I've avoided Gibson like the plague ever since.

I didn't like it much. But The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) was fantastic.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Just started The Inner Circle by TC Boyle, liking it

 

[cyberfairy]

I am currently pissing off my boyfriend by reading out loud 'Air Babylon' by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous-superb, hysterical and fascinating insiders view of the airline industry

 

[boohoo]

reading Harry Potter and the Half blud prince - what a load of rubbish - rather predictable... oh well, keeps me off the streets and out of mischief...

 

[miss direct]

The Island by Victoria Hislop. Finished it last night and really enjoyed it. I don't usually like books written in the third person but the perspective changed from different characters/family members really well.

 

[Orang Utan]

You don't like books written in the third person? Why not? Seems a strange caveat. Most fiction is written in the third person - you're missing out on a lot.

 

[miss direct]

You don't like books written in the third person? Why not? Seems a strange caveat. Most fiction is written in the third person - you're missing out on a lot.

Well it's not so much that I don't like them, I just prefer books in the first person, feel they get a little closer to the character.

 

[han]

I'm reading 'Facing Up' by Bear Grylls - about this bloke who climbs Everest aged 23.....

 

[citydreams]

I didn't like it much. But The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) was fantastic.

Good tip, thanks.

 

[sojourner]

Currently still reading Will Self's Feeding Frenzy...am loving the restaurant reviews but it's bedtime reading only.

Day time reading is Portrait of a Marriage, by Nigel Nicolson - bout Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson. edit to add - has got sections of Vita's autobiog in it

 

[Gmart]

The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin - pretty good!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Ursula le Guin is better than 'pretty good'!
Anyway, I'm reading this...

Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

It's excellent and I also learned from this book that 'stupid' used to mean boring.

 

[Julie]

Beautiful Lies - Lisa Unger

 

[chooch]

Just started The Inner Circle by TC Boyle, liking it

You read any of his others? I like.

Just starting William Gaddis JR.

 

[snadge]

just started "Hyperion" omnibus/ dan simmons

 

[Philbc03]

I've got two on the go: Paul Auster's 'Book of Illusions' (v good) and Peter Berger's 'Invitation to Sociology' (also v good!).

 

[bushphobia]

A PLANET FOR THE PRESIDENT by Alistair Beaton

Excellent satire on the current American administration.
Bought it Saturday afternoon.
Finished it this morning.

Viscous as a spike in the eye.

 

[Dubversion]

Craig Werner's A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & The Soul Of America.

i'm only partway through but this is stunning stuff. A history of the freedom movement in the 50s and 60s onwards set again the music of the time - the relationship between gospel, Motown, Stax and the various political and social undercurrents. Very well written, factual but not drily academic. Wonderful - and quite upsetting - stuff.

 

[Dubversion]

You read any of his others? I like.

i must have read 5-6 Boyle's now, love his stuff. Riven Rock is amazing

 

[Philbc03]

I'll be starting Bryan S. Turner's 'For Weber' in about half an hour ...