What are you reading at the moment?

[ZOK]

Have you read Trainspotting? It’s quite different to the film, which again is like a sketch of what you get in the book.

[davidcotton]

Alternating Brandon Sanderson novels. It’s quite easy to get burnt out on his stuff.  Just finished Starsight and The Rithmatist.  Both more obviously YA but nice to read fantasy that isn’t grim dark. 

[Thwomp]

On 11/08/2021 at 11:09, ZOK said:

Have you read Trainspotting? It’s quite different to the film, which again is like a sketch of what you get in the book.

 

Yeah, I've just finished reading all the Renton books. Personally I thought Trainspotting was the weakest - too many characters that I didn't care about, but maybe I felt that way because I love the film. I can see why they left Second Prize out of it, he didn't have much personality. I did like that the novel is a lot less optimistic than the film 

Spoiler

Renton still being a heroin addict at the end, and never actually wanting to stop taking heroin.

 

T2/ Porno is far superior to the film version. It's ridiculous that they've rebranded the Porno novel to T2, when it's got nothing in common with the film. 

 

I think Skagboys was probably my favourite, it was gritty and genuinely funny in parts. I just loved Begbie's chapters, which generally consisted of "that cunt's gettin' a burst mooth" 

 

I really liked Dead Men's Trousers too, though it lacked the humour of the other books, the storyline was great. 

[Thwomp]

Also just another thing to add about Dead Men's Trousers. I thought the storyline was going to be 

Spoiler

When Vicky dumps Renton by email, I thought he was going to be tested for STDs and would find out he'd contracted HIV. I knew a main character died, and that seemed the obvious choice. Maybe it was an intentional red herring, or maybe I just read too much into it.

 

[lolly]

Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner

 

Werner is one of the few U-Boat captains that survived WW2  and this is his account of the experience. I'm about 1/2 way through , up to about 1943 as he's a 1st officer and it's equally depressing, horrifying and fascinating.

 

Life aboard the U-Boats sounds anything but fun, freezing cold, soaking wet , eating rotten and gone off food and with the increasingly likely prospect of being sent to your death by improving allied technology and/or accidents on board.  The north Atlantic in winter does not sound like a fun environment either for the crews of the U-boats or the Merchantmen and Destroyers escorting them. 

 

Also sounds like he was a bit of a ladies man  when back on land and they lived it up as much as possible when not at sea- can hardly blame  him.He mentions the increasing impact in Berlin as the war progresses and the  lack of menu items in restaurants etc , seems like a minor detail but drives home the direction the war was taking. The losses in Africa and Russia are mentioned but almost as if they're disappointing sports scores , which , considering how far removed from both those theaters he is , may have the same impact on a day to day basis.

 

On the basis of what I've read so far I'd recommend this for anyone interested in military history or people who like the idea of being cold and wet.

 

[Thwomp]

Currently reading Marabou Stork Nightmares and loving it so far.

[velma]

Just finished ‘A little life’ by Hanya Yanagihara. Probably should have read some reviews before reading it on holiday, as it starts out rather pleasant then gets progressively darker. I don’t want to give too much away but it covers some aspects of life and relationships exceptionally well - trauma, disability, poverty, as well as some lighter moments of NYC college years and navigating adulthood and careers. It’s a tough read in parts but it it sensitive rather than salacious. Would highly recommend. 

[davidcotton]

Couple of Star Trek books and Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.  Last one stung a bit as it was £12.00 on kindle.  

[Munkienut]

I’ve never been much of a reader in my adult life due to time constraints and videogaming but managed to eventually get into audiobooks a few years back, I listened to maybe one book a year dedicating most of my listening time at work to podcasts (I have about 7 hours a day to listen). I love playing board games and a new board game coming out from one of my favourite designers this year was Red Rising based off the Pearce Brown book series of the same name, I figured I’d give the books a go to familiarise myself with the character and worlds before the game came out and I loved it, sure it may be YA but it was an awesome series and I churned through the 5 available books in no time (6th book still to come). It made me fall in love with reading (can you call audiobooks reading?) again for the first time in 20+ years.

 

Off the back of that I felt like my listening time was better spent on audiobooks and had then worked through a few others I really enjoyed (Kingkiller chronicles and first Dresden book). I had picked up the first book in the Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson a long time ago but could never get into it despite trying many times. About a month ago I went into it determined to push through and I’m glad I did, it’s a great series and I’m about halfway through the most recent book in that series, Rhythm of War (which is probably about 180hrs + into the series) and whilst it can be slow at times and I am feeling a little fatigued, I’m really enjoying the series as a whole and need to know where it goes.

 

I’ve picked up the first Mistborn book and a couple of others of his (Warbreaker and Arcanum Unbounded) but after seeing the trailer for the Wheel of Time show I’ve also picked up the first book of that so I think after I finish Rhythm of War I’ll give that a try and comed back to the cosmere stuff later, I’m just a little hesitant due to hearing the quality dips pretty massively in the WoT series and after feeling the fatigue in a 4 book series (granted they are massive books) I’m worried that the goliath series that is the wheel of time will be a slog but also am willing to give it a try and see how I get on with it.

[davidcotton]

On 11/09/2021 at 11:08, Munkienut said:

I’ve never been much of a reader in my adult life due to time constraints and videogaming but managed to eventually get into audiobooks a few years back, I listened to maybe one book a year dedicating most of my listening time at work to podcasts (I have about 7 hours a day to listen). I love playing board games and a new board game coming out from one of my favourite designers this year was Red Rising based off the Pearce Brown book series of the same name, I figured I’d give the books a go to familiarise myself with the character and worlds before the game came out and I loved it, sure it may be YA but it was an awesome series and I churned through the 5 available books in no time (6th book still to come). It made me fall in love with reading (can you call audiobooks reading?) again for the first time in 20+ years.

 

Off the back of that I felt like my listening time was better spent on audiobooks and had then worked through a few others I really enjoyed (Kingkiller chronicles and first Dresden book). I had picked up the first book in the Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson a long time ago but could never get into it despite trying many times. About a month ago I went into it determined to push through and I’m glad I did, it’s a great series and I’m about halfway through the most recent book in that series, Rhythm of War (which is probably about 180hrs + into the series) and whilst it can be slow at times and I am feeling a little fatigued, I’m really enjoying the series as a whole and need to know where it goes.

 

I’ve picked up the first Mistborn book and a couple of others of his (Warbreaker and Arcanum Unbounded) but after seeing the trailer for the Wheel of Time show I’ve also picked up the first book of that so I think after I finish Rhythm of War I’ll give that a try and comed back to the cosmere stuff later, I’m just a little hesitant due to hearing the quality dips pretty massively in the WoT series and after feeling the fatigue in a 4 book series (granted they are massive books) I’m worried that the goliath series that is the wheel of time will be a slog but also am willing to give it a try and see how I get on with it.

You may or may not know that Brandon Sanderson was asked to finish Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan’s death based on the author s notes.

 

 

[Thwomp]

Marabou Stork Nightmares has turned me right off. The premise is the main character is in a coma, and his dream in the coma is of being on a safari hunt. It switches between his real life of growing up on a council estate in Scotland, and his coma fantasy safari.

 

It was quite funny to start with, but now 

Spoiler

The main character is raping people and mutilating animals, all described in great detail. 

It's put me right off. 

[Sabreman]

Weirdly enough I read The Coma by Alex Garland today. I found it a quite clever and effective handling of the subtle strangeness of dreaming (albeit in a particular form). Reads more like a memoir actually, it's so specific. It's also super short.

[MarkN]

Currently reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, right after reading the Adventues of Tom Sawyer. Oh boy they are products of their time and place. The N word comes up from time to time in Tom Sawyer. But it's just everywhere in Huckleberry Finn. It's an odd read. Clearly a kids book. Absolutely not suitable for them. But strangely interesting. Huck seems smarter than I had him pegged. There's just enough here to kep me reading, rather than moving on to something less awkward.

[ZOK]

Huck Finn is an amazing book…what do you find awkward about it? It’s an extremely sharp satire on racism and racist attitudes, directed equally at adults as at children, and is really shaped perfectly as such.

 

I love Mark Twain. I think the fact he’s probably read less today than he was a hundred years ago is significant when you consider society’s broad slide into credulity and stunted thinking.

[Boothjan]

Thought I'd read Fire and Blood by GRRM in readiness for the Game of Thrones prequel series.

 

Expected it to be bobbins but.... I dunno, it really appeals to me.  It's written a bit like a history book but I love a good history book so that's not a bad thing.  I daresay many ASOIAF fans will read one page and bail because it's nothing like that series but there are some great stories in there.  Some of those old kings (and indeed queens) were absolute bastards.

 

100 pages down, only 500 to go!

[Illyria]

Reading Dracula finally, had it on my shelf for years and years. Originally planned to read it in October but I haven't had much reading time lately and I didn't even make a proper dent in it yet Even if going is slow though I'm glad I'm finally getting around to it before I inevitably dive back into another Stephen King novel

[Timmo]

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

 

The latest epic where Andy Weir plugs himself into a story and plays a hero.

 

This was a genuinely pretty excellent story, but Andy Weir's sarcastic main character in all his stories is really annoying. Like, literally, really, like, annoying.

 

I enjoyed this and was blown away by the science, but I think I've had my fill.

[little che]

Just finished The Book of Sand by Theo Clare.

Wandering across a seemingly endless desert , a family search for the thing that will save them whilst having to try to stay alive and avoid being caught out in the open after dark which means certain death. Meanwhile in Washington DC a young girl is being plagued with visions and memories that aren't her own.

I really, really enjoyed this . The way the two separate stories intersected genuinely blew me away and even at 600 pages , I was invested the whole way . Absolutely recommended.

 

Theo Clare is the pen name of Mo Hayder who is well known for her many crime novels. She sadly died of motor neurone disease literally after finishing this ( and possibly a sequel) having only been diagnosed last year . 

[Silent Runner]

I read the new Don Winslow, City on Fire, over the weekend. It's the first in a trilogy about Irish-American gangsters fighting with Italian-American gangsters. 

 

This was decent enough. The plot was straight-forward but nothing I hadn't read a hundred times before and bits felt like they were lifted from other places. It was all pretty low stakes stuff but the characters are well written and it's easy to read. 

 

Winslow has that gift that Steven King, Lee Child and JK Rowling have where you can fly through a hundred pages without realising it but this felt a little insubstantial or something. Not worth getting at full price but if it comes out cheap on Kindle it would be worth grabbing for a holiday read.

 

I'm about 25% into the new Sally Rooney - Beautiful World, Where Are You (annoying lack of question mark in the title.) The usual SR territory here, post-college middle class people on their way through first jobs, relationships etc. I like Rooneys books and this is decent in parts but I'm finding the characters a little annoying. And when writers start writing about other writers I feel like they've run out of ideas maybe. 

[Silent Runner]

Over the last few days I read Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian Mcallister. A high-concept domestic thriller about a woman traveling through time trying to solve a crime that already happened. It starts with a couple waiting up for their teenage son to get home from a night out - as he gets home he's confronted by a stranger and then murders him. After doing all the police station stuff the couple go to bed but when she wakes up it's the day before the crime. When she goes to bed that night she wakes up 2 days before the crime. 

This was pretty good. The concept was interesting, sometimes the protagonist would travel 1 day into the past, sometimes months. The problem I had was that it was clear that nothing she does in the past affects the present so her actions are kind of pointless. It's well written and an interesting mix of genres (crime mystery and time travel) but I saw most of the twists coming and by the end I was flipping through the pages without really reading them just to get to the end. 

Maybe recommended for a beach holiday read.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Silent Runner

[joemul]

How High We Go In The Dark - recommended on this forum. I don't know how far along i am in this as i'm deliberately not checking this. It's simultaneously a really well written book but also a tough read. The author focuses on the individual stories and sense of loss of myriad characters following a catastrophic global pandemic. The chapters involving children were heartbreaking to read. I think it's a book i'd recommend to anyone but i would warn them it could be a difficult read depending on their mental health and/or personal circumstances. I'm glad i was ecommended it, without a doubt.

[Stopharage]

Really enjoying Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle. Took a little while to set the scene but is quickly developing into a really well written crime potboiler. What it’s particularly great at doing is grounding you very much in the experiences of racial inequality in New York in the 60s. It’s educational as part of the plot, nothing feels shoehorned in. 

[little che]

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 

This is getting an awful lot of hype and rave reviews, it’s in 4.4 on goodreads. It’s a novel with gaming at it’s heart and the relationship between two life long friends who make games and fall in and out platonic love together.

However, I’m going to have to put this one in a Did not finish pile. Like Ready player one it’s self satisfied nods to real life games is a big grating and I don’t really care about the main characters. It’s become a chore to finish and so it’s going to have to be put on the don’t bother list.

[MansizeRooster]

I really, really enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces. A lot of what I liked was that it was written pre-internet. Does anyone have any similarly funny and memorable novels?

[ZOK]

12 hours ago, MansizeRooster said:

I really, really enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces. A lot of what I liked was that it was written pre-internet. Does anyone have any similarly funny and memorable novels?

John Irving’s The World According to Garp?

[Timbuktu]

On 31/07/2022 at 07:27, little che said:

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 

This is getting an awful lot of hype and rave reviews, it’s in 4.4 on goodreads. It’s a novel with gaming at it’s heart and the relationship between two life long friends who make games and fall in and out platonic love together.

However, I’m going to have to put this one in a Did not finish pile. Like Ready player one it’s self satisfied nods to real life games is a big grating and I don’t really care about the main characters. It’s become a chore to finish and so it’s going to have to be put on the don’t bother list.

 

Just finished it over a week and a half of commutes.  I enjoyed it, it’s good but perhaps as great as I’d hoped from the reviews.  Perhaps, I wanted to get into this as much as I did chabon’s Kavaloer and Clay back in the day, but it didn’t quite pull me in in the same way.   

 

I appreciate what the mixed race and asian protagonists and some exploration of the third culture identity.  On the other hand I also wish the grandparents and their relationship with Sam got a bit more.  I know it’s not trying to be Pachinko but it felt like an absence in the story.  

 

The author says it’s a book about work, but it feels like she’s to quite confident in concept of making games by itself that there had to be a lot other things added in for drama.  I don’t mind the references to games and the errors in them, but I wish the story was a bit more focused on the creative partnership without the tropes that made the main characters feel a bit less real and distracted from the central relationship.  

 

They story evokes for me both the standalone episode from season 1 of Mythic Quest -  “A Dark Quiet Death”, which is an obvious comparison, and also the second season pair of “Backstory!”  and “Peter” in terms of the relationship between the protagonists.  I know there will likely be a movie adaptation of this, but I think those short episodes of Mythic Quest were more poetic in many ways.

[little che]

I'm currently reading Psalms for the End of the World by Cole Haddon.

I saw a brief description about it on twitter a month back and subsequently the goodreads reviews which compelled me to buy it .  

Nearly half way through and it's absolutely brilliant..I suppose it can be compared to Cloud Atlas with its multiple protagonists and timelines, but the fact that I'm enjoying it as much as (as far as I remember) Cloud Atlas should speak volumes.  There is a metaphysical mystery woven into it which I'm nowhere near understanding yet , and hopefully it won't disappoint when it reveals itself .

Based on the half of the book I've read I would say this should be bought and read as your next book.

[grounded_dreams]

Having watched numerous TV and Film adaptations of her work, realised today I've never read a Agatha Christie book. Think this popped my head after starting to watch the Lucy Worsley documentary series on BBC about her, earlier.

Can anyone recommend any of her novels which would be a good starting position to try out of hers, just to see if I enjoy her style etc?

 

Thanks 

[Fitzcarraldo]

And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

[bear]

I'm trying to read The Infatuations by Javier Marias but it's not really clicking for me. Maybe it's the translation but it's almost overwrote if that makes any sense. Ah well, all I can do is push on and hope it gets better