What book(s) are you reading at the moment?

[Rocket Spud]

I'm so crap at reading, it really is an effort for me, but this should pique my interest.

[Alf in Pog Form]

My latest read has been The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I love alternative sci-fi dreamworld type stuff so it has been ticking my boxes so far. Not sure if it's my favourite Phillip K Dick book though.

[genovese]

[3stacks]

The institute by Stephen King

[3stacks]

We sold our souls by Grady Hendrix

The stranger beside me by Ann Rule

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

[Rocket Spud]

Originally Posted by Tonkin

I've read lots of his other books and most were great. But I couldn't get into that one! Let us know how you get on.

I'm 89 pages in - it's going slow. I'm not much entertained yet either.

[Jen.]

It's okay. Not as good as I was expecting, though there are quite a lot of good things in it.

One problem is that there are a lot of footnotes and they're all written in the smallest font I've ever seen in a book. It's difficult to read unless under bright light.

[Fanny49]

Historics

[Orwell20]

Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Time of Gifts

[slrrrrp]

On my Kindle app:

Chip and Dan Heath: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Will Storr: The science of storytelling

John Yorke: Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story

[Jen.]

"For almost five decades, the United Kingdom made plans for a nuclear attack that never came. To help their citizens, civil servants and armed forces prepare, those in power designed and published a variety of booklets, posters and how-to guides. Most infamous among these was the Protect and Survive campaign, but just as fascinating are lesser-known materials made for the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and the Royal Observer Corps, many of which are reproduced for the first time.

From terrifying images issued by central government, to local councils’ sometimes amateurish guides, Nuclear War in the UK is an eye-opening look at the way Britain’s authorities reacted to the Soviet nuclear threat."

This was released a few days ago and I just got it in the post

[Seagull]

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne.

And thanks to whoever on here recommend Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella, great to read a fairly true to life novel on SA, and not penned by someone who has any experience of SA as far as I know.

[Moksha]

Irene Nemirovsky: Suite Francaise God, it's wonderful. So ****ing tragic that she was murdered by the Nazis before she had a chance to finish it. Poor woman.

[ghost.of.an.englishman]

For my book club. And rather good it is too.

[Merritt]

Originally Posted by Jen.

Oh, I saw that tucked away in the recommendations on Amazon. I thought of asking for it for Christmas, but I knew I'd get a 'Really?' look from my mum when I opened it.

[Jen.]

You should definitely get it! It's quite thin and mostly pictures, but it's such a weird and interesting compilation of stuff.

[limey123]

Originally Posted by No Longer Human

Thanks, have put it on my Amazon wishlist!

[Appear]

Got it for Christmas. It's fairly good for what it is.

[Moksha]

Carl Sagan Cosmos and also listening to Stephen Fry reading the Sherlock Holmes books. Both wonderful.

[Jen.]

Just finished this. It's such a weird book. It's basically Adrian Mole in that it's a teenage diary from the 1980s, but this is about a girl who lives in a Chinese takeaway. It's odd in that it seems far too childish for an adult to enjoy and it's probably far too dull for a child to enjoy. Also, the first 80% is kind of light-hearted and "funny" (I didn't really find it funny, but it was clearly supposed to be) and then towards the end it suddenly introduces child abuse as a subplot. The problem is that is still keeps up the humour from the first part of the book, so the contrast between the tone and the subject matters feels very strange. It's not like humour is used to deal with the abuse either. It's like "Haha, my family is so crazy! My dad is carrying a goat around on his back. Also, he flushed my head in the toilet and then crept into my bedroom at night and beat me up." At one point she takes antidepressants for literally two days when she realises she has depression, stopping when she considers herself "fixed" after winning a competition.

[Orwell20]

Originally Posted by jigglypuff

The complete tales of H.P Lovecraft.
i blame Jolabokaflod.
i was practising reading aloud with this little guy and my partner as the audience starting with "the terrible old man" (i dont feel that sorry for them as it was only 3 pages long.)
i love being read to so it's only fair he can rest his voice now and then.





merry pugmas peeps

I was just listening to Alan Moore talking about Lovecraft. What is he like? Any good? I imagine a cross between M R James and H G Wells.

[neilm]

Originally Posted by jigglypuff

The complete tales of H.P Lovecraft.
i blame Jolabokaflod.
i was practising reading aloud with this little guy and my partner as the audience starting with "the terrible old man" (i dont feel that sorry for them as it was only 3 pages long.)
i love being read to so it's only fair he can rest his voice now and then.



merry pugmas peeps

Ime reading "The Black Wings of Cthulhu" right now.

A collection of Short stories "in the style" of HP Lovecraft, by contemporary writers.

HP Lovecraft seems to be something of a Marmite writer, either loved or hated in equal measure.

Personally I think his stuff is great (but it is an acquired taste perhaps )

[Moksha]

Just finished Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Everything. It's basically a history of science, though he jumps about a bit, arranging the book by topic rather than working through chronologically (i.e a chapter on atoms, on cells, etc). Very good though. There are no beautiful, lyrical passages, as in Sagan's Cosmos or Carlo Rovelli's Lectures on Physics, but he does have a crisp, clear style that carries you along and never bogs down in too much detail. He also has a eye for a good anecdote, and the book is full of wonderful little asides about the lives of the scientists, their oddities, failures, personal tragedies, etc. I also like the fact that Bryson is not himself a scientist. He says in the intro that he reached middle age and suddenly gorged on popular science books. This is the result. So it reads like a chatty, intelligent friend bubbling over with all the fascinating stuff he has just learnt.

[Orwell20]

Originally Posted by Moksha

Just finished Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Everything. It's basically a history of science, though he jumps about a bit, arranging the book by topic rather than working through chronologically (i.e a chapter on atoms, on cells, etc). Very good though. There are no beautiful, lyrical passages, as in Sagan's Cosmos or Carlo Rovelli's Lectures on Physics, but he does have a crisp, clear style that carries you along and never bogs down in too much detail. He also has a eye for a good anecdote, and the book is full of wonderful little asides about the lives of the scientists, their oddities, failures, personal tragedies, etc. I also like the fact that Bryson is not himself a scientist. He says in the intro that he reached middle age and suddenly gorged on popular science books. This is the result. So it reads like a chatty, intelligent friend bubbling over with all the fascinating stuff he has just learnt.

He has just published a book on the human body. I hoped someone would buy me a copy for Xmas, but they didn’t.

[Jen.]

I started the audiobook of this earlier when I was out walking (it's really slim pickings on the library apps), but realised after 15 minutes in that I hadn't actually been listening to it and didn't know what was going on. I won't restart it because I found the narrator's voice pretty annoying anyway - I always find it irritating when people try to imitate a teenager's voice, it just sounds weird.

[genovese]

All the rumours are true. This is laugh out loud funny
Had to share a couple of extracts...

[Jen.]

Well... I said I didn't listen to it, so I have no idea

I think it's about a dad who "kidnaps" his daughter to live in a bunker or something.

[Moksha]

Originally Posted by Tonkin

I just read the Bill Bryson Road to Little Dribbling.

Quite good but he's a boring bastard and really comes across as an entitle boomer these days!

I have never read any of his travel stuff. That doesn't really interest me. But A Brief History of Everything is undeniably good. If you want a light, chatty guide to the basics of science, you won't find better. He also writes well - good, clear prose that zips along.

[Moksha]

I have got three books on the go atm, one in the toilet, one by my bed and one on audio.

Toilet = Hilary Mantell: Wolf Hall (she is due to release the third and final part of the trilogy this year, so I am going to try and read the other two first)

Bedside = Richard Dawkins: The Magic of Reality (I have suddenly become addicted to popular science books and just borrowed this from the library - weird considering that I got a double F in science at school and failed GCSE maths twice)

Audiobook = Stephen Fry reading the Sherlock Holmes books

I have got piles of stuff I want to read. I don't know what is wrong with me lately - I'm tearing through books faster than ever before (normally I'm quite a slow reader).

[3stacks]

My sister the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite