January Reading Thread

AndrewT said:
Then I will do another Dickens. I haven't decided which one. I've only read Great Expectations which was brilliant. So I have to read 'em all now. Which one should I do next?
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My mother loves Dickens and her favorite is Our Mutual Friend.
 
Terry Pratchett "Night Watch"
Initially I thought reading this had been a mistake as I'd jumped several books in the City Watch series from "Guards! Guards!", and much had changed, but I soon got into it. In fact I laughed out loud when the cavalry were challenging Vimes at the first barricade. All in all, rather wonderful, and surprisingly touching at times.
 
Just finished Hitler's Biggest Defeat: The Collapse of Army Group Centre. A very enlightening read.
Now I'm just starting what I consider to be the book with the most ridiculously long title I have ever come across...

Gustav Adolphus: A history of the art of war from its revival after the middle ages to the end of the Spanish Succession War, with a detailed account of the campaigns of the great Swede, and of the most famous campaigns of Turenne, Conde, Eugene and Marlborough.

I'm exhausted just typing that out:D
 
Hugh said:
Terry Pratchett "Night Watch"
Initially I thought reading this had been a mistake as I'd jumped several books in the City Watch series from "Guards! Guards!", and much had changed, but I soon got into it. In fact I laughed out loud when the cavalry were challenging Vimes at the first barricade. All in all, rather wonderful, and surprisingly touching at times.
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I think this is Pratchett’s apex. Brilliant piece of work. Funny and angry and very good reading.
 
From the Earth to the Moon & Around the Moon by Jules Verne

In the years after the American Civil War, what do all those United States gun manufacturers and enthusiasts do to occupy their time? Well, according to Jules Verne, they build a large gun and shoot a projectile at the moon... just for the hell of it... and to see what's on it.

Incorrect scientific details (unknown in Verne's day) make this something of a comedy (to me at least) - probably not what Verne intended. There is nothing quite as eyebrow raising as blithely opening the door in the space-travelling projectile to toss out the corpse and have it floating along behind them; and the tossing out the door of thermometers tied to a string (a rather primitive method of determining the temperature in a vacuum); or the gas-lamps and chickens in the fancy hotel-room like interior; or the excitement about meeting Selenites (i.e. native inhabitants on the Moon); or the realisation halfway through the trip that they haven't figured out how to get back to Earth. I found the bitter rivalry between Captain Nicholl and President Barbicane, not to mention the excitable interactions between the members of the Gun Club; and in the second novel, the three intrepid adventurers, wildly, if genteelly, amusing.

Verne's tales of space travel may not be scientifically accurate or high literature, but they provided inspiration for many to make space travel a real, practical possibility, rather than just a dream. They are also just plain jolly good fun to read.
​
 
Elentarri said:
From the Earth to the Moon & Around the Moon by Jules Verne

In the years after the American Civil War, what do all those United States gun manufacturers and enthusiasts do to occupy their time? Well, according to Jules Verne, they build a large gun and shoot a projectile at the moon... just for the hell of it... and to see what's on it.

Incorrect scientific details (unknown in Verne's day) make this something of a comedy (to me at least) - probably not what Verne intended. There is nothing quite as eyebrow raising as blithely opening the door in the space-travelling projectile to toss out the corpse and have it floating along behind them; and the tossing out the door of thermometers tied to a string (a rather primitive method of determining the temperature in a vacuum); or the gas-lamps and chickens in the fancy hotel-room like interior; or the excitement about meeting Selenites (i.e. native inhabitants on the Moon); or the realisation halfway through the trip that they haven't figured out how to get back to Earth. I found the bitter rivalry between Captain Nicholl and President Barbicane, not to mention the excitable interactions between the members of the Gun Club; and in the second novel, the three intrepid adventurers, wildly, if genteelly, amusing.

Verne's tales of space travel may not be scientifically accurate or high literature, but they provided inspiration for many to make space travel a real, practical possibility, rather than just a dream. They are also just plain jolly good fun to read.
​
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Very entertaining stuff. There are two other book by him that you might find of interest.:)

Paris in the 20th Century. which unplaced in his lifetime and long after his death The manuscript was found in safe in 1989 by one of Vernes dececndst and some the predictions it makes are quite startling.

The Castile in Transylvania published in 1892 5 years before Bram Stoker published Dracula . :)
 
BAYLOR said:
Very entertaining stuff. There are two other book by him that you might find of interest.:)

Paris in the 20th Century. which unplaced in his lifetime and long after his death The manuscript was found in safe in 1989 by one of Verne's descendants and some the predictions it makes are quite startling.

The Castile in Transylvania published in 1892 5 years before Bram Stoker published Dracula . :)
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I've read The Castle in Transylvania - that was funny and had gorgeous descriptions of the scenery. I was expecting a vampire (or something supernatural) to be honest, but it was still good. I've also read a Verne novel that takes place in an underground defunct mine - think it was called The Underground. The concept was interesting but the loooooong descriptions of boring scenery and mining weren't all that entertaining in this case.​
 
Danny McG said:
Forrest Gump by Winston Groom.

You all know what it's about
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The book is very different from the film:-

He plays harmonica with a band and they release an album!
He becomes a champion wrestler!
He gets into space with NASA!
He becomes a chess grandmaster!

Update:- Now he's in Hollywood making a film with Raquel Welch!
 
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I'm starting a re-read of Peter Hamilton's Nights Dawn series, however I might get fed up of it and jump to something else.
 
Danny McG said:
I'm starting a re-read of Peter Hamilton's Nights Dawn series, however I might get fed up of it and jump to something else.
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Wow, That's ambitious. One of these days I will take a deep breath and plunge in for the first time. After all, they've been on my shelves a long time. I do quite a bit of OT. It's unlikely I would do a re-read though, good though they may be.
 
Rodders said:
I finished AListair Reynolds' Machine Vendetta. Quite good, actually.

Not listening to House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds, read by John Lee. I've not read this before, but i have heard so much about it.

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Chasm City was off-the-charts mindblowing but I was uninspired by the Revelation Space trilogy, especially book 3. I plan on getting to his other works though. The problem I had with book three was the idea that people would travel to the planet where most of the book takes place just as a pilgrimage in the hopes of witnessing some seemingly supernatural event that occurred either once or very rarely and that they would prop their eyes open forcefully to avoid missing it. An analogy would be like people on earth standing at the radio receivers that scan for intelligent life day in and day out just on the chance they might intercept the "wow signal" which has only occurred one time and likely had some rational explanation, albeit one we currently have no explanation of. No one actually does that so it was an absurd plot device along with the creation of half pigs. But Reynolds is still a talented and interesting writer.
 
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Finished The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick, in which Faery has developed its spin on our own technology and culture. Densely packed and hugely imaginative, it's not perfect but is unlike anything else I've ever come across.

Now on Kim by Rudyard Kipling, after it was referenced a lot in Tim Powers's Declare.
 
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