December Reading Thread

[Stephen Palmer]

Ooh, non-fiction is beginning to expand here...

 

[Stephen Palmer]

It took me ages to read all that but in stark contrast I'm already halfway through Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. It's totally engrossing - a fascinating study of how our conscious and unconscious minds works. And not a formula in sight (phew!)

I loved it (review here).

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm reading my second book group book Ulverton, by Adam Thorpe. Different voices tell the story of a fictional village over three hundred years, it starts in Oliver Cromwell's period and then in the eighteenth century, then in the 1980's.

 

[tobl]

ei, guys and girls , lol, if anyone here want's to give me a christmas present, i'm loooking for a book of how to win the euromillions (that will be powerball for you americans). So if anyone has a copy ...lolo

 

[Av Demeisen]

Ooh, non-fiction is beginning to expand here...

2019 has been a very disappointing year for fiction for me (with a lot of money wasted). In contrast there are so many interesting non-fiction books around.

 

[Paul_C]

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone was very good.

Next up is Sabriel by Garth Nix, a re-read before I start on the rest, which I haven't yet read.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A particular Garfield favourite is The God Beneath the Sea which was coauthored with Edward Blishen.

I've never read that one, but I've heard good things about it.

Meanwhile, I've finished reading another Garfield, House of Cards.

 

[williamjm]

I finished Peter F. Hamilton's Salvation Lost. It was a fairly typical Hamilton book, the usual mix of high-concept space opera, action, mystery and bad sex scenes. I liked the way the first book in the series had gradually revealed the nature of the threat facing humanity and the second book did a good job of developing that and introducing a few new twists as it became clear some of the characters were a bit over-confident in terms of how much they thought they knew about what was going on. The far-future part of the story was the more compelling this time around (I thought the opposite was true in the first book). I think the weakest subplot was the one focusing on a criminal gang in London who find themselves entangled in an alien conspiracy, all the characters in that part of the storyline were unlikeable and although it does intersect with the main plot towards the end most of what happened in the subplot felt irrelevant.

Next up I think I'll start Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.

 

[The Big Peat]

I was going to finish The Bone Ships by RJ Barker today but after I missed a train today, I popped into a Red Cross and found The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart so I brought it and will probably be mainlining it. The fact Hughart only wrote 3 books is probable proof of objectively evil entities in the universe. My favourite line from it so far:

"You have a hole in your heart. All young people do. It's there to catch the wonderful things of the world, and later on it gets filled up by broken things".

I find myself longing for a book with a true hero, and a quest worthy of the name. I want people who sacrifice for others rather than those who are trying to take advantage of others. I want people who believe in a cause, in other people, and a hope that shines in the darkness. I suppose that kind of book is too much to ask for. After all "those kind of people are uninteresting."

@Parson - I am very much a man who likes to have the world entire presented to me in books - maybe not all in the same book, but to have it all there if I read enough - but first and foremost I'm with you here. Give me admirable and altruistic heroes. Give me the people who believe it better to light a candle than curse the darkness. It's not like they can't exist in the same book as rogues and the selfish anyway.

 

[vanye]

I sit before my only candle
But it's so little light to find my way

(from Jackson Browne, Song for Adam)

 

[HareBrain]

I finished Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban a couple of days ago. For those who don't know, this was written about 1980 and is set in East Kent long after a nuclear holocaust, effectively in a new Iron Age, but with people trying to use shortcuts to recapture the "clevverness" of "time back way back". The star of the show is an element surprisingly missing from Hoban's original conception, the adapted English Riddley uses to write down his experiences. But this is done far, far more cleverly and creatively than just to "devolve" the language to a lower level. I'd go so far as to say that in its language, and its imagination of a very different mindset, this novel is a work of genius, and I can't off-hand think of any others I would say that about. Its plot is fine, and works well with the other elements, but isn't perhaps to quite the same standard, and you could argue it lacks a proper climax. I'd urge everyone to at least try it, though it's a bit of a Marmite book.

In similarly post-apocalyptic (or maybe in this case mid-apocalyptic) vein, I've just started Tales From the Spired Inn by Stephen Palmer.

 

[AE35Unit]

I sit before my only candle
But it's so little light to find my way

(from Jackson Browne, Song for Adam)

Err, ok?

 

[AE35Unit]

When you're reading a book and find this...

 

[Danny McG]

When you're reading a book and find this...View attachment 58612

It's the Green Mile, not worth reading anyways

 

[AE35Unit]

It's the Green Mile, not worth reading anyways

Oh I dunno, its quite enjoyable so far. And I loved the film

 

[biodroid]

@dannymcg but it is one of his best books and a great movie.

 

[Dave]

I've just read John Scalzi's, Head On.

I recently read his two Collapsing Empire books and found the first good, but the second only so-so. I haven't read anything else by him but I needed a book to read, and quick. The shop had only Redshirts and Head On. I couldn't decide on which to buy, but based on the cover blurb, I bought Head On.

I like the pace of his books and I found Head On excellent. Much better than the two other books I've read. Not only good Science Fiction but a very good detective story too. In my experience, science fiction detective stories are never much good. The plot either becomes too technical; too bogged-down in all the technicalities, or else, it has a deus ex machina plot. Refreshingly, I found this to be quite the opposite. His world was believable and the characters well drawn.

 

[Av Demeisen]

My copy of the US hardcover of Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts arrived today. It's one of the most gorgeous hardcovers I've ever seen.

link

 

[AE35Unit]

Wow that's garish! Looks good under the jacket tho

 

[Av Demeisen]

Wow that's garish! Looks good under the jacket tho

Good thing the photos don't show the hard pink endpapers then.