September Reading Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Ian Fortytwo said:
I'm currently reading An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, by P. D. James.
Click to expand...
I remember reading that years and years ago ... probably about the time it first came out. I don't recall much about it, except that I liked it, read the sequel (the plot of which I remember slightly better), and was disappointed later when there were no more books in the series. I wonder how it has held up after all this time, and would be interested to read what you think when you have finished it.

(I also watched a television adaptation. I thought it was OK, but had liked the book much better.)
 
John Barleycorn Bahadur (1945) by Harry Hobbs.
An anecdotal history of working-class British Raj and their drinking establishments in India.
Hobbs sailed for Calcutta in the 1880s as a teenager, to work as a piano tuner. He ended up running a hotel, owning a succesful piano importation business, and became a senior official in Calcutta. When he died in the early 1950s Hobbs had lived in the city longer than any other British resident. Self educated, he wrote a number of books, mainly, it seems, about pubs and drinking in India. All long out of print and very obscure.
Simply discovering that an individual like this existed is satisfying. His writing, so far, is witty, erudite, and surprisingly enlightened.
 
Last edited:
Currently working my way through The Bone Ships by RJ Barker, with Evan Winter's Rage of Dragons directly after that on the reading list.
 
Danny McG said:
Tonight I've started a re-read of Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters
Click to expand...
Ahh! One of my very very first reads, courtesy of my father. Dinosaurs with SF as an extra. The illustrations (?Galaxy) were wonderful.
 
The Thursday Murder Club Richard Osman

Enjoyed that . Spielberg bought the film rights. The chapters are 2 or 3 pages long . Be interested how the screen writer manages that .
 
Hugh said:
Ahh! One of my very very first reads, courtesy of my father. Dinosaurs with SF as an extra. The illustrations (?Galaxy) were wonderful.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've got the ebook with the old drawings in it (From Galaxy in 1962) - awesome
Screenshot_20230904-201323.png
 
Last edited:
Parson said:
Better you than me. I really struggle with keeping multiple characters sorted. I have been known to write each character's name down and give a sentence or two memory jogger as I proceed. It has sometimes saved the day for me. But, I've also noted that the better the book, the less I need that crutch.

***I haven't read much of Poul Anderson but the little I've read was quite good. The Boat of a Million Years and a book whose title I mis-remember (dah!) about a warror from the Mongol empire being time traveled to the future where he makes a living acting in historical dramas with each part becoming more significant until he plays Ghengis Khan.
Click to expand...
Very hesitantly, I suspect that the story involving Genghis Khan may be "Steppe" by Piers Anthony rather than by Poul Anderson.
 
Another James Patterson product Lion and Lamb
This is a typical murder mystery but I'm struggling with it.
It's 90% transcripts of text messages, police reports, recordings of interviews and computer hacker print-outs.

The author and his co-author are experimenting with this format but it's annoying and I think it's going to be DNF from me.
 
Started Dune by Frank Herbert b/c some other family members had read it, and b/c it’s one of those classics. After two chapters, I realized I just can’t. Same feeling I got when I tried reading The Fountainhead. I read synopses and reviews instead and decided that was enough of the rest of my life to spend on Dune. (DNF).

Next up, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Picked up a copy at a little free library down the block. I think this is more my style, I may have read it as a teenage, guess I’ll find out.
 
Read:

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston - this is nonfiction, based on the author's experience as a member of a team looking for a lost city in the jungles of Honduras and the funky parasite the team picked up when poking around amongst the ruins. Interesting, entertaining but sensationalist writing.

The Alchemist of Riddle and Ruin by Gigi Pandian (Urban Fantasy) - The ambulatory gargoyle makes the series. Otherwise this is a better written than most cozy mystery, a 16 year old murder mystery in this case, with too much repetition of information between chapters and between novels in the series.
 
Yozh said:
Started Dune by Frank Herbert b/c some other family members had read it, and b/c it’s one of those classics. After two chapters, I realized I just can’t. Same feeling I got when I tried reading The Fountainhead. I read synopses and reviews instead and decided that was enough of the rest of my life to spend on Dune. (DNF).

Next up, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Picked up a copy at a little free library down the block. I think this is more my style, I may have read it as a teenage, guess I’ll find out.
Click to expand...
I have read many critiques of Dune. It certainly has its faults, but I have never heard it compared to Ayn Rand.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
The Judge September Reading Thread Book Discussion 224
Ian Fortytwo September 2022 Reading Thread. Book Discussion 178
The Judge September Reading Thread Book Discussion 172
Hugh September 2019: Reading Thread Book Discussion 273
The Big Peat September 2018: Reading Thread Book Discussion 168

Similar threads


Back
Top