Books you're currently reading???

[Sundae]

Technically it's GBFH.
I don't know if they use Saville Row sizes in America tho9ugh.

Also known as Great Big Fat Head.

[Pico and ME]

Dana I'm enjoying that series! The timing is perfect. A while back I watched Tristan and Isolde and it got me looking into the ancient history of England and Ireland.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by DanaC

The Wasp Factory is one of my all time favourite books ever. My bro got it whne it first came out (80s) and it did the round o fthe whole family.

It was Banks's debut novel. My God, what an opening salvo.

I hope you haven't been given The Twist yet. Avoid any and all spoilers, because I never saw it coming :p

I had an inkling by the time I was at the halfway point, although I do admit to two competing theories.

I liked it a lot, although I thought the ending was a little to open, but it didn't anger me like some of those sorts of endings do.

[Spexxvet]

The Dreaming Void

[wolf]

The Postman - David Brin

I could have sworn I'd read this years ago, but I clearly didn't. Maybe I bought it and it hasn't emerged from the box since the move.

I'm reading a copy someone abandoned on my mailroom table.

[Pete Zicato]

Originally Posted by wolf

I'm reading a copy someone abandoned on my mailroom table.

Do you feel badly about neglecting your Kindle while you spend time with this anonymous stranger?

[wolf]

Alexander the Kindle understands, especially when he's getting a good charge.

And I don't usually just read one book at a time. I have several going ...

[Trilby]

This is Water - David Foster Wallace.

His 2005 commencement speech to Kenyon College.

You can also listen to this speech via youtube.

Excellent stuff.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by wolf

The Postman - David Brin

I loved the first half of this book. The second half, though, seem to come out of some Hairy Chested Men's Science Fiction Adventure Novel scrap heap ... There didn't seem to be any really useful reason for the bad clichés that got pulled into the tale.\

On to Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks (for a different book club)

[DanaC]

Oooh. Let me know what you think of that Wolf. I never got into it, but am intending to go back and give it another go some time.

[sullage]

i've been reading a world to win at work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World...n_(Lanny_Budd)
it varies between so-so and boring.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by wolf

On to Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks (for a different book club)

Originally Posted by DanaC

Oooh. Let me know what you think of that Wolf. I never got into it, but am intending to go back and give it another go some time.

I had a hard time staying interested in Consider Phlebas. I never engaged with any of the characters, and the events are just such an absurd mish-mash of extraordinarily bad luck and poor judgment, that I never became concerned about what was going to happen next, because, pretty much throughout, no matter what happened, I knew there was going to be some completely unlikely resolution.

I will give a try at Player of Games which several people have described as being much better. But frankly, that bar isn't set very high.

[DanaC]

Ack. That was my problem with it too. Just couldn;t connect with any of the characters. I was disappointed because I absolutely love his straight novels.

[Sundae]

But it did have some lovely ideas in in.
The Culture themselves for example. The Minds, the names of the ships. The motivastion of the disparate characters.

I love the idea of the game of Damage too.

I think it was such an astonishing book for me because it dealt with such big ideas, in a really fast paced yet lyrically written way. I don't like all of his sci-fi - Excession was hard going, and was Feersum Endjinn. But this one was "lite" enough to be enjoyable. Although the all-out sprint towards the finish was, I admit, disconcerting.

[monster]

I tried to read The Room. Couldn't get into it before the library wanted it back