what are you reading (thread 4)

[Professor Abronsius]

The Star Wars Aftermath book has dropped to Ł7.99 now a day after release.

[the_daddy]

Just started 'Book 3' in Stephen King's 'The Stand' uncut edition.

What a read!

[Ratfink]

Originally Posted by the_daddy

Just started 'Book 3' in Stephen King's 'The Stand' uncut edition.

What a read!

Personally I think it's his masterpiece.

[dunkle]

Originally Posted by DuncanSWardle

Really enjoyed Mr Mercedes, best King read in many a year (last one i really enjoyed was Buick 8). Will read sequal just waiting on price drop

11/12/63 was great for most part and loved his take in time travel but ending let it down

As above Star Wars Aftermath popped up on my kindle this week but its taken second billing to latest Lee Child / Jack Reacher

20% in and so far could saved my money and reas and other of the last half dozen and probably not spotted difference.

Half way through latest Reacher now

Has picked up a little and by no means bad but suffers as a lot of series to by being very much more of the same.

[dunkle]

Just abou Finished it. Again picked up more and more towards end but no longer feels an essential read

[Ratfink]

I'm reading 'Peaceable Kingdom', a collection of short stories by Jack Ketchum.

I'm a fan of his already and - so far, eight stories or so in - there doesn't seem to be any drop in quality from his full length novels. Each one manages to worm its way into your conciousness and leave you unsettled.

[alanmcg21]

The Martian ... brilliant book unusual style.Waiting patiently for the Film now.

[rustybin]

Originally Posted by Professor Abronsius

The Star Wars Aftermath book has dropped to Ł7.99 now a day after release.

To be honest, I'm loving it so much I don't care! If this is the gritty direction the next set of movies are moving in, we're in for a treat.

[nutter45]

Just finished Human Universe by Brian Cox.

Worth reading but underwhelming relative to Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

[sleep4ever]

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Definitely meets the hype. Great from start to finish.

[TonyG]

Originally Posted by sleep4ever

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Definitely meets the hype. Great from start to finish.

Finished that last week & It was very good. Started off very predictable but got better the further it progressed with some very unexpected twists 'n turns.

Overall much more entertaining than the over-rated Girl on a Train but it still falls short of the fantastic book that kick started this current sub-genre, Gone Girl.

[Ratfink]

Just started Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits from David Wong, writer of John Dies at the End.

Great reviews, some saying it's his best yet, and although I'm only a few chapters in I'm already gripped. It's got that surreal humour and knowing pop culture references that I loved so much in his previous books.

[SimonI]

I finally got to the end of Gravity's Rainbow - it took me five months

I'm glad I persevered in the end (it was my second attempt). I wouldn't call it easy reading - it is very dense, especially the first part - but it has a strange energy and oblique wit that makes it very rewarding. The tendency for the narrative to switch contexts with no warning (often going off to fill in a new character's backstory for many pages at a stretch; and then doing it again for a new character that turns up in that backstory, and then doing this many times over!) took a bit of adjusting to, but at least it does come back around eventually. It would probably help if you have a science or engineering background too!

Now I'm reading And Quiet Flows the Don (Mikhail Sholokhov) which is quite different. Within the first three pages you have two bloody deaths and a lynch mob - the brutish Cossack culture is quite a shock if you're expecting some idyllic rural tale! This is no A Month in the country

[MARKMAN]

I'm working in London a lot at the moment so I get 2 x 2 hour train rides, plus 3/4 nights in a hotel each week so my readings imp has increased massively.

Recently I've read:

Station Eleven - it was ok but it suffered from being too short and the ending felt rushed.


Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits: enjoyed this a lot - well paced and with a decent story. Very funny in places.

Ready Player One: a good read if a little self knowing. However, as a child who hit their teens in the 80's I could relate to a lot of it.

The Three: again, a very enjoyable read with ambiguity running through it. It's a story that doesn't really know how to finish so it suffers a bit at the end. The Structure is not dissimilar to World War Z.

Currently reading This BookIs Full Of Spiders.... I hope it doesn't run out of steam like JDATe did but I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

Next up is Mountain Shadow, the follow up to Shantaram (which ranks as one of my favourite ever books). I know it won't deliver in the same way that Shantaram did but I'm looking forward to/nervous about reading it anyway.

[SimonI]

Finished And Quiet Flows the Don - after the initial shock it grew into an epic. A 20th century War and Peace? Could be. Certainly the only other work of art I could compare it to for its unflinching depiction of the horrors of war at a personal level would be Come and See.

Now reading Bream Gives Me Hiccups: And Other Stories (Jesse Eisenberg) which is clever and pretty amusing.

[gjkendall]

Will be starting Joe Hills N0S4RT tonight.

[daboy3000]

I'm reading The Humans by Matt Haig. Its about an Alien that comes to earth and replaces a man. Its the sort of book that makes you smile.

[roddy]

I absolutely loved The Humans, read it on Kindle then went right out to buy a paper copy for my girlfriend's birthday. She loved it too. Up there with Station Eleven for best books I read this year, and I'll be looking at the rest of Matt Haig's stuff.

Apart from that - I've been re-reading the Iain M Banks Culture novels. Enjoyed the first three, but think I'll take a break now or they all start to blend. I've read them before but not in order and ages ago.

[JonLaidlow]

Forgive me for a tiny bit of self-promotion (and mods, please delete if inappropriate). This new anthology "Ecotones" has stories by Ken Liu, Lauren Beukes, Tobias Buckell, Stephen Palmer, and, er.... me. Read it for them, not for me...

Ecotones: Ecological Stories from the Border Between Fantasy and Science Fiction eBook: Ken Liu, Lauren Beukes, Tobias S. Buckell, Matthew Hughes, Stephen Palmer, Daniel Ausema, Victor Espinosa, Igor Ljubuncic, Rebecca Schwarz, Andrew Leon Hudson: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

It's currently 4.99 but if it goes into any promos after Xmas I'll post them in the bargain thread...

[ArnieCunningham]

Christine again. have audiobook too.