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What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

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    #452
    Aenaes
    Registered Users Posts: 1,677 ✭✭✭Aenaes


    I, Claudius by Robert Graves. I'm just a little under half-way through and it's excellent! A bit confusing trying to keep up with all the characters and how they are related to each other though.


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    #453
    nozzferrahhtoo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,338 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    For some reason I have just started re-reading the Dune series. Last time I read them I was a manic Van Morrison fan and "Days Like this" had just come out which I had on repeat while reading.

    To this day I can not hear the Van Morrison song "Ancient Highway" without being transported into a world of sand and worms and Bene Gesserit mantras.


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    #454
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,401 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Iain Banks is terminally ill:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175
    http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/iain-banks-reveals-he-is-dying-of-cancer-1-2874469
    Iain Banks wrote:
    I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.

    The bottom line, now, I’m afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I’m expected to live for ‘several months’ and it’s extremely unlikely I’ll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.

    As a result, I’ve withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry - but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we’ll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.


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    #455
    CerebralCortex
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭CerebralCortex


    CerebralCortex wrote: »
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

    Still reading this :P I'm a very slow and distracable reader. I planned to read it last night but I watched an interesting doc on the Battle of Singapore.

    I want to read this next:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logicomix


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    #456
    Delirium
    Moderators Posts: 51,724 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Really enjoyed Logicomix, which is weird considering I'm so bad at maths :P

    If you can read this, you're too close!



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    #457
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    robindch wrote: »
    Iain Banks is terminally ill:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175
    http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/iain-banks-reveals-he-is-dying-of-cancer-1-2874469

    That's terrible. Can't say I've read any of his books which appears to be a giant shame on my part.


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    #458
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,086 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Get reading! Shame to hear. :(


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    #459
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,401 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    [-0-] wrote: »
    That's terrible. Can't say I've read any of his books which appears to be a giant shame on my part.
    "The Player Of Games" and "The Bridge" are -- IMHO -- his best, and by gosh, they are very good indeed.

    Buy them. You will not be disappointed.


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    #460
    keane2097
    Registered Users Posts: 17,770 ✭✭✭✭keane2097


    Sad coincidence, I just got around to starting The Player of Games a few days ago.


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    #461
    Sarky
    Closed Accounts Posts: 31,967 ✭✭✭✭Sarky


    Ah no. The next author on my list to read and he's about to die. Now I'll be accused of jumping on the "you never heard of him while he was alive" bandwagon. It's just like Johnny Cash all over again :(


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    #462
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    robindch wrote: »
    "The Player Of Games" and "The Bridge" are -- IMHO -- his best, and by gosh, they are very good indeed.

    Buy them. You will not be disappointed.

    Done. :)


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    #463
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    Just don't bother with The Wasp Factory, it's utter shoite.


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    #464
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,401 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Just don't bother with The Wasp Factory, it's utter shoite.
    Shite?

    Nah, it's bollocks.


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    #465
    Knasher
    Registered Users Posts: 2,370 ✭✭✭Knasher


    robindch wrote: »
    "The Player Of Games" and "The Bridge" are -- IMHO -- his best, and by gosh, they are very good indeed.

    Buy them. You will not be disappointed.

    Yeah they are really excellent books. My biggest gripe with them is that they are just a little taller than all the other paperback books in my collection....


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    #466
    DapperGent
    Registered Users Posts: 4,838 ✭✭✭DapperGent


    robindch wrote: »
    Iain Banks is terminally ill:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175
    http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/iain-banks-reveals-he-is-dying-of-cancer-1-2874469
    First Hitchens and now this. :(


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    #467
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    I've kept a few Banks unread, just so there'll always be one I can reach for. I have The Algebraist on my Kindle, which I think I'll now move onto next.

    My faves of his are Against a Dark Background, and Use of Weapons. Though for noobs Player of Games is excellent and the place to start.

    I really hope he's around to see his final book released before he's Sublimed. :(


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    #468
    Corkfeen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,940 ✭✭✭Corkfeen


    Slowly making my way through 'The Sound and the Fury', it's the final novel that i'll ever have to read for college. Always read a lot since I was a child but my god..... T'is rather challenging but i'm sort of enjoying it while feeling a deep desire to gouge my eyes out. Have a massive backlog of books to read from the end of May onwards. I'm going to try to mix it up between fact and fiction.

    I am reading 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre. Ye can consider it my bit on the side. :D I'm aware of much the pseudosciences that get plugged but I never realised the bat**** lengths that homeopathy goes to.....


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    #469
    8mv
    Registered Users Posts: 396 ✭✭8mv


    Reading Neil Young's memeoirs Waging Heavy Peace. I love Neil but this book is a bit disjointed and rambling. The interesting stories you want to hear aren't in there. There's a lot about alternative fuel and recorded music sound quality. It's ok, but for fans only.

    Really sorry to hear about Ian Banks. Another guy, along with James Herbert, that I haven't read since my early twenties and probably should have.


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    #470
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,401 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Banks has set up a website where people can leave their best wishes and read up on the latest news:

    http://friends.banksophilia.com/


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    #471
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    I'll have to give Iain M. Banks a go next so.

    Atm though, I'm reading 'Our Mutual Friend' by Dickens.


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    #472
    MrPudding
    Registered Users Posts: 9,788 ✭✭✭MrPudding


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    I'll have to give Iain M. Banks a go next so.

    Atm though, I'm reading 'Our Mutual Friend' by Dickens.
    Try some of the Iain Banks as well. He has one called Transition, I kind of thought it should be an Iain M Banks book, and in the US it is, but in the UK it is Iain Banks. Great book.

    MrP


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    #473
    Obliq
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,371 ✭✭✭Obliq


    MrPudding wrote: »
    Try some of the Iain Banks as well. He has one called Transition, I kind of thought it should be an Iain M Banks book, and in the US it is, but in the UK it is Iain Banks. Great book.

    MrP

    One of the few books I bought in hard back as soon as it came out. I usually wait a while, even till I can get them through the library, but I wanted that one. Great book, yes!


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    #474
    DazMarz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,493 ✭✭✭DazMarz


    Finished reading The Devil's Advocate today. Enjoyable enough. But the film is far better for me. It's a decent book and held my attention well, but the film pulls it off a lot better.


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    #475
    Muppet Man
    Registered Users Posts: 1,650 ✭✭✭Muppet Man


    "Bad Science" (Ben Goldacre) is a fantastic read from cover to cover.

    Next on my list is SuperSense - Why we Believe in the Unbelievable

    Muppet Man


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    #476
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Muppet Man wrote: »
    Next on my list is SuperSense - Why we Believe in the Unbelievable

    Muppet Man

    Loved it. I never knew it carried that subtitle though.
    Edit: Yeah, my paperback has "From Superstition to Religion - The Brain Science of belief."


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    #477
    Sarky
    Closed Accounts Posts: 31,967 ✭✭✭✭Sarky


    I've put all books on hold in order to read Crimershow. A literary tour de force if ever there was one, on a par with Trent tbh.


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    #478
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    I just finished Ubik by Philip K. Dick. I'd be very surprised if The Langoliers by King wasn't heavily influenced by this.


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    #479
    Kiwi in IE
    Registered Users Posts: 3,063 ✭✭✭Kiwi in IE


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    I just finished Ubik by Philip K. Dick. I'd be very surprised if The Langoliers by King wasn't heavily influenced by this.

    I will get my hands on that book. I read The Langoliers in my teens and I loved it.

    I recently read Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier. I had never read it before. One of the best books I have ever read. It was so good that I ordered two more of her books off Amazon, but they didn't come close. Found them very hard to get into.


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    #480
    Canis Lupus
    Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    Just finished Prince of Thorns and onto King of Thorns now. It has its flaws but for a change, seeing as it's typical fantasy, the protagonist isn't a save the girl and the world kinda guy. In fact his 'power' is that he is a sociopath. Rape and murder are his thing. He has been toned down a touch in the second book though.


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    #481
    swampgas
    Registered Users Posts: 3,537 ✭✭✭swampgas


    Ender's Game is a book that made a big impact on me when I read it, so I was rather curious when a friend of mine pointed me to this analysis of the book. I'm still trying to make sense of it, but it's an interesting take on how Orson Scott Card writes morality into his books.

    Thought I'd post the link in case any other Ender's Game fans want to have a look.


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