What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

DazMarz

The Cocaine Diaries

The story of a middle aged Dublin man who out of desperation agrees to smuggle several kilos of cocaine from South America back to Ireland. For his services, he would be paid €10,000.

Of course, echoing Midnight Express, he is caught at the airport in Caracas by the Venezuelan authorities. From here, his nightmare begins.

He is plunged into a world where death, sexual assault and grievous bodily harm could come at any moment, and that is just at the hands of the local police. He is flung into the notorious Los Teques prison on the outskirts of Caracas and describes life in the Dickensian hell hole.

Really worth a read. And an extreme cautionary tale for anyone who might be stupid enough to try something similar and who believes the adage "I won't get caught. It won't happen to me".

MagicMarker

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 went on to read Do Dreams Dream of Electric Sheep after this. Also very good. Entropy seems to be the theme of choice in both.

robindch

swampgas wrote: »

[...] Orson Scott Card writes morality into his books.

Orson

coffee_cake

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

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.

I wouldn't call it the best ever, but I quite liked it.
I LOVED the mitchell & webb skit on it

Hate philip k dick

Just finished kate elliott's jaran books, and "the killing moon"
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Moon-Dreamblood-N-Jemisin/dp/0316187283
Love kate elliott
Onto tad williams next

MagicMarker

Currently reading East of Eden and LOVING it!

Gbear

MagicMarker wrote: »

Currently reading East of Eden and LOVING it!

Is that the thing with the dinosaur people?

oldrnwisr

bluewolf wrote: »

I wouldn't call it the best ever, but I quite liked it.
I LOVED the mitchell & webb skit on it

Hate philip k dick

Just finished kate elliott's jaran books, and "the killing moon"
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Moon-Dreamblood-N-Jemisin/dp/0316187283
Love kate elliott
Onto tad williams next

If you're going to start reading Tad Williams I'd recommend War of The Flowers before getting stuck in any of the series. It's kinda like a grown-up Narnia.

Oh, and before you write off Philip K Dick, might I suggest The Man in the High Castle. It's one of his better but less well-known ones.

coffee_cake

oldrnwisr wrote: »

If you're going to start reading Tad Williams I'd recommend War of The Flowers before getting stuck in any of the series. It's kinda like a grown-up Narnia.

Oh, I've read his Otherland stuff, and tried the um... shadow something. Liked it.
Dragonbone chair is what I'm on now

Oh, and before you write off Philip K Dick, might I suggest The Man in the High Castle. It's one of his better but less well-known ones.

I might do...

Delirium

For the fans of Enders Game, the trailer for the movie has been released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0cUBi4hwE

CerebralCortex

Proving History.

kylith

Just finished Pratchett's Pyramids, now starting John Fowles' The Magus.

coffee_cake

swampgas wrote: »

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.

That's really interesting

Banna and Ber did you ever read those Elliott and Kerr books

MagicMarker

Giving Dracula a go. I vant to zuk your blaad etc etc

Kivaro

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Dades

MagicMarker wrote: »

Giving Dracula a go. I vant to zuk your blaad etc etc

Big fan. Can't help but think of visuals like steam trains overlayed on maps of Europe and stuff like that. Classic.

robindch

kylith wrote: »

starting John Fowles' The Magus.

Read half of that last year -- it has its moment, but a too many longeurs and psychoanalytic hat-tips for my liking.

kylith

robindch wrote: »

Read half of that last year -- it has its moment, but a too many longeurs and psychoanalytic hat-tips for my liking.

I read it a few years back and thought it was good. It's been preying on my mind recently so I decided to give it another go, see if it holds up the second time round. If not, it's back to my Pratchett marathon.

MagicMarker

Dades wrote: »

Big fan. Can't help but think of visuals like steam trains overlayed on maps of Europe and stuff like that. Classic.

TBH I can't get the Mel Brooks spoof out of my head while I read it.

Akrasia

Dades wrote: »

Big fan. Can't help but think of visuals like steam trains overlayed on maps of Europe and stuff like that. Classic.

Dracula is a fantastic read.really atmospheric. Gotta love frankenstein too

SebBerkovich

Lets Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris.

The book is just as good as the name suggests.

swampgas

Reading "Into the Woods - a five act journey into story" by John Yorke. I heard the author interviewed about the book and decided to try it, so far so good. As someone who has never studied art or literature, but has heard (in passing) of books like Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", it's fascinating, if unfamiliar, territory.

Well known films like The Godfather and Being John Malkovich, and recent TV series like Life on Mars and The Sopranos are used along with classic plays and books to illustrate the structure of stories, which makes it more interesting and accessible (to me anyway!) than it might be otherwise.

branie

I finished reading Immaculate Deception, that book on Christina Gallagher. That was quite an eye opener.

PopePalpatine

Note to self: use "Immaculate Deception" as a potential title when I get around to writing a story where the villain tries to become a god. :pac: I've already thought of "God Is (Not) Great".

(C) PopePalpatine, 2013 - 70 years after my death

Corkfeen

Just about to order Godel, Escher and Bach... Should I add anything else to the basket? Have tons of fiction to read so I want to mix things up somewhat.

Tar.Aldarion

Enders game, yes I know the author is a douche or whatever. Great book. What order do you suggest I read the rest in?

Publication date
Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award winner, 1985;[1] Hugo Award winner, 1986;[1] Locus Award nominee, 1986[1]
Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award winner, 1986;[1] Hugo & Locus Awards winner, 1987;[1] Campbell Award nominee, 1987[1]
Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards nominee, 1992[8]
Children of the Mind (1996)
Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2000[9]
Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2002[10]
Shadow Puppets (2002)
First Meetings (2002) – short story collection
Shadow of the Giant (2005)
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
Ender in Exile (2008)
Shadows in Flight (2012)
Earth Unaware (2012)
Earth Afire (2013) – Scheduled for Release June 4, 2013 [11]
Shadows Alive (forthcoming, originally planned as part of "Shadows in Flight")

Chronological order
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Earth Awakens
First Meetings
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow (Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period.)
A War of Gifts (Note: This takes place during Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow.)
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Ender in Exile (Note: This takes place during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)
Shadows in Flight
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Shadows Alive
"Ender Back Again"

PopePalpatine

I'm trying to read Trainspotting, but Glaswegian English is so damn hard to read.

Lingua Franca

Psst... it's Edinburgh! You get used to it eventually. By the end of the book you'll have to stop yourself from calling people radge bastids in your real life.

Turtwig

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I'm trying to read Trainspotting, but Glaswegian English is so damn hard to read.

Just use urban dictionary, shur, you'll be grand like.

robindch

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I'm trying to read Trainspotting, but Glaswegian English is so damn hard to read.

Have a read of Iain Banks' The Bridge - Banks produced long doses of Glaswegian argot years before Welsh did

branie

A book I finished last week was Inferno, the latest Robert Langdon adventure by Dan Brown