What book are you reading atm??

I've decided to work through all of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels by the end of the year, starting with the first!

Of course, I've watched the series... But nothing beats a nice aul' book!

Haven't read that one but very much enjoyed Keep The Aspidistra Flying, rom-pov is great :P

Commander Chris Hadfield's " An astronaut's guide to life...on earth"...an absolutely fascinating read and insight into the whole process of becoming an astronaut and gives you a real feel about what it is like living in space...a truely inspirational man!!...and I got it signed by him last week so even better!

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, would highly recommend it as the story is so engaging while also being wonderfully written.

Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre. An attempt to lift the lid on the practices of large pharma companies.

Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn,Bio of herself and the band Everything but the girl.very enjoyable so far

I'm trying to read 'The Road' at the minute.

Not really liking it so far, loved the movie but the book hasn't got me yet.

Recently completed Inversions by the late Iain M Banks. From the "M" you can tell that he classified it as science fiction, but it barely falls in to that category as a story, being set entirely on a world at a realistically medieval level of development. He called it "a Culture novel which isn't".

It's quite a "formal" novel, and I think that the structure reflects the formality of the characters. The chapters alternate between two characters who are in different parts of the world, who do not interact directly over the course of the novel, so their storylines run in parallel. Those are the explicit storylines, but under it all are more subtle goings-on, some of which only become apparent in retrospect. It's a subtle novel, a detective story, but from an old thread it seems to have underwhelmed readers who expected more Culture.

The role of the narrator is also highly relevant to how we read the stories: one story is told in the first-person, by a possibly unreliable narrator who makes no bones about his initial biases, but he finds those biases subverted over the course of his story. The other in the conventional third person - but is it the usual "god's-eye view", or is it a human narrator - and if so, where is s/he getting the information? It's a medieval world without the luxury of quick and easy communication that we enjoy today. But there are, shall we say, special circumstances ...