What book are you reading atm??

david75 · 17-07-2013 12:39pm

Just finished Who I am, the Pete Townshend autobiography. He's had some life!

Just starting the ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman. Comes recommended.

ibarelycare · 17-07-2013 1:29pm

Lucena wrote: »

I’m reading « A Game of Thrones », the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series. Only about 100 pages in but struggling to remember all the characters. There’s a list at the back of the book, but I daren’t look in case I find out something that hasn’t happened yet (death, secretly the father of X or whatever).

Can anyone tell me if it’s safe to look?

Someone in this thread showed me this guide when I was reading the first book. It's more aimed towards the TV show as it doesn't really have the secondary characters that are in the books, but it might help you! (No spoilers)

The appendix in the back of the book doesn't give away anything either, don't worry!

I found the A Wiki of Ice and Fire site absolutely brilliant, it was what I constantly used while reading the books. You can search for characters, place, etc. Each wiki page gives you the history and characteristics of the character/place, and then the page is sectioned out by book. So as long as you scroll slowly you won't be spoiling anything for yourself.

cloudatlas · 17-07-2013 1:44pm

Simon Schama 'A History of Britain' Volume 1

GLaDOS · 17-07-2013 1:50pm

Just finishing up The Hunger Games. Not particularly well written, and the basic premise is taken from Battle Royale, but I really enjoyed it none the less. Looking forward to reading the other books.

Sleepy · 17-07-2013 1:52pm

Mid-way through book 6 of The Wheel of Time. After finishing this one I think I need to read something factual before progressing with the series, 6 books in the same universe is a bit of overkill!

NothingMan · 17-07-2013 1:53pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Mid-way through book 6 of The Wheel of Time. After finishing this one I think I need to read something factual before progressing with the series!

Twice I've tried to re-read the series and twice got stuck on book 7. There's a couple of tough books to get through but it is worth it. (espexcially when Sanderson takes over imo).

--Kaiser-- · 17-07-2013 1:59pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Mid-way through book 6 of The Wheel of Time. After finishing this one I think I need to read something factual before progressing with the series, 6 books in the same universe is a bit of overkill!

Read book 7 (A Crown of Swords?) it's the last good one that Jordan wrote. The next few books after it are woeful (but apparently Sanderson did a good job of finishing the series)

jank · 17-07-2013 2:30pm

Clash of Kings, Book 2 of the Song of Ice and Fire series. So far so good!

Collie D · 17-07-2013 2:41pm

david75 wrote: »

Just finished Who I am, the Pete Townshend autobiography. He's had some life!

Thanks for the recommendation. I like rock n roll autobiographies and am a bit of a Who fan.

In return I reckon you should check out Slash's book. Quite a good storyteller and interesting to read his thoughts on Axl Rose.

Chris Martin should literally take a leaf out of one of these guys' books. Modern "rock" stars just ain't like they used to be.

Back on topic I'm reading Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom". Have always admired the man and meant to read it but now he's been in the public eye again I was reminded to buy it. Only just getting to the part where he became involved in politics so judgment reserved for now.

Sleepy · 17-07-2013 5:36pm

NothingMan wrote: »

Twice I've tried to re-read the series and twice got stuck on book 7. There's a couple of tough books to get through but it is worth it. (espexcially when Sanderson takes over imo).

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Read book 7 (A Crown of Swords?) it's the last good one that Jordan wrote. The next few books after it are woeful (but apparently Sanderson did a good job of finishing the series)

I think I'll keep Book 7 until after I've read a few different books, it'll be much easier to pick the series back up knowing I'm starting on a well regarded book rather than one of the derided ones!

I'm enjoying the series for the most part, just beginning to find it a little tough-going after 6 bloody books of braid tugging from a certain awful character...

blue note · 17-07-2013 5:39pm

The Great Gatsby at the moment. I'm only 3 chapters in, but it isn't the jolliest of books.

Goreme · 17-07-2013 5:46pm

Lucena wrote: »

I’m reading « A Game of Thrones », the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series. Only about 100 pages in but struggling to remember all the characters. There’s a list at the back of the book, but I daren’t look in case I find out something that hasn’t happened yet (death, secretly the father of X or whatever).

Can anyone tell me if it’s safe to look?

You should definately look at the listings of the Families or 'House of' etc at the back. I finished book one about a six weeks ago, and I never noticed the 'House of' character listings until a couple of hundred pages in!! I also was struggling to remember the characters, and using that at the back definately helped and didn't spoil anything. The Family status at the back is at the time of the start of Book one - Song of Ice and Fire. I thought it was brilliant, couldn't put it down (and I had even seen Series 1 of the HBO series a couple of years ago). Book 2 was also brilliant, and I'm now reading book 3.

Conall Cernach · 17-07-2013 6:14pm

Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.

Killer Wench · 17-07-2013 6:17pm

I just self-published my first book nearly two weeks ago. I'm currently 50,000 words into my second book. I wish that I could read more, but I'm genuinely afraid of blending someone's storytelling into mine.

L'prof · 17-07-2013 6:25pm

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands. Slowly but surely making my way through King's gunslinger series. Absolutely loving it so far and can't wait to see where it goes. Rumours of movies and mini series led me to finally get around to beginning these books. I think I'd prefer a tv show though.

thefasteriwalk · 17-07-2013 6:47pm

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.

I love Chandler! The film with Bogart is well worth watching too, if you're into film noir.

Ardennes1944 · 17-07-2013 6:48pm

Callsign Hades by Patrick Bury, great book.

Cuchulainn90 · 17-07-2013 7:25pm

Robin Hobb: The Live-ship traders (Again!)

Never gets old

rock chic · 17-07-2013 8:54pm

dead mans time by Peter James this book has to be the best in the Roy Grace series brilliant story

bnt · 17-07-2013 9:46pm

Excession by Iain M Banks. The guy had a particularly evil sense of humour, didn't he?

An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilisations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop. The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass… when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests.

17-07-2013 10:03pm

Killer Wench wrote: »

I just self-published my first book nearly two weeks ago. I'm currently 50,000 words into my second book. I wish that I could read more, but I'm genuinely afraid of blending someone's storytelling into mine.

Congratulations, what type of book is it? What's the title?

By the way, I wouldn't be too scared of reading for fear of future plagiarism, a writer being 'inspired' by something he/she has read is as legitimate as a songwriter being moved to write a song after hearing a great tune on the radio, as long as you put your own stamp on it it's yours.
Hope it goes well for you, good luck!

mrmanunited · 17-07-2013 10:08pm

I loved the hunger games and go through about 30-40 trashy novels like that a year, read all of jack reachers and now going through the Gone series by Michael Grant. Theyre good fun, dont keep the pace of the first book, about kids being left on a town without parents and some with random powers. worth a read or download

Crooked Jack · 17-07-2013 10:12pm

Just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? lovin phillip k dick these days. about 20 pages into I, Lucifer now. a sort of autobiography of satan. his side of the story. bloody funny so far

david75 · 17-07-2013 10:16pm

Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy(or the assassin trilogy if you will) is the finest most addictive writing over ever encountered. If you haven't you should. You'll love it.

And does George RR Martin not have an editor? Never has a writer needed one more.

Killer Wench · 17-07-2013 10:29pm

9959 wrote: »

Congratulations, what type of book is it? What's the title?

By the way, I wouldn't be too scared of reading for fear of future plagiarism, a writer being 'inspired' by something he/she has read is as legitimate as a songwriter being moved to write a song after hearing a great tune on the radio, as long as you put your own stamp on it it's yours.
Hope it goes well for you, good luck!

It's an erotic romance! Fifty sales in twelve days. Not too bad!

There was a scandal that broke in late June about an erotic romance writer who lifted total sentences and paragraphs from other more widely-known romance novels.

The author shot up to break the Top 10 within a month. But, as more people read it, the more people who were familiar with the other works. The fall-out was spectacular. Customers were refunded and the 'author' lost all royalty (it would have been a huge payout).

As a result, many book bloggers and reviewers are declining to work with self-published authors. Add to that, readers are already reluctant to take a chance on self-published authors because they don't believe that we can make well-crafted books without middle men.

17-07-2013 11:51pm

Killer Wench wrote: »

It's an erotic romance! Fifty sales in twelve days. Not too bad!

There was a scandal that broke in late June about an erotic romance writer who lifted total sentences and paragraphs from other more widely-known romance novels.

The author shot up to break the Top 10 within a month. But, as more people read it, the more people who were familiar with the other works. The fall-out was spectacular. Customers were refunded and the 'author' lost all royalty (it would have been a huge payout).

As a result, many book bloggers and reviewers are declining to work with self-published authors. Add to that, readers are already reluctant to take a chance on self-published authors because they don't believe that we can make well-crafted books without middle men.

I wasn't aware that the general reader was overly concerned with the grubby world of publishing and publishers, or indeed the provenance of the book's content, I'll have to bow to your superior knowledge on that one.
Anyway, back to the action, what's the TITLE of your book, goddammit you may be a good self publisher, but you're a hopeless self publicist.
Hope you sell millions, good luck!

Mr. G · 17-07-2013 11:57pm

Generally, if I start a book I'll never finish it. I've been reading Jeffrey Archer for the last 2 months. I'm not gone through 100 pages yet, I'm slow and ill forget it all when I don't read it for a few days.

I've no interest in fiction to be honest. I'd read technical books and magizines. I am not exactly a big reader.

Sleepy · 17-07-2013 11:59pm

Killer Wench, assuming you've published it as an ebook, why not throw up a link?

18-07-2013 12:02am

Mr. G wrote: »

Generally, if I start a book I'll never finish it. I've been reading Jeffrey Archer for the last 2 months. I'm not gone through 100 pages yet, I'm slow and ill forget it all when I don't read it for a few days.

I've no interest in fiction to be honest. I'd read technical books and magizines. I am not exactly a big reader.

Would you not put aside time every night to read a few chapters while your in bed, Mr. G?

I just started Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - enjoying it so far, a fun read.

Killer Wench · 18-07-2013 12:22am

My book will have my name (pen-name) which is linked to my twitter account. I've already had one strange man hit on me via twitter. I don't need my special fans stalking me. :cool:

McChubbin · 18-07-2013 12:32am

Just grabbed the third book in the Crossfire trilogy- "Entwined In You" by Sylvia Day. It's pure smut for the hell of it, but there is a fair bit of dramatic plot in it to string it together. 3 chapters in and loving it so far.

Next in my "To Read" list is "Revenge Wears Prada" by Laura Weisberger, "The New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird" by a variety of diferent sci-fi authors and "German For Dummies".

languagenerd · 18-07-2013 1:25am

I'm working my way through Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Cemetery of Forgotten Books series (reading in Spanish cause I love the way he uses the language, particularly in descriptions). The first one, La Sombra del Viento/The Shadow of the Wind, was amazing but the second, El Juego del Angel/The Angel's Game, is taking me forever to read. His writing style is still excellent, but the plot is way too long-winded and disjointed. Hoping the last section pulls all the loose strands together...

shmalentine · 18-07-2013 4:42am

Just finished reading 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov and ''Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury.

I enjoyed both but I did find Lolita a bit disturbing to be honest as I'm sure anyone would find the story of a middle aged man obsessed with a 12 year old girl to be. It took me a while to get into as the language was so advanced (I'v never had to have a dictionary on standby when reading a novel) but it is brilliant writing if a bit heavy.

Fahrenheit 451 was a good read as well, it was light in comparison (I was reading both simultaneously) and the concept is very interesting. It didn't quite live up to the hype I'v heard about it but it was still enjoyable.

Next on the list is 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. I have a feeling my library won't have it in stock so I might go for 'Fingersmith' by Sarah Waters if that's the case. I'v told both are real page turners.

NothingMan · 18-07-2013 9:22am

Sleepy wrote: »

I think I'll keep Book 7 until after I've read a few different books, it'll be much easier to pick the series back up knowing I'm starting on a well regarded book rather than one of the derided ones!

Well as I said, I found book 7 the toughest and still have a book mark about a quarter the way in, but that was a re-read. I plowed through the first time. Just found Jordan began to become overly descriptive of every details in every room character walked into. Was taxing, but he comes through that and it is an epic series and the best ending I can remember reading in a long time.

I'm enjoying the series for the most part, just beginning to find it a little tough-going after 6 bloody books of braid tugging from a certain awful character...

Hehe, she is an annoying character but I like her too. She isn't as loveable as others but when you have 3 girls who are so easy to fall in love with it's not a bad thing. If I had my choice I'd pobably take the short haired little minx... I swear I've never fantasised about a WoT four-way.... <_<

ibarelycare · 18-07-2013 9:46am

Killer Wench wrote: »

My book will have my name (pen-name) which is linked to my twitter account. I've already had one strange man hit on me via twitter. I don't need my special fans stalking me. :cool:

You're not Alan Shatter are you? :eek:

hairyprincess · 27-07-2013 9:56am

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb, very good book. Kept me reading.

I Know This Much Is True also by Wally Lamb, it was grand, a lot of the same phrases used in She's Come Undone.

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, this book received huge reviews on Amazon so I was really looking forward to it but it wasn't for me. It's quite humorous in parts but there was a lot of history to it that just doesn't interest me.

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes, thoroughly enjoyed this book, it's a real edge of your seat page turner. I'd highly recommend it, I read it in two days. It takes a while to get into it as it jumps from the past to the present, but once you do it's a fantastic read.

donglen · 27-07-2013 11:00am

Clive Barker - Weaveworld. Did read it back in my teens.........enjoying it again.

cloudatlas · 27-07-2013 11:15am

'The Hunger Games'. I finally caved in, need some light relief.

Ciarabear · 27-07-2013 11:18am

'What to Expect when you're Expecting' -very useful, easy to read, informative book -highly recommended!

Rubberlegs · 27-07-2013 6:53pm

Recently read Stephen King's Joyland in a few days. I had been waiting for it to come into the book shops for months, had thought I might not be able to get it here, as couldn't get his other crime fiction The Colorado Kid in shops here. Joyland was well worth the wait, I couldn't put it down.
At the moment I'm reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer. I'm enjoying it very much, funny yet heartbreaking....

Mars Bar · 27-07-2013 7:24pm

It's taking me AGES to read Game Of Thrones Book 1! I'm liking it though.

take everything · 27-07-2013 8:52pm

Last few books I read:
A light that never goes out (Smith's biography).
Quiet by Susan Cain (book about introverts in an extrovert world).
Quantum- a guide for the perplexed by Jim Al-Khalili (very readable).

Lucena · 27-07-2013 10:03pm

Mars Bar wrote: »

It's taking me AGES to read Game Of Thrones Book 1! I'm liking it though.

Same here! A combination of wanting to savour it, not wanting to miss any details and forgetting who's the cousin of who and having to look it up.

rock chic · 28-07-2013 9:00pm

missing by casey hill

28-07-2013 9:16pm

LIFE by Keith Richards

Jazzmaster · 28-07-2013 9:18pm

And would you recommend it? Flesh it out people....

28-07-2013 9:31pm

Jazzmaster wrote: »

And would you recommend it? Flesh it out people....

'Jazzmaster', if you're asking me about the Keith Richards book, then all I can say is that so far it's mostly about music, how disappointing is that!

Vojera · 28-07-2013 9:36pm

I'm reading Zomblog II by TW Brown. So far I like it and the first book was good, but it hasn't gripped me yet. I'm not at that "have to keep reading" stage.

maguic24 · 28-07-2013 10:13pm

Mars Bar wrote: »

It's taking me AGES to read Game Of Thrones Book 1! I'm liking it though.

Wait til you get to a Feast for crows.....took me ages to finish it. >.<

mrmanunited · 28-07-2013 10:15pm

maguic24 wrote: »

Wait til you get to a Feast for crows.....took me ages to finish it. >.<

Amazing books, couldnt put them down, but I gotta admit, I did get a bit confused with all the names and stories, so my tip, dont read before you go to bed... Theyre awesome!!

What book are you reading atm??

Comments