Books

Speshal

World Champion
Valued Member
Do you read?

As an avid bibliophile I usually have a few on the go I am currently reading:

H.P Lovecraft - Omnibus 1 At the Mountain of Madness - Sci-Fi written in the 30's
Ian McEwan - Solar (just started so I'll tell you what it's about later)
Terry Pratchett - Snuff (I love a bit of discworld)

Have you got any recommendations?
 
I really enjoy Michael Connelly's 'Harry Bosch' series. A definite recommendation if you like detectives.
I'm a fan of fantasy books as well, David Gemmell's 'Drenai' series is really good, and his historical fiction series 'Troy' is really good too. Anything by him is really good imo.
 
Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell.
Eldern Trilogy by two people, one called Jay.
Shannara Books by Terry Brooks I think.
The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.
 
My favourite fiction writer is Len Deighton, anyone not familiar with the Bernard Sampson series is in for a treat, then there is Phillip Kerr - anything he has written is really good, obviously loads of others as I have always read constantly but those are the two that I would love to not have discovered already so I can start again!
 
3 favourite authors: Alan Bennett, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen.
4 poets: S T Coleridge, William Blake, John Betjeman, Wilfred Owen.

Anything by the above is worth reading.

One of my favourite books is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
 
I'm just into another blast of PG Wodehouse. I tend to read in cycles, sometimes 2 or 3 books on the go at one time. I've recently guzzled up the most recent of the Game of Thrones series, all of which are great, I re-read a Tolkein or two every year and maybe a Dickens annually. I read quite a few of the books my 14 year old daughter reads, modern authors of books for teenagers are really very good. I had a "classic" type education and both my parents were teachers, I could be as naughty as you can imagine but books were never withdrawn and I read voraciously from as young as I can remember until I left school and discovered other methods of expanding my mind but I am really glad that I had Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, Marlowe and others taught to me well because I still grab one from time to time for a chapter or act or two. Balancing these with Sven Hassel, James Herbert, NME and Penthouse allowed me to develop a broad range of (ahem) tastes.
iBooks have now really started pressing my buttons.
 
The first proper book I ever read was To the devil a daughter by Dennis Wheatley and became an avid fan of his I have read Loads of the disc world books Death is brilliant in them, and I absolutely love Douglas Adams, and was a secret fan of George G Gilman's westerns...
 
In the same way independent record shops these days tend to shut up shop one after the other, I find it a depressing thing indeed to see independent bookshops either struggling or just going under... these places aren't just to buy stuff from, they're like cosy atmospheric places to hang around in, chat with the staff and flick through all sorts of collector's editions and so on... you don't get much atmosphere from clicking on an Amazon link. :(
 
Incubus

On the other hand, I find it quite exciting that literature is now more available to many people. Out with the old, in with the new. Before books existed, we had scrolls, before that we had stone tablets, before hat we wrote on cave walls with the blood of animals. I've never been one for nostalgia. There are too many exiting things which may happen tomorrow to waste it thinking about yesterday.
 
Mephistopheles - Read a few Dennis Wheatley books, Strange Conflict is one just begging for a movie.

Read all Discworld books, and love the humour side of fantasy and so dip into Tom Holt, although struggled a bit with his serious historical fiction, he's not up to Pratchett, but worth a go - I think my favourite of his is "Expecting Someone Taller"

Josh - My favourite authors are Simon Scarrow and Conn Iggulden. I love their historical fiction and their writing style is phenominal - you have to try Iggulden's Ghengis Khan series - pure genius.

Speshal - Great thread, I'm an avid reader and just devour author's so perfect to get new ideas.
 
I've just read Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson. A book supposedly so good that he'd only written a chapter before Spielberg purchased the film rights (it's out either this year or next apparently). Well all I can say is, I hope to chuff the film is better than the book 'cos the book is absolute toilet. One to avoid.

I've also just finished Alex Zanardi's biography which is worth a read.

But not too much else on the book horizon at the moment. I really should get back into my reading but I never seem to find the time.
 
Consider Phlebas - Iain M Banks. I love all his SF stuff, but this one is still the greatest. I just reclaimed it from an extended lend to a very good friend.
I am currently reading "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" on my Kindle, but I'll never get rid of my book collection (no matter how much Mrs Bones may moan about how much space they occupy).
My Dad has signed copies of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers that he's promised to pass on to me. I also possess a signed copy of Anthony Burgess' The Worm in the Ring (in his real name, John Wilson). This one is especially rare, as the book was pulped soon after publication due to libel action: he signed it for my Grandmother (who is actually mentioned indirectly in the second part of his autobiography).
I've also got a signed proof copy of The Business by Iain Banks, and a couple of signed Pratchetts. I read his latter Discworld stuff with a sense of sadness, as they are clearly dictated to a secretary these days, and are nowhere near as coherent or complete as they used to be.
I have an abridged copy of Gibbon's Decline and Fall that is lurking guiltily unread - I should get on with it really...
 
I've recently discovered a new author, I like my technological thrillers and the books by Daniel Suarez really show what the worst that could happen if technology turned round and bit us in the arse.

His first two books are about a rogue AI program and it's fight back against humanity. Part one is called Daemon and sets the scene, part two is called Freedom.
Before you start thinking this sounds like Terminator, the programming involved is theoretically possible with todays technology and the books outcomes are just as devastating as the Terminator series. While some of it can be a bit far fetched you realise what a slave to technology we are.

His third and latest book Kill Decision deals with autonomous drones and next generation, anonymous warfare. Definitely an author to keep and eye on.
 
Seven Pillars of Wisdom - TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia, in a wealth of detail that makes the spellbinding and compelling film look decidedly short, and that was about 4 hours long)
The Worst Journey in The World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard (the story of Scott of the Antarctic's 1912 expedition, by a member of the Expedition.)
South: The Story of Shackleton's 1914-1919 Expedition - Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (One of the finest books I have ever read, and at my age I've read a hell of a lot of them.)
Decline and Fall (of a Birdwatcher) - Evelyn Waugh. One of my favourite movies of all time was this one, and the book is so well written (back in the 30s) the shooting script for the 1970s movie was almost word for word. As a scathing satire on the class system there's barely anything better.
Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers - Jack Copeland. If I could only read one book in my life it would be this one. Or any other book by Jack Copeland or his collaborators. Even the complex mathematics theory that I didn't properly understand first time through was utterly compelling.
We Are Road Crew - Ken Barr. An Autobiography of a roadie. There's a surprise!

Various books on Freemasonry and Rose-Croix.
 
After realising my newly discovered author has only written 3 books and I read them all within a week I thought I better get searching for another writer to satisfy my technothriller kicks. I like the internet and gaming side of literature and my new discovery has definitely come up trumps.

His name is Neal Stephenson and his latest book "Reamde" is a fantastic tale of guns, girls and geeks. The best description is one I can steal from Wikipedia

The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional MMORPG, to rescue her as her various captors drag her about the globe. Topics covered range from online activities including gold farming and social networking to the criminal methods of the Russian mafia and Islamic terrorists.

The style of writing is very easy to get into and the character development is impressive. It's certainly not a short story you can read to kill a few hours but an indepth tale spanning the global and virtual world.

The good news is that he seems to have a larger collection of books spanning over 20 years of writing, I'm going to be killing a lot of time reading these.

the_roadie I think you would like Cryptonomicon, it's a story bringing the world of Bletchely Park to the 21st century.

Speaking of the 21st century, how are we currently reading books? I myself stick to ebooks as its a far more portable way of carrying a library of literature around. I either read on my laptop or iphone.

I use a program called Calibre to organise and convert the files so they are easy to read no matter what I'm using.
 
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