What are you reading at the moment?

Paul_C

I'm reading The Causal Angel, the last of a sci-fi trilogy by Hannu Rajaniemi, after that I'm not sure - I picked up a couple of free/cheap kindle books to try (no idea what they are) and I've got 20 or 30 unread books kicking about.

I'm almost caught up with unwatched DVDs so I suppose I ought to try harder to clear some of the books, but sometimes I get started (Atonement/The Time Traveller's Wife/etc.) and then either get bored or just feel like reading something else (Iain Bank's Whit took me three goes to get started for some reason) and occasionally I just get annoyed, Reamde is one (because it began to feel like he was just adding extra stuff in for no reason at all and the story was quickly vanishing - I doubt I'll ever bother to finish it).

PolarityMan

Paul_C said:

I'm reading The Causal Angel, the last of a sci-fi trilogy by Hannu Rajaniemi, after that I'm not sure - I picked up a couple of free/cheap kindle books to try (no idea what they are) and I've got 20 or 30 unread books kicking about.

I'm almost caught up with unwatched DVDs so I suppose I ought to try harder to clear some of the books, but sometimes I get started (Atonement/The Time Traveller's Wife/etc.) and then either get bored or just feel like reading something else (Iain Bank's Whit took me three goes to get started for some reason) and occasionally I just get annoyed, Reamde is one (because it began to feel like he was just adding extra stuff in for no reason at all and the story was quickly vanishing - I doubt I'll ever bother to finish it).

That Quantum theif stuff was pretty weird but i really enjoyed it, i think i left too long between reading the 2nd installment and the 3rd though as i had forgotten what half the terms meant. 

I thought Reamde was pretty good tbh.

Paul_C

I was mostly enjoying it, but something happened that made me feel like he was throwing everything, kitchen sink and all into it, and that annoyed me enough to give up on it

jellyroll

Philip Roth. Just read The Human Stain. Now reading American Pastoral.

littlegreenman

Creative Guitar 2 - Guthrie Govan, again.

And Steve Vai's 10 hour workout, again.

Re-reading The Real Frank Zappa Book also, most entertaining

Hootsmon

this post

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/8917/what-are-you-reading-at-the-moment/p1

jonnyburgo

Working my way through Stephen King's IT over 1000 pages, will be amazed if I last until the end, a bit rambly in some places but incredible in others

Clarky

the full orchestral scores to:

Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral March

Verde: Requiem Mass

pure fkn genius...

RocknRollDave

Just finished Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre. Not one of his best, a bit too geeky (all revolves around video/ PC games, of which I'm not a fan) but as excellently written as ever. Shame I'd watched the Christmas episode of Black Mirror first, as the two are (purely coincidentally) very similar in some ways.

axisus

I'm reading a biog of Tolkien with detail of middle earth in general.

koneguitarist

Clive Cussler latest ! Love all his books.

mike_l

Just finished 8 Lives Down, about British Army bomb disposal in Iraq.

 

About to Start Bobby Moore's biography.

Tone71

The Undisputed truth - Mike Tyson 

Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer

Going to Sea in a Sieve - Danny Baker

Megii

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman. 1st part of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. It's really good.

Lixarto

My traditional Christmas break from academia has included:

"Revival" by Stephen King - remarkably good, recommended to any Lovecraft/Machen fans;

"The Quarry", the final novel from Iain Banks and suitably elegiac;

"Waging Heavy Peace" by Neil Young - just remarkable;

Next will be "Esio Trot" and then probably back to the serious stuff.

dafuzz

Just finished 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell. It's just nonsense really - "sometimes some people have a flash of insight but we don't know why - sometimes they get it right but sometimes they get it wrong" said over and over again for 200ish pages.

Getting on with 'Life' by Keef now. I tried before but got distracted so have started again.

Philly_Q

dafuzz;464577" said:

Getting on with 'Life' by Keef now. I tried before but got distracted so have started again.

I don't usually like biographies - most are just "I did this. Then I did that. Then I got divorced. Then I went bankrupt. Then I did that again." and they're so badly written.

The Keith Richards book was one of the very few I've really enjoyed reading.

Jalapeno

Just finished Alan Cumming's excellent memoire.

Interest piqued by Hobbit III film, thought I'd checkout the alleged sources - Silmarillion & Unfinished tales for links between Hobbit & LOTR.

Silmarillion is turgid stuff - pseudo Norse creationist legends (and extended self-congratulatory editor notes by Christopher Tolkien) - not sure if l'm going last.

Might have to bail for some Crime Noir or Space Opera SF.

Blueingreen

DrJazzTap said:

Finally finished the Miles Davis autobiography....hmm not exactly his biggest fan.

 I'm halfway through "The Girl in Hitchcock's shower". Regarding the mystery of what happened to Janet Leighs nude body double from Psycho. Not really enjoying it, scanned some amazon reviews and they are all really negative. By all accounts no mystery involved, and lots of schoolboy lusting of the model by the author. It's the same author who wrote about the Zodiac killer. Chances are I'll end up ditching it. I've read about the filming of the famous shower scene (and that was the only thing that i was interested in really).

I've stoppped buying books at the moment. Simply because I have such a back log to read. Have to stop myself from buying new ones at the moment.

I wouldn't claim to be Miles's biggest fan, but I'm certainly a fan.  One of my five favourite musicians, no doubt.

I've read several books about Miles - the Ian Carr, Brian Morton and John Szwed bios, Ashley Khan's book about the making of Kind of Blue, Richard Williams's book about KOB and its influence on modern music.  However I've never been able to get all the way through his autobiography which to be honest I think is a meretricious piece of trash. 

There's no getting away from the fact that Miles was not a very nice human being, but I'm pretty much inured to that in my musical heroes.  Lennon, Sinatra, Stravinsky - all among my favourite musicians and all capable of being complete arseholes on a regular basis.  You can add Keef and Charlie Parker to the list.

Blueingreen

Clarky said:

the full orchestral scores to:

Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral March

Verde: Requiem Mass

pure fkn genius...

I really envy folk who can read an orchestral score.  Unfortunately I taught myself to read late in life and my skills are pretty basic.