The Official AATG Bookworm Thread

:D

I'm reading partway through way too many books at once but I'm currently most of the way through Sleeper: season 1 by Ed Brubaker.

It's about a bloke that has some weird alien/other dimension thing inside him that means he can store up pain then redirect it at others. He's working for an undercover agency, bit like the CIA.

It's entertaining although the artwork isn't quite to my taste - it seems to lack much character.

I am re-reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series, inspired by the teaser that was put out for the TV adaptation. Please let the next book come out soon. :(

Done with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and I'm seriously not going to bother with any of the other "Oh look how funny I am, I've rewritten a book with a modern anachronism laced through it! Hahahaha!" books that seem to be flooding the market at the moment.

Now reading Boneshaker and in complete contrast to PAPAZ it's got me hooked from page one.

The last thing I read was 'Up With The Larks : Starting Again In Cornwall'.

I picked it up on holiday (in Cornwall, strangely enough). I've looked at it the last couple of times we were down there, and as Mrs boo & I harbour a desire to relocate down there, I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It's basically a woman who was an international Marketing exec for the Body Shop with a 'resting' actor husband and two small kids - she got fed up with a stressy life in London, so they decided to up sticks and move. The house cost more than they expected, and they burned through their money, so she got a job as a Postwoman.

I don't recommend the book as something to read - she comes across as a fairly unpleasant woman, however, the writing was so bloody awful it gave me hope - 'If this can get published (and she's already published a sequel), then I'm damned sure I can get a book in print.

Tales of 80's home computing, appearing in a book store near you, in about 18 months!!!

I finished Jon Dos Passos U.S.A. It's a triology that follows a number of fictional American through the 1910s to 1930.

It was alright, but felt a bit disjointed because of the different narrative styles. Or maybe I shouldn't have read over 4 month and read a number of different books in between.

Much recommend reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It's a non-fiction book about what would happen if humanity would simply vanish from one day to the other. So how long it would take for your homes to be nothing but rubble (50-100 years apparently), what traces we would leave in x amount of years and how quickly nature would return.

Here is the website

What do you think of it, Syrok?

I started reading it a while back, and he seems to use up all the interesting stuff quite early on.

Got about half way in and it was dragging so much I gave up on it. I keep seeing it on the bookshelf and wonder whether I should go back to it.

I would agree with that to a certain extent, but there are quite a few interesting bits towards the end again. Maybe read a few chapters that interest you? I thought the one about nuclear energy (chapter 15) was quite interesting.

You've sold me on that, Syrok, definitely going to check it out.

Boneshaker done and dusted. Apparently there was a thrilling and pacey Steampunk novel hidden in there somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find it.

It took far too long to get where it was supposed to be going and the ending was so cliched you could see it coming a mile off.

The Windup Girl now on the bedside table and one chapter in I'm hooked...

Then we came to the end - Joshua Ferris.
Not sure if I like it and I'm most of the way through it. Despite being well written, it isn't really about anything. Its almost entirely et within an advertising agency that isn't doing well, some people get sacked, a couple die/are seriously Ill.

It's only saved by being well written, just needs a plot.

The intelligent investor - Benjamin Graham.
Probably the most pragmatic and sensible reading there is for anyone looking at investing. Certainly helping me improve how I'm handling risk.

Not a great plot though.

Economics for Dummies.
Not exactly thrilling but still pretty interesting.

Currently reading the "Usotsuki Mii-kun to Kowareta Maa-chan" Light Novel series.

If this ever comes out in English (not impossible, but not likely), I would recommend it to anyone who likes unreliable narrator type stuff. "Usotsuki" means liar, and Mii-kun is quite up front about the fact that he isn't giving you (in his role as narrator) an entirely straight story.

Currently reading Dracula. Haven't read it since I was a student and am seriously loving it. How can you not love a book that has the line "Chasing an errant swam of bees is nothing to following a naked lunatic" in it?!

Going through some old (free) classics courtsey of iBooks and the Gutenberg project.

Read...

Jules Verne - Master Of The World (v. good)

G.K. Chesterton - The Wisdom Of Father Brown - good collection of short stories/mysteries, but some of the language was a bit of a struggle.

Currently reading The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes which is excellent. A few, like The League Of Red Headed Gentlemen (iirc) I've read before, but there's enough that I haven't to keep me interested.

Boo, try Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday". Very surreal, but an interesting read.

Recently re-read B.S. Johnson's "Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry". Which I would recommend to anyone with an interest in writing and the authorial perspective (it's a novel, although the writer appears in it, and the characters are aware they're in a book).

Currently working through Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Bleak and written in an unusual style. Probably move onto Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" next.

Heh; I started reading A Study In Scarlet on iBooks last night, inspired by the new BBC series Sherlock on Sunday.

Bizarro!
Downloaded that yesterday!

I only just noticed that a second book by Kyougoku Natsuhiko (the first being The Summer of the Ubume) has been released in English recently - "Loups-Garous".

It's marginally disappointing that they didn't continue with the Kyougokudou series, since the second book (Mouryou no Hako) is so good, but still this is definitely worth a read.

Halfway through "The Windup Girl" and I'm convinced I need to stop taking recommendations from Boingboing and io9 for "good sci fi reads"

It's so dull, even the promise of replicant prostitute sex hasn't quite delivered...

The last couple of issues of SFX have bizarrely been full of books, worth a gander online to see what they've done IMHO.

Megatokyo Vol. 6 has just landed on my doormat, so I'm re-reading (and falling in love with) the whole series from the start again.

I've pretty much given up reading it on-line - the slow pace, compined with Shirt Guy Dom / Dead Piro Days means that the story becomes quite fragmented.

Being able to just read the story (and admire the artwork) without interruption is great.

Recommended.

Yeah; following the last chapter online has been very tedious. My copy of v6 should arrive with this month's box of comics and I'm looking forward to it...

Just started reading the aforementioned 'The Man Who Was Thursday' by G.K Chesterton.

So far, so weird.

Finished that thing mentioned above. It wasn't very interesting.

Now reading Brasyl by Ian McDonald. So far I haven't a clue what it's about - my new approach is to not know too much about a book before I start. Sometimes it doesn't pay off.

Picked up The Kenneth Williams diaries from a charity shop yesterday.

Can't wait.

Just finished re-reading Megatokyo 1-5, and then reading Vol 6 which has just arrived.

Hard work, compared to previous volumes - the angst has been cranked up to industrial levels, and the Miho storyline is bordering on incomprehensible. Will have to read it a couple more times to get things straight.

The drawing, however, is teh 4w3s0m3. I've always liked Gallagher's art, but looking back on the early stuff, it's amazing how much he's improved.

/picks up pencil and paper
/puts them down again

Nearly finished 'salem's Lot. Don't know why I hadn't read it before (I've read most of King's stuff), but it's been great. There is a Japanese homage to it called "Shiki" (written by the lady who wrote the Twelve Kingdoms series) which is excellent, and that got me on to reading the original.

Part way through The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.
It's the follow up to 'The Atrocity Archive', and it's basically MI6 meets Cthulu in a comedy style.

I say comedy - the first one was a bit light on the laughs - this one's much more amusing.

I'm informed, by a colleague, that each book is a parody, so The Atrocity Archive was a Deighton take-off, while TJM is a Fleming homage.

Good commuting reading.