Given that the degree students at my university have rebelled after being told to read William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' because it's 'too hard' I suspect that the reason it's not taught in schools is that no-one would read it. I have sat in numerous lectures and seminars with the awareness that I'm probably one of the two people in the room that read the 14 page extract that we were supposed to be studying. It doesn't fill you with hope about the chances of anyone reading a thousand page text.

I've been taking a break from serious books recently, so in the last week I've read 'Guilty Pleasures' by Laurell K. Hamilton (which is a Buffy rip-off, and was daft, quite fun, and very forgettable) and 'Hogfather' by Terry Pratchett, which I often read at this time of year because it makes me feel a bit Christmassy.

[I've decided to pin this thread, because I see it as an equal to the music thread]

Sounds like me and trying to read Lenin when I was thirteen. I think I lost the book, actually, and am extremely saddened, 'cause I think I might understand it a little bit more now.

Yay for pinnage!

Anyways, I went to the bookstore and bought some depressing poetry (Poe, Dickinson, Plath) and I went to the library and have a heap of sci-fi. I have two weeks of winter break and I am already having fun.

I read the first Lemony Snicket book last week (in five minute snatches). It's quite fun, and I can see why it is popular. As PVCFairy pointed out when we were chatting about it, it's written so that it will be perfect to read aloud to kids. It's also quite evil, which I think children like.

Currently I'm ambling through Dilbert's 'The Joy Of Work', by Scott Adams. As always with Dilbert books, it's very funny. Now I've got my animations finished I'm going to have to get back to studying so I can't have anything that's too distracting to read. When I start a good novel I find it tends to eat my life until I've finished it, which isn't good for my productivity!

I think I like the lemony snicket books beacause, well the way he words things. Recently he was asked his opinion on the Harry Potter books.-

Harry Potter seems like a very nice young fictional man. If I were in the habit of befriending fictional people, I'd be happy to make his acquaintance, but the trouble with fictional friendships is that you tend to find yourself sitting in a café talking excitedly to an empty chair. After several hours, the staff will probably force you to leave, even if there are still uneaten madeleines sitting on your plate, all ready to be covered in strawberry jam. Normally, if you were being treated unfairly, you could count on a friend to help you, but a fictional friend - even one with fictional magic powers - will probably just stand there with a confused and fictional look on his or her face.



which is pretty typical of him...but i'll take it as a compliment.

I think ages ago I read this wicked book called Two Years Before The Mast. It was about some dude who couldn't go to university because he was blind and so he went to work on a ship for two years and realised the awful conditions for sailors and tried to improve things for them. It's a true story as well.

Personally I'm not too keen on the Harry Potter series. I mean, for a start it really bugs me the way that everyone is like woooo Harry Potter! I mean, they are nice to read but they don't challenge the reader much and I think that Rowling has gone downhill since the first book.

Also I'm not too keen on the Lemony Snicket books. I mean, I agree with voices that they are very nicely worded but the plot seems to be pretty much the same for all the books.

I think that Day of The Triffids is very good. I mean, it seems like a really stupid idea but it's really good and nicely written. Also the book A Little Lower Than The Angels is quite a young book but made me think for a long time and is just a nice short story before bed. It's really sweet.

I have just finished:

Land of Fire by Chris Ryan

The Star's Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

I am now between books, can anyone recommend me something based on the above?

If you've not read 'Altered Carbon' by Richard Morgan then you should really read that. It's sci-fi/noir, but has great pacing and is all-around brilliantly written, which it has in common with the other ones you mention. Also, it's being turned into a film, so read it now before Hollywood spoils it utterly!

Cheers Mata, I will look out for it.

Just started Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Just started...

Love All The People, Bill Hicks

Spike Milligan the Biography.

Just finished a massive antho of Ray Bradbury (Illustrated Man, Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, and Golden Apples of the Sun), 1984 and Player Piano (Kurt Vonne-...gut? get?). I also started The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down, whose author is difficult to remember. It's a fantastic book, even though the subject matter is rather un-enthralling. Somehow it's absolutely fascinatingalthough that might just have been me very staunchly trying to ignore my mother on the train. And I wonder why parents are disappointed in their distant/cruel children?

Pointless details of my life have been whitened, so as not to spam obviously. I'd recommend all listed, although Dandelion Wine is a bit dull.

Dandelion Wine, a bit dull...hehe. We had to read that over summer for my english class. A friend described it as "physically painful to read". It's a shame because I like Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451 and short stories and a couple odd novels that aren't too famous) but I thought that one was awfully boring.

What'd you think of Player Piano? (Vonnegut) I found it didn't get very interesting for a little while, but then all of a sudden it did.

I just finished a bunch of Philip K. Dick stories and am reading a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe stories.

For Christmas I got Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, which definately breaks the crap fantasy mold. It's written like a fantasy as done by a 19th-century author (although it's modern). Jane Austin does Tolkien. It's a bizarre combination, but witty and worth reading if you can stand classic English prose.

Yay... I've just bought a great book called Old Friends and New Music.... I cannot remember the author for the life of me though... it was written by a famous composer.... not Wagner (I know he wrote a lot of books) but someone called Nicholas or something....

Hmmm... I have also just read this book called the Harmonograph.... and.. (surprise surprise).... is all about the harmonograph. I cannot remember again who it is by though.... grrrrr

About the same, although I liked the opening scene with the....cat. I just had an urge to call it "kitty"
Best though, had to be the scenes with the Shah. ("So where are your children now?" "Over at the neighbors, watching television." And the man who is completely average- I thought that was genius. Vonnegut was definetely the master of social satire. I have yet to get my mitts on Breakfast of Champions, though.



"So, Timmy, what are you writing?"
*Dreamy voice* "Everything. I'm going to remember EVERYTHING!"

Please, Timmy, no!

The Clarke book sounds very nifty. I shall have to find that one somewhere.

Indeed. Hehe. I liked Finnerty best. I've also read Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five and enjoyed them.



Weirdest scene in the book: I'm alive! I'm aliiiive!

I was really surprised by his style. I expected it to be very heavy going, but he's actually very easy to read. I've only had time for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep so far, but I hope I'll get around to some of his other books soon.

Just as a side note; does anyone here like Charles Dickens? I personally think that it's some of the most dreary prose I've ever had the displeasure of reading, and I'd be interested to hear a defence of his work!

Just finished "The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul" by Douglas Adams. Great book. Great. I haven't read the first, so I will soon (hopefully.) Anyway, I'm currently in the middle of reading "Attorney for the Damned" a delightful little romp about a lawyer who specializes in mental illness. It's a bit creepy and depressing, but... yeah. I'm a sicko or some such; mental illness is an interest of mine.

I've only ever read one of Dicken's books, A Christmas Carol, which I like, though it's tough going. One of the big problems with it, was that it was a serial first, printed in a magazine that paid by the word, and Dickens had absolutely no qualms about padding his text... Still, the charachter of Scrooge, as the Miser who both hated and feared the world around him, was quite vivid, and, in a way, sympathetic. We've all had our Scrooge moments, I think, when we choose to curse the darkness, rather than light a candle... and his redemption is hope for the rest of us...

How was that? Haven't read anything else but those stories, but they were a lot of stories, hehe. Yes, his style is very enthralling and not at all difficult. All the twists in the stories I read were pretty different, so it was hard to predict what the ending would be.

I have to read A Tale of Two Cities this year, I hope it's not *too* bad.

Just finished Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs (I felt I had_to read them before seeing the movies) and I have a question re: the latter to anyone who's read it: Towards the end, while Clarice in the basement and the lights are about to be turned off, what is the significance of the body in the bathtub? It(meaning the bathtub) is filled with a "purplish-pink plaster, with a blackened hand" sticking out. Is this just to reiterate the fact that Jame is a friggin psycho or is the body supposed to be someone? His mother, perhaps? Anyway, end my confusion if you can, oh most holy book-reading forumites.

edit: alas, for poor punctuation doth be my downfall

Just finished The High Lord by Trudi Canavan.

It's the third and final book in her Black Magician trilogy and all three were amazing. She kept me hooked throughout the series and has left it open for another related series without making this trilogy feel unfulfilled. Highly recommended (especially for Fallen Element, definately one you'd like).



I think it's just to seal the deal on his psychoness - there's nothing to suggest it would be significant in any other way and probably too Norman Bates for it to be his mother.

Although, thinking about it - wouldn't that have been somehow connected to the way that he flayed the bodies? *been a while since I read the books*

Holocaust- Dwork/ van Pelt

I'm reading " O- The Intimate History of The Orgasm" by Jonathan Margolis, and I'm also reading "The Rattle Bag" which an anthology of poetry edited by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.
I'm just too greedy!

Currently reading:

Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
Abhorsen - Garth Nix (Again...)
A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf


Some heavy - some light! All good.


Fal xXx

I'm reading this really good fantasy book called The Shadow on the Glass by Ian Irvine. It's the first in the series and I recommend it to people.

I managed to find a copy of "house of the scorpian" in my school's library. go me.

anyway, so far it's a great book and A bit sad to tell the truth.

Reading The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis. This one's a bit more like reading Plato than some of his others, but I'm impressed thus far.

I'm reading 'Stardust' by Neil Gaiman

But if you've got a few minutes free, I'd suggest you read his short story 'We can get them for you wholesale'

Have you read "The Wolves In The Walls"? It's a kids book, but of course because it's by Gaiman and illustrated by the wonderful Dave McKean it's a tad darker than Noddy...

*puts hand up* Me! Me! I have. I really like the illustrations! Once I have the funds, I plan on buying the rest of their books.

I've been recommended The Day I Swapped My Father For Two Gold Fish.

I read Coraline, which Wolves in the Walls is possibly a sequel to. I certainly intend to read everything he's ever written ever.

One word which should keep most of us happy for quite a while: Mirrormask

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

"On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero."

Joooygasm!

If anyone likes historical fiction with a little romance and sci-fi thrown in, I highly suggest the author Rosalind Miles (she writes non-fiction too). I just finished two of her triologies. The first one is about King Arthur and Queen Guenevere and the second is about Queen Isolde and Tristan (Queen Isolde is queen of Ireland at the same time Guenevere is Queen of England). These are really great books especially if you're into this sort of thing and I highly recommend them all.

Book Books And More Books
I've just finished reading Harold’s End - JT LeRoy, I thought it was really tender and gentle even thought it was dealing with his common themes of street kids, prostitution and drugs. It had pretty pictures too.

Recently read
Sarah - JT LeRoy
The Heart is Deciteful Above All Things - JT LeRoy
The Gruffalo’s Child - Julia Donaldson

Recently re-read
Thin Skin - Emma Forest
Catcher in the Rye - JG Salinger
Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide – PP Hartnett

Currently reading
Altered Carbon – Richard Morgan
Close to the Bone - edited Laurie Stone
Dry - Dennis Cooper
Basketball Diaries - Jim Carroll

I think have too much time on my hands

I've just started reading Crime and Punishment.

Philip Pullman - The Amber Spyglass

OMFG - I'm 3/4 through and I have really enjoyed this trilogy!

Just finished Fight Club. I reiterate what Irish Guy said.

Ah, that was a fun one for me... Read it over the summer. Have fun.

That's a good one. I just finished reading it, <3 the end.

Right now I'm reading Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. Just loved Wicked, and I'm liking this one too. Never knew I was a fan of the Fractured Fairy Tales genre. Next up I'll probably read either Lost by Gregory or To Kill a Mockingbird, because everyone says it's great and makes me feel uneducated for never reading it.

I had to do that for GCSE English. It was one of the only books I've been forced to read that I really enjoyed.

It is a good read, I stayed up til 6am reading Northern Lights, but they're all pretty awesome.

I'm on feet of clay, after hogfather I'm out of books again *mutters* (yay pratchett)

Finished Confessions. It was really good, I suggest it to you all =P Instead of To Kill a Mockingbird I'm going to go look for the Snow White one and read it [I think it's Mirror Mirror?]

I finnished Northan Lights the other day, and to be honest was a lill disapointed by it, but I heard that *mumble* dies in the end, so now I'm curious, and will read defiantly read the other three.

I picked up Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke today, started reading, not too sure if I like it yet. From what I've read so far it's about magic, or rather the lack of magic being practiced in 19th century England.

Snow Glass Apples, a short story by Neil Gaiman is a great take on Snow White. I think I'm starting to sound too much like a Gaiman fanboy, so I'm going to shut up about him for a while.

Books I started reading then literally didnt put down until I'd finished them:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time.

Neil Gaiman is teh bestest

So, what do I read for fun?

A mozart biography, of course.

It's by Marcia Davenport. It's (I believe) the oldest biography about Mozart, but it's the most complete and accurate eevr written.

The Pain Journal by Bob Flanagan (Artist, sufferer of Cystic Fibrosis and Supermasochist).
It's a journal he wrote during the last year of his life. Briliant, depressing, yet uplifting at the same time :-)

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. Not by choice... but it isn't so bad yet. There's a poster on our English room wall that says "It was the worst book before page 80 and the best book after page 80."

charles dickens is a fantastic author. that book is really cool

Yeah, Two Cities is pretty good. Save for that one chapter where Dickens personified the town as a person. I got the point, but goddamn that was annoying.

Anyway, I just finished reading "The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul" and would really like to read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" but I need to grab a copy for that to pass, yeah? Currently, I'm working my way through "The Salmon of Doubt" and from what I've read, the most introduced book in history is pretty great.

Just finished 'Who moved my Cheese?' and I would recommend it to anyone facing change in their lives