what are you reading?

[thalamus]

Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone
Had the books on my shelf for some years, so I finally took the plunge. Reads like a modern-day Enid Blyton, and I can really see why the books filled a niche that had been empty for so long. Not exactly a work of genius, but enjoyable and wholesome; will be interesting to see how the series develops.

Life of Pi
This was recommended by so many people; I'd heard stories of people literally pausing life to finish it. I finished the book not knowing what was fact and what was fiction, and subsequently realised what the point of the book was all about. Not worth the hype, but I do adore the adventure I took with Pi.

[SimonB]

After Fragile Things I read The Man Who Ran The Moon by Piers Bizony - a good look at all the politics behind the Apollo missions that usually gets a few brief mentions in amongst the engineering and heroics in other books.

Now onto Dr Who spin-off The Stealers Of Dreams by Steve Lyons.

Audiowise I'm now up to The White Dragon in my epic Pern listen-through but due to Phoe problems had a break last week with Danny Wallace And The Centre Of The Universe, which was hilarious.

[nyarla]

Just finished:

Thud by Terry Pratchett. I loved this one, a lot more than the other newest Discworld book I've read, Going Postal. (Haven't gotten to Makin' Money yet)... It was quite epic. The descriptions of the Koom valley scenery were beautiful. Definitely nice to get out of Ankh Morpork sometimes. I gotta go back and read Equal Rites and, well all of them again.

The Brightonomicon by Robert Rankin. I've only read a couple of his books before, they were great. This one was even better. Anyone who likes words as much as Robert Rankin obviously does has got to be good. A great conjurer of atmosphere.

[nyarla]

Now I am reading The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien.

It's utter awesome and makes me want to have some Romanesco cabbage and almond bread for my tea.
Also, now I see where Robert Rankin gets it from.

[spinlizard]

Picked up a copy of Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl recently. Most people know about the book, but for any who don't it details the authors 1947 expedition across the Pacific on a balsa raft seeking to prove his theory about how the Polynesian islands were originally populated.

I'm fascinated by the history of the South Americas anyway and finding this a fantastic book.

[merman]

William Boyd - Armadillo

Remember the TV adaptation quite well, it's a damn odd story but draws you in

[CharlieF]

Rather an odd Asimov to start with though. The arse end of the Foundation series

Is it? I thought it was the second of three?

I think that's the order I read them in, but it's a long time ago.

Love the Foundation series. I'm currently reading through them again.

This is the order I read them in.

Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
Prelude To Foundation
Forward The Foundation

The first three are the original trilogy. I suppose timeline-wise you should obviously start with Prelude, then Forward then the trilogy, but I prefer to read them in the published order.

Has anyone here read the second Foundation trilogy? They're not written by the Asimov so I've been very hesistant to try them. Are they better then all those awful Dune sequels...?

[HGFB]

I'm currently halfway through Wiffle Lever to Full by Bob Fischer and keep laughing out loud in public places while reading it.

[F-ZeroOne]

I've read that as well - a fun romp through British SF fandom.

[Daniel]

At work: "Agile Software Development with Scrum".
It's only 150 pages or so, but yet they manage to repeat most things over and over again. It seems like scrum is not complicated enough to fill a book. That is good news, because that means it's easy to understand. But don't buy the book. You don't need it.

At home: "No present like time".
It's the follow-up to "The year of our war". I really like the setting and the mood of the story. It's sort of like Fantasy, but not quite. It reminds me of "Perdidio Street Station", but replace the steam punk with immortals.

[zip accident]

I just found this on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hagakure-Book-S ... _ir_all_91

I hope I'll be able to find time to read it when it arrives.

[HGFB]

I've just started reading The Handmaid's Tale my Margaret Atwood.

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency, against the backdrop of a totalitarian pseudo-Christian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government in the near future. Sumptuary laws (dress codes) play a key role in imposing social control within the new society.

The American Library Association lists it in "10 Most Challenged Books of 1999" and as number 37 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000"[1] due to many complaints from parents of pupils regarding the novel's anti-religious content and sexual references.

[limb_clock]

Content by Cory Doctorow. He offered a free PDF download from craphound, and i liked his "When web admins ruled the world" short story, i thought i'd give it a go.

[HGFB]

You should read some of his other stuff too Limb. He's releases pretty much everything he does for free. Give Little Brother a try.

[stark]

The beach , by alex garland, because it can't be as bad as the film