what are you reading?

[Deckard]

I am reading an old Ben Elton "Meltdown" which I think is meant to be a comedy about some city types going down on their luck - I cant say its very good but its short so I'll finish it before going back to The Dark Tower

[funkstar]

The problem I had with Saturday was not so much the writing, which was as effortless and faultless as usual, it was the characters. They were so horribly right-on and well-to-do as to be completely unbelievable. I couldn't empathise with any of them and I ended up hating the lot...

A book about a climate change scientist sounded just a bit too close to a book about a consultant surgeon (who does a lot of work for charidee) with a blues-musician son and a poet daughter (this is Saturday I'm talking about). I might pick Solar up if I see it on the cheap. But do read Enduring Love.

Trust me, the main character in Solar is not like that: it's biting satire, through and through.

[Viscount Charles]

You can tell which books I rate most highly by checking my bookshelves for hardbacks. I don't buy them to read them, but instead to have the best copy of the very best books that will survive reading and re-reading long after my Kindle's dead.

Robert Jordan. George R R Martin. Peter F Hamilton (though I never did get around to buying the Night's Dawn trilogy in HB). And the recent addition to that select club, Peter Brett's Painted Man series. Book two of which I thought was the best read I've had in several years.

Lots of other great stuff out there - Iain M Banks' Culture novels, the Scott Lynch stuff, KJ Parker (man or woman? I'm not close to being sure, and I've seen strong evidence for both genders). But Peter Brett's series is fantastic.

[oomocks]

Me too. Which is why my second novel is going to hardback first, despite the burgeoning paperback market in comparison. I've always splashed out on hardbacks of my favourite books even if I was initially loaned them or picked them up on paperback. Love my kindle, but you can't beat a shelf load of treasured hardbacks

[The ghost of raids past]

I'm the opposite I am currently giving my hardbacks to charity shops and replacing them with electronic versions. Backed up the electronic versions will last far longer than the paper versions. The other advantage being I vastly reduce the storage needed.

[Jonesey]

If I can help it I probably won't buy another actual paper book "book" type book again!

[Governmentyard]

Cormac McCarthy: The Road

quite bleak...

[The ghost of raids past]

Finally finished Dance with Dragons. It does pick up pace in the last 20% of the book. It's almost like it's being written by a different author. Maybe he was just pushed to release and actually got on with things at the end. It set up some interesting threads but the next book must

A) come out in less than 2 years
B) keep up a good pace

80% of the book did very very little and the last part only just did enough to stop me giving on the series.

[Viscount Charles]

Absolutely; the first 80% should have been edited to account for no more than half of the overall content of the book.

Hopefully the fat cheques that he'll be cashing from HBO will persuade him to rattle through the rest of the tale without either the long gaps or the obvious padding.

Spoiler: show

What happened to Rickon, by the way? I remember he escaped Winterfell with Bran, but that was a while ago. Where's he been hiding?

[Istar]

Now: Racing The Beam.
Next: The ZX Spectrum ULA

[gravy]

Cormac McCarthy: The Road

quite bleak...

It's got bleak coming out of its arse.

I think that's actually on the back cover.

[the2bears]

Absolutely; the first 80% should have been edited to account for no more than half of the overall content of the book.

Hopefully the fat cheques that he'll be cashing from HBO will persuade him to rattle through the rest of the tale without either the long gaps or the obvious padding.

Spoiler: show

What happened to Rickon, by the way? I remember he escaped Winterfell with Bran, but that was a while ago. Where's he been hiding?

Spoiler: show

Davos, the Onion Knight, went off to retrieve him I think?

Bill

[t0ne]

Now: Racing The Beam.
Next: The ZX Spectrum ULA

Haha! I've got both of those books and not started either yet

[Gorecki]

Cormac McCarthy: The Road

quite bleak...

It's got bleak coming out of its arse.

I think that's actually on the back cover.

I actually found it quite uplifting, in a way. But then I practically skipped out of the cinema after seeing The Mist.

[No Name]

Cormac McCarthy: The Road

quite bleak...

It's got bleak coming out of its arse.

I think that's actually on the back cover.

I didn't think it was quite bleak enough. At the end:

Spoiler: show

I thought the kid should have had to eat his own father to stay alive; as it was, him being found by a friendly family was a little too saccharine for me.