what are you reading?

[F-ZeroOne]

I'm more familiar with his literary critic defying alter ego Iain M, and "Use of Weapons" is one of my favourite books, with quite possibly the best joke in science fiction (but it only works in context; for those of you that have read it, its the drones get-well-soon present), while "Excession" has one of my favourite characters (the Rapid Offensive Unit "Killing Time", another joke that works on a lot of levels... ). Very sad to hear this news.

[Istar]

I saw his post this morning. For one, brief, moment I thought "is this a late post from two days ago?". Then I read the whole thing, put the iPad down, and imparted my thoughts to the rest of the carriage.

"Fuck".

[funkstar]

Ah, fuck.

[Firefox]

[_TinOmen_]

That is very sad news. He has been one of my favorite authors since I read The Wasp Factory 20 years ago. I enjoy both his novels and sci/fi books.

[Foozwah]

Depressing news. Big fan of a lot of his work, in both "M" and "non-M" incarnations, but especially stuff like The Crow Road and Espedair Street. Fucking cancer.

[rowan]

Very sad. I've not read any of his stuff since around Complicity but standout works for me are The Bridge, The Crow Road & The Player of Games. All of which I've read at least 3 times & had those nice 1st edition covers. Man, around 20 years ago... Back in the day when I first discovered them they were genuine horizon-widening books - perhaps partly because of my age - but they had brilliantly conceived plot lines & the Culture is always such a fun place to be reading about.
Crap news. They have my thoughts.

[F-ZeroOne]

Just finished "Gundam: The Origin Volume 1", a manga re-telling (and revision) of the original "One Year War" saga by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, who was the character designer for the first Gundam series.

Its gorgeous, and at times flows almost like an anime (in fact, it was so successful in Japan they're making one). Sadly, the Western version has sold about minus three copies which makes it fairly unlikely we'll see anymore, which makes me want to cry the Tears of Time...

[zip accident]

for me, i'm reading "the religious case against belief". interesting.

I just read three in that vein. "The religious case against belief", "Christian Atheist" and "The Courage to be"

The first is ... I don't really remember, my memory is terrible, but ... Christian Atheist "there are non-believers coming to my church, wah ..." I didn't finish it. The Courage to be is old, 1950s old, but it's a hodge podge of references to Existentialism and Nietzsche, with a bunch of other philosophers thrown into the mix as well, if you like philosophy it may well be of interest to you even if you're not as Christian as the author undoubtedly was.

[guythp]

My dad brought over 'You are awful (but I like you)' by Tim Moore the other day for me to read, where he travels to the worst places in Britain, driving the worst car he could find, whilst listening to the worst music and using ozzy osbourne for sat nav and trying to eat the worst food at the worst places to eat. It's the first of his I've read, and although he comes across to me as slightly irritating, and not quite as amusing as Bryson, he at least swears enough and so far (only at chapter 4) is easy to read, and I compare to Bryson as he narrates his personal travels whilst giving the background on the places he visits as well.

[supermario]

Just started Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy - see yous in about 2 years......

I've just started "The Naked God" (so I've forgotten most of the stuff from The Reality Dysfunction....)

[koogy]

Just finished "Gundam: The Origin Volume 1"...

Sadly, the Western version has sold about minus three copies which makes it fairly unlikely we'll see anymore...

i had a look on amazon.co.uk for this and it offered to sell me the first three. looking closer, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th have published dates in the future (jun, sept, dec) but it is listing them (if it's the same thing - hardbacks, Vertical Publishing)

[F-ZeroOne]

I may well be wrong on this, but my understanding was that the first hardback volume was only going to be released if it got a certain number of pre-orders (the figure I remember is 4,000), and just barely scraped that.

So pre-order the others, damn you, or Char will shoot you through the face with a bazooka!

[fog]

My dad brought over 'You are awful (but I like you)' by Tim Moore the other day for me to read, where he travels to the worst places in Britain, driving the worst car he could find, whilst listening to the worst music and using ozzy osbourne for sat nav and trying to eat the worst food at the worst places to eat. It's the first of his I've read, and although he comes across to me as slightly irritating, and not quite as amusing as Bryson, he at least swears enough and so far (only at chapter 4) is easy to read, and I compare to Bryson as he narrates his personal travels whilst giving the background on the places he visits as well.

His French Revolutions book where he cycles the route of the Tour de France as an overweight 30-something with a hatred for cycling is equally good, especially if you have any interest in cycling.

[NorthWay]

Dan Brown's "Inferno".

Not sure I'll recommend it.