What are you reading at the moment?

[Swallow]

Continuing my traverse of Philip Reeve's work, I've just finished reading Larklight. I enjoyed it for what it was but I couldn't help but be disappointed in its lack of any real undertones of pathos and grief that drove home the story in the Mortal Engines series. I guess this series is aimed at younger readers though. I've got the second book in the trilogy, Starcross, to read now. It'll be interesting to see where the story goes as I felt that the world and character of Larklight had been very neatly tied up in the fist book, despite it at first appearing to have far more scope for intrigue than the world of Municipal Darwinism, I'll be sure to report back, whichever way it goes.

[Silent Runner]

At the moment The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I picked this up because I’m a big Del Toro fan. It’s about an ancient virus that infects people and turns them into Vampire style creatures. During a solar eclipse the virus escapes and starts infecting New York.

This is pretty boring so far. It’s taken about 150 pages of tedious backstory and dull technical descriptions (why do so many authors feel the need to write page after page of graphic autopsy description and police procedure techniques?) to get going. The main story is pretty good and nods heavily towards Dracula, The Stand, I am Legend, zombie movies and loads of other good stuff. The main guy is interesting but again his story gets bogged down in a lame-ass child custody subplot.

This is supposedly the first part of a trilogy so I suppose all the annoying backstory setup will cover the remaining 2 books but I doubt I’ll bother with them. In fact if Del Toro wasn’t involved I would have given up after a hundred pages.

I’m also reading The Travelling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon. Sexy dames, sexy vampires, plenty of gore and some wayward teen in trouble. This is great. I love Richard Laymon and I don’t know why his books aren’t regularly made into movies. If I was some Hollywood type I’d be optioning his whole back catalogue.

Third one I have on the go is A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson. This is excellent. A thriller set in 90’s Lisbon and 40’s Germany. The dual narratives are starting to come together nicely. I like Robert Wilsons books but they can be a bit dry sometimes.

I also just bought a Sony Pocket Reader so I’ve put loads of books onto that. Mostly old stuff I’ve already read that I’ll be able to dip into on the go.

[BrerLappin]

Just finished Mary by Nabokov. Very good, not quite Lolita good, but still..very good.

[Yasawas]

A month shy of thirty and I'm finally getting round to reading my first Stephen King - The Gunslinger. About a third in and I'm not sold yet and I can't decide if the Once Upon a Time in the West OST is helping or hindering my enjoyment while I read on the train.

[Flub]

I didn't enjoy The Gunslinger but I enjoyed the ones after it. Stick at it until you've read the second book at least.

On the way home from work I'll be starting Version 43 by Philip Palmer. His previous two books were cracking sci-fi so I have high hopes for this one.

[Kingpin]

I finished Neverwhere the other week. Very enjoyable, so much more so than American Gods. I still thought the ending was a bit brief & easy but there you go. I would still heartily recommend it.

Now reading The Count of Monte Cristo, though I've really only read the 1st chapter whilst a bit drunk. It was enjoyable but it's just the size of it that's putting me off. I need to finish that one if only to get that space back in my suitcase! Expect a review in about a month.

[Yasawas]

I didn't enjoy The Gunslinger but I enjoyed the ones after it. Stick at it until you've read the second book at least.

I will, you don't seem to be alone in feeling that way and I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt that it's only a bit haphazard and generally unfulfilling because it needs to set up so much groundwork for some incredible things to happen. I hope.

Now onto Kieron Smith, boy by James Kelman. Excellent, as I knew it would be after loving How Late it Was, How Late when I read it a few years ago. Similar in style and what it tries to achieve but from a totally different perspective and a bit more ambitious. Great for the train too, read it for five minutes, answer the phone, have your ticket checked and straight back in because it's so segmented with no complex narrative. Nice.

[wev]

Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend". Roughly half way through it (just over in fact) and have enjoyed every single page, line and word up to this point. Some of his imagery is absolutely spot on, something I strive for in my own writing and despite Robert Neville being a rather difficult character I much prefer him to the Robert Neville in the movie adaptation.

[Flub]

I will, you don't seem to be alone in feeling that way and I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt that it's only a bit haphazard and generally unfulfilling because it needs to set up so much groundwork for some incredible things to happen. I hope.

Nah. It's fucking rubbish because he wrote it when he was a teenager and dived straight up his own arse. He wrote the others after he figured out how to write.

[Yasawas]

I'm 48% of the way through Part II now and I'd have to agree with that The difference is incredible, even after he'd went back and edited parts of the first one to try and make it a bit less wanky it's hard to believe it's the same guy.

Loving it.

[Archie]

Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend". Roughly half way through it (just over in fact) and have enjoyed every single page, line and word up to this point. Some of his imagery is absolutely spot on, something I strive for in my own writing and despite Robert Neville being a rather difficult character I much prefer him to the Robert Neville in the movie adaptation.

This. I only finally read it a few months ago - the bit where (you'll have read it)

he realises he doesn't have time to get back home

is a genuine "oh shit" moment like I've never experienced from a book before.

[wev]

I think that and

him trying to coax the dog into his house

were my favourite parts of the book.

[scottcr]

First post in this thread \o/

just read 'Pandaemonium' by Christopher Brookmyer.

It was written for folks like us, you'll love it.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I'm reading The Hobbit again

Must be the 10th time or something.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I just finished The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, the first of his non-Underworld-USA books that I've read, and it was great and substantially different from American Tabloid et al. Not just the restricted first-person narrative, but the more conventional writing style without telegrammatic sentences. It also seemed like a 'nicer' book, too, up until the climax, despite dealing with such a horrific torture-murder.

I'm now reading The Stornoway Way by Kevin Macneil, which has been described as doing for Stornoway/the Western Isles what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh. Very good so far, deliciously cynical and profane and very funny at times. Rings true to me, too.

[Silent Runner]

I think that and

him trying to coax the dog into his house

were my favourite parts of the book.

That was one of my favourite parts as well. It's so sad when the dog goes missing. For such a short book there's loads of standout moments - the last bit when he looks out over the sea of vampires and realises what he's become is incredible.

[Silent Runner]

Over the weekend I finished a couple of paperbacks:

Star Island by Carl Hiassen. This was pretty good but fairly standard Hiassen fare. It featured some recurring characters from his previous novels including the return of the former Governor. I enjoyed it but I’d like to see Carl H. try something different, maybe set a book outside Florida or try a new field.

Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell. This is a novel about a mafia hitman in the witness protection programme who becomes a doctor in a hospital. I can see it being sold to the publisher as ER meets The Sopranos. This was OK, the central character had a good voice but there was a pointless holocaust backstory (I’m always suspicious of contemporary fiction that crow-bars in a holocaust element in an attempt to add some gravitas to the story) and a rubbish final 30 pages. I don’t think I’ll be bothering with any subsequent titles from this author.

[Yasawas]

Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan just done, a slow start I thought but I enjoyed it overall.

I think I'll go for I Am Legend now as I've had it kicking about for a wee while and I want to know what those spoilers up there say.

[Don Wiskerando]

Against a Dark Background for the third time. I swear that it's(?) different every time I read it.

[Flub]

The Coming of the Terraphiles by Michael Moorcock. Right weird it is too. Judoon playing cricket and all manner of insanity.

[redbloodcell]

I bought (and finished) Brett Easton Ellis' newest today - Imperial Bedrooms, the follow up to Less than Zero. I read Less than Zero a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it, so was interested to see where he took things in this one. Its well written and (as evidenced by my polishing it off in a day) compelling to read, but at the same time the whole last act is incredibly dark and uncomfortable. No doubt it was supposed to be but it leaves me with the feeling that, whilst I was definitely engaged by the book, I'm not entirely sure I liked it.

[cerseis eyebrows]

Just finished A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's fucking glorious, like my favourite book . .. ever. Ignatius is certainly one of the great comic creations. I wont go into detail, I'll save that for another time, and I'm sure most of you would have read it (and I'm lazy), but here is wiki wiki

My link

Also been dipping in and out of JG Ballard's Short Stories 1. The only previous Ballard I've read, Cocaine Nights, was decent but nothing more so it's great to see what he's really all about. I love the ideas he brings to the stories and the subtlety in which he creates surreal set ups. And you get the feeling there is always something sinister going on in his worlds, even if it's never made apparent. 'Escapement' 'The Concentration City', 'Manhole 69' and 'The Waiting Grounds' are the highlights so far. 'Escapement' especially left me feeling unsettled, to the point that I was contemplating how sanity/the mind is such a fragile thing, and had a dream that night with the same Groundhog Day scenario.

[gilly]

Reading 'The American Claimant' by Twain, didn't have a clue what it was about, but love Twain and it was a nice looking edition - because sometimes I do judge a book by the cover. About to start 'The Light Fantastic', only a month ago I'd never heard of the discworld, and now I want to read the lot!

[Chosty]

Just finished A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's fucking glorious, like my favourite book . .. ever. Ignatius is certainly one of the great comic creations. I wont go into detail, I'll save that for another time, and I'm sure most of you would have read it (and I'm lazy), but here is wiki wiki

My link

Also been dipping in and out of JG Ballard's Short Stories 1. The only previous Ballard I've read, Cocaine Nights, was decent but nothing more so it's great to see what he's really all about. I love the ideas he brings to the stories and the subtlety in which he creates surreal set ups. And you get the feeling there is always something sinister going on in his worlds, even if it's never made apparent. 'Escapement' 'The Concentration City', 'Manhole 69' and 'The Waiting Grounds' are the highlights so far. 'Escapement' especially left me feeling unsettled, to the point that I was contemplating how sanity/the mind is such a fragile thing, and had a dream that night with the same Groundhog Day scenario.

Some excellent reading there.

There's a JG Ballard thread that might interest you. It's not seen much action recently (I might make a post, though) but you should be able to pick up some recommendations for futher reading.

[over1000inrhyme]

I just finished The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, the first of his non-Underworld-USA books that I've read, and it was great and substantially different from American Tabloid et al. Not just the restricted first-person narrative, but the more conventional writing style without telegrammatic sentences. It also seemed like a 'nicer' book, too, up until the climax, despite dealing with such a horrific torture-murder.

I've got this waiting on my shelf. I'd not really read any crime writing before starting on the Red Riding series, but having read of the profound effect reading White Jazz had on David Peace I thought I'd like to go back and read Ellroy's own quartet.

Reading this conversation between the two authors makes me want to spend a few weeks ploughing through a whole lot of their work.

[Silent Runner]

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

I’m about 50 pages into this one. It’s set in a post-something Thailand of the future; post-apocalypse, post-oil, post-silicon or post something unspecified. Genetically modified elephants are used to turn turbines to generate electricity, abandoned sentient robots (the windup girls) live on the streets and food corporations search the back alleys of shanty towns for new (old) food stuffs they can clone.

I’ve enjoyed this so far and it reminds me of a few other authors. There’s a definite Alex Garland vibe off it. So far no central plot has emerged and I hope a story develops and it’s not just a well drawn universe. Interesting stuff.

[Silent Runner]

Reading this conversation between the two authors makes me want to spend a few weeks ploughing through a whole lot of their work.

That was a great read, cheers for the link. You won't regret any time you put into James Ellroy. The early stuff like the Llyod Hopkins books pretty good but the anything from The Black Dahlia on will blow your mind.

[12345]

I'm about twenty-odd pages into Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante. This is the third Fante book I've read and I can see that I'm going to enjoy it as much as the other two.

[Scribblor]

Tripwire, by Lee Child. It's a Reacher novel. Don't think I need to say any more.

[Yasawas]

Finished Waste Lands, part 3 of The Dark Tower series yesterday and trying to pace myself with the rest. Having them queued up on the Kindle is a bit misleading though as I understand there are many thousands of pages left to it yet.

Now, The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan.