The 'Currently Reading' Thread.

[Guest]

Bought man in the high castle as fancied reading a show before watching it.....90 pages into 240 amd nothing has happened yet. Doesn't bode well

[HarmonicGenerator]

Bought man in the high castle as fancied reading a show before watching it.....90 pages into 240 amd nothing has happened yet. Doesn't bode well

Don't expect it to pick up pace. Read it recently and I can't say it's stuck with me.

[Carbomb]

Only Revolutions though is a thundering load of badge muck, Gus. Stay clear. It doesn’t have a beginning or an end. I don't know what happened. That Melbourne Hipster chap? It’s the literary equivalent of him.

 

I can't say I think it's that bad, although, like Gus with HOL, I'm not entirely sure if I like Only Revolutions yet either. I'm waiting for something, and I don't know what.

 

One thing to mention about it: I think Chest Rockwell would like it, as Danielewski's sort of based the style on a hip-hop flow.

[SpursRiot2012]

 

Bought man in the high castle as fancied reading a show before watching it.....90 pages into 240 amd nothing has happened yet. Doesn't bode well

Don't expect it to pick up pace. Read it recently and I can't say it's stuck with me.

I really enjoyed it which was why I was so hyped for the TV show. Which didn't disappoint. It was quite good.

[Onyx2]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through House of Leaves, based on recommendation from here. I don't actually know if I like it yet.

 

I prefer the house parts and find reading anything by Johnny a bit like reading something written by a sixth-former who has watched Skins too much. It's a very clever book. Perhaps too much so for its own good at times, when the novelty of layout/split accounts/references becomes a bit of a chore on a Kindle. I also barely read fiction anymore, so it's very different from anything I've read in a good while.

Christ, I can't imagine how difficult that is to read on Kindle! Especially with all the footnotes and endnotes.

[Chest Rockwell]

I don't normally read non-fiction, but I'm currently reading Tina Fey's book.

 

The beginning was full of boring shit I had to skip through* about her first period and sarcastic make up tips and a bunch of rubbish about her childhood that was really of zero interest to me. However, she has finally got on to SNL and 30 Rock stories and it has gotten much better.

 

 

 

* I did really try to persevere with a lot of it, but it was too much of a slog

Edited July 6, 2016 by Chest Rockwell

[Chest Rockwell]

.........and then she went back to talking about breastfeeding or somesuch. All in all, the bit about tv was good, and I'm glad I didn't pay for the book.

[Sergio Mendacious]

The science fiction and crime magazines that share our office space maintain a well-stocked bookcase of old review copies — I've actually had the time to read a couple of books this week, and I'll have more time on holiday next week.

 

Almost Infamous: A Supervillain Novel: It was okay. Nothing special, which is a shame, because the early parts were kind of interesting

— kid wants to become the first supervillain for years, but that's fraught with difficulty. Sets up a high school narrative, then throws it in the bin for a Hunger Games-style contest, then a "the villains are really the heroes". Writing gets better as plot gets worse, but I never gave a shit about any of the characters. Some bad characterization, and the ending was obvious miles away. Still, entertaining enough. 5/10.

 

 

What the #@&% is that?: The Saga Anthology of the Monstrous and the Macabre: Short story collection, I'm about 6 stories in. There isn't really a theme, as such, beyond "these are scary stories about weird things in them". Still, only a couple of duds so far — best was "Mobility" by Laird Barron, which was supremely creepy, and semi-intelligible in a good way. Worst was "The Sound of Her Laughter," which was pointless.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Sergio Mendacious

[Mr.E]

Just started reading The Great Gatsby got one chapter in, and so far its just not clicking for me. I could happily put it down and never read it again.

Is it worth soldiering through or is it like that all the way through?

[deathrey]

.........and then she went back to talking about breastfeeding or somesuch. All in all, the bit about tv was good, and I'm glad I didn't pay for the book.

I read it and it was ok, however my sister has an audible subscription and got the audio book (read by Tina Fey) which I've listened to with her in the car, it works a million times better as an audio book and stories that were very boring/skipable in the book work really well when being read by Tina Fey and are actually quite funny.

Edited July 14, 2016 by deathrey

[Keith Houchen]

Just started reading The Great Gatsby got one chapter in, and so far its just not clicking for me. I could happily put it down and never read it again.

Is it worth soldiering through or is it like that all the way through?

I enjoyed it. I thought it picked up as it went on.

[Gus Mears]

The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite ever short stories. The initial descriptive scene in the Valley of Ashes floored me when I first read it as a teenager and it's the only book that wasn't ruined for me as a result of studying it in English literature classes.

 

I finished House of Leaves. It was OK, but I doubt I will bother with it again.

I get that it is meant to be vague, but the ending really was massively unsatisfying. I don't need to know the whole story, but Johnny falling asleep outside a pub, fin, just didn't do it for me.

Saying that, I did really enjoy the last part of Johnny's story, the bit where you are unsure if Lude actually died followed up a few pages later by "Day, Month: Lude is dead" was really well done.

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by Gus Mears

[Michael_3165]

Reading 'The Greatest Show On Earth' by Richard Dawkins - a bloody brilliant, albeit somewhat preachy, explanation of evolution by one of the greatest writers in its field. I personally love Dawkins, one of my all time heroes, and so of course I would love the book too. It is a tad heavy in places. 

[SpursRiot2012]

Recommendation: Wool by Hugh Howey. A real page turner. It's actually a collected series of novellas but is put together pretty seamlessly. It's hard to describe without spoiling too much but:

 

 

 

The story of Wool takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth.^[6] Humanity clings to survival in the Silo, a subterranean city extending one hundred forty-four stories beneath the surface. The series initially follows the character of Holston, the sheriff of the Silo, with subsequent volumes focusing on the characters of Juliette, Jahns, and Marnes.

 

I've just started reading the second book in the series, Shift, which reviewers say isn't as good as Wool, but I'm enjoying it so far.

 

I can also recommend Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey which is another novella series brought together in a collection.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I love the Wool trilogy, read them a couple of years ago. Wool is definitely my favourite, I just loved the way you were thrown into the world of the story. Shift requires a bit more willpower as it's less of a page-turner but it still good once you figure out how it all fits, and Dust brings everything together. They're good stuff.

Edited July 19, 2016 by HarmonicGenerator