What book are you reading?

[Flying_Monkey]

[URL="http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=232626#post232626But I'm not as interlektchewal as you! Mind you, I'm not the one reading a smutty biog...

Don't get me wrong - I like a good technothriller (e.g.: Richard Caborn's stuff)...

 

[marinyork]

Anyone read much Iain M. Banks? I've finished my train book ("I am Legend") and have a choice of "The Algebraist" or "Inversions" for my next read - any recommendations as to which should go first..?

Read Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games and Excession. I thought they were all right but you have to be familiar with the culture to get the most out of them. I thought his non-SF was better though.

 

[User169]

Working my way through "A Dance to the Music of Time"

9 volumes down, 3 to go - it's really tremendous stuff

 

[yello]

I thought his non-SF was better though.

Agreed. I know Banks is an SF fan but I found his SF writings a little formulaic... no, that's a bit harsh, maybe 'too faithful to SF tradition' is perhaps a better way of putting it. When you consider the imagination and originality he shows in his 'sans M' works it's quite surprising really.

I'm currently reading 'Torture Garden' by Octave Mirabeau.

 

[Crackle]

I'm still trying to get through Bill Bryson's book kindly loaned to me by speicher...

Have you decided if he's for you yet?

I've just finished The Angry Island by AA Gill. I thought it was a splendid book, one of a handful which I found truly insightful, even if I don't see eye to eye on everything. Don't know what to read next, I'm very much a bookshop/Amazon browser who tends to pick on a fancy.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Agreed. I know Banks is an SF fan but I found his SF writings a little formulaic... no, that's a bit harsh, maybe 'too faithful to SF tradition' is perhaps a better way of putting it. When you consider the imagination and originality he shows in his 'sans M' works it's quite surprising really.

I disagree completely. I think that whilst he has written some okay mainstream fiction - to my mind, Espedair Street is by far the sweetest and most deeply felt - his sf is much wittier and more ironic and more interestingly political. What you perhaps forget now is how much Consider Phlebas and the other 'Culture' novels revitalised and reinvented space opera, so that now, sure, everyone and their dog is writing it again, but that wasn't the case when he started.

 

[ArDee]

21 CFR Part 820 Quality System Regulation.

Much rather carry on reading Lords & Ladies by Terry Pratchett though. Far more entertaining.

I used to have to run training courses on Part 11. Like getting wallpaper paste drip-fed into your veins. Nae luck.

Just finished CFR 21 parts 210 & 211; equally riveting read

 

[spandex]

Two wheels by Mat seaton from the guardian newspaper good book. Before that it was

On your bicycle by Jim Mcgurn one of the best books ive ever read.

 

[Hilldodger]

On your bicycle by Jim Mcgurn one of the best books ive ever read.

Creep!







OK, it is a good book

 

[spandex]

you cant say much hehe

I got mine from dillons book shop 6ish months before I met him and then I did'nt make the link till he tryed to give me one.

 

[yello]

I disagree completely. I think that whilst he has written some okay mainstream fiction - to my mind, Espedair Street is by far the sweetest and most deeply felt - his sf is much wittier and more ironic and more interestingly political. What you perhaps forget now is how much Consider Phlebas and the other 'Culture' novels revitalised and reinvented space opera, so that now, sure, everyone and their dog is writing it again, but that wasn't the case when he started.

I guess we'll have to agree to differ then. Personally, I don't think Iain M was offering anything anywhere near in the same league as, say, Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov. Whether he's revitalised the genre, I couldn't say since I no longer read SF. His "mainstream" novels, however, I found complex and fascinating though, to be honest, it is many years since I read him.

 

[beanzontoast]

Ok - finished 'The Latter Years at Colditz' (8/10) and now am 'reading' the Sony Alpha100 User Guide / Troubleshooting

Well, it helps me sleep...

 

[microphonie]

Don't get me wrong - I like a good technothriller (e.g.: Richard Caborn's stuff)...

Not heard of him - will keep a look out for some. Any other good SF recommendations (along the lines of Iain M. Banks, Jeff Noon, Alexander Besher...)?

 

[rich p]

Two wheels by Mat seaton from the guardian newspaper good book.

.

I started The Escape Artist by Matt Seaton last night.

 

[palinurus]

Gosh - instant influence. I should become a book critic. Let me know what you think, as I haven't persuaded many other people to read it yet.

Thanks for the tip (Vasily Grossman's "Life and Fate")

It's odd that I had not come across this novel before, I hadn't even heard of Grossman until I read your post. Strange that I should (finally!) hear about it on a cycling forum. It does seem to have gained a higher profile in recent years- I've found some reviews while Googling, I obviously missed them first time around.

I've read it, but I haven't finished with it. It's become one of those books that I'm going to live with for a long time. I'm already considering returning to it now.