What are you reading now?

[Malc]

I finished up Masters of Doom a while back, very interesting read and at the end of the book he describes how he found out all the information to write the book; apparently he was drafting it and collecting information for about 7 years, as well as talking to Carmack, Romero etc. personally, so hopefully what I read was as close to the truth as possible.

Just started The Stand last night. Let's hope it's interesting enough for me to read the epic sized book. I did like King's honesty in the preface though, talking about how critics have said he has 'diarrhea of the word processor'.

[Darwock]

Started on my first book in two years I think - have a couple of days at the end of term with no classes so I grabbed an unread book off my shelf in the morning. "Bedroom secrets of the Master Chefs" by Irvine Welsh. Not a fan of Trainspotting (the movie) which is why I have never read it until now., but someone gave me the book as a gift a few years ago.

I understand from the back cover that it's meant to be a black comedy but I don't find any humour in it. Welsh seems to have a complete loathing of the human race, and life in Scotland... there's nothing pleasurable about reading this stuff.

Basic summary is there are two main characters, complete polar opposites - one is a star trek loving, videogame playing geek and the other is a binge drinking clubber with a coke habit. They end up working together and detesting each other. Then it turns into a kind of imitation of "The Picture of Dorian Gray", when the negative effects of the clubber guy's actions are all felt by the geek (for reasons as yet unexplained, I'm only 2/3rds through). At the point I'm at now, the geek is just about to die from liver failure.

Both characters are portrayed in completely unsympathetic terms, in fact so is nearly every character in the book. Much like Trainspotting.

Harvest Moon features prominently.. I have to wonder if Welsh did research on the geek character by visiting forums like this one.

Does anybody like his books? Can anyone explain to me what there is to like?

[The Glider]

Does anybody like his books?

Pass. I've never read any of his books.

I'm halfway through Private by James Patterson which isn't grabbing me at the moment & also just started Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes which is 600+ pages!

[NW2013]

Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy. Best thing is the ebook was free from his website. Happy days! Finished the first book and it was very enjoyable.

[Number45]

I seem to have unwittingly stumbled onto Uncharted 2 in book format.

This was a nice find. Interesting cultural stuff in there (My Chinese/Tibetan political knowledge isn't up to much). Now that I think about it I suspect there will be more, because there's a significant early character hint that isn't properly explored.

Currently reading Silence of the Lambs. It's weird, I'm sure I tried to read this only a few years back and hated it (Stopped not very far in at all) - and I'm not a fan of the film at all, but it has really grabbed me this time. Loving it. I like the way Starling is presented and the interviews with Lecter are fascinating.

In fact I really want to watch the film again. I don't recall there being much about Crawford in the film or them making such a big deal of how green Starling is. I think I'll finish the book and then hunt the film down, if I don't already have it.

[fuji]

Currently reading Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein very funny in places and an interesting insight into the world of the Japanese Crime Reporter and news industry.

[John Beaulieu]

anyone interested in apocalyptic style books should check out the Passage by Justin Cronin - similar in scope to The Stand by Stephen King (if not bigger due to it being the first part in a trilogy) but featuring vampires. highly recommended as one of my books of the year

another one to look out for is Tooth and Nail by Craig DiLouie - another apocalyptic book, not too long but very good. Synopsis - Generation Kill meets 28 days later in manhatten. On Kindle it only costs $4.79 - a bargain price for a brilliant read

Currently I am zipping through the Brotherhood of War series by WEB Griffin - read the first couple of books many years ago and remember enjoying them so decided to give them a reread alongside the rest of the series. Its not quite as good as I remember (rose tinted glasses and all that) but they aren't a total loss.

Next up for me is Day by Day Armageddon - another apocalypse book this time featuring zombies. Heard a lot of good things about this one so really looking forward to getting started.

ps been doing most of my reading for the past few months on a Kindle2 - excuse the pun but its definitely rekindled my love of reading. So easy to buy books on the thing (it has 3g built in which is free to use) and being able to carry the majority of my book library around with me is a godsend considering I can never decide (normally) what book to read next, whether its a new book or a reread of an old favourite

[Number45]

Currently reading Silence of the Lambs. It's weird, I'm sure I tried to read this only a few years back and hated it (Stopped not very far in at all) - and I'm not a fan of the film at all, but it has really grabbed me this time. Loving it. I like the way Starling is presented and the interviews with Lecter are fascinating.

In fact I really want to watch the film again. I don't recall there being much about Crawford in the film or them making such a big deal of how green Starling is. I think I'll finish the book and then hunt the film down, if I don't already have it.

Finished this now, and really enjoyed it this time around. Going to hunt the film down (If I don't have it already, it's possible..) to see if I enjoy that more this time around. I suspect it'll have the opposite effect though, the parts of the book that I liked the most are the parts that are difficult to transfer to on screen action.

I'm now about to start The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, which was recommended to me by BookArmy, who have an excellent record on recommendations for me so far.

[charlesr]

Has anyone tried "The girl with the dragon tattoo" and the other 2 books? Any good?

[Bort]

Started Neuromancer yesterday. Cool so far.

[The Glider]

anyone interested in apocalyptic style books should check out the Passage by Justin Cronin...

That's a whopper of a book, isn't it. Just checked my local library site & it's 766 pages. I'd better not reserve that one yet, as I've got six books still waiting to be read!

[Orgun]

Has anyone tried "The girl with the dragon tattoo" and the other 2 books? Any good?

I've been wondering the same thing, I keep looking at them on the iBooks and the Kindle app and hovering over the buy button but I bought "A Game of Thrones" instead.

Still reading "Consider Phlebas" at the moment though.

[SmokeMeAKipper]

I bought all 3 recently (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc) but have yet to start them. Just finished The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It was a good book, quite original in the way it's done, but I felt the ending was a slight let-down. I was expecting more of a pay-off.

Just reading Transition by Iain Banks now - a fantastic premise in which members of a secretive organisation can travel between parallel worlds by ingesting a drug. The reviews haven't been too great though. It straddles his usual work and his sci-fi work - even though this is closer to sci-fi it still doesn't have the "M" between his first and last name.

[QualityChimp]

The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Stand by Stephen King
Tooth and Nail by Craig DiLouie
Brotherhood of War series by WEB Griffin
Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne

That's a nice list, John, I'll try and check some of those out because they sound right up my street.

I've never read any Ian M. Banks, but I have a copy of Feersum Endjinn, but fear I'll get lost pretty quick. It doesn't help that a quarter of the book is written phonetically!

Woak up. Got dresd. Had brekfast. Spoke wif Ergates thi ant who sed itz juss been wurk wurk wurk 4 u lately master Bascule, Y dont u ? a holiday? & I agreed & that woz how we decided we otter go 2 c Mr Zoliparia in thi I-ball ov thi gargoyle Rosbrith.

Mind you, that's how most people text...

I'm off on hols soon, so I've got loads of books to read now!

Under the Dome - Stephen King. Really enjoyed Cell, so thought I'd give this a try. It's pretty hefty though.
The Stand - Stephen King. I really should read this as I think I'd love it and I thought the first episode of the series was brilliantly atmospheric and a great premise.
Patient Zero - Jonathan Maberry. 28 Days Later meets Chris Ryan. The author has won awards for his books and also written some Marvel Zombies stuff.
Fragment - Warren Fahy. Jurassic Park meets Lost. Sounds good, but could be tosh. Ideal holiday reading though!
Mercenary - Duncan Falconer. Number45 suggested visting www.bookarmy.com for a Last.fm-style "similar author" suggestions as I was trying to find books as fun and action-packed as Matthew Reilly's. It's quite funny as about three times on the cover it mentions how he's "better than Andy McNabb"!
Infected - Scott Sigler. Sounds like a cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Fog (the book).

I doubt I'll get through more than 2 of these, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in!

[QualityChimp]

Well, I read more than I thought, so I read the 5 books I took and also took down Russel Brand's Booky Wook!

Under the Dome - Stephen King. Over 880 pages long, but a real page turner. It doesn't feel like all that much happens as it builds slowly, but it's really compelling. 8/10

Patient Zero - Jonathan Maberry. Absolutely brilliant! Real pap, but absolutely entertaining. Action, humour, horror, Patient Zero had them all. Can't wait to read the sequel. 9/10

Fragment - Warren Fahy. Entertaining tosh, which is basically Jurassic Park but with a different ecosystem instead of dinosaurs. Good fun, with a few exciting action sections that I re-read, but you get the idea. 7/10

Mercenary - Duncan Falconer. A bit boring really. It's 90% guerilla groups in-fighting and 10% action. A bit of a let down, really. 4/10

Infected - Scott Sigler. A surprise treat! It's got some really gory sections of self-mutilation, but at its heart is a sci-fi thriller that I flew through.