What are you reading now?

[QualityChimp]

Thanks gents!

I'll move on to these after I find out the ending of my current mystery novel...

What on earth did the hungry caterpillar eat on Sunday?!

[Finsbury Girl]

I'm not a reader at all, but in the last 2 decades I have read 2 Sci-Fi books, Consider Phlebas and Altered Carbon. I thought both of those were enjoyable and as someone who never reads they couldn't be too inaccessible.

Both quality reads. Anything by the late great Iain M Banks (RIP brother) is worth checking out.

[Finsbury Girl]

So have finished the Realm of the Elderlings books by Robin Hobb. I had previously read most of them before with the exception of the Rain Wilds Chronicles which were new for me. The Fitz books are by far her better works, even though I really enjoyed the Liveship trilogy, the Assassin ones with Fitz really are a cut above. The Rain Wilds books, wow I don't know how they were written by the same person. Absolutely **** all happens and they read like a Mills and Boon with dragons. How that took 4 books is astounding. Really ordinary.However she has redeemed herself with the latest Fitz book. Cannot wait for the next one.

I'm also starting to re-read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It's been like 20 years since I read these and I'm struggling on the second one. He is such a miserable ****.

[Fader209]

I'm not a reader at all, but in the last 2 decades I have read 2 Sci-Fi books, Consider Phlebas and Altered Carbon. I thought both of those were enjoyable and as someone who never reads they couldn't be too inaccessible.

I read Excession the other week and was actually let down by Banks which was a surprise. Really enjoyed the previous three books by him and especially loved Use Of Weapons but this last one was a stinker by comparison.

Finished reading A Dance With Dragons - 2: After The Feast this week so am now carrying on with watching GoT without the fear of spoilers and seeing where they have changed things.
Can't get my head around how they are going to finish up the TV show without giving things away for the book enthusiasts.

[MiG]

Just finished reading the Travellers Gate trilogy by Will Wight, really enjoyed them, good cast of characters with a bit of a twist that I enjoyed and a quite original and entertaining magic system, as he's a fairly new writer the first book was a free rental from Amazon prime, liked it a lot so bought the other two. I came straight off the back of finishing the Malazan book of the Fallen (8 books) by Steven Erikssen and it was a real breath of fresh air, I enjoyed those too but very hard going, felt like I should have been taking notes just to remember what's going on..

[importaku]

Been binging on Robert Opie books recently, have a huge fascination with household consumer history. All the books in the series are truly amazing it really is like travelling through time in picturebook format, none of the items in them should still even exist but there they are, defying their throwaway nature. I rarely buy books nowdays but for weird unusual stuff i will gladly splurge cash on books, the only tricky thing is storing them as the scrapbooks are huge A3 size.




Still want the Japanese madaaru series of books on Dagashi and other Japanese retro subjects but the shipping is a total killer for them.

[kryss]

You want help registering on Honto.jp? They'll ship books SAL.

http://honto.jp/netstore/search_10%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A0%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B.html?srchf=1

[importaku]

Will honto ship direct to the uk? This is the main problem i have with Japanese books as i can buy direct from Amazon Jp but they send by most expensive shipping. I can sidestep that by ordering from Amazon Jp but getting Tenso to ship them out but as that's based on weight too i would still end up paying a lot.

[kryss]

They ship to Canada for sure, I don't see why they wouldn't ship to the UK. Only thing is you have to keep it under 2kg for SAL small packet, and you don't know how much postage will cost until they send you the shipping confirmation. On the plus side, they take off the 8% sales tax. I've had 4-5 orders with them and everything was smooth as mixed yoghurt.

[RobRoy]

One of my friends has published his first (and second) short stories.

Pretty decent if your looking for something quick to read! They are Horror with a bit of humour

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crowley-Episode-One-Ravensblack-Affair-ebook/dp/B00VAL1BYW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432503213&sr=8-2&keywords=crowley

If you do read please leave a review

[QualityChimp]

I've just finished Jack Reacher #5, "Echo Burning".

Meh.

Hardly any action and Reacher has pretty much turned into a hobo. He must stink by now.
I lost count how many times somebody "said nothing". It really started to grate by the end.

[smouty]

I've just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
I'm enjoying it so far and guessing it is some allegory on the state of the USA.

[Fader209]

Ah yes, had to look it up but I have read the start of American Gods. Must get back to that as I needed to give it more of a chance.

Chimp - Are the other Jack Reacher novels any good?

Currently continuing with the epic Horus Heresy stories, now onto Legion which follows the secretive Alpha Legion. Considering I have absolutely zero interest in Warhammer I am loving these books, such a wonderfully dark universe with a tonne of stories to tell.
Only downer with this book is the writer has gone a bit "Dune" and has a load of made up words that can be confusing to begin with.

[QualityChimp]

The first one is great, Fader. It's called The Killing Floor and the second one, Die Trying, is also good.

It's just easy reading escapism. I don't know why people want to punish themselves reading snooty books. It's like people who choose to have a kale and spinach smoothie over a milkshake.

I've found that the Reacher audiobooks are read brilliantly by Dick Hill. I listened to the last one on the commute to work.

[Fader209]

Looked it up on Amazon and had a facepalm moment. Have seen The Killing Floor recommended so many times and didn't realise it was a Jack Reacher novel!
Does it have anything to do with the Tom Cruise movie? I haven't seen that either, was just wondering.

As for general reading the only punishment for me is something that is poorly written and lacks any punch. In those cases, after a generous 50-100 pages, I have to give up.
The previews on Amazon are always a good indicator for me, if it grabs my attention and it flows nicely then I take the plunge.