h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just started The Princess Bride. Loving it so far and I'm still on the introduction.

Man-Kzin Wars, especially the latest ones - explores war and peace and racial stuff - also equality of the sexes - and lots of fun aliens thrown in - my favorites are of course the Kzin and the Puppeteers

Larry Niven invented this series, each book having at least 2 novellas or short stories, each written by a different author.
The Man-Kzin Wars take place in Known Space, another invention of Larry Niven.
He is considered one of the main creators of the modern Sci-Fi style.

Right now I have seven books on the go (3 tree-books, 4 e-books), not counting my bathroom book. I'm up to 7 because I'm tired and depressed, and I can't settle down with any of them. I really don't want to start yet another book, but I can't think of anything to do.

Sounds like a diversion into a favourite comfort read might be in order.

Last night I finished my Chalet School books, having reviewed most of them on GoodReads as I went along. I *was* going to move on to Tolkein, but Osh and Sic have both been seized with the urge and I don't want to stop that. And Nod is really getting into 'Guards, Guards', so that might get in the way of a Pratchett re-read (which I'm dying to do as I've just completed my collection )

So, not sure which way to go next. Possibly John Wyndham, as 'The Kraken Wakes' seems quite appropriate at the moment.

Or I could nip back and review the CSBs I didn't do. But I feel a bit Brent-Dyered out at the moment.

Mol

Actually l miscounted. It's SIX e-books, but two of them I just dip into from time to time. They're The QI Book of Animal Ignorance and The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language. (How's that for a title!?!)

One of my tree-books *is* an old friend, one I haven't read for a while - The Golden Torc by Julian May. Even that can't hold my attention. I think I'm going to have to go back to my childhood - Alice in Wonderland is about my limit, at the moment.

how about Mallory Towers, Mol?

Time's Legacy by Barbara Erskine. Started off slow, but it's growing on me. That said, the main character is an anglican priest and theology graduate, but hasn't figured out who the mysterious itinerant Jewish scholar and miraculous healer visiting Glasonbury in her psychic flashbacks to Roman times might be.

>> The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections
of the English Language. (How's that for a title!?!) <<

That is inspirational. Must have a look for that one.

Though my Adamsitic Pratchettness will likely bring me to think
of it as "The Emptylogicon: A Curly Troll Thru the Forbidden
Corrections of the Englitch".


~jwf~

I've just read The Cold Cash War by Robert Aspirin. If you've read any of his other books, and there's quite a few, they fall into two distinct categories, pure old school fantasy or fantasy humour.

Cold Cash War doesn't though. It's humourous in parts, but doesn't set out to be funny. I keep reading it though, because it is a nicely structured book with lots of twists and turns all the way through.

Malory Towers are on the list, Sho (as in, I'm reading all the books I own, and there they are) but I'll give school stories a miss for the moment. I've picked up a really lovely guide to the elements which DH left in the bathroom and I'm up to Neon so far.

Mol

oh what's the name of that one, Mol, I'm looking for something like that for 's birthday

The Periodic Table: An Indispensable Pocket-sized Guide to the Elements - Paul Parsons & Gail Dixon

ISBN-10: 1780873271
ISBN-13: 978-1780873275

£6.99

There's a really good photo of each element (usually a nicely lit lump of it) and then a page, sometimes a bit more, about how it behaves, allotropes, what we use it for, how it was discovered etc. For those elements which have gone over the page there's an extra photo. It's like a coffee-table book of chemistry, but it gets DH approval for being sufficiently serious about the subject.

Mol

thanks, that sounds fab!

'They' say that if you have five pairs of shoes and alternate the ones you wear, the shoes will last longer than if you wear each pair continually. It seems that the same applies to books - switching between books makes each book take longer to finish. With this in mind I've decided to just read one e-book and one tree-book at a time.

Currently reading The Confession of Brother Haluin, the third story in The Fifth Cadfael Omnibus by Ellis Peters (tree-book) and Claudius the God by Robert Graves (e-book). I'll continue with Decline and Fall as an ongoing thing and keep the e-books I dip in to for occasions when I don't have time to settle (like when I'm waiting for hubby).

I am currently dipping in and out of Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh.

Half cartoon strip, half autobiographical blethering blog posts...she speaks to the insane, miserable and definitely ed up parts of me.

I particularly love her reminiscing about her experiences with cake, being a dinosaur and her honest and painfully familiar experience of depression.

I can't seem to get through any novels at the moment, I start one, but I'm not in the right head space for reading. Guess that's why dipping books are good...

I read Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka and am now reading Great North Road by Peter F Hamilton. I rather like the mundanity of the near future Newcastle setting, where the Human Defence Alliance's massive planes are taken to the portal to an alien world by being loaded on a lorry at the airport and driven down the A696 and the A1.

alternating between:
"The War in the Air" by H.G. Wells
"John Adams" by David McCullough
"ION Lighting Control Console Operations Manual - vsn 2.0" by Electronic Theatre Controls (I'm sure you might be able to deduce this one may be work related)

Donna Tart's 'The Goldfinch'. The characterisations are so vivid, the descriptions lush.

I'm off on holiday tomorrow. My Kindle is loaded with plenty of books. I'll let you know what I read when I get back.

Just started rereading the Robert Asprin Myth books. I love his quick humour, and need to get back into thinking like that for the book I'm currently writing.