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

currently reading wicca - blood witch by cate tiernan
nearly finished it though and then ive run out of material untill my housemate goes to the library on monday!
i might raid her room for some more books!

Just finished Going Gently by David Nobbs and I can't say enough good things about it (murder mystery wrapped in the review of a woman's life, from her hospital bed, as she recovers from a stroke - on the eve of her 100th birthday)

I've read a fair few of his (including Reggie Perrin) and loved them all, but this one is by far and away the best.

Now reading The Return of the King.

Finished reading The Wind in the Willows to The Gruesome Twosome, and will embark on Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator tonight.

<< then ive run out of material untill my housemate goes to the library on monday!>>

How awful! I read Wormwood, by G P Taylor last night and this morning in one sitting. Depressing! All the characters are bad - and the only winners in the end, are those who are least bad.

Also, I finished 'Luck in the Shadows', by Lynn Flewelling, recommended to me by Uncharted. I have to get book 2 next, I am hooked! It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I was well and truly hooked.

You actually never finish reading'Wind In The Willows'.
It just gets better as you get older.
My kids are awake to the fact that Dad read+read WITW to them for his own selfish reasons

my mum never read it to me but she made me watch the film so much because she liked it that i now have a hatred for it

Just finished The Wheel of Time Part 1: The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan and rather enjoyed it.

Now onto Part 2: The Great Hunt.

a million little pieces

James Frey

What a truly scary book! I would not have read more than the first 25 pages if it had not been so well written! Brilliant! I do hope James Frey has not had a relapse .....

Back to the Crow Road and my favourite all-time opening line:

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

'Red Dog' by Louis de Bernieres. Great little book.

Ged, no! No! No! - leave it. 11 books in and no end in sight. And each time a new one comes out you will have to reread the whole lot. And he may die before he finishes the series. I am waiting for him to finish it before I return to it. On the other hand, the first few books are romping and later books have some real flashes of brilliance, and several 'YES! BOOOYAAAAH!' bits (always wanted to use that word in a post ).

I am reading Wizard Warrior the first new book by Gene Wolfe for a while. It wanders and rambles here and there, and you do wonder if the main character will ever get to see the end of anything, but I am only 1/3 of the way in and it does make you want to find out where it is going. Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

Ooops, I meant the Wizard Knight is Gene Wolfes new book. Until later...
BCNU - Crescent

>It wanders and rambles here and there, and you do wonder if the main character will ever get to see the end of anything,<

Isn't that the joy and beauty of ALL Gene Wofe's books? I just wish somebody would print the last two books of the Long Sun saga (Blues Waters and Greens Forests) in this country.

lol yes it is But an awful lot of people do not like it (more fool them).

Unfortunately all the big bookshops seem to miss out a lot of some authors - Zelazny, especially, springs to mind, Wolfe, Jose Farmer, Hugh Cook Classics of the 70's and 80's - luckily 2nd hand bookshops can be treasure troves. I think I read the first Long Sun (it was the generation ship one?) but could never find any of them again Going to have to step up my search in the 2nd hand shops....
BCNU - Crescent

I would think that Zelazny and Farmer are almost entirely out of print these days, so bookshops won't be able to get hold of them. The last Zelazny i saw anywhere was The night of Lonesome October, with beautiful illustrations by Gahan Wilson.

Wolfe seems to arrive in the UK in fits and starts. I'm lucky enough to have a complete set of his stuff (except the three mentioned. I must pop into Waterstones and see about the one you mentioned, and I guess eventually I'll buckle and fork out £12 a pop for the last two in The Long Sun).

Yeah Crescent, i picked up part 1 of the Wheel of Time, knowing there was sequels. I didn't realise till monday that there were 11 of them

Robert Jordan? He's on my 'to read' list...

I am reading 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World', by Francis Wheen. (It was recommended to me.) What a disappointment!

Where is he coming from? He doesn't seem really able to make up his mind - I'd venture to suggest, that one of the few things he's sure of, is his own superiority.The superiority of all things American (but for their religion, as if that's all of a piece, is another unarguable given to him.

But that's about it. He contradicts himself something awful, and although the first three chapters are amusing, especially the one about the abomination that is deconstructionism, I got less amused and more annoyed the deeper I got into the book. Aside from anything else, he's a dreadful snob!

Were you reading the same book as the rest of the world?

As a fully paid up member of the Guardians left-wing intellectual elite, yes Wheen is an *intellectual* snob. And about as anti-American as they come when he needs to be.

Perhaps your reaction to the book says way more about you than it does about Francis Wheen?

BTW Crescent, you might have warned me you needed to be a fully paid up weight lifter to even get The Wizard Knight of the shelf!

Sigh.. I might have expected that reaction (in fact, I probably did, somewhere.)

No, the book was a disgrace. Mr Wheen is best described by the immortal words of Queen in the song Death on Two Legs - as a 'self-loving boy'.

lol after a couple of hundred pages it does get a bit tiring on the wrists My next book is Creatures of Light and Darkness, a never-seen-before (by me anyhoo) Zelazny book - a friend had two copies and gave me one Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

So Della, can you illustrate, using examples - you need only quote page references, I have a copy of the book, where Wheen is either 'pro-American' as you describe, or a snob, which I presume to mean a class snob, although I know you have issues with intellectual elitism.

I think your reaction to the book says far far more about your knee jerk anti-Americanism and chip on your shoulder working-class ness than it does about Francis Wheen.

And anybody who finds 'relevance' of any sort in quoting a Queen lyric with regard to serious authors has a whole range of other issues we needn't discuss here.

And didn'yt your mother ever tell you it's rude to laugh at your own jokes?