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

You're probably right in that regard - I can't say the writing stands out as being great, but I'm prepared to give him a bye-ball on that, mostly, as long as it stays interesting.

The Signs of Rain one had a lot to do with policy-making. I really don't remember a lot about it...I'm currently reading a book about "Germany as it is today" (published in 1970), and all the Raymond Briggs books that are being foisted upon me by someone spreading the Gospel of Briggs.

Just finished Dave Gorman's America Unchained. For those who don't know DG, he's a comedian. He decided to buy a car and travel across America, coast-to-coast, using only non-chain shops and services (including motels and petrol stations). It was the sort of book that makes you want to make a similar journey and it made me think about how sad it is that chains are taking over and making everything the same.

Very easy to read, interesting and highly recommended.

I'm reading quite a few books at once right now. I have in my bag Prozac Nation, Starship Titanic and Carrie, I've read PN and Carrie before but I wanted to re read them. I'm also on my about tenth time reading The Bell Jar. I don't seem to be able to concentrate on one book at once recently.

I know the feeling, cat. Right now I have 5 books on the go - A History of Sweden by Lars O. Lagerqvist, Villette by Charlotte Bronte (almost finished), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men by Antonia Fraser (might have to restart that as it's been a while since I read any of it), Sleeping Adversary by Agatha Christie (my book at bedtime) and an old history textbook that belonged to my father-in-law when he was at school.

The Agatha Christie and the old history book suit the times when I doesn't want to work too hard over what I'm reading.

I forgot one. The book I'm carrying around in my handbag is The Stationary Ark by Gerald Durrell. So that makes 6!

I've just bought 'Affluenza' by Oliver James, so that's next up.

I'm probably starting another tomorrow, going to venture into the disk world, well the adult books, I read the children's ones like A Hat Full of Sky and The Wee Free Men. I tried to read The Colour of Magic when I was 15 but I got confused, so going to try again now I'm a little older.

Stasiland, by Anna Funder. It's okaaayyyyyy...but the author's person looms so big in it that it maims it a bit. Every hangover, for instance, is graphically described as though it's a kind of metaphor for the grimness of the East. I wish she'd minimized her own importance and gone into a bit more depth about the real subjects.

But it's made me start looking for better books about East Germany with less waffle and better editing.

I'm reading Wuthering Heights at the moment. I usually read a non-fiction at the same time as a fiction, but a lot of them are a bit 'heavy' for my mental state ATM.

I didn't really like Wuthering Heights. The protagonists are so unlikable I just didn't care. I may have to read it again to see if I still feel that way.

I'm currently reading 'The Historian' by Elizabeth Kostova and enjoying it quite a lot. I'm intrigued to see where it will go.

Just started something I found and picked at random at a used bookshop: "The Revolution of Little Girls" by Blanche McCrary Boyd. Apparently the author received a grant from the NEA while writing this book. If so, from what I've read so far, it was tax money well spent.

Elentari, I agree with you on Wuthering Heights. It's a part of a Bronte omnibus I've had lying around for some time. (The other books in the omnibus are The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre.) It's nowhere near as readable as Villette, but then that's by a different Bronte.

The only other Bronte I've read is Jane Eyre, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't think that was all it was cracked up to be either. I'll stick with Austen, thank you very much.

Had a birthday recently and now have the choice of "The Rest is Noise" by Alex Ross or "The Confusion" by Neal Stephenson. But which to get stuck into first..

MC

Recently read: Atomic by Jim Baggott. Really good. It's about the development of nuclear weapons in WWII and afterwards. Lots of great stories.

Reading: The Indian Clerk by Michael Laevitt. A fictionalised account of Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy. If those names mean nothing to you I wouldn't bother reading it. They're mathematicians and I think I'd rather read a biography of one or the other of them.

Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce. Welsh noir, isn't it, with Chandleresque storylines based around sticks of rock, ventriloquists fudge boxes with girls at spinning wheels on the front. The odd juxtapositions and inventiveness appeal to me the same way Jasper Fforde does. What is it about Welsh writers?

Bought Rubicon and Persian Fire by Tom Holland. Got them for a steal on Amazon only 0.01p + postage.

They're going to the bottom of my reading list though; still have Sagan, Coyne, Dennet and Pinker to complete.

I'm afraid I have been sucked into the Twilight books by Stephaneie Meyer by the kids at school.

They are quite good though.

That *is* a steal - if I give you £1, will you get me 10,000 of them?

I'm in the middle of an MS relapse. I need hubby to hunt out the music stand I use to prop books on. Once he's found it, I'll be on hardbacks. I'd have to crack the spine to put a paperback on it, and I don't like doing that. (Or I could read old paperbacks whose spines are already cracked.)

Finished Wuthering Heights. The ending felt a bit rushed, going from Heathcliff alive and well to Heathcliff pining away in a matter of pages. Still, it was Emily Bronte's first (and only, AFAIK) novel, so I'll make allowances.

Moving on to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (second book in the omnibus).

I've just read From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming. It's interesting to note the differences from the film, where Bond was up against SPECTRE. Here it's the Russian state outfit SMERSH that are the baddies. I think SPECTRE come in later books.

Also as I recall in the film the plot was simply to kill Bond, whereas in the book they intend to create a scandal, humiliating the British Secret Service (Fleming never calls in MI6, though he does refer to MI5) and thus driving a wedge between the western intelligence services. It's noted that if SMERSH merely want to kill Bond they could put a bomb in his car or have a sniper assassinate him in London.

Another interesting thing for me was that, with the 1950s setting, there are references to the real-life events I just read about in Atomic (the one about the development of nuclear weapons).