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

put Charlemagne away in favour of Said and Done, Roger McGough's autobiography.

and... we'll drink and drink and drink to Lilly the Pink...

The Gormenghast Trilogy again. Trying to decide if it is as good as I remember, before I decide whether to get the new 'sequel' or not.

I did it backwards: I got the new sequel and then started reading the trilogy again.

The sequel is staring at me from my books to read stack (room), tapping its foot.


I'm a good way through Titus Groan again and it's certainly at least as good as I remember it.

Moffett et al, Human Physiology, Foundations and Frontiers, 2nd Edn (1993).

Quite a plodding plot and probably a little out-dated. Tries to
answer the question - "What is the measure of Man?". Is it
the sum of its parts or more? Hopefully I'll be a little more
informed once I have finished it.

There's a Porpoise Close Behind Us
by Noel Langley

Just finished 'A walk in the woods' by Bill Bryson. Very entertaining but then Bryson always is.

I am struggling through "The hare with amber eyes" by Edmund de Waal which I bought because of all the superlative reviews on the cover. Hmm... It is the biography of a family who own a collection of netsuke of which the hare is one. It is gentle, thoughtful, informative and instructional. I am two-thirds through and they, being Jewish and in Austria, are facing some pretty horrendous stuff. But I find it difficult because, I think, the family in question is/has been so incredibly wealthy, so far from my world, that I fail to find empathy. Sympathy? Yes, Empathy? No. I know I will not regret having read it but "masterpiece" "brilliant" "impossible to put down"? Or is it me being an inverse snob?

People *like* reading Gormenghast?

I've tried to read Titus Groan at least four times, never managed to get more than a third of the way through before giving up in despair.

Currently making my way through the Sookie Stackhouse books which are actually rather good in a slightly ditzy kind of way.

I hated the Gormenghast stuff. Each to his own.

I've just finished my latest Georgette Heyer (The Corinthian) and have started Feet of Clay (Pratchett, T). I'm also thoroughly enjoying the Roger McGough autobiography (love how Paul McCartney is always referred to as Mike's Brother) - and boy oh boy, Roger knew them all.

Just finished 'Red Dog' - Louis De Bernieres. A short book but a good read never the less.
Must have my reading head on, thats two books finished in a few days.

interrupted Roger McGough to read Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins) the 2nd of the Hunger Games trilogy. Totally gripping and I couldn't put it down. So I've finished it and can get back to Lilly the Pink.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I was almost put off it by the fact the blurb claims it's blasphemous, but I decided to see what it's like for myself.

Just bought myself three books today - new ones, for a change, not from a second-hand shop as usual - as a special treat.

I'm already several chapters into the first one, "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" by Charles Yu. It caught my eye because of the cover - using Adam Simpson's "Ray Guns". http://www.adsimpson.com/pages/gallery0ll5.html But I'm very glad I picked it, really good so far.

The others are Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" and one I'd wanted for a while, "The Folklore of Discworld".

Made in America - Bill Bryson.

>> I was almost put off it by the fact the blurb claims it's blasphemous

Whereas for others a book's appearance on The Register of Forbidden Books is a positive recommendation.

Don't know if They're blasphemous, exactly, but I've been readiung The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. Don't let the TV series put you off, the books predate it, and are much better. See, there's there this guy in Chicago, who solves crimes and is also a wizard... Fun!

Mockingjay - third of the Hunger Games trilogy.

just finished Alan Carr's autobiography and going to go to the library today and get another Stephen Fry book - I have only just been introduced to him but he is a good writer.

I suppose now that I've passed the halfway point, I should post in regard to An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas. I was on a waiting list for the library .

My handbag book of the moment is A Brief History of France by Cecil Jenkins - on my Kindle (something I never thought I'd buy).