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

1000 Years of Annoying the French
by Stephen Clarke

"A satirical version of British-French history."

and

Spook Country
by William Gibson

"The plot comprises the intersecting tales of three protagonists: Hollis Henry, a musician-turned-journalist researching a story on locative art; Tito, a young Cuban-Chinese operative whose family is on occasion in the employ of a renegade ex-CIA agent; and Milgrim, a drug-addled translator held captive by Brown, a strangely authoritarian and secretive man. Themes explored include the ubiquity of locative technology, the eversion of cyberspace and the political climate of the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks."

I'm about to start the Game of Thrones books. No idea how they relate to the telly series, but I can't be a grumpy git about people only enjoying filmed fantasy and not written if I've not at least read the books.

It's quite amusing though, because a lot of people I work with who're watch the telly series do *not* read fantasy, they see it as silly. Yet they're happy to watch it on telly.

A Song of Ice and Fire is brilliant. All I will say is that GRRM has admitted that he made his younger characters too young, and that he wishes he'd have made them closer in age to the TV characters.

Remember that on 14 year old Danaerys' skin-crawling wedding night.

I have read about 30 pages of Game of Thrones. That was a few months ago. Couldn't get myself to pick it up anymore since then.

I re-read "Great expectations...Charles Dickens".

I'm hoping to read "Midden...Tom Sharpe".

I've started A Game of Thrones twice, getting as far as chapter 9 (Tyrion) on the second attempt. On each occasion I stopped reading because I had too many books on the go at once. I've enjoyed what I've read so far, so maybe it will be the next fiction ebook I read. (I could do with a break from 'classics'.)

I'm hoping that close to 13 hours on a plane tomorrow, plus waiting in airports might help me through it

I love Tom Sharpe, Porterhouse Blue is a lovely story, and Blot on the Landscape is just downright hilarious!

I may have hit gold dust with the following second hand book I came across: "Reading the Old Testament, Method in Biblical Study" J Barton, 1984. I am on chapter 3 of 12 chapters and it is now explaining the methods that led to the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis (that the Pentateuch was a redaction of four different sources). It also describes how the different literary forms appear in fact to be based on different oral forms.

Started A Horse and his Boy by C. S. Lewis 'cos I wanted something light. Also started Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett.

I always forget about Horse and his Boy when I am talking about the best of the Narnia books, but it really is very good indeed.

Finished The Gilded Age. Mark Twain seems to have become cynical at a fairly early age!

My current e-book is Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie.

Finished Honour This Day. My bedtime/bathroom book is now Rumpole and the Golden Thread by John Mortimer.

I ran out of Terry Pratchett books (of the discworld series) to read, so I picked up Strata. I've been a bit worried about reading it because I'm only really used to his later works.

I'm also reading a book about a nurse who trained in Aberdeen in the 1960s which is interesting for a lot of reasons, not least that the matron and sister insisted that the patients were called Mr/Mrs whatever even when they asked the nurses to use their first names.

I liked Strata, if that's any help.

Finally finished The Scourging Angel. Bit of a plod by the end but did enjoy it.

Mol

After reliving my youth last week by watching the TV series and listening to the radio adaptation, I am now re-reading Neverwhere.

A fellow hootooer, who shall remain nameless, once told me she thought they should make a TV adaptation of Neverwhere...

I'm reading Imperium by Robert Harris. It's the story of Marcus Tullius Cicero's rise to power in the Roman Republic. Quite a few of the characters (including Cicero himself) are portrayed in my imagination by the actors who played them in the TV show Rome.

Ah, Rome. Need to watch that again.

At the moment I'm mostly reading a guide to the animals of Britain and a bird book, both of which are in temporary residence in the bathroom. I haven't got a proper book on the go *and I've no inclination to find one*. I actually can't remember ever feeling like that before I'm *always* reading, I mean, I read in the *shower* for goodness' sake.

Mol

I am reading J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Two Towers. There is one book I have always struggled with in reading is The Similarion.

I'm trying to decide what to read when I've finished my current downstairs book.

Either The Silmarillion or Tree and Leaf, both of which are by the Good Professor

Got bogged down with Robert Holdstock's 'Avilion', killing my Kindle hasn't helped. Now about to start one of the other ebooks waiting on my tablet's kindle app - either KAte Griffin's 'Stray Souls' or Kim Lakin-Smith's 'Cyber Circus'. Hoping for a quick light read from both of those.

Of course, what I should be reading is my OU course book on 'the impact of transport on the seaside holiday' for my final assignment.

MC