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

Sorry - replying to JK earlier but I ended up down here - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance is QUALITY

I'm reading Kant and the Platypus - Umberto Eco

isn't quality another way of saying "WU!"?

I'm reading a lot of rather interesting bibliographies at the moment.

But if you mean what am I reading "currently", i guess that must be "Astrophysics and cosmolology" by somebody or another.

Milan Kundera

The Lord of the Rings. I had to deliberately not read it for ten years so that I would forget most of the plot elements and stories. I didn't forget how dull the bits about Tom Bombadil and the Ents was though - I neatly speed read those chapters!

Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams, which I am finally getting around to reading.

The History of Date Rape: A Short Story Collection, which can be both horrific and hilarious at times.

Henderson, the Rain King, by Saul Bellow. I've been reading this book for two years now...

Dreamweaver 3 Bible... ugh.

...also Kirinya by Iain McDonald (sequel to the magnificent Chaga) and *still* The Magician...

Commuting 4 hrs/day as of next week, which should get me back up to usual reading speed....

A

"The Tain" - Finished...It turns out that Cochobhan did it

"Mao" - 200 pages in and he has only just come round to the idea that the peasants are essential to a revolution....yech!

Some rubbish about a journalist who is reincarnated from some 13th century Welsh Lady.... helps me to get to sleep
The Island of the Day Before (Umberto Eco) - sometime I'll get past page 57...... one can hope
Nogmania - brilliant, just arrived by post I had it as a kid and now I have it again (to go with the videos)
Bob the Builder annual 1999 - my kids can't get enough of it
Dipping into whilst i'm eating breakfast: the poems of Byron Shelley & Keats. Some good stuff in there

Afrael

From a fellow 4 hour a day commuter - welcome to the club. I go from the south coast into London Bridge and back again every day and have done for 4 years. It can be agony, but also I can read a broadsheet cover to cover, we have a gang who bring in cakes, we have a christmas party on the train, great discussion about life the universe and everything...and you can also read that Iain MacDonald plus War and Peace and a couple of James A Micheners in a week.

Glider

A

Glider

I'm also reading a Michener (I forgot)... "Mexico", recommended by a fabulous old couple I served in a Mexican restaurant I was working at...It's hardback so can't really come on the train, and it's my second try... Better luck this time, I hope!

A

Is that cosmolology or cosmololology?

Words and Rules - Steven Pinker; a study of the workings of the human brain by the analysis of irregular verbs (really!)

Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien; with my 9-year old daughter

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernon Vinge; I found this one on my bookshelf and don't know how it got there. I'm only starting it.

Just finished "The Demolished Man" by Bester - recommended to me by researcher jqr. An enjoyable thriller set in a world where telepaths read your thoughts - can you comit a murder and get away with it?

Then read "The Business" by Iain Banks - on the recommendation of my big brother. Enjoyed that too; it is more interesting than it sounds, if I say that it is about a high powered female executing working for a high powered global conglomorate. Nice technology, but I didn't engage that much with the heroine. I had always avoided Iain Banks because "The Wasp Factory" sounds so vile, now I have a copy of "The Crow Road" to read next.

Just started (do I have to admit this amongst such a cerebral bunch of researchers?) just started "Adrian Mole - the Cappuccino Years" and I am enjoying re-living the 1997 election.

Got a little bogged down with the Bruce Chatwin - will try again.

The Truth by Terry Pratchett.

(I don't go on excesivly about Discworld - but I have been waiting for this...)

Clive

I got my copy of 'The Truth' this morning, but I'd said I wouldn't read it until Christmas - it's supposed to be a present - oooh! the antici....pation!! ! Besides, I've only just started 'The Dragonbone Chair' - first of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books by Tad Williams - which I've owned for months, and had soo many people telling me I should read it already.

And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has a bad habit of reading so many books at the one time!!!