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

hey, Sheep, I thought that too.

I also think she focusses a little TOO much on class, although I do concede that it is deeply interwoven in all manner of Englishness. She didn't cover our attitude to children enough for me, or our relationship with authority figures, but it was still an interesting read.

I have to ask, Bovril King, are the Shannara books any good? Our library system is just full of them! (I suppose they must be good, if you're reading it again...)

To whoever wrote in re: fave line in "Soul Music"- I particularly like the bit about Death's first name "Keith Death". Makes me chuckle every time I think about it. Which is often.

Hornblower and the Atropos
fantastic stuff

I'm re-reading 'Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocolypse' before starting on Robert Rankin's new book 'The Toyminator'. I've also got a biography of Hogarth on the go...

Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection by John Man

I've read another two Rebus books. I really enjoy them, but I've not read them in sync, so it gets a bit confusing sometimes. I'm almost finished 'Live and Let Die', the second Bond book (after reading the first one first, oh joy!), which is pretty good, and almost unrecognisable from the film.

Am kinda getting to the end of my crime/thriller binge, and I can't think what to read next. Feel like some non-fiction, maybe something about human evolution. On the subject of which, 'The Day Before Yesterday', by Colin Tudge, is an absolutely superb book. Utterly brilliant, and not a fossil in sight. I'd recommend this to *everyone*.

The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst has turned out to be a real eye-opener. I'm learning about all sorts of things I didn't know.

*refrains from mentioning Edward's tag*

I'm on holiday, so I've got Tom Clancy on the go at the moment. The first page caught my attention straight away because he describes the problems an American faces when he comes to live in Britain (less chat shows on TV and driving on the left). It's called Red Rabbit.

Just finished A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian -which made me and but was totally fantastic

Started Hornblower: A Happy Return

and bedtime reading is another Louis L'Amour Sackett book (can't remember the title)

and for w**k The Lexus and The Olive Tree. Riveting. Not.

Just finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Now reading 'A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil' by Christopher Brookmyre.

I'm reading "Stitch and B*tch, The Knitter's Handbook" by Debbie Stoller. Also a book about crocheting (whose title escapes me), which features, among other things, a basket crocheted out of leather...

SC

I've seen that "history" "tractors" "Ukraine" book in my local W***rstones, haven't picked it up to see what it's all about though.

Er, what's it all about (without giving away surprising plot twists and the like)? I presume it does something slightly different to what it says on the tin, becuase that would be v. boring. Although short.

RF

old Ukrania widower (84) wants to marry bottle blonde voluptuous Ukranian woman to give her a passport. Also to get her genius into a good English school

Enter his 47 and 57 year old daughters who don't want to encourage this. They had a falling out after their mother's death 2 years ago, and you see how they have to get round this to build an alliance.

That's it basically. During the novel you find out the family's back story, and how they came to leave the Ukrane. Uncle Joe Stalin gets a mention or two.

The tractors come in because the old chap was an engineer and designed tractors, and through the novel he writes a book called A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian.

Now, I'm not sure if this model could be classed as chick-lit. But I though it was great. Belly laughs at quite a lot of it, but I did get a towards the end.

I started reading Richard Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" after watching a mildly entertaining / informative but horribly constructed documentary on Channel 4 about natural selection and evolution.

I also started (giving into temptation) Robert Fisk's "The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of The Middle East"

My Dad is reading it still and has about another 30 pages to go before he finishes, but he left it open and discarded on the ktichen table and I couldn't help but start it. So we are now engaged in the first tandem reading of a book across two generations!

me and my mum used to "share" books all the time like that, my library card and pocket money never stretched to enough books for me.

I'm still reading Hornblower - I have one more lot to read before I run out

I'm thinking of reading a Jeffrey Archer next.

I am still reading Matina Cole - The Graft, it's been about six months now

I finished "Catcher in the Rye", too bad its classified as great literature because its a pretty good book. A good first sentence:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

I've started Terry Bisson's "In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories", good stuff so far, altho probably not for everybody. One Amazon reviewer:

"I got it from the library and I am thinking of suing them for mental anguish."

The other reviewers got the average up to 4 stars out of 5 ...

Still reading Hornblower - he's every bit as good as Sharpe.

The Triumph of the Sun by Wilbur Smith. According to his website he includes both Bernard Cornwell and C. S. Forester among his favourite authors.