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

read the second book in the coyote seires and now I'm rereading dies the fire

I stopped reading The Riders (Tim Winton). It was just so depressing. I asked HI how it ended - gave her my scenario, and she said "yup, that's pretty much it", so I didn't feel the need to read another 150 pages of depressing prose.

Note to Tim: Lighten up a bit!

Just started The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde - much better!

RF

The Horrible History of Oxfordshire and a on auras

Ooo, The Big Over Easy! Another favourit!

Blimey! nobody reading anything?

I just started Madame Bovary. Read it in the 6th form (in French) and can't remember any of it. But so far, so good.

The big over easy is good.
I'm reading To Sail beyond the sunset which is a pretty typical late Heinlein novel.

I've read about 8 or so Aubrey/Maturin books in the last month. Moving on, I've read Chasm City, which was pretty good, started 'the music of the primes' about, erm, prime numbers. It's so-so. I read 'Dr Reimann's Zeroes' a few years back, about the same thing, which I remember being much better.

Never finished 'The Dressing Station', just never got into it really.

Got a James Lee Burke 'Robicheaux' book out the library. Don't really feel like starting that one either, Robicheaux is not a happy chappy, and they can be quite a painful read sometimes (because the writing is *excellent*).

I seem to have lost some enthusiasm for reading at the mo. Could really go the latest Pratchett books for some light reading, although there's a Christopher Brookmyre on my shelf, which usually does the trick, and I can't be assed reading that either.

Might go and get some more Alistair Reynolds. Or the red/tartan Mars books Ed's recommended.

I finished The Big Over Easy - it's quite good, much in the style that I remember from previous Fforde books. I'm not quite sure what the joke is with the Jellyman - did I miss something here?

RF

I didn't get him either mabey the mighty google will shed some light on the proplem.

It didn't reveal much though it does turn out that there is a Jasper Ffrode chat room which I hadn't known.

"Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?" by Charles Barkley.

"Don't let the cheeky title, the byline or the picture on the cover fool you: this is a serious book that's not about Charles Barkley. Instead, this work, edited by the Washington Post and ESPN's Wilbon, is a candid collection of 13 interviews by Barkley with prominent Americans like Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods, Morgan Freeman and comedian George Lopez on the oft-avoided subject of race."

For those unfamiliar with pro basketball, Barkley was the MVP one year, and the shortest player (6'9") to win the rebounding title. He also once was confronted in an Atlanta bar by a trouble maker wanting to show off. For his trouble, the m***n got thrown through a glass divider. (Joke: "What does Barkley call the seven dwarfs? Darts.")

Barkley is one of the few pro athletes I will listen to, being intelligent, funny, and having gotten over his shyness
Oh, and he did play for my hometown Houston Rockets for a while, and razzed Yao Ming mercilessly ... "Where are the boards, Yao?" Another very intelligent, funny guy, Yao took it all with a smile, and ended up an All Star himself.

I've put "Gravity's Rainbow" on hold till I start my vacation on the 21st- I'm about a quarter of the way in and loving it, but I've been taking too much stuff back and forth from work and can't fit it into my backpack any more.

Just finished re-reading "Death Is A Lonely Business" and "A Graveyard For Lunatics" by Ray Bradbury. And thanks to Edward I now have three more volumes to read, so I'll be starting on Alasdair Gray's "Poor Things" tomorrow.

I enjoyed Fforde's 'First Amongst Sequels' recently. Especially the part where Thursday Next was stuck in a Moral Philosophy seminar.

PC - People like the curator of The Peoples Palace are real people, as well as the locations being real. Also - mention of the Hunter Bros, famed C19th medics.

(Recommendation also to pedro)

Bradbury: My daughter, being advanced for her age, has just read 'The Golden Apples Of The Sun'

I love Bradbury. There's a third book involving some of the same characters in the two I've just re-read. I'll have to get it.

K got me a Ray Bradbury coloring book for Xmas a few years ago.

Looking forward to starting this book when I get on the train this morning. I've got a mega-busy morning today, and a nice read always gets me a mellow state of mind first.

I've read "Kitty takes a Holiday". The third in a series of books about a werewolf radio presenter. It's gone a bit Anita Blake. Shame really, it started out well.

Also reading Haynes manuals on the Spitfire and Lancaster Bomber. I now know what my pocket money for the next 500 years is being spent on.

Edward- a couple dozen pages into "Poor Things" and while I can appreciate that these are less enlightened characters in less enlightened times, I do hope the whole book isn't going to be such graphic descriptions of heinous and morally reprehensible experimentation, or I'm going to wonder why you recommended it to me.

You guys are tempting me to re-read a Jasper Fforde, but I'll resist since I'm still ploughing through Broken God, and I've started on the factual Remember Remember the Fifth of November by James Sharpe, and a bridge book, No-Trump Bidding by Mike Wenble with Sally Brock (not sure what the "with" indicates).

Recently got (but haven't started) Confederacy of Dunces in a charity shop. Someone here (Edward? RF? I can't remember...) recommended this as one of the funniest books there are, or something equally glowing - so I'm looking forward to reading it.