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

Philosophy Made Simple, by Robert Hellenga http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23goldstein.html

Embers, by Sandor Marai
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/books/raking-the-coals.html

And I admit, quite belatedly(spurred by a TV interview with the author)Heat, by George Monbiot. Oh, interviewed on The Hour http://www.cbc.ca/thehour - 'video clips' then 'full archived episodes'(regrettably not for a full hour)

I'm rereading The Catcher In The Rye. Does anyone else find that when the read a book like this, that has a strong style of speech (and in this case, thought) they start thinking like that? I keep wanting to call people Goddamm phonies. It's the same with writers like Austen - I start to think in the speech styles of the period.

"Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre.

Wonderful. Laugh out loud funny at some points and incredulous about some of the abuses of science promulgated by the charlatans, the media and "Dr" Gillian Mckeith (not exclusive categories)

<< Does anyone else find that when the read a book like this, that has a strong style of speech (and in this case, thought) they start thinking like that? I keep wanting to call people Goddamm phonies.>>

I read about 10 Patrick O'Brian books* in a row last summer. By the end of it, I did ask 'Pray pass the salt' a few times. Also checked the wind direction more than usual.




*Austin-era Nautical adventures

I always find it interesting just how quickly you overcome the strangeness of archaic language or a very different dialect, and start to skip through it without even noticing it.

I'm not reading it yet, but I've just brought the new Terry Pratchett novel.

The only comment that springs to mind is Ooh, Ooh, Ook!

Although the good thing about not actually owning any TP yet is (a) I am really supporting my library service and (b) I can put 'anything by TP' on my Christmas list and stand a fair chance of getting something good.

Mol

"Does anyone else find that when the read a book like this, that has a strong style of speech (and in this case, thought) they start thinking like that? I keep wanting to call people Goddamm phonies."

You don't want me to repeat some of the things I started saying while I was reading Trainspotting!

I'm almost at the end of 'The Way it Was' (Sir Stanley Matthews' autobiography) and I'm down to the last few short stories in Agatha Christie's 'Partners In Crime'. 'Swan Song' by Edmund Crispin arrived but I'm saving it for xmas or the new year so I'm not sure what to read next though Graham Greene is calling.

Well, I've now finished the book, and it's as good as the rest.

Darwin's Watch any good Mol? I read the first two Science of Discworld book and I actually quite enjoyed them!

<>

I've just started Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy, and my racist vocabulary is expanding by the page. Not said any of them, but it reminded me just how many terms there are.

As for the book, it's building up quite nicely, but isn't great (yet, hopefully). More to come when I'm finished.

(Re-) read the Revelation Space series by Alistair Reynolds over the last few weeks. *Proper* epic SF, thoroughly enjoyed it. And also started thinking that implants in your head to make you think quicker will be normal.

Finished Bad Science - very enjoyable, not to mention makes you angry reading about, especially the abuses carried out in Africa by frauds peddling nonsense - but now I'm carrying on with Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Dan Dennett.

'And another thing' by Jeremy Clarkson

I love the way that everyone is ripped into equally, laugh out loud reading on the train!

I really ought to read Darwin's Watch while I'm totally awake rather than just before I drop off, cos I keep having to re-read the science bits - it's quite advanced stuff for a dozy arts graduate to get her head around. Some diagrams would be useful but then I suppose it would look like a text book. It has made me think that I'd quite like to read Stephen Hawkins next, though.

Mol

Started The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde as light relief from Les Mis. Haven't read it for years.

I'm still on The Happy Bottom Riding Club - slow going, since I have to take notes

A Christmas Carol - It's yonks and yonks since I read this. I always forget how much I like Dickens.
(Sharpe's Revenge is my bedtime book. Can't beat a bit of skirmishing with the Rifles before dropping off)

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross. Odd scifi where humans have died out leaving a society of robots.

Currently reading the manual for Drakensang

Currently reading Stairway 13 about the Disaster at Ibrox park on 2nd Jan 1971