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

Just finished Darlah by Johan Harstad. Very nice book, really thrilling.

Just started on A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin... the first three parts of A Song Of Ice And Fire were on special offer in Tesco so Mrs. D picked them up.

Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian.

I have to say, reading the entire Aubrey-Maturin series (which is what I've been doing since May) has been one of my best reading experiences ever. And when I've finished this (I haven't decided whether or not to read the Final Unfinished Voyage, it depends how Blue at the Mizzen ends) I am going to be spending a lot of time looking at all the relevant maps on the website. It's like the appendices for LOTR ... even when you've finished, *there's more*.

Mol

All three volumes of the Hunger games. Sho, did you like them?
At first, I thought it was 'Running Man' in disguise, but I really enjoyed the books.

Mol, I *love* those books! I bought about a dozen of them (8-20) second-hand and read them after my finals in around a fortnight. I was really, really happy that I'd kinda had enough when BatM ended.

They're fabulous, all of them. Thanks EtB!

Aye, but that was before you slagged them off for not being 'literature'!

Unknown Quantity: A real and imaginary history of algebra, by John Derbyshire.

Tickling the English by Dara O Briain.

Walter M. Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz". Currently about halfway through part two, "Fiat Lux". So far, it's really, really good. I don't have anything wise and insightful to say about it, but if you like post-apocalyptic stuff, this is fantastic (particularly as I drudged through Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" last month, what a letdown).

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/164154.A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

I thought The Road was pants too. Just picked up The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock, should be fun.

The Road was depressing, but it does pose very well the question, what could/would you do for your family, if the structures of your life broke down around you? With two small children of my own, I found it quite moving, I have to say.

sprout

I just read the first of the Spiderwick Chronicles ones while lying in the bathtub - just what I needed, it required next to no thinking but prevented me from falling asleep.

I didn't find The Road depressing- just utterly unengaging. It wasn't quite boring- but it was impossible for me to care for the main characters at all. I can't enjoy a book if I don't care about at least *someone* or something.

But now I'm going to have to check out the Spiderwick Chronicles, especially if it's good for reading in the bath... it'll be cool enough for baths here again soon!

Can;t remember the last book I mentioned here, but I've finished the Dresden Files -- don't know if "love" is the term, but I found them good, and I'm looking forward to the next book. Butcher deals with some of the heavier topics, like religion and belief, but he's also good at writing characters I liked. It's Urban Fantasy, which I find I like.

Can anyone suggest any other urban fantasy authors? I've already read almost everything Carrie Vaughn has written. I've read as many of Laurell K. Hamilton's books as I'm willing to (I mean, just how many ways can you boink a vampire/feary/werewolf, anyway, and why should I want to?)

Last book I mentioned on here was Lord of the Flies 7 or 8 years ago...I'm currently reading The Element by Ken Robinson, which is about how we are educated out of creativity via the traditional hierarchy of subjects and the expectation of societies definition of intelligence.

It's fascinating!

See, now there's a spot where I could've used MS's British English spell-checker: it's "faery", isn't it? The American spelling is too much like a pejoritve.

Fairy or faerie is okay in the UK I think. Faerie as far as I know is Gaelic and is from where Fairy is derived...but I don't think anyone would tell you off for using either

I definitely prefer "faerie" or "faery" to "fairy".

I see fairy and I just think washing up liquid

I have a number of books on the go at the moment. I'm reading Barnaby Rudge on my Sony Reader, I Claudius and A Brief History of France on my Kindle, and Oliver Cromwell as a tree book. Oh, and I have an Agatha Christie mystery as my book at bedtime, but I can't remember the title. It's one with Ariadne Oliver and Poirot, but that's all I can tell you. It might be Elephants Can Remember, but I'm not sure.