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

"The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. Again. Totally mind-blowing, yet somehow still utterly believable. I am certain that the man can do no wrong.

Also for the umpteenth time, "Valis", Philip K. Dick's semi-autobiographical masterwork. Very possibly my very very favourite book. I think you should all read it, so nyer.

I have nearly finished 'The Two Towers' Tolkein.

I got side tracked by 'Harry Potter' which was fun.

My copy of 'The Return of the King' has gone AWOL so I have ordered another for a ten hour stopover in Stanstead on Tuesday.

The White Hotel, D.M. Thomas

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I think, book four anyhoo )
BCNU - Crescent

oooh - Crescent - that's a good one

But then they all are

Since I finished Ash, I have read all the others, the first one was OK, and the next was better, but the third was really good I have reports that this one is a lot darker, and about time too Well until later....
BCNU - Crescent

She is very clever, her writing style develops as her audience ages...

Finished Ash which was great. Now following Ekki into Piece of Cake

Finished the second Thomas Covenant trilogy by Steven Donaldson a few weeks ago and its still with me. What a great read. Nobody else I speak to has heard of them though.

I started the first book a couple of times but never got anywhere with it

Just started Junk by Melvin Burgess. My 13y/o daughter read it and found it a little hard going.

Harry Potter was really good Now reading Marrow, by Robert Reed....
BCNU - Crescent

Marrow was fairly good, but didn't seem to have the edge that Iain Banks brings to describing truely huge structures, which would have helped. A fairly good premise, and followed through fairly well. The main problem was time scales, immortal characters would tend to use different time scales, but it just ended up treating 100 years as just a day, nothing really intresting happening in it, all relationships are just the same as before. Well maybe it is just me. Now on the Magi'i of Cyandor, L.E. Modisett Jnr. Until later...
BCNU - Crescent

Tsk, I just spent at least two minutes trying to figure out which was the author and which was the title in "BCNU - Crescent"

At the moment, No Logo - as I've just bought tickets for the Edinburgh Book Festival event with Naomi Klein. I can't do the "6 books at once" thing, but I've got Captive State by George Monbiot, and Crime and Punishment queued up to read. And I recommend Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser - but not if you're eating



DG

Just finishing 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley, and half-way through 'Lolita' by Nabokov. And reading 'Persuasion' at my head teacher's insistence.

brave new world freaked me out for a week after i finished it....

Colin:

I read all the Donaldson "Thomas Covenant" books about
10 or 15 years ago. I had heard that there were supposed to be
9 books in all eventually, but the last 3 never turned up.
Maybe this has something to do with the protagonist's death
at the end of book 6?

Right now, I'm just starting the fourth "Harry Potter" book.
I'm bemused by the negative reaction to Harry Potter from
the religious right fringe groups, who worry that impressionable
young children will decide they want to be witches or wizards
after they read H.P. This is silly, because even in the Harry
Potter books no one can become witches or wizards unless
they (1.) are born with magical powers, and then (2.)
spend 7 years studying at Hogwarts. In the real world,
real magical power is nonexistent, and so are schools
like Hogwarts. So, kids, you can't do "real" magic even if you
try!
there is no Hogwarts, and

Damn it - I meant 'Brave New World Revisited' the 'it's all coming true' book. 'Brave New World' freaked me out too - I wasn't quite prepared for the end...

Just acquired Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham from my local library.

Emily... I know! that whole north, north west, west...etc etc sentence...*shudder* was worse because i didnt figure it out till the end of the paragraph...

::butting in, like a poorly placed bookmark... hahahaaa...::

"Grendel", by John Gardner!!! YES!!! The story of Beowulf as told by the monster!!! YAY!!!

I read "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West", which was hundreds of pages longer(same idea), and didn't get good until about 100 pages in....

I can't decide which (witch... hahahaaa) one is the better of the two, though!!! Grendel's cool, and I love reading the name HROTHGAR, but you really can't beat The Land of Oz, or can you!?? Herrrmmm....