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

finished The Hobbit. Lovely as usual.

Have been looking forward to this for a while now: picked up Lord of the Rings yesterday. My book was purchased in 1975 and it has nearly fallen apart, but it smells lovely, has specks of dirt and whatever on it, and I love it.

Currently re-reading my own. Got the last chapter and a bit to write, so am going back through making sure I've accounted for all the storyline threads I've started and not made any glaring errors in the plot

I'd offer to proof it, but I'm a notoriously bad proof reader.

Every Short Story, from 1951-2012, by Alasdair Gray.

Title says it all.

11:22:63

I really quite enjoyed this one by Stephen King. It's one of his better stories and a really good read.

It's an unusual take on time travelling, when our traveller can only arrive at the one date, which happens to be a few years before the assassination of JFK. It also takes an interesting twist at the end.

Deke

Fatherland by Robert Harris. It's a crime novel set in an alternate universe where Nazi Germany still exists in 1964, and has a great empire having spread as far east as Moscow. Curiously the map shows no change to the German western border, so perhaps Harris imagines that Hitler didn't attack France, the UK never entered the war, and so he could concentrate his forces on the eastern front.

I seem to be speculating on this a lot more than on the murder.

The Scourging Angel by Ben Gummer. A detailed account of the arrival of the plague in the British Isles in 1348.

Mol

Just started The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian. It's my 'book at bedtime'/bathroom book, so it may last a while.

Inspired by seeing Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver
and having old memories stirred of Robert Newton and
the Disneyworld versions of the tale I have taken up
with great satisfaction the original text and illustrations
of Treasure Island.
A real treat of manners and style and enthusiasm for
all things nautical.

~jwf~

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

Very interesting little book - some real gems to think about, even if I don't really swallow his whole world view.

sprout

Treasure Island - one of the best books ever.

Reading LOTR right now. and loving it. I even liked Tom Bombadill this time.

Fatherland was brilliant I wouldn't mind reading that one again. My daughter is currently reading Er Ist Wieder Da (he's back) about Hitler waking up in modern Berlin. I might give her Fatherland next.

"Er Ist Wieder Da" - there's a corny B-movie title if ever I heard one!

I just read the appendices last time I picked up LOTR - I was trying to work out what might make it into the next two Hobbit films

Mol

my hope was Aragorn & Gandalf looking for Gollum but it seems my wish is thwarted.
I can't get over the fact that after so many reads and so many years I finally liked the Tom Bombadill part!

Just started reading Dracula Cha Cha Cha, having finally got around to reading Anno Dracula, and The Bloody Red Baron.

If you like alternate histories and visceral horror I highly recommend them.

Chickenhawk. By Robert Mason.

Just re-read this one by an Air Cavalry pilot, flying 'Hughey' assault helicopters in Viet Nam between 1964-66. It's an honest and chilling account of his experiences during his part of the war and its effects on him.

Deke

Still reading Reamde by Neal Stephenson. I'm glad it's on Kindle because it's easier to hold and read than the physical doorstop.

MC

MC, I read 'Reamde' as 'Readme', which sounds like a book that Alice might find lying around in Wonderland.

Reading my own, again. Think I've got the first six chapters ready for the proofreader, finishing off the next six.

@Pastey
I hope you're thinking of Lulu as a publisher.
For that matter, I wonder how many other hootooists
have stuff they'd like us all to know about and share.



As to the topic at hand I am pleased that the library
has finally gotten me a copy of Pratchett's Long Earth.
It's a virgin copy, I'm the first to read it and I'm loving
it... so far. Brilliant, with echoes of Mort and the Thief
of Time - so far.

It being a Friday, and a slow day at h2g2 I am able to
sit back in the lounger and soak neck deep in that gentle
wisdom and loving humanism with which he pokes at the
furry things lurking in the underbrush of reality.

God bless 'im!

~jwf~