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

Finally finished A Dance With Dragons. I borrowed it from the library and very foolishly thought I'd be able to finish all three in three weeks. How wrong I was, but fortunately it's super easy to renew

I've been reading a Song of Ice and Fire a.k.a. the Game of Thrones books. I strongly recommend them to anyone who doesn't mind a lot of character death.

I've started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson, another book from my 'Not Read' list.

just started The Cowboy and the Cossack which is brilliant so far (4 chapters read)

just finished The Virgin Suicides which is rather odd but beautiful writing

Oh, and I've also started The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose, another tree-book from my 'Not Read' list. The author looks at why, in his opinion, a computer (or robot/android/whatever) will never be able to truly emulate the human mind. Not exactly light reading, but interesting.

My bedtime/bathroom book is Tutankhamen by Christians Desroches-Noblecourt. Like the other book I read recently, this is about 'the life and death of a boy king'. This one was written 35 years before El Mahdy's book. It will be interesting to see what difference those years of research have made to the theories.

I'm also reading That's Another Story by Julie Walters as light relief from The Emperor's New Mind.

Tennis elbow is really inhibiting my use of computers. Even typing this on my tablet is painful. On the plus side, I've taken four books off my 'Not Read' list over the past couple of weeks.

The Julie Walters autobiography didn't last long. I'm now reading Agincourt by Juliet Barker as light relief from The Emperor's New Mind.

Regarding the Tutankhamen book, I really should have read this one before I read the more recently written book. There are aspects of the book that grate, the use of the Greek versions of Pharaohs' names, for one. I've been to Egypt twice and I prefer to hear/read the Pharaohs referred to by their Egyptian names. The first third of the book is taken up with the discovery of the tomb and a cursory description of its contents. I'm only just getting to a description of who Akhenaten was and why he is regarded as a heretic.

The Cowboy and the Cossack - fabulous. Totally marvellous. I wish someone would (faithfully) make it into a film, even there are only 2 women in the whole thing.

(Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.)

This is a question for those of you who have read a lot of Bernard Cornwell's works.

Amazon have the first five books in Bernard Cornwell's Warrior Chronicles for £1.51 each. I'm tempted, but I've found the quality of his novels can suffer if he strays away from a historical setting. (I've enjoyed Sharpe and the Grail Quest trilogy, amongst others, but Stonehenge wasn't very good and I struggled with the Warlord trilogy.) I know these novels are set during the reign of King Alfred, but that's Dark Ages and poorly documented, afaik. How do these compare with his other works?

Apologies for the interruption. You can go back to doing other things now.

I should have said the books are £1.51 on Kindle. They're £1.59 as tree-books, which is still a tempting price.

Sorry for any confusion.

I didn't like them. But that's probably because I'm not that interested in that period of history. Plus, I have a family connection to the Napoleonic wars which increases my interest in Sharpe.

I'm reading one of the similar-to-sharpe Napoleon ones but it's not great so I won't be reading any of the others (I can't remember who wrote it)

I'm also reading the JK Rowling book that isn't and enjoying it immensely as a light read.

If we're talking about family connections, one of my great-great-great (I think) grandfathers rode in the Charge of the Light Brigade, but nobody writes about the Crimean War, afaik. (Tennyson's poem doesn't count. I prefer Kipling's poem, written 20 years later, about the plight of the surviving veterans.)

Oh, and I'm interested in pretty much any period of history, from Ancient Egypt to early 20th century, so that's not a problem for me. (My knowledge of the two World Wars is sadly lacking, I'm ashamed to say, although I recently watched the whole of The World at War over a period of a few months.)

I might give the books a try. £1.50 isn't that much to spend and the bit I read via 'Look Inside' seemed quite interesting. I did spot one anachronism quite early on, though, which is a bit worrying. There's a reference to hawks wearing hoods. As far as I know, the practise of putting hoods on hawks didn't start until about the 13th century.

"Plus, I have a family connection to the Napoleonic wars which increases my interest in Sharpe."

That's the best wording of "my aunt's nephew's sister's mum lived three streets down from Sean Bean" that I've ever heard.

Mm, Sean Bean.

My husband has kindly loaded his old kindle with holiday reading for me. All of Jane Austen, and almost all of Patrick O'Brian. So I will only need to take five actual books with me - the rest of the POBs and the Lord of the Rings, which I've not read for ages.

Mm mm mm mm mm.

Mol

I'm from the same town as the Beanster. What I meant was that I grew up hearing stories about my dad's regiment's involvement in those battles so it's interesting to read about it.

Plus, of course, you have the "head kino" of Sean Bean in a rifles uniform

CheerfulDragon - you need to find the series of 5 books about Fancy Jack Crossman by Garry (Douglas) Kilworth. I think they're out of print but I have managed to get them all via Amazon Marketplace*. They aren't as good as Sharpe or Hornblower (the action seems to happen when I'm not looking) but they cover the major Crimean battles. I think The Devil's Own is the first one.

http://www.garry-kilworth.co.uk/book_thedevilsown.php

*other sellers of second hand books are available

Finished Tutankhamen. My bedtime/bathroom book is now The Divine Comedy: Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (translated by Dorothy L. Sayers).

ditched Bonaparte's Avengers as too boring. Finished the Cuckoo's whatever it was (by JK Rowling aka something I can't remember) which was fine light bedtime reading. Not too bad but not brilliant.

Now reading another Kindle offer: Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates. I'd call this Flapper Fiction, along the lines of Daisy Dalrymple, which is not an insult it's great fun and grabbed me from the first. She's a gung-ho flapper along the lines of the Amelia Erhart character from Night At the Museum 2.

Gave up on a bloody awful crime novel about an Irish detective sitting on a train in Italy or something. At least that's what the first two pages were about, and I couldn't push myself any further than that despite three attempts.

Tarzan of the Apes & Other Tales by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

It's interesting to see what does and doesn't happen compared to the idea of Tarzan that I have. No "Me Tarzan, you Jane" for example.