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

I've finally finished Snow White and the Seven Samurai. Not Tom Holt's best book.

that one put me off reading any more of his (I'd previously read Who's Afraid of Beowulf and found it brilliant) but maybe that's just an off one?

I started a blog but switched to Goodreads and haven't looked back. I don't always write a lot though.

Just finished a crime thing called Concrete Blonde - all the way through I was debating with myself about just stopping but in the end I wanted to know whodunnit.

Now I'm reading Past It Notes by Maureen Lipman, but i may discontinue this one. I'd totally forgotten how quickly her Guardian columns annoyed me.

I've looked at Goodreads, and I may sign up one day. Right now, the last thing I need is recommendations for books I may enjoy. Just glancing at it I've already spotted several candidates. I think I'll concentrate on reading what I've already got.

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin. I've only just started - no-one's died yet.

I'm reading a Feast for Crows - compared to the other three "GoT" books it's a bit plodding.

today I finished Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher but it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be.

I'm just about to start Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain by Polly Toynbee.

I've gone ahead with my book blog. (I may post a link to it when it's up and running the way I want it to look.) I don't want to blog reviews of book series out of order, so I've started Sharpe's Tiger as my tree-book and gone back to A Game of Thrones on Kindle. It's a good job I enjoyed the Sharpe series and the first few of the Song of Ice and Fire series first time round. Re-reading them is no hardship. I'll be doing the same with Jack Aubrey and any other books I have a series of.

I should have mentioned that any other books I have on the go *will* be finished. I just won't be spending so much time on those as on books I already know and have enjoyed.

Currently reading The Isles: A History, by Norman Davies. Impressive in breadth, as always.

Currently reading Shogun by James Clavell.

Regarding my book blog, I'd like some advice. I'll be adding links to Amazon (when I can figure out how to use the WordPress plug-in ). The books I've read and reviewed so far are fairly popular, even if they aren't recent releases. Should I broaden my range of books to include more recent authors? I want the books I include in the blog to be ones I've enjoyed as the blog is mostly for my pleasure. (Any money I get from people clicking on links is a bonus.) If I do go for more recent releases, are there any recommendations? I like Wilbur Smith, Bernard Cornwell (some of his, anyway), John le Carre, Patrick O'Brian (the Jack Aubrey series) and the Song of Ice and Fire series to give you a rough idea of my fiction reading tastes. I don't like romance, chick lit, horror or anything overly violent.

I'd be inclined to stay away from doing new releases just for the sake of it, because there's a lot of book bloggers out there who do so, and your blog is likely to get lost in the deluge.
Unless you can get an Advance Readers Copy and do the review before the book is released, then it's a pretty good thing to do.
I'd be tempted to just keep doing the books you enjoy reading, because then you're more likely to build up a following of people who enjoy the same sort of books, and will then more likely trust your reviews of books they haven't read, and will then more likely buy them.

"Three Men In A Boat" by Jerrome K. Jerrome, about an an extended boating outing on the Thames with a 19th century setting.

Downright Clemensian in its humor.

Reminds me of Mark Twain.

@Pastey: I wasn't thinking of doing new releases, certainly not 'for the sake of it'. It's just that some of the authors I enjoy have been around for years (Wilbur Smith had his first novel published in 1964, Ken Follett dates back to 1978, as examples). I didn't mention any of the non-fiction authors whose works I enjoy, like Bill Bryson. Most of them have been around a long time, too. Although they are still writing, I wondered if there are any more recent authors whose works I might enjoy.

I'd say keep doing the older books, not many people do review them, but they are good books!

You have a point about the older books. I have 'classics' that date back to the 14th century and one history book that goes back even further! Seriously, though, I have plenty of books that are more recent than that and I doubt that many people have done a review of the complete Sharpe series, for example.

Inside Room 40 by Paul Gannon. It's about the British naval cryptanlysis group during the First World War, which was known only as "Room 40", and also MI1(b), which was the equivalent group at the War Office. It's still early days, but two things I particularly like:

* Naturally given the scope of the book a lot is not your typical WWI history. So we have events away from the Somme and in Persia or the Pacific or southern Africa.

* Although it's pop history, he talks about what various historians have said. So the traditional story of the formation of Room 40 involves two men meeting for lunch in 1914 and realising that the academic chap can help out the naval chap with all these encyphered telegrams he's got sitting on his desk. Revisionist historians have suggested that this was put about to disguise the fact that we had been intercepting and decoding messages for as much as ten years by that point. The writer suggests the reality revealed by declassified documents falls somewhere between the two.

also hitting the history books:
Emperor of the West by Hywel Williams. It's about Charlemagne - who died 1200 years ago this year. There are a fair few events in Aachen commemorating it so I wanted to mug up on him

You are all cordially invited to check out my book review blog - http://dragonbookreviews.com It's still a work-in-progress in some respects, but it will grow.

I'm currently reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It's been in my 'to read' pile for a fair few years, but with all the wars and disruption going on presently, suddenly it seems to be sort of zeitgeist to read it now. I'm moved, bewildered and dismayed in turns by the narrative - but the descriptions of uplifting scenes of humanity amongst it all are worth the heartrending portions.

I've not finished it yet, so am hopeful it's not a bleak ending.

---- Oh and thumbs up for Jerome K Jerome Three Men in a Boat. That is one of my never to be parted with books. A keeper.


If you liked that, try Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith.

I also rate The Little Ottleys, by Ada Leverson ( this is the omnibus of three sequential comic novels, all of which are available free from Amazon Kindle) Another comic gem from the 1920s, similar genre. Very witty.

Currently reading Elizabeth's Spy Master by Robert Hutchinson, about Francis Walsingham.

I've often complained that Amazon's Recommendations often don't have anything to do with the books I've bought, despite being based on my purchases and wish list. I had to smile at one of today's recommendations, though. A recent addition to my wish list is "The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life" by Bettany Hughes. Because of this addition, Amazon recommended "Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Home Cooking"! I can just imagine Ramsay sprinkling hemlock on one of his dishes.

I check the box that says "don't consider this when making recommendations" and I get really good recs.

Finally finished A Dance with Dragons which means I'm another reader impatiently waiting for the 6th book in the Song of Ice and Fire books.

Am now reading Maurice by EM Forster