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

Currently doing most of my reading at "CM Wire", available from CM Security, safe browsing, a news service that provides links to other organizations, also available, in more diagrammatic form, at CMWire.com

Its safe to describe their editorial style, with this Taiwan based news service, as 'undiscriminating', censorship filters much lower than with most western publishers.

Expect the alarming with the controversial, silly season material with the sound.

Critical thinking skills required.

I've finished Anne Boleyn and started Catherine de Medici. I decided to tackle the 16th century in date order. Mary Queen of Scots is a doorstop, anyway, and I'm not sure I can cope with it at the moment.

Correction to my previous post. Shortly after starting Catherine de Medici I realised that I had a book on Mary Tudor on my tsudoku pile. There's some overlap on dates, so I'm read Mary Tudor at the same time.

Still doing most of my reading currently at CM Wire, with a special focus on bogus news stories.

Still working my way through James Branch Cabell when I want a change of pace.

I've started reading The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke on Kindle. The book was published in 1956 but doesn't feel as dated as stories of a similar vintage by other sci-fi authors (Asimov's robot stories, for example). When Clarke writes about spending time with friends who aren't physically present, it's almost a prediction of social media.

There's a sequel to "The City and the Stars", "Against the Fall of Night" and coauthored by Arthur C. Clarke and Gregory Benford, "Beyond the Fall of Night", featuring, among other characters, a raccoon with pockets.

Still alternating between 'fake news' studies and readings from James Branch Cabell myself.

I've not read those for ages - I'll have to re-read. For some reason I'm thinking of the one with the lion?

I'm currently reading 'Peveril of the Peak' by Sir Water Scott. I saw a copy published in 1903 with a beautifully illustrated frontispiece on sale for £1 so there was no reason not to.

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"The Lion of Comarre"?

Yep - and I've worked out why. I've got both stories in the same .

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Years ago I had The Lion of Comarre and Against the Fall of Night in one book. Against the Fall of Night was reworked/expanded to become The City and the Stars. From what I've been able to discover, only the first part of Beyond the Fall of Night is written by Clarke, and it's essentially Against the Fall of Night. The second part was written by Gregory Benford. I'm not sure how much Clarke was involved, if at all. So it's not high on my "must read" list.

I thought it was amusing, set in a future so distant the sun has gone nova and become a white dwarf, the planets having first been dragged out to a safe distance and then returned to more comfortable orbits after the nova.

When you think about it, of all the things a racoon hasn't got, what could it use more than pockets, especially an evolved, genetically re-engineered, talking racoon.

Just a note to say I am about 1/3rd thru 'Forever Amber' a novel about the Restoration and time of King Charles II. I have mentioned this in another thread here, but I wanted to share it with you as I do not get to read real paper and ink books as often as I like

F S

Forever Amber caused an absolute storm when it was first published.

I first heard of it in a school story, where a group of girls were illicitly reading it, knowing full well it was not at all suitable literature for their leisure time (interestingly, in the first edition of the school story, the girls were illicitly reading Gone with the Wind - Forever Amber was substituted some 20 years later).

Anyway, having grown up knowing of it, I was thrilled to pick up a copy at our village fete some 10 years ago. I really enjoyed it. Totally understand why it was considered unsuitable for 'nice' 1950s teenage girls, though - that's actually fairly obvious from the first few paragraphs!

Mol

There's also a well thought of film version of Forever Amber.

Nearly two months on from the last post. I'm reading Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser. I indulged myself yesterday at our local discount book shop. I bought seven books including the one I've just started: The Mythology of Richard III by John Ashdown-Hill. He's been pretty disparaging of some of the people involved on the periphery of the excavation a few years ago, although not of the excavation group itself.

I've been watching Versailles on BBC iPlayer, so one book waiting to be read is Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser. The series seems to be accurate enough in the broad historical aspects (well, it is a French production) with dramatic license applied to the details. It will be interesting to compare what the book has to say about Louis' liaisons with what's depicted on screen.

I'm currently reading 'Neverwhere' version 3 by Neil Gaiman (I've heard rumours that he's finally started writing a sequel, mind you they definitely did promise a second series to the television series back in 1996, it was in the Radio Times and everything).

I'm also reading 'Return of the Psammead' by Helen Cresswell (I have a 'home' book I keep next to my bed and an 'away' book I keep in my bag to read at lunchtimes, on the ferry and trains etc.)

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I've finished the book about Richard III. The University of Leicester doesn't come out well as regards publications since the excavation, and the Richard III Visitor Centre seems to be going along with the post-Bosworth pro-Tudor propaganda, regardless of the lack of evidence to support it. I won't comment on the interment of the remains because I can understand why things were done the way they were. Over all, anot interesting book.

Still wading through Mary Queen of Scots and I've started Louis XIV.

Forgot to mention that I'm *still* readin The Lord of the Rings. It provides light relief(!) from all the history I've been reading.

Forgot to mention that I'm *still* reading The Lord of the Rings. It provides light relief(!) from all the history I've been reading.

Currently reading Imperium by Robert Harris, and The Reality of Magic by Richard Dawkins, both print books. The Dawkins book is OK for someone who hasn't read much non-fiction over the years, or for someone in their early teens. I only learned something​ I didn't already know when I reached chapter 7 on rainbows. That's over half way through! If you want a decent book about science-y things, Bill Bryson did it much better.