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

Crescent beat me to it, but I finally finished 'The Naked God' today.

Not sure if the ending was a little *too* cosmic, but I suppose when you call your book 'The Naked God' and the main plot is the search for said God, it would be churlish to complain that it's a Deus Ex Machina.

Still, a satisfying end to such a huge story. I don't think there was one loose end that I could spot.

I'm tempted to join Abi with Lord of the Rings next, but I can't decide if it's better to be a bit fresher when the movie comes out, so I'm not sucked immediately into 'The book was better' conversations.

When you do Deus Ex Machina though, that is the way to do it Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

Gedge, Abi: I enjoyed "The Last English King" too. Please let me know what "The Kings of Albion" is like

Has anybody out there read the 3rd book in Robin Hobbs Mad Ships Series? I am scared to read it at the moment as I thought the Final book in his first series was a load of rubbish (I know I will be shot down in flames for this).

Anybosy got any advice.

Reading:

The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Some Other Bloke

The Player of Games - Iain M Banks

Muchos Amores - Zagreb

Reading:

The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Some Other Bloke

The Player of Games - Iain M Banks

Zagreb

Hmmm... which should I read?

1) The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) - Hermann Hesse; or
2) Ulysses - James Joyce?

Both very long...

"The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Some Other Bloke"

Bruce Sterling.

I've started The Aardvark is Ready for War. Can't remember who it's by.

Should have finished HP and the Goblet of Fire by the end of the week then moving onto Death and the Penguin by some Russian dude ... have to say HP is compulsive to say the least ...

Yay for Bruce Sterling - very good writer who doesn't deserve to be called "Some other bloke". Read "Holy Fire" or "Heavy Weather" - both excellent.

Currently reading "Cryptonomicon" - Neal Stephenson, and just finished "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan. Which was okay.

Little, Big by John Crowley and Monty Python Speaks (in their own words kind of thing. Turns out Graham Chapman, despite being dead, is still the most interesting one.)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, well written and very funny.

I loved Little, Big. I thought it really really good, and of all the times I have started it, I have yet to finish Until later...
BCNU - Crescent

Don't read Ulysses. It's nearly as unreadable as Finnigan's Wake, and nobody has that much time.

A Stitch In Time by Andrew (Garak) Robinson. A candidate (it's in the top 5) for best book of 2001. Other candidates "Mummies of Urumchi" by Some Woman (apologies to her, Elisabeth someone, a textile expert) (archaeology,superb) Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by DNA (of course!) and the Millenium:Deep Space Nine series by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Top book of 1998, War In Heaven by David Zindel (I'm now moving on to its prequel, Broken God.) Best book of 1997, Seasons of Blood, by Ferghal Keane (no relation...)

David Nobbs - going gently

okay, here goes...

The Code of the Woosters - PG Wodehouse
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling
The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
The Complete Winnie The Pooh - AA Milne
Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert
Para Handy - Neil Munro
Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

(I like to mix and match!)

Egon Schiele by Reinhard Steiner - love Schiele's painting and portraiture

The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology by Abercrombie, Hill and Turner - rereading due to renewed interest in Karl Popper, Max Weber and the general field

Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan - just to refresh my memory (long overdue)

New Plymouth District Council Monitoring Committee's Meeting Agenda by various authors - some great subplots but a little weak on characterisation

Yay!! Finally a group of people who won't look at me funny when I list several books I'm reading at the same time!!

The Hobbit (for the first time!) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Whispers by Dean Koontz