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

Probably. It usually happens to mine... this is the first time I've done to someone else. Apologies, Psycorp!!

Wow, you go to sleep and the book club takes over. Madness.

Carry on!

Threadkiller again B'el?

I've finished Farewell to Arms. Hated it. Had no sympathy for the main character, and his actions in the last chapter did nothing to change that.

Currently reading my bumper hhgg omnibus, but I'll be looking at your suggestions (and a book by Kurt Vonnegut suggested by a workmate) when I'm done. Should be just after payday.

I'm just glad to know someone else who disliked it as much as I did- though I've fortunately managed to forget most of the detail and all I remember is that I hated it.

There's not much detail to be honest. His reaction to anything and everything is to drink.

Yeah, Hemingway was a miserable drunk, so it's no surprise many of his characters would be, too.

I'll be going back through all of the suggestions here to dig up anything I've missed for summer reading. When it's too hot and humid to play outdoors, a girl needs a good book.

Oooh, outdoor reading. Can't wait for summer.

After about the middle to end of May, I stick to indoor reading for a while.

Do you prefer light reads for summer? I've got a couple of friends who do a light reading binge each summer, but I've never noticed that my preferences change with the seasons. The only pattern I've ever noticed in my reading is that I can do a few sci-fi or fantasy books in a row before I need to offset with some non-fiction or something.

I've got a small pile of things to read next, once I finish all the ones my colleague loaned me. "Gravity's Rainbow", and "Uncommon Grounds", which is a history of the coffee trade.

I don't really have any trends, except for the fact that at some point every year, I'll pick up The Hobbit.

I don't have my glasses on at the moment, so I just read:

'I don't really have any friends, except for the fact that at some point every year, I'll pick up The Hobbit.'

That makes me sound like a tragic sort of nutcase...

I've always thought you were nearer the funny end of the nutcase spectrum.

Meanwhile, I should read the Hobbit again sometime this year.

I didn't know there was a nutcase spectrum...

Of course there is - I've always thought of you as Indigo.

Well I've finished hhgg and the latest Dave Gorman offering (not as good as Googlewhack Adventure), so I've been on Amazon.

Got me a George Orwell compendium (I'd lost 1984, so it made sense to buy it as a replacement) containing Animal Farm, Burmese Days, A Clergyman's Daughter, Coming up for Air, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and, 1984, a Kurt Vonnegut book recommended by a workmate, and a trashy pulp Sci-Fi novel (just because I've read the last 6 progressively worse novels in the series).

The Orwell sounds awesome! I've never read "The Clergyman's Daughter". Vonnegut's great, too- I hope you'll enjoy!

I'm restricting myself when it comes to series- I can continue with ones that I've already got, but I'm not allowed to start any new ones, at least for the time being. I don't want the bookcase to go through the floor into the flat below.

Since this I've read:

Burmese Days (George Orwell) - Quite good
Slaughterhouse 5 (Kurt Vonnegut) - Brilliant
Mother Night (Kurt Vonnegut) - Brilliant
Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut) - Really brilliant
The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman) - Not half bad (my girlfriend made me read it)

I'm currently halfway through Martian Time-slip (Philip K Dick) and have a pile of four books to start on; the other two Northern Lights books by Pullman, Timequake by Vonnegut and a translation of Dante's Inferno that I found when I was looking for Timequake.

I've read all of those except Burmese Days. Gawd, I love Cat's Cradle. I'm a big fan of Philip K Dick, too. Read his Eye In The Sky if you can. It's one of my favorites.

I'm not overly impressed with this one to be honest...