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

I've read a few good books recently which I'm about to recommend.

High Society by Ben Elton. An excellent book. As funny as usual. Grittier than usual. Develops an interesting contrast between the lives of a rock star and a crack whore. (Also recommend Dead Famous, Popcorn and any other Ben Elton)

Tin Men by Michael Frayn. After recent successes, they seem to be reprinting some of Frayn's older novels. I didn't really get "Towards the end of the morning", but "Tin Men" was compelling. Set in a research establishment aimed at deskilling and computerising any profession you think of, it succeeds in lampooning the engineers and the professions they attack. The novel predates computer engineers as we know them - the characters are scientists, and are as brilliantly understood and exposed by Frayn as are other professions in his other works. (Also recommend A Landing on the Sun, The Trick of It and Headlong by Michael Frayn. Not so keen on Spies.)

This is Your Life by John O'Farrell. Perhaps not as good as "The Best a Man Can Get" by the same author about a composer who leads a double life as a student-like layabout, while pretending to his wife that he is working long hours; this book deals with bare-faced pretense at a more professional level. The protagonist develops a wholly undeserved reputation for being a hot new stand up comic. An all too easy satire on celebrity status, but a good read nonetheless.

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. More of an incredible story than a good read. There was something at the beginning about this being a story that would make you believe in God. I don't know what that was supposed to be about. Funny in places, but mostly incredible.

How to be Good by that Fever Pitch guy, something Hancock I think. (This was a while ago now.) Excellent story and characters. Seems (from a male perspective) a remarkable insight into a female protagonist by a male author. A fantastic moment near the end when the edifice starts to crumble....

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Should have read sooner I suppose. Something to read if you think you may be confusing happiness with pleasure. Must read if you saw that travesty of it with Leonard Nimoy.

Honourable mention: anything by Tony Parsons or Mike Gayle. (Perhaps just for 30something males)

Brave New World has been collecting dust on my top shelf since Adam was a lad. Like you, the film has always put me off the book. I'll give it a whirl on your say so.

Just for interest it's a 1977 paperback (Panther) edition of Brave New World I have with a quote in bold red by Bertrand Russell on the cover "It is all too likely to come true" and on the front cover a painting by Heinrich Hoerle - Monument to the Unknown Artifical Limb.

Hmm what else have I read in the last 2 and a half years? Not enough.

Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett (doesn't explain consciousness) and The Mystery of Consciousness by John Searle (doesn't claim to).

Dennett makes a brave stab at explaining intelligence. As far as I could tell he isn't referring to consciousness at all, so I end up not agreeing with his main thesis. Well informed and argued nonetheless.

Searle's book is mostly a review of other opinions, and responses to his Chinese Room argument. My thinking was pretty close to Searle's before I read this, so it was a useful fleshing out.

Yes, I'm enjoying it! J B Priestly reckons Brave New World is "not for tender minds and weak stomachs" and after reading the first 32 pages I tend to agree with him. Can you recommend any of Aldous Huxley's other books? I confess I haven't read any of his stuff until now.
Just thinking what I could recommend in return I thought of the following, but you've probably read most of them:
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell,
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (Joachim Neugroschel translation),
Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene
Our Man in Havanna by Graham Greene
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (David McDuff translation)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Brian Murdoch translation)