Reading: The Book Thread

[KungFooBob]

I've finally finished A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge.

I enjoyed A Fire Upon the Deep, but the ending was a bit rubbish. A Deepness took me a good 6 months (and three international flights) to read on and off, but the last 200 pages were done in days, it's a bit of a slog, with a great pay off.

Looking for something else Sci-Fi now.

[KungFooBob]

https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/collect ... -promotion

50% off applied at checkout.

There's some good stuff included, I can personally recommend the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin and the Ann Leckie Sci-Fi stuff.

Finishes midday tomorrow, I think.

[Count Steer]

https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/collect ... -promotion

50% off applied at checkout.

There's some good stuff included, I can personally recommend the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin and the Ann Leckie Sci-Fi stuff.

I did read the Broken Earth books - all of them so I must have liked them. I liked her 'The City We Became' too - learned a bit about New Yoik in the process.

[KungFooBob]

I'm reading "Senlin Ascends" at the moment, only one chapter in, but I bought it from waterstones two weeks ago at full price!!!

Also included in the sale is...

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, which was okish, but not great.

Velocity Weapon, by Megan E. O'Keefe, which was average at best and I won't be reading the rest of the series.

There's also all the Expanse books, which start brilliant and fade as the series progress... imho.

[Cousin Jack]

Currently reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell. Fascinating, already bought the sequel. I usually avoid stuff that wins literary prizes, but this one is excellent despite the Booker Prize.

[Slenver]

Currently reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell. Fascinating, already bought the sequel. I usually avoid stuff that wins literary prizes, but this one is excellent despite the Booker Prize.

That's one of the few books I gave up on halfway through. Was enjoyable, but she had this weird thing whereby she only ever refers to Cromwell as 'he' rather than by name. In half the scenes it became impossible to work out who was who if there was another man in it, which there usually was. "He walked into the room. He looked at him. 'Why are you here?' he asked. 'I have my reasons,' he replied. He sat down heavily." etc. Huh? Who?

I'm sure it was clever conceit to make him sound mysterious or something, but got pretty old pretty quickly. Liked it apart from that.

[Cousin Jack]

Currently reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell. Fascinating, already bought the sequel. I usually avoid stuff that wins literary prizes, but this one is excellent despite the Booker Prize.

That's one of the few books I gave up on halfway through. Was enjoyable, but she had this weird thing whereby she only ever refers to Cromwell as 'he' rather than by name. In half the scenes it became impossible to work out who was who if there was another man in it, which there usually was. "He walked into the room. He looked at him. 'Why are you here?' he asked. 'I have my reasons,' he replied. He sat down heavily." etc. Huh? Who?

I'm sure it was clever conceit to make him sound mysterious or something, but got pretty old pretty quickly. Liked it apart from that.

It isn't an easy read, but it brings history to life, and (for me anyway) shows how incredibly powerful the Church had become, and how the ordinary man in 1500 had no information apart from that imparted by the Church.

[Count Steer]

I'm reading "Senlin Ascends" at the moment, only one chapter in, but I bought it from waterstones two weeks ago at full price!!!

Also included in the sale is...

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, which was okish, but not great.

Velocity Weapon, by Megan E. O'Keefe, which was average at best and I won't be reading the rest of the series.

There's also all the Expanse books, which start brilliant and fade as the series progress... imho.

Autonomous is on my 'to read' heap - picked it up along with Mordew by Alex Pheby at the Oxfam bookshop.

Currently chugging through Earth Abides by George R Stewart - a view from 1949 of a post pandemic world that just leaves very, very few people alive. Quite interesting take on how civilisation decays and maybe starts up again.

[Taipan]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

[KungFooBob]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I went through a stage of reading 'school' books, mine were secondary school level tho'...

Lord of the Flies, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, etc...

[Count Steer]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I went through a stage of reading 'school' books, mine were secondary school level tho'...

Lord of the Flies, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, etc...

Emil and the Detectives!

For some reason we did The History of Mr Polly twice at school...it was the first time and the second. Did Lord of the Flies too....'see the pig, cut its throat...' Just like school.

[slowsider]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

Check the attic of plenty first

[ZRX61]

Ted Simons book about him retracing Jupiter's wheel tracks when he was 70. Enjoyed the first book, but the miserable bastard has become one of those uninformed environmentalists that do more damage than good. The fucker (& many other morons) fought against more water storage in Califailure when he lived here & that lead to a new dam/reservoir being cancelled.

[dern]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I went through a stage of reading 'school' books, mine were secondary school level tho'...

Lord of the Flies, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, etc...

All great books, recently reread Brave New World and Animal Farm.

[Phoenix]

Botany is where it is at - or rather should I say where I am at.

I have been adding to my ever expanding gardening/horticulture library with as many botany books I can lay my hands on. In particular, I have taken a liking to what are known as Florilegium. In essence, a collection of illustrations of plants in a specific garden e.g. Kew or the Sheffield Botanical Garden et al. I have collected quite a few books and spend many a happy hour looking at some truly marvellous illustrations by gifted artists. One of my favourite illustrators is Sarah Simblet. My goodness, is she gifted with her mind blowing pen and ink illustrations!

Before I tell you what I am currently reading I’ll share with you an anecdote about a recent correspondence with one of King Charles’s staff - Lady Pearson. I jest not! I discovered there was a Florilegium of King Charles’s Highgrove Gardens. I watched a review of it on YouTube. Fantastic! I want, I want I told myself. A limited edition of 175 copies signed by the King himself! I wrote to Lady Pearson and asked the cost: a mere £12,575.00! Aargh! Thankfully, after getting back up from the floor, common sense prevailed. I realised as much as I would love to buy them they would need to be stored in perfect archival conditions - something I do not have.

If you want to see to what I am referring go here: https://youtu.be/oz16gBujCD0. The skills and talent involved in creating these works be it the illustrators or the actual book producers is something to behold.

Back to today, I am reading: The New Sylva A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century. To save words a description is given here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Sylva-Disc ... 408835444 or here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/new-sylva-9781408835449/. It is a tome, if ever there was one. Not a book you could read in bed unless you want to break a couple of ribs - lol.

Next up, my book is the words, wisdom and the multi talents of one Carl Linnaeus - aka Carl von Linné. It is to him that the World Of Nature is indebted for his ‘Binomial Nomenclature’.

I am going to be so busily engrossed in my books that Crimbo will have been and gone before I notice - thank goodness!

Meantime...

Be Good. Take Care & Love The One You Are With.

[gremlin]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I remember reading Stig of the Dump to Gremlinette many years ago. You forget just how good some of these books you toiled over at school are when you're sharing them with your own kids anew.

One of my favourites was this one. We read it a few times...
https://books.google.com/books/about/Th ... aeBAAAQBAJ

[demographic]

Recently its been Spycatcher by Peter Wright, previously banned in the UK and a fairly damming indictment of the old school tie method of recruitment used in our security services after the second world war.
Some ok tech information and anecdotes about spying/catching people out.
A worthwhile read.

[Count Steer]

I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I remember reading Stig of the Dump to Gremlinette many years ago. You forget just how good some of these books you toiled over at school are when you're sharing them with your own kids anew.

We got to read Emil and the Detectives at school. Quite why a 1929 German book set in Berlin should be such a perennial (never been out of print apparently) must be down to it being quite good.

[Taipan]

Recently its been Spycatcher by Peter Wright, previously banned in the UK and a fairly damming indictment of the old school tie method of recruitment used in our security services after the second world war.
Some ok tech information and anecdotes about spying/catching people out.
A worthwhile read.

I read that years ago and have forgotten about it until you mentioned it. Good call and IIRC a very worth read?

[ZRX61]

I remember reading Stig of the Dump to Gremlinette many years ago. You forget just how good some of these books you toiled over at school are when you're sharing them with your own kids anew.

It was one of the "required reading" books at my school.