jossie

Thanks - will add it to my reading list

London Mike

Bring up the Bodies - Hillary Mantel

sharkus

I've been re-reading a few:
All Tomorrows Parties by William Gibson
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
Needle In The Groove by Jeff Noon
The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks
Complicity by Iain Banks

I am currently on a bit of an Inspector Morse marathon, as I've never read the books before.
So far I've read the first four novels and just started the fifth this morning.

JGK

Cookie

Does a book of knitting patterns count

lf1

YES!!!

Cookie

Being from Aberdeen, I felt a little homesick because it crossed my mind the book might be part of the trilogy "Flossie"

The4BellsLondon

Something about Bridges Freezing First?!

Piff Poff

I've just finished Water for Elephants, really enjoyed it, almost unputdownable

BristolUK

The History of Glue. I couldn't put it down.

Jingsamichty

Iain (M) Banks is on his last legs... link

Miss Clinique

Indian Horse by Robert Wagamesse.

Bought all kinds of emotions out in me. Its a very short book, but took me a few days to read it, I had to put it down for a while to deal with my different thoughts, and emotions before I could pick it up again.

I highly recommend it.

Oakvillian

I've recently finished Gibson's Zero History, the third in the Blue Ant trilogy after Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. Good reads, all.

I'm now struggling a little bit with Mark Helprin's "Digital Barbarism: A writer's manifesto" which is essentially a book-length expansion of an op-ed he wrote in defence of long-lived copyright and intellectual property protection, in the age of Creative Commons and instant plagiarism. I'm enjoying the fact that I fundamentally disagree with almost everything he says, but his prose is so florid that he comes across as a self-important knob most of the time.

For light relief from the verbosity of Helprin, I gulped down Terry Pratchett's Dodger last weekend. While a little bit of me wished he hadn't spent his diminishing brainpower writing something that isn't adding to the lore of Discworld, it's a proper adventure story: mostly-honest-but-poor hero, damsel in distress, mysterious do-gooders, shadowy villains and all... much better than Dickens managed with the same material, IMHO.

Oink

Just read Malcolm Bradbury’s Eating People is Wrong (1959) over the weekend, which somehow I missed. I should have read it when I was 20 as I thought it a trifle self-indulgent now. The History Man is his best, very funny.

Alan2005

I like his writing when he uses the M. His so-called "literary" fiction is truly awful though.