What are you reading right now?

[black bart]

All the Iain M Banks Culture novels. In no particular order.

I have read "Look to Windward"...fantastic but the two assassinations near the end of the book traumatised me.

Interesting interview with Neil Gaiman in the paper this morning (he's launching his new novel)...in which he mentioned Iain Banks and noted that people often said that he 'also wrote science fiction'...whereas Banks always thought his science fiction was his most important work.

[Roy Hunter]

Iain Banks wrote a fantastic book about whisky called Raw Spirit - it is a guide to individual whiskies, whisky in general, stories about being drunk on whisky, but also quite autobiographical.

He discussed the bit in his career where he introduced the 'M' into the middle of his name, because his sci-fi (or skiffy as he referred to it) fans wanted more sci-fi, but the non-sci-fi fans wanted him to ditch it and just write normal books, for FSM sake. Walking on Glass is probably the book that most obviously has a foot in both camps.

[black bart]

Now I don't know whether to read The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (builder of the gorgeous 'Strawberry Hill House' which is about a mile away from me and creator of 'Strawberry Hill Gothic') or read another I A Banks.

[DavidH]

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I started by disliking it, then after a few pages I got hooked. A most unusual narrative style, conveying great events in a stream of small details. Also, here Thomas Cromwell is a decent bloke, which is different.

[black bart]

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I started by disliking it, then after a few pages I got hooked. A most unusual narrative style, conveying great events in a stream of small details. Also, here Thomas Cromwell is a decent bloke, which is different.

I might have a go at reading that...by modern accounts Thomas Cromwell was indeed a half decent chap who rose to the top from humble beginnings.

[Julius Aurora II]

Bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman today. Looking forward to reading it. Just finished Pratchett's Thief of Time, one of my favorites by that dear genius.

[daftbeaker]

Getting the Buggers to Behave by Sue Cowley. Some blindingly obvious bits, some rather good ideas and a lot of little tweaks that might have a big cumulative impact. I really don't want to open Learning to Teach in a Secondary School by Capel, Leask and Turner, it looks rather dull.

Bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman today. Looking forward to reading it. Just finished Pratchett's Thief of Time, one of my favorites by that dear genius.

I wasn't that keen on Neverwhere, I never really got into it. It felt a bit like someone had taken a Robert Rankin book and tried to make it serious.

American Gods, on the other hand, is absolutely brilliant.

[PKMKII]

A collection of poems by a certain Arab.

[black bart]

Getting the Buggers to Behave by Sue Cowley. Some blindingly obvious bits, some rather good ideas and a lot of little tweaks that might have a big cumulative impact. I really don't want to open Learning to Teach in a Secondary School by Capel, Leask and Turner, it looks rather dull.

Bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman today. Looking forward to reading it. Just finished Pratchett's Thief of Time, one of my favorites by that dear genius.

I wasn't that keen on Neverwhere, I never really got into it. It felt a bit like someone had taken a Robert Rankin book and tried to make it serious.

American Gods, on the other hand, is absolutely brilliant.

I thought American gods was brilliant but I thought Neverwhere was better...I think it's the London Underground theme which I liked.

[Julius Aurora II]

Getting the Buggers to Behave by Sue Cowley. Some blindingly obvious bits, some rather good ideas and a lot of little tweaks that might have a big cumulative impact. I really don't want to open Learning to Teach in a Secondary School by Capel, Leask and Turner, it looks rather dull.

Bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman today. Looking forward to reading it. Just finished Pratchett's Thief of Time, one of my favorites by that dear genius.

I wasn't that keen on Neverwhere, I never really got into it. It felt a bit like someone had taken a Robert Rankin book and tried to make it serious.

American Gods, on the other hand, is absolutely brilliant.

I thought American gods was brilliant but I thought Neverwhere was better...I think it's the London Underground theme which I liked.

I don't know about better than American Gods, but i definitely enjoyed it. Nothing wrong with similarities to Robert Rankin either.

[Rainswept]

Just finished Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson. Loved it.

[Rainswept]

I'll let him speak for himself, if he cares to.

Sorry I didn't catch this exchange. You are sorely missed, PON.

[ET, the Extra Terrestrial]

Strange but true, I've just finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time. I found it much more entertaining than I expected it to be, albeit highly predictable.

Now jumping into a re-reading of Dan Simmons' Hyperion quadrology.

[daftbeaker]

The Shepherd's Crown. I almost don't want to start it, knowing that after this there will never be another Discworld book where I don't already know the plot.

Plus, having read the back cover and half a page I randomly flicked to, I think I already know a major plot point. If I'm right it will almost be Pratchett acknowledging he wasn't going to write any more books (spoiler)I think Granny Weatherwax dies during the book(/spoiler)

[daftbeaker]

Well, I finished it. I don't know if knowing it was the final Discworld book affected things but I did cry a bit several times during it. Plus my guess about the spoiler was correct Given Terry's enormous output over the years I feel this was a good way to say goodbye, the themes in the book definitely cover that area.

I think the afterword was the single most depressing thing I've read dealing with fiction:

We will now not know how the old folk of Twilight Canyons solve the mystery of a missing treasure and defeat the rise of a Dark Lord despite their failing memories, nor the secret of the crystal cave and the carnivorous plants in The Dark Incontinent, nor how Constable Feeney solves a whodunnit amongst the congenitally decent and honest goblins, nor how the second book about the redoubtable Maurice as a ship's cat might have turned out. And these are just a few of the ideas his office and family know about.

Personally, in my own selfish way, I will always curse the universe for denying me the Moist von Lipwig novel where he is put in charge of the tax system.

DEATH has been told it is not allowed to take Sir Terry Pratchett until an investigation is held.

Following the passing of the author, the final ferryman has been suspended and will be held to account by an independent body before making any further decisions that are patently wrong.

Deathologist Roy Hobbs said: “Any rational person would agree that only after the publication of another 30 Discworld books, at least two of them starring Rincewind, would it have been correct for Terry to die.

“And for this to happen only two years after the death of Iain M Banks, leaving a number of massive Culture novels unwritten, smacks of incompetence.

“At this point the Grim Reaper looks less like an implacable, unanswerable end and more like a haphazard dick on roller skates swinging his scythe about like a fat kid at a piñata.”