What're you reading this summer?

Paulo Coelho - the alchemist. Good sunshine reading
It's really short but I don't read much these days

Don't miss Maribou Stork Nightmares. Bleak, but brilliant.

 

Oooh excellent! I may need to dust off my copy for some Summer reading too

 

The Saga of the Exiles was a good series of books.

 

+1. I loved that book - Though I'll read anything Paul Coelho.

 

Ugh. I enjoyed that, then I read the fifth mountain and then I stopped and realised how monotonous and condescending the pseudo-philosophical drivel was.

I;m going to read I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison again tonight.

 

I am reading a pretty old book atm - Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin. And then there is book four of King's The Dark Tower Series waiting.

 

I insist that you report back on Doctor Faustus. I never dared go near it, but I'm curious.

Also this summer, I'm reattempting Gabriel Garcia Marquez's stuff, having developed more patience since my first attempt.

 

I've actually already read it, there's a PDF of it on the OpenLearn website:

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/3123/dr_faustus.pdf

I did really enjoy it. Some of the comedy is very silly, but you can see why it's in there as the story is a bit bleak without it. The York Notes Advanced book has been pretty handy as there were a few words I didn't understand and some phrases had different meanings back in the 15/1600s. Some of the bits that were considered very rude are so incredibly tame now. "An inch of raw mutton better than an ell of fried stockfish" very roughly translated is that it's not the size, but what you do with it. *ahem*

If you're interested in reading it, the OpenLearn website has most of the Doctor Faustus work from my course which will probably add to your enjoyment/understanding of the play:

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3123

The BBC also has some information and a radio version of the play online:

http://www.open2.net/drfaustus/index.html

I wouldn't bother watching the 1967 Taylor-Burton film though. It is total rubbish. It's laughably so to start with, then it becomes painful to watch. Probably better to watch the original Bedazzled.

 

Getting into Thomas Pynchon, tough plowing though

 

H.P. Lovecraft... all of it... again... this time in English. And Ben Elton - Blind Faith. Dunno what else.

 

I'm catching up on the last 6 EVO issues that I have fallen behind with, does that count?

 

Read that while ago and some of it is pure sarcastic brilliance

In the last week i've just got through:
Thief of Time
Monstrous Regiment
The Last Continent
Going Postal

Snap! absolutely love this book!

For some not so light reading i'm working my way through: Evolutionary Genetics (Maynard Smith).

 

"Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku

 

The same sort of stuff i normally read (when and if i find time) - in particular, right now:
Terry Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters",
Anne McAffrey(sp?)'s "The White Dragon",
Various Clarkson books (Life according to, and another thing, Clarkson on cars)
all at the same time... :/

 

Oooh.... *heads off to amazon*

 

Bought Gordon Ramsay's Playing with Fire and Eight Lives Down by Chris Hunter.

Should be good reads on the plane and in the sun.

 

Just started reading Mark Watson's (yeah that Welsh sounding bloke from Mock the Week) book 'Crap at the Environment'. Really enjoying it so far.

http://www.myspace.com/crapattheenvironment

 

I just finished:

Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman (Deus Ex Designer)
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester

 

Just finished reading the Watchmen, if I had a shelf for the most awesomest books ever, it would be on there.

 

Unfortunately, these days I don't have as much time for reading as I would like, though I have read I am Legend by Richard Matheson recently, which is superb, and I have just given up on Making Money by Pratchet, which I just couldn't get into. I think I'm going to re-read The Day of the Triffids next.