Other Books you are currently reading?

Yes it is Tom Schelling

 

Finished it, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Currently absolutely flying through The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland.

 

Yes. My bad.

 

re-reading the Dresden Files while I wait on the next book (Peace Talks)...

 

The Infernal City by Greg Keyes.

It's a book based on Elder Scrolls lore, set several decades after Oblivion, but before Skyrim. It's a good read, and it's definitely geared towards Elder Scrolls fans, as the book uses a lot of TES terminology. Interesting characters, too.

 

Aaaand finished Dodo over the weekend. That was fun!

Off to Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels.

 

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

 

SLogging my way through American Gods (Neil Gaiman) and it does feel like a slog.
Love the concept, but boy does it feel episodic (i know it was originaly a tv script adapted to a novel) but there's no flow. Love some of his other books (Neverwhere in particular, and obviously Good Omens) - but not getting on with American Gods at all - probably just expecting too much from being continuously told its the best thing since sliced bread.

 

The City & The City by China Mieville. It reads like a normal detective noir novel, but the real interest is in the setting: the book is set in two "neighbouring" city states that are co-located in the same place, so one house can be in one city and the neighbouring house in the other city, with residents "unseeing" parts of the neighbouring city's buildings and residents.
It get really strange when the investigation takes the main character into the neighbouring city, a process which involves checkpoints and hotel stays - despite being only a few streets from his home - and the need to unsee parts of his own city now that he's in the other city.

I love China Mieville as an author - he always manages to write something that comes so far out of the left field.

 

That might be it, because it was my first Gaiman work and I loved the hell out of it.


As for me, I just wrapped up 'Stirling to Essen'


It's not often you get a book with your great-grandfather on the cover, much less find out stuff about him you never knew, unearthed by an author half a world away. FWIW, and with all my bias, it was a great read. A little poignant to be posting this today, when the last of his contemporaries (at least that I personally know of) has passed on.

 

Angad, that IS amazing!
So, you have a flying heritage...
The fighter pilots are the ones that have always been talked about, but the forgotten heroes of Bomber Command were amazing guys, to go out there across the North Sea and occupied Europe to do a frightening and sometimes unpalatable job in the most testing and dangerous conditions. I went to the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park in London a couple of yeas ago, having dragged my family along unwillingly. It was amazing and I was really moved by the whole thing, it had me quite choked up for a few minutes.
If you have a chance to go to London and see it when you're next in the UK, I urge to to make the time to do so.
Not only is the statue breathtaking, with the 7 crew larger than life size and the roof made of parts from a shot down Halifax bomber; what really was incredible were the pictures and letters that people had left attached to the statues to tell of their relatives who had died on bombing raids or survived and had told their own stories before passing away in old age.
My grandfather was in the RFC from 1912 and stayed in the RAF as a career, and retired after WW2. He chose to be an engineer early on, having been a co pilot on early British planes and decided that "any damn fool could crash and kill themselves!" He was based in Iraq, and India amongst other postings between the wars, and was involved in the disastrous Advanced Air Striking force in France during the phoney war. He was then office based after that.
His eldest son, my half uncle joined up and flew with 208 Squadron, and was killed in 1941 in Syria by the Vichy French. My cousin is researching his life at the moment and, we wrote to Cranwell last week for his records.
I will have to look that out and mention it to my cousin (he's an airline pilot).

 

I’ve wanted to read Rich Dad Poor Dad for years but never really had the chance and i’ve never had the spare cash to purchase it so meanwhile being in the hospital er waiting room i noticed a purple book which could be mistaken for a child's reading book due to the purple color scheme, then i seen the title… Rich Dad Poor Dad.

I got really excited and started reading through it and finally everything started to make sense i could relate things in my life to things in the book and finally situations in my life which i couldn’t understand, questioned and hated were being explained to me. It was like being a deer in a dark lane then a car coming along with its headlights on full beam shining into its eyes. Finally things started to make sense. Then it all abruptly ended in a flash when i got called into see the nurse and had her finger up my bottom.

Unfortunately i had my partner with me else i’d of taken a seat in a corner and read through the whole book.

 

If you liked The City and The City try Embassytown. Embassytown is about an embassy on an alien planet and the interaction of the humans and the aliens. The aliens are alien and Mieville's exploration of language and communication is not only masterful but also entertaining.

 

I'm in London on Wednesday, fully intend to try and make it over to the memorial, if nothing else to snatch a few photos for my grandmum. She was very pleased when they finally decided to commemorate Bomber Command's role in the war, even if her father only flew in the ETO for a short while.

Hell, he was in Egypt (CTU Shalufa) in 1942, I'll have a look at his stuff when I get back home to see if he crossed paths with 208 Squadron.

 

Finished Scarlet Gospels a while ago. I'd call it ... interesting.
Started and finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. Brilliant evolutionary sci-fi!

Now reading Lagercrantz' The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. Another good Millennium novel. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Reading (Kindle) Jules Verne "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea"
Listening to (Audible) Terry Pratchett "The Colour of Magic"

 

You're in for a treat. Both books are incredible.

 

I felt exactly the same, I don't get the big deal. This was my first Gaiman book. I've since read Neverwhere and Anansi Boys, and they're both great. I've got a few more of his books lined up to read, Stardust in particular as I loved the film.

I'm currently reading The Dark Tower, having slogged through a couple of the books in the middle of the series, and taking a break to read the aforementioned Gaiman Novels. I'm glad I did, I was getting frustrated with them (particularly Wolves of the Calla), but have an appetite to see the series out now.

 

I'd never read 20,000 Leagues until I downloaded it a couple of years ago; a great read.
I then read 'The Mysterious Island' a sequel that I'd not even heard of before. It's a good book too, but different to the first.

I first read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic 30 years ago at university, and the humour still gets me. I shall be re reading them both soon, having found the paperbacks in the bookcase at my parent's house this week .
Terry Pratchett has had some incredible ideas and a few have permeated into my rationale for life.
The bio at the front of TCOM says "and long ago chose journalism as a career because it was indoor work with no heavy lifting... " - I have tried to follow that ever since!!
I love "1,000,000 to 1 chances happen 9 times out of 10"!

 

The Alchemist - It's a story about a person who want to turns his dreams into reality