Aren't books great

[Zippykins1]

Originally Posted by Lizhawkins

They are indeed! In the spirit of our virtual reality book club, I highly recommend it!!! My friend gave me Cross Stitch and I really wasn't sure I would like it but it's amazing. Have I asked you whether you've read Room as well? Room, One Day and The Help are my fave books from the last year or so... Any recommendations for me?

Picked up Room the other day, going to suggest it for my (real life) book club next month. I just finished 'Sister' which was not what I expected but a real page turner. The Time Travellers Wife is one of my all time faves and I quite liked 'Her fearful symmetry' by the same author.

I quite like all Dorothy Koomson's book. Chick lit, but with heart.

[gordonmclean]

Finally got round to reading Iain M. Bank's latest Culture novel 'Surface Detail' this week. A great read! Hits you with a lot of plot threads early on but the crafty words-smith brings them all together neatly yet surprisingly.

[Jeffbiscuits]

I can't get more than a few pages into any of the culture books. They're well written and everything but I usually find myself completely lost and baffled by it all pretty quickly. I'm not a big reader of modern science fiction. I generally find horror easier to read.

[gordonmclean]

Originally Posted by Jeffbiscuits

I can't get more than a few pages into any of the culture books. They're well written and everything but I usually find myself completely lost and baffled by it all pretty quickly. I'm not a big reader of modern science fiction. I generally find horror easier to read.

I can appreciate that. Most of the hard sci fi books hit you with a lot of info and world building at the start. You can be anywhere to 100 pages in before you really have a grasp on what's going on and what all the characters are up to.

If you ever feel like giving sci fi another chance, I recommend Saturn's Children by Charless Stross. It's set far in the future when mankind is gone and left behind all of its robots and cyborgs to create their own civilisation. The heroine is a sex doll!

[Porkchopexpress]

I'm with you on the hard sci-fi angle I tried to read 'Consider Phlebas' a few years back and the blurb made it sound right up my alley, sadly the fudge like prose and depth bigged me down too much.

In terms of Sci-Fi reading, you can't beat a bit of classic Heinlein, Dick (The Man in the High Castle is a personal fave)or Mathesson or if you can handle the vast output of the Black Library/Games Workshop stuff, Dan Abnett and Graham MacNeil are decent.

Otherwise I'm on something of a fantasy footing, still plodding through Robert Jordan's life work (Book 4) with 'Never Let Me Go' and Joe Abercrombie and Guillermo Del Toro/Chuck Hogan books still to get through.

The pretty covers get me every time.

[fortunesfool]

I'm reading Christopher Fowler's Full Dark House at the mo, which is a cracking read. Kinda Gothic detective story set during the Blitz.

[thedude]

Stephen Kings IT.

I've seen the film countless times, I thought I should read the book.

Its hard to know what to make of it tbh. At times its brilliant, Bob Grey/Pennywise is a horrific creation, utter, utter bastard. Yet at the same time, whenever he is around the book comes to life in a big way, you can almost feel the evil leaking from the page, and Kings imagination for what is, or can, be frightening is superb. At other times the book meanders far too much, too much description of everything that is happening, he wanders off the beaten track so often I find myself wondering what Im reading, having forgotton the last 20 pages as they have been a tad random to the previous events. And at 1300+ pages there is alot of meandering.
The characters are well formed as is the town of Derry, King paints a very clear picture of the time, especially the 50's.
I've still got about 400 pages to go, and at times in other books I have read of Kings his endings can be a real let down, christ, the end of the film is horrendous, so i will reserve full judgement until then.

The Bad Place.

The last book I read before I started on IT.

Pulpy horror excellence is how I would describe this. The characters, the story, the atmosphere and one hell of a bad guy, he even gives Pennywise a run for his money hes such a fucker. A few strands of story strain credulity, but overall its a great reading experience, and (lucky me) having spend some time in Southern California where the book is based I have no trouble seeing everything that is described before me. If anyone fancies a excellent read, pick it up, I think I saw in on Amazon for £6, or I can lend if anyone pms their address.

8.5/10

[MikeyRix]

I love them - went to the dentist's with one yesterday (to read whilst I was waiting), and he commented on how unusual it was to have a teenager (okay, I'm 19, but still) reading a book. Felt pretty happy with myself for that

I'm currently (simultaneously) reading Jo Nesbo's "The Leopard" and the seventh "True Blood" book and I've got "A Game Of Thrones" and Camilla Lackberg waiting for me when I've finished those...

[Porkchopexpress]

Currently on Book 5 of Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' saga, only another eight or nine books to go, stupid OCD! Doesn't my mental health problem realise I have many leather bound books to read, if only I could last longer than one chapter without falling asleep.

[Lizhawkins]

Originally Posted by Zippykins1

Picked up Room the other day, going to suggest it for my (real life) book club next month. I just finished 'Sister' which was not what I expected but a real page turner. The Time Travellers Wife is one of my all time faves and I quite liked 'Her fearful symmetry' by the same author.

I quite like all Dorothy Koomson's book. Chick lit, but with heart.

Hey Zippy,

I read The Time Traveler's Wife. I liked it a lot. I also have Sister waiting for me to read. My mum raved about it but I wasn't sure. Now you've mentioned it, I'll give it a shot.

By far the most exciting book I've read in ages is The Hunger Games. Read it in less than a day - pulled an all-nighter reading it on holiday. Last time I did that was when I read Northern Lights... (Bit weird considering they're both essentially kids' books!)

What have you read recently?