What are you reading? 📚

[Bob The Badger]

Be Funny or Die by Joel Morris.

A fabulous book breaking down comedy, how it works, why it's important and why people should stop losing their poo.

I'm 80% of the way through and I've laughed a lot and learned a lot. He also does a brilliant job of not ripping any comics or any genres.

A two thumbs up and a must read for any fan of comedy.

[Ram-Alf]

The Never Ending Story...by Victor Alan Richards...when is a penalty not a penalty 😁

[ketteringram]

On 08/04/2024 at 08:33, B4’s Sister said:

Not yet, but I will definitely read more. My book club are discussing Queen of Dirt Island in our April meeting. I loved how each chapter felt like a short story. It was a clever way of writing with the chapters being so short. 

Hope the discussion went well , If it's actually happened yet!

I finished The Spinning Heart, though nearly bailed out a couple of times. It's a short book though, so decided to stick with it. Didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as Queen of Dirt Island. Think I'm probably unlikely to read any more Donal Ryan now. 

Have now started The Boatman by Billy O'Callaghan (short stories)

[David Graham Brown]

Two books, Groundwork, the inside story of Jim Smith’s Derby County, and The Final Solution by David Cesarani.

[Leeds Ram]

read vision or mirage by david rundell on saudi arabia which i think was very good. Also reading Burr by Gore Vidal as I want to start his historical fiction series and it's good.

[B4’s Sister]

On 23/04/2024 at 13:21, ketteringram said:

Hope the discussion went well , If it's actually happened yet!

I finished The Spinning Heart, though nearly bailed out a couple of times. It's a short book though, so decided to stick with it. Didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as Queen of Dirt Island. Think I'm probably unlikely to read any more Donal Ryan now. 

Have now started The Boatman by Billy O'Callaghan (short stories)

Book club was tonight. Every liked Queen of Dirt Island and wanted to read more Donal Ryan. I tend to leave it a while before reading a second book by the same author. I’m about to start Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. 
The book club picks for the next few months are:

May

Erebus - Michael Palin

Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

June

Waterlog - Roger Deakin

Good Behaviour- Molly Keane

July

Yellowface- R.F. Kuang 

The Women at Hitler’s Table - Rosella Postorino 

[B4’s Sister]

On 23/04/2024 at 16:31, Leeds Ram said:

read vision or mirage by david rundell on saudi arabia which i think was very good. Also reading Burr by Gore Vidal as I want to start his historical fiction series and it's good.

I finished reading A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne on Tuesday. Gore Vidal made a cameo in that. 

[Leeds Ram]

13 hours ago, B4’s Sister said:

I finished reading A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne on Tuesday. Gore Vidal made a cameo in that. 

Nice! I do like a bit of John Boyne myself 🙂 

[angieram]

Has anyone read "Son of my Father - me, my dad and Derby County FC" by Craig Trembirth? 

I was given this for my birthday by someone who knows the author. I don't usually read these sort of books, but as it was a present I got stuck in over the last few weeks before promotion and really enjoyed it.

I t covers the period from late 70s to 2004 so recognised the up and down journey over many years that all Derby fans go through. Accounts of many matches I'd been at, many more I hadn't,  but I appreciated the efforts of the home and away supporters, a lot from times when going to football was much simpler.

If anyone wants a Derby County fix in what is hopefully going to be a long and uneventful summer, I'd recommend this book. You can get it on Amazon (and I'm not on commission!) 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Son-My-Father-Derby-County/dp/1780910983

 

[Nuwtfly]

On 01/03/2024 at 19:49, B4’s Sister said:

I’ve always been a bookworm. I usually get through 30-40 books a year. I’m currently reading Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks. Wasn’t sure what to expect but I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s well written and very easy reading. 
 

I’d love to hear what you’re reading, what your favourite book is, or some recommendations 📚

 

 

I did a 52 book challenge last year. Essentially it was to read a book a week every week. It was an absolutely brilliant way to force yourself to make reading a habit and explore a variety of genres. Here’s the 52:

War Horse (Michael Morpurgo)

All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie)

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)

Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger)

Cosmos (Carl Sagan)

Behold the Man (Michael Moorcock)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima)

Coming Up for Air (George Orwell)

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar)

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis)

Leviathan Wakes (James. S. A. Corey)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 

The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester) 

Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer) 

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy)

Mortal Engines (Stanislaw Lem)

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Harold Schechter)

Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) 

The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Hustler (Walter Tevis)

Why I Write (George Orwell)

The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) 

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

A Psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers) 

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

Earthlings (Sayaka Murata)

Lapvona (Ottessa Moshfegh)

The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) 

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)

The Story of Kullervo (J. R. R. Tolkien)

All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) 

The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)

The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke) 

The Talented Mr Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)

Island (Aldous Huxley)

Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto)

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)

The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison)

Where the Wild Ladies Are (Matsuda Aoko)

Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy)

Doomsday Clock (Geoff Johns) 

Blind Owl (Sadeq Hedayat)

The Setting Sun (Osamu Dazai)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)

[Carl Sagan]

1 hour ago, Nuwtfly said:

I did a 52 book challenge last year. Essentially it was to read a book a week every week. It was an absolutely brilliant way to force yourself to make reading a habit and explore a variety of genres. Here’s the 52:

War Horse (Michael Morpurgo)

All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie)

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)

Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger)

Cosmos (Carl Sagan)

Behold the Man (Michael Moorcock)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima)

Coming Up for Air (George Orwell)

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar)

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis)

Leviathan Wakes (James. S. A. Corey)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 

The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester) 

Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer) 

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy)

Mortal Engines (Stanislaw Lem)

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Harold Schechter)

Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) 

The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Hustler (Walter Tevis)

Why I Write (George Orwell)

The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) 

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

A Psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers) 

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

Earthlings (Sayaka Murata)

Lapvona (Ottessa Moshfegh)

The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) 

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)

The Story of Kullervo (J. R. R. Tolkien)

All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) 

The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)

The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke) 

The Talented Mr Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)

Island (Aldous Huxley)

Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto)

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)

The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison)

Where the Wild Ladies Are (Matsuda Aoko)

Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy)

Doomsday Clock (Geoff Johns) 

Blind Owl (Sadeq Hedayat)

The Setting Sun (Osamu Dazai)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)

What an utterly fantastic list. And a brilliant reading effort. And including Cosmos!

I've just published a lovely new book from the current incumbent of Carl Sagan's office, if anyone wants a gentle and inspiring space fix: 

Alien Earths by Lisa Kaltenegger

It's currently Book of the Week on Radio 4, offering a free abridged audio version!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ypyp

[inter politics]

1 hour ago, Nuwtfly said:

I did a 52 book challenge last year. Essentially it was to read a book a week every week. It was an absolutely brilliant way to force yourself to make reading a habit and explore a variety of genres. Here’s the 52:

War Horse (Michael Morpurgo)

All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie)

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)

Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger)

Cosmos (Carl Sagan)

Behold the Man (Michael Moorcock)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima)

Coming Up for Air (George Orwell)

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar)

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis)

Leviathan Wakes (James. S. A. Corey)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 

The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester) 

Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer) 

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy)

Mortal Engines (Stanislaw Lem)

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Harold Schechter)

Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) 

The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Hustler (Walter Tevis)

Why I Write (George Orwell)

The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) 

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

A Psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers) 

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

Earthlings (Sayaka Murata)

Lapvona (Ottessa Moshfegh)

The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) 

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)

The Story of Kullervo (J. R. R. Tolkien)

All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) 

The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)

The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke) 

The Talented Mr Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)

Island (Aldous Huxley)

Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto)

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)

The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison)

Where the Wild Ladies Are (Matsuda Aoko)

Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy)

Doomsday Clock (Geoff Johns) 

Blind Owl (Sadeq Hedayat)

The Setting Sun (Osamu Dazai)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)

What were your favourites?

[Nuwtfly]

10 minutes ago, inter politics said:

What were your favourites?

The Buried Giant, I think. Though I loved all three of the Cormac McCarthy books.

The Three-Body Problem was the best bit of sci-fi (much better than the Netflix adaptation)

I'd also highly recommend The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Setting Sun and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle!

[inter politics]

34 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

The Buried Giant, I think. Though I loved all three of the Cormac McCarthy books.

The Three-Body Problem was the best bit of sci-fi (much better than the Netflix adaptation)

I'd also highly recommend The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Setting Sun and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle!

I assume you've read The Road by McCarthy?

[Eddie]

Death's End (Cixin Liu) - the third book in the 3-Body trilogy.

Like the other two, spellbinding.

[Crewton]

3 hours ago, Nuwtfly said:

I did a 52 book challenge last year. Essentially it was to read a book a week every week. It was an absolutely brilliant way to force yourself to make reading a habit and explore a variety of genres. Here’s the 52:

War Horse (Michael Morpurgo)

All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie)

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)

Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger)

Cosmos (Carl Sagan)

Behold the Man (Michael Moorcock)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima)

Coming Up for Air (George Orwell)

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar)

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis)

Leviathan Wakes (James. S. A. Corey)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 

The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester) 

Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer) 

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy)

Mortal Engines (Stanislaw Lem)

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Harold Schechter)

Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) 

The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Hustler (Walter Tevis)

Why I Write (George Orwell)

The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) 

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

A Psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers) 

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

Earthlings (Sayaka Murata)

Lapvona (Ottessa Moshfegh)

The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) 

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)

The Story of Kullervo (J. R. R. Tolkien)

All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) 

The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)

The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke) 

The Talented Mr Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)

Island (Aldous Huxley)

Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto)

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)

The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison)

Where the Wild Ladies Are (Matsuda Aoko)

Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy)

Doomsday Clock (Geoff Johns) 

Blind Owl (Sadeq Hedayat)

The Setting Sun (Osamu Dazai)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)

Amazing - did you take a year off work?!

[Nuwtfly]

25 minutes ago, inter politics said:

I assume you've read The Road by McCarthy?

Unfortunately, yes!

[Nuwtfly]

1 minute ago, Crewton said:

Amazing - did you take a year off work?!

Just made an effort to get into bed a lot earlier and read! It was a lot easier than you’d think. Give it a go!

[Crewton]

3 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Just made an effort to get into bed a lot earlier and read! It was a lot easier than you’d think. Give it a go!

One day (or year, rather) perhaps, but I'd love to. I have a book list big enough for 4 years TBH, but I'm lucky if I manage one a month at the moment.

[B4’s Sister]

15 hours ago, Nuwtfly said:

I did a 52 book challenge last year. Essentially it was to read a book a week every week. It was an absolutely brilliant way to force yourself to make reading a habit and explore a variety of genres. Here’s the 52:

War Horse (Michael Morpurgo)

All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie)

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)

Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger)

Cosmos (Carl Sagan)

Behold the Man (Michael Moorcock)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima)

Coming Up for Air (George Orwell)

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar)

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis)

Leviathan Wakes (James. S. A. Corey)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 

The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester) 

Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer) 

Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy)

Mortal Engines (Stanislaw Lem)

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Harold Schechter)

Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) 

The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Hustler (Walter Tevis)

Why I Write (George Orwell)

The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) 

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

A Psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers) 

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

Earthlings (Sayaka Murata)

Lapvona (Ottessa Moshfegh)

The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) 

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)

The Story of Kullervo (J. R. R. Tolkien)

All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) 

The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)

The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke) 

The Talented Mr Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)

Island (Aldous Huxley)

Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto)

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)

The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison)

Where the Wild Ladies Are (Matsuda Aoko)

Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy)

Doomsday Clock (Geoff Johns) 

Blind Owl (Sadeq Hedayat)

The Setting Sun (Osamu Dazai)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)

Well done! I did the 52 book challenge a couple of years ago. I’m glad I did it but I found I wasn’t enjoying read as much as usual by trying to fit so much reading in. I usually read 35-40 books a year. On book 15 for this year at the moment. Thanks for sharing your list