The Book Thread

[harv]

Thought it was about time we resurrected this from the old forums.

Am reading through The Wheel of Time novels at the moment. Robert Jordan was an inconsiderate git and decided to die a few years ago from a rare blood disease but thankfully he knew he was on his way out and was good enough to make copious notes on how he wanted the last 4 books to go. The 15th and last book should be out at the end of the year.

Best series of books I've ever read.

Have also downloaded the entire Isaac Asimov collection.

The trouble I'm having is getting through them all because my depression makes it difficult to concentrate on things so it's a bit of a hard slog. Have an appointment at the Looney Bin next month to see a psychiatrist to hopefully get my medication sorted out...I'm just hoping they let me out again lol

So what are you guys reading..?

What's your favourite genre..? Is that the right word to use..?

For me it's a toss up between Sci-Fi and Fantasy, both narrowly beating Horror!

[chelseachelsea]

I've changed over the years, as a teenager its was horror with Stephen King and James Herbert and all the copy cats. Then got hooked of the writings of Spike Milligan and spent 10 years laughing my arse off

As I've got older, I've moved on to History both fact and fiction, but the last 10 years as I've got into the old git mode, I can't stop reading Biographies/ Autobiographies, initially from Historical figures and Soldiers from World war 1 and 2, then figures from the 40's onwards be it actor, actress or politician.

 Lately I can't stop reading sporting Biographies the good...Bobby Charlton....the bad....Audley Harrison... and the ugly but it was a great read Brian Moore.

[Dragontao]

Stephen King and James Herbert have been my favourite authors since I was young. First read the Rats when I was about 11 (good job books don't have pg and 18 ratings, hmm and I wonder why I have such a twisted and warped imagination).

Have also read a lot of Clive Barker, Peter Straub and most of Dean Koontz' books. Koontz is an excellent author, the Odd Thomas books are a superb read if you have not already read them.

As well as horror, I love fantasy and sci-fi, probably in that order after horror. Started with Robert E Howard and the Conan books after reading the comic books. Too many authors in the sci-fi and fantasy genres I like to list. The likes of Frank Herbert are worth a mention, particularlry for the Dune series. Plus the likes of Stephen Donaldson and Terry Pratchett obviously. George RR Martin is obviously popular at the moment because of the success of game of thrones. I'd read the orignal a while back, before the series came to TV, and the series has been a pretty good adaptation, but I hadn't gotten round to reading the others in the series. They have been sat on my shelves gathering dust. 

I don't mind the odd thriller either. The Ninja series by Eric van Lustabder is excellent. It's not so much about martial arts, although there is an element, it's political intrigue, mystery, thriller with elements of martial arts and mysticism. He's also written fantasy but I've not read any of those so I may get around to that.

I have about 60 books I've bought over the past few years that I have not had time to read. My head has been buried in text books during that time. I'm looking forward to getting time to read them when I finish in June. It's going to be so nice to be able to take a good novel to the bog with me instead of some soporific science book. Even nicer to be able to read something and not have to try and remember all of it and take notes while I'm doing so.

[bealec]

Just finished reading the three books in the Chronicles of Siala series. They're fantasy novels of the LOTR mould but it's different enough to not be considered a rip off. I very much enjoyed them.

[Late]

As with several others here, I was a big fan of King, Koontz, and Pratchett during my teens and twenties, as well as Douglass Adams - I own the majority of books written by those four. Late twenties and early thirties were more about John Grisham and James Patterson (and J K Rowling - guilty pleasure).

Don't read all that much these days. If I have spare time it's usually spent on the xbox. As a consequence most of my reading is done when I'm in the bath - which means a book lasts me for months now, whereas I used to read several a week.
I bought a box set of QI books late last year, and am still not finished those. When I do finish them I've a wealth of unread books to pick from my library.

I do like to keep it old school and stick to printed books, btw. I think I've got about 30,000 ebooks, but they've all been downloaded for family and friends. Tried one or two (on android devices) but I much prefer paperbacks.

[Dragontao]

I do like to keep it old school and stick to printed books, btw.

Amen to that.

[styles]

been reading Jo Nesbo this year. very good detective novels. Also reading the latest in the game of thrones series. finally i have most of the "talent code" type books as well.

[Dragontao]

I am so looking forward to being able to get back to reading books for fun again after my final exam on Friday. I have loads piled up to read. New Odd Thomas book out soon too. Great character from Dean Koontz.

[harv]

I downloaded and watched When The Wind Blows the other day. A film of the book by Raymond Briggs of Fungus The Bogeyman and The Snowman fame. He also did an excellent one on Thatcher and the Falklands War too, The Iron Lady And The Tin Pot General, which was also excellent.

[jman]

Just about finished listening to the Alan Partridge audiobook.. great stuff.. I've had the book for ages but never got round to reading it - plus reading bores the hell out of me.

So a question (to all that can be bothered to answer).

If you could choose a famous person to narrate an audiobook for you - who would it be ?

I think I would go for the dulcet tones of Morgan Freeman personally.
Or prehaps George from Rainbow 

[Dragontao]

Just started reading Odd Apocalypes by Dean oontz and Ash by James Herbert.

Still ploughing through the Game of Thrones series too.

[chelseachelsea]

If you could choose a famous person to narrate an audiobook for you - who would it be ?

Unfortunately they are both dead, but it would be Peter Ustinov, or Richard Burton. For a bit of fun John Cleese in Basil Fawlty mode or David Jason as Del Boy .

[harv]

Shit, have just heard that James Herbert died this morning aged 69. Bloody hell, a bit of a coincidence cos I downloaded his bibliography last week!

[Dragontao]

As I said a couple of posts up, I've just started reading his last book "Ash".

Gutted because he was one of my favourite authors, and even more gutted because I had a ticket to go to a very small informal talk he was giving late last year, but missed it because I was ill. Was going to get all of his books signed (I've got them all, most in hardback too).

Not sure where the BBC got the info that his latest book was only published last week, they must mean in paperback because the hardback of Ash came out last August/September, not long before I was due to go and see him.

I wonder if he'd been ill for a while because he hadn't published anything for a fair few years, until he announced the new book last year. No cause of death has been given.

[harv]

Yup, I'm gutted too. That's three out of my four favourite authors dead now - Isaac Asimov, James Herbert from an unknown cause and Robert Jordan who died from a rare blood disease, inconsiderate git. He died before finishing his 15 book series The Wheel of Time, although I guess I should forgive him because he did realise he was going to pop off and left plenty of notes so that others could finish the series.

Only Stephen Donaldson left now