[Evil]

Robin Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man series are comparable to Rothfuss' books in many ways. If you liked TNOTW you will really get into Hobb's books. They are within only a handful of books i re-read as i'm not much of a re-reader (i opened 1 at a random page to kill some time and before i realised i re-read all 6 books again), along with TNOTW and the whole Malazan Book of the Fallen series which i'd also recommend even though the last 3 or 4 books get increasingly tough to follow.

On the sci-fi front Richard Morgan's books of Altered Carbon fame are excellent, as are his Fantasy books. I never been into sci-fi but his books got me into it, and though they may be a bit plot twist prone they still make for good re-reads.

I remember reading Robin Hobb when I was still at school and being completely immersed in them, doing the classic thing of continuously reading them even while eating etc and driving my parents crazy  They are very compelling once you start. I also love Richard Morgan, but was a bit unhappy with the Altered Carbon TV series after about the 4th episode where it started deviating massively from the book not in good ways. I guess that's why the second season couldn't follow the second book, had nothing really to do with the series of books, and unfortunately I didn't think much of.

[spidermonkey09]

Worth flagging this great new venture especially as we are likely to be doing Christmas shopping online more than before. If you're buying books online; buy them here if you can.

https://uk.bookshop.org/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/02/this-is-revolutionary-new-online-bookshop-unites-indies-to-rival-amazon

[Offwidth]

Fabulous stuff from Andy Clarke

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/culture_bunker/joyces_ulysses_a_climbers_guide-727497?v=1

[Fultonius]

I've read , and loved the first 5 Knausgaard books, but did anyone else struggle (haha) with 6?

I'm ploughing through the middle, where it's all poem analysis and concepts on "names". Can't day I'm getting much from it, and finding it very hard to keep going!

[andy popp]

Yes, I did struggle with the middle sections - I didn't skip them, but you probably could quite easily. He reverts to normal service in the last third or so, which is very powerful.

[crzylgs]

With Christmas approaching it's that time of year when family are asking for suggestions for presents and this is something I really struggle with. Something I thought of was a new Climbing Guide, I'm quite out of the loop and no idea if there have been any awesome new shiny guides released that I should know about? I almost exclusively boulder, live near Oxford and predominantly get up to the Peak District for my outdoor action. Do occasionally visit North Wales and the Lake District.

List of guides I currently own:

Lake District Bouldering - Lakesbloc, Greg Chapman one - super cool guide by the way!
Peak District Bouldering - the Rupert Davies, Jon Barton one. Not the most recent but probably not worth upgrading.
Peak Limestone (Rockfax)
Eastern Grit (Rockfax)

Also maybe open to general climbing books or training manuals. Or if there is a clever piece of bouldering/training kit that may have escaped me feel free to add that to the mix! Failing that maybe we could migrate this into 'randomly suggest Xmas presents for Mr CrzyLgs thread :D

[duncan]

Has to be Boulder Britain 2.0: broaden your horizons a bit and visit some of those places you read about here! In the shops by Christmas we’re told or available on pre-order: https://www.boulderbritain.com/

Sample pages on social media #boulderbritain2020

(You can pay me later Niall)

[remus]

There's a new version of North Wales Bouldering due out which Im sure will be a belter (available for pre-order on V12 at the moment).

For something a little more off the beaten track the Churnet guide is a fun little book, and probably a bit closer than the peak for you coming from Oxford.

[sxrxg]

From Oxford you could also think Southern, both the Dartmoor guide and Dorset Bouldering guide could give different weekend options if the weather up North is looking grim...

[crzylgs]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Funny you should mention the Churnet Guide - I love The Churnet - probably been there more often then any crag and a couple of friends have the guide but I had added it to my list last night as it would be nice to have my own copy.

As for the rest I'll probably go North Wales - guide looks awesome and would love to get up there more often but distance makes it at least a long weekend bash not a day trip > Boulder Britain - to fill in the gaps > Southern options - the distance does really make all these places long weekend trips for me and for some North Wales / Lakes / Yorkshire more appealing, maybe I just like driving north? :D

[seankenny]

> Southern options - the distance does really make all these places long weekend trips for me and for some North Wales / Lakes / Yorkshire more appealing, maybe I just like driving north? :D

Something I've found that works really well for climbing trips from London is leave Friday night for Pembroke (or similar too far for a day trip destination), climb all day, back on Saturday night. One night away so only a mild faff and you're not too knackered on Sunday and can do normal non-climbing stuff. My better half loves this arrangement as she's often out on Friday night anyhow, whereas day trips on a Sunday tend to involve a curtailed Saturday night too. Just a suggestion; please ignore if I'm teaching grandma to suck eggs.

[crzylgs]

Just to confirm is the North Wales guide the one by Simon Panton?

[teestub]

Just to confirm is the North Wales guide the one by Simon Panton?

Yeah 3rd Edition https://www.v12outdoor.com/north-wales-bouldering-3rd-edition-volume-1-pre-order.html

[crzylgs]

Awesome thanks!

Was struggling to find it in stock anywhere, so the new edition coming in January 2021 will explain that.

[dunnyg]

Girl Woman Other
Bernadine Evaristo
A series of intertwined short stories, from the perspectives of girls/women/others, it delves through generations and groups of people, to show how things ended up being the way they are. I don't really want to say more, as I can't do it justice and I don't want to spoil it. I found it a bit hard to adjust to the writing style at first, but once I was a chapter or 2 in I didn't notice it anymore. The further on in the book you go, things start to make more sense. It is really well thought out, and a real page turner. I'm not usually one for 'short stories', but this really works (for me). Notably written from a perspective much of my reading lacks.

Booker prize winner, and I can see why.

The thursday murder club
Murder mystery from that guy off of pointless (Richard Osman).

Enjoyed this, real easy reading page turner, with more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing. Original setting, good characters and entertaining all the way through. Good stuff! Rumours of more being written, and I am looking forward to them. Agatha christie for the 21st centuary?

Lion heart
Ben Keane
Historical drama told from the perspective of an underling

Drama which is entangled with Richard the Lion heart, set back in the day. Battles, fighting royalty, rebellion, bit of love, kniving lords and all that sort of jazz. Again a nice page turner, the story moves along at a reasonable pace, and is the first in a series. Not sure if the rest is published yet, but i'd read the rest when it is.

I've got a few more on the go at the moment but have started reading discworld again as respite between more challenging stuff. It is so good! So here is your regular reminder that Terry Pratchett is the man.

[Yossarian]

https://www.the-fence.com/issues/issue-6/state-of-nature

I enjoyed this...

[DaveC]

Just dropping in from the other side of the planet to mention some wonderful stuff I've been reading from small independent publishers over in your neck of the woods.

1. Bluemoose Books (Hebden Bridge based!)
The Handsworth Times & Should We Fall Behind - Sharon Duggal
Caravan of the Lost and Left Behind - Dierdre Shanahan
The Sound Mirror - Heidi James
Should We Fall Behind and The Sound Mirror have both been reviewed very positively recently in The Guardian and rightly so.

2. Dead Ink Books
Exit Management - Naomi Booth
London Incognita - Gary Budden
The first was also well-reviewed in The Guardian and is my best book of 2020 while London Incognita is a weird collection of connected short stories that you can really treat as a single novel.

3. Salt Publishing (based in Cromer, Norfolk)
The Litten Path, James Clarke
Flotsam, Meike Ziervogel
The Black Country, Kerry Hadley-Price
The Litten Path is the pick of these, a fantastic debut novel about a dysfunctional family in a coal-mining village during the miner's strike back in the mid-80s. If you're not aware of the dreadful treatment of the miners and their families at the time, this book doesn't hold back.

4. Fitzcarraldo Editions
River, Esther Kinsky (tr. from German)
Hurricane Season, Fernanda Melchior (tr. from Spanish)
Street of Thieves, Matthias Enard (tr. from French)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk (tr. from Polish)
Extraordinary range of translated fiction from these guys, all the above are superb in their own way. Drive Your Plow... is probably the pick (the author rightly won the Nobel after this) but the others are not far behind and Hurricane Season was short-listed for the International Booker (personally I think it should have won it but hey!)

Comma Press (Manchester based)
Specialise in short fiction and their Cities in Short Fiction series are wonderful. You can start with local stuff (Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle) then move off into the world (I have Tokyo, Rio, Tehran, Tbilisi, Cairo and Shanghai...so far!) Also some excellent historical short fiction in volumes like "Protest, Stories of Resistance" and "Resist, Stories of Uprising" complete with explanatory intros to each story.

These small publishers all need all the support they can get, this has not been an easy year for them. I can assure you that what they are producing is as good as or better than anything coming from the big publishing houses.

[remus]

Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder was an unexpectedly good read. I thought it was a recommendation from here but might have been from the other side? It's a well written look inside the mind of a guy who spent most of his 20s deep in the bodybuilding scene. There's an intensity that's reminiscent of the psyche you get in climbing, though in his case it seems to stem from somewhere fairly unhealthy.

[dunnyg]

I got consider phlebas for christmas on the back of recomendations here and just finished. Proper good sci fi, so thanks for the recomendation!

[moose]

Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder was an unexpectedly good read. I thought it was a recommendation from here but might have been from the other side? It's a well written look inside the mind of a guy who spent most of his 20s deep in the bodybuilding scene. There's an intensity that's reminiscent of the psyche you get in climbing, though in his case it seems to stem from somewhere fairly unhealthy.

I recommended it here (and I think someone else might have too).  Glad you liked it.

[Carl]

I got consider phlebas for christmas on the back of recomendations here and just finished. Proper good sci fi, so thanks for the recomendation!

Big fan of Iain M Banks! I'd definitely recommend pretty much all of the other Culture books if you enjoyed Consider Phlebas, particularly Player of Games & Excession. Also The Algebraist, while not Culture, is also good.

[dunnyg]

Cheers, I will definitely be reading the rest.

[Yossarian]

Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder was an unexpectedly good read. I thought it was a recommendation from here but might have been from the other side? It's a well written look inside the mind of a guy who spent most of his 20s deep in the bodybuilding scene. There's an intensity that's reminiscent of the psyche you get in climbing, though in his case it seems to stem from somewhere fairly unhealthy.

I recommended it here (and I think someone else might have too).  Glad you liked it.

It was originally a Houdini recommendation years ago...

[andy popp]

Kevin Barry, "Night Boat to Tangier." Blimey, one of the best novels I've read in a long time. The book criss-crosses back and forth across the lives of two ageing Irish gangsters as they sit waiting at the port of Algeciras, hoping to spot Dilly, the daughter of one of them. So good, in my opinion, because of the great vividness with which Moss and Charlie come alive through Barry's sparse prose. These are not characters you like - they are, after all, pretty awful men - but they are ones with whom you empathise, in the sense of grasping their humanity. If one thing you want from a novel is to live awhile as or with another person, then this book delivered hugely for me. Barry is not a writer of great literary flourishes but the book is shot through with beauty. He's one of those writers who leaves you wondering how he achieves so much affect.

[remus]

Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder was an unexpectedly good read. I thought it was a recommendation from here but might have been from the other side? It's a well written look inside the mind of a guy who spent most of his 20s deep in the bodybuilding scene. There's an intensity that's reminiscent of the psyche you get in climbing, though in his case it seems to stem from somewhere fairly unhealthy.

I recommended it here (and I think someone else might have too).  Glad you liked it.

Thanks for the recommendation! Had a little flick back through the thread but couldn't see it mentioned, must be going blind.