[Duma]

Sci Fi: Iain M Banks new thing - Matter if you like his stuff, you'll enjoy this, but it's not the best culture novel - I'd wait for the paperback...

I was unaware this was out, shame it doesn't sound too good, I fucking love Culture novels, will it please a fanboy?

Fanboys will be quite happy - lots of special circumstances, and the shell world concept is pretty cool.

[lagerstarfish]

Sci Fi: Iain M Banks new thing - Matter if you like his stuff, you'll enjoy this, but it's not the best culture novel - I'd wait for the paperback...

I was unaware this was out, shame it doesn't sound too good, I fucking love Culture novels, will it please a fanboy?

Fanboys will be quite happy - lots of special circumstances, and the shell world concept is pretty cool.

Wow. I looked up this thread to post a thing about how great Matter is. I loved it. Not read a Culture novel for a while and couldn't put this down. The shell world idea is ace.

[Jim]

The player of games was Ian M banks best novel by a long way. Haven't read the last 2 he did tho

[Plattsy]

Struggled w/ many books over the last 6 months, finished few; feel this could be the next one to actually reach the end of.

Suits my current mood perfectly:  it's full of Jews and Nazi's and is narrated by none other than Death himself.  Recommended.

Pretty sure that my house mate has recommended this to me - I will double check and borrow it if this is the case.

As for that feeling of struggling with books. Lately it is one that I know too well - I really dislike leaving a book unfinished but some of the stuff I have tried to read over the last few months has made this seem an attractive option.

bluebrad

Read this recently and really enjoyed it.

Also recently read:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - Definately worth a read. Rich lad betrays loyal servant friend, grows up racked with guilt and attempts to atone for his actions. Pulled my heart strings at times.
Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Suzanna Clarke - If a long book with wide scope about about 18th/19th century magicians is your thing then you'll enjoy this. I thought I would, and in places I really did but overall I felt a little disappointed by it.

Forgive me if this has been posted before but I've just read Sebastian Faulks' Engleby and have to say that it's one of the best things i've read for a long time; absolutely gripping and a fascinating study of a very disturbed individual indeed.

Picked this up recently and wasn't sure. Think I might give it go.

[Houdini]

Just great.  Strongly recommended for anyone w/ an interest in gonzo / HST / Steadman. 

[SA Chris]

Finished "Breath" by Tim Winton. Good story about kid in rural Australia discovering surfing, coming of age, etc.

Should put it in the "...surfers" thread probably, but it is an excelent read, and would probably be enjoyed by most.

[cofe]

i always forget some of these threads exist til someone posts on them.

just read Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith - history and celebration of fellrunning. quite good.

also read Engleby by Sebastian Faulks, and Blind Willow Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami - collection of short stories that you can dive into, read and interpret as you wish.

[slackline]

Blind Willow Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami - collection of short stories that you can dive into, read and interpret as you wish.

I really like Haruki Murakami's books.  If you enjoyed "Blind Willow" then you'll probably like his other short stories "The Elephant Vanishes".

Of his novels I aparticularly enjoyed "Hardbioled Wonderland and the end of the Universe" and "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles".  I found "Dance, Dance" a bit hard going though.  His style of writing is sublime, very engaging, descriptive and interesting, and a joy to read (even if its hard to find some sort of closure or meaning at the end of the books).

Currently struggling through a book on Gödel's Proof which is interesting, but am having to revise my knowledge of logic and set theory and can be confusing at times.

Balancing it out with some light-hearted reading of "The Visual Display of Quantitative Inofmration" by Edward Tufte which is a book all about the use (and abuse) of graphics and graphs (and is the first of a trilogy of his books on visual information).  It includes this excellent example which conveys lots of detailed information in a clear and concise manner that wouldn't be anywhere near as clear if presented in tables....


(click on picture to go the the wikipedia page if you really want to look at it in greater detail).

[magpie]

There's a topic for what you're watching and listening to and eating, tell me what you're reading and if it's good.  I need ideas, please.

[dobbin]

1000 splendid suns by khalid hosseini - I love it.

[SA Chris]

Reading "Bedroom Secrets...." By Iring Welsh at the moment, pretty good.

[underground]

"The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer at the mo...

[Jaspersharpe]

Le Carre - The Constant Gardener

Just started it but it's very well written, unsurprisingly. And no, I've not seen the film.

Reading "Bedroom Secrets...." By Iring Welsh at the moment, pretty good.

I will buy that immediately. Hadn't been paying attention and didn't know it existed.

[SA Chris]

Do you guys still have your FOPP in Sheffield? I got it for £3 at the one in Edinburgh.

[Jaspersharpe]

They went bust.   

[SA Chris]

Aberdeen one did too. Gutted. Edinburgh and Glasgow kept going though.

[magpie]

Magpie, can't work the search function 

Thank you whoever moved me here.  I bet I've even posted on this thread before, it look familiar now I'm here 

[grumpycrumpy]

Ecclesall library has a copy on it's shelves ...

[GCW]

Half way through this:



My second time reading it, took it down from the shelf again and can't put it down.  If you like sci-fi I'd recommend it.

[Zods Beard]

Iain M.Banks books are awesome. I can recommend Consider Phlebas, The player of games and my fave Look to Windward. I think someone mentioned reading his new one as well a few posts ago.

[Jim]

My fav is player of games. Haven't read his last couple.

[unclesomebody]

Murakami is an interesting choice slack-line. I read 3 or 4 of his books in 2 weeks whilst on holiday and I thought the first one was good (Wind up Bird Chronicles). The next 2/3 were basically the same book with slightly different characters and slightly different stories, but essentially the same underlying subtext. I soon got bored of him so haven't read any more books by the guy.

Iain M. Banks is amazing. I've read all his books and they are all genuinely great. Player of Games is wonderful, but so are the others. The longer ones are better as you really get into the whole scene, and when I read his books I find it genuinely difficult to come up for air. Reaching the last page is always a sad moment as that's where the adventure stops and it's back to reality. I'd definitely recommend all his books to anyone that isn't a moron (ie. you lot).

If you want a solid book that is both mind expanding and exceptionally hard going, then I suggest G.E.B. It's not the newest book on the subject, but it is still very educational. This is what amazon have to say;

"Douglas Hofstadter’s book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel Escher and Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more."

Obviously I have to make one more recommendation, and that is anything by Umberto Eco. I find his books rather mesmerising and also challenging. Unfortunately I've read all of his fiction ones, and several of his non fictions ones. His non fiction books/lectures are fascinating and I particularly enjoyed "mouse or rat". I'd start with something like Foucault's Pendulum or The Island of the Day Before. He's a genius I think.

[slackline]

Murakami is an interesting choice slack-line. I read 3 or 4 of his books in 2 weeks whilst on holiday and I thought the first one was good (Wind up Bird Chronicles). The next 2/3 were basically the same book with slightly different characters and slightly different stories, but essentially the same underlying subtext. I soon got bored of him so haven't read any more books by the guy.

I'd agree that there seems a common thread running through lots of the books (youngish male, not sure what he's doing with his life, starts having strange experiences).  I've not really read many back to back but intersperresd by a gap of a few months so haven't really tired of them at any point (think I read "Elephant vanishes" which is short stories then "Hardboiled Wonderland.." on holiday).

Obviously I have to make one more recommendation, and that is anything by Umberto Eco. I find his books rather mesmerising and also challenging. Unfortunately I've read all of his fiction ones, and several of his non fictions ones. His non fiction books/lectures are fascinating and I particularly enjoyed "mouse or rat". I'd start with something like Foucault's Pendulum or The Island of the Day Before. He's a genius I think.

Challenging is certainly apt.  It took me ages to read "Name of the Rose" and despite having seen the film adaptation I still found myself very confused in places.  Not exactly light reading.  Have been meaning to try some of his other books, so may well try one of those two (when I've cleared my current back-log).

That GEB book sounds very interesting too, good pointer.

[Houdini]

Eco can, by turns, be fascinating and excruciating.

Obviously Name ... is the one to read; followed by  Foucaults' ... .  I wouldn't touch the rest, w/ the exception of his latest which I cannot comment upon.

How to travel w/ a salmon and other essays, this is really worthwhile.



I read The Ressurrectionist t'other day (forget the author but it's all over Waterstones, lovely cover too).  It's OK, but left a lot unwritten and suffers for it.

Still nothing comes close to Markus Zusaks' The Book Thief of a month or so back - best book I've read in years.

 

[Fiend]

Gosh, can't believe I missed this thread tending towards Iain M Banks. I concur with the above assessments of his quality.

Those who like his style may also like Alastair Reynolds (the current and deserved flagship author of sci-fi, I'd heartily recommend the Relevation Space / Chasm City / Redemption Ark series although the un-related Century Rain is equally brilliant with a good film-noir feel), Adam Roberts (has some of Bank's creativity and darkness although sometimes too....bleak and subdued, choose with care, Stone and Polystom are perhaps his best), Christopher Priest (who like IB / IMB straddles the sci-fi conventional fiction boundary and has some nice surreal touches to his work, different in style but almost all recommended particularly Dreams Of Wessex, Inverted World, The Glamour and The Prestige) and of course Greg Egan (whom I haven't read for a while, but has some classic diamond-hard sci-fi in his back catalogue - very big concepts, very deep science, all punchily written. Almost all his stuff's good, Diaspora and Quarantine in particular).