What books are you reading?

Currently starting the third book of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem Trilogy.

The series gets progressively better as you go along. Definitely one of the best series of hard sc-fi books I've ever read.

It deals with issues like alien invasion, the Fermi paradox, galactic communication, the human spirit, betrayal, runaway climate change and technological progress.

The revelation at the end of The Dark Forest (book two) is a staggering insight as to why we appear to be relatively alone in the universe. It's so feasible that you'd think it was slap-in-the-face obvious in retrospect, but I've only ever heard a notion like it once before.

I was reading Time and Relative Dissertations in Space but I was reading it out of order and then put it down for a couple of weeks and then forgot what bits I had read and what bits I had not.

So I started Keith Booker's The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism. It's alright.

The most interesting thing I have read lately is how Paramount bought the film rights for War of the Worlds from H.G. Wells in 1925 and there were several failed attempts to get it green lit. Hitchcock was lined up at one point in the '30s.

It was a magazine article but it's mentioned here: http://markbourne.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/alternate-universe-movies-alfred.html

Mark Kermode's The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex. Also, The Communist Manifesto.

An anthology of eclectic speculative fiction short stories, ‘Moondust Memories’, by Vaughan Stanger: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moondust-Memories-Vaughan-Stanger-ebook/dp/B00GMQYJXA/ref=la_B007FP6ZIO_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506608411&sr=1-6

I have recently rediscovered the Sage of Baltimore, one Henry Louis Mencken. A master of the essay.

The Hills of Zion
Sister Aimee
The Sahara of the Bozart
Diary of a Retreat
Recollections of Notable Cops
The Noble Experiment

Tremendously entertaining, insightful and witty; a black belt wordsmith. The Colossus of American letters of the Jazz Age and easily one of the finest prose writers of the first half of the 20th Century.

Tom Sharpe's The Throwback. His later works lacked the spark of his classic period, and for me this is the peak of his output - savage farce at its finest.

I am two-thirds of the way through Paradise Lost but can't be fucked to finish it. I don't care if everybody else thinks it's a master piece, it bores the arse off me.

Place and Leisure. It is a study book I'm revising for my final uni assignment

As for fiction I'm halfway through the first Red Dwarf novel and really enjoying it. One of the most entertaining and amusing books I've read in a long while. Love the additional content and the larger sense of scale. When I finish I think I might start the Blake's 7 novel called "Project Avalon".

The City of Gold and Lead. Very engaging stuff.

Ordered two from Amazon

How Britain Initiated both World Wars - Nicholas Kollerstrom (a gently spoken peace activist and sadly a disgraced academic after daring to question certain historical narratives. I really do despise the academic world and its consensus on reality).

Dope Inc - Executive Intelligence Review (an old favourite of mine, this is a more recent addition).

Both of these will segue-way nicely into The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion by Peter Hitchens which I intend to borrow from the library.

I hope I don't end up as dead as an Iranian nuclear scientist for divulging my reading habits.

Recently managed to read James O'Brien's How To Be Right in just a day. Very readable and pretty astute.

Back to the Future by George Gipe.

Commander Maxil wrote:Back to the Future by George Gipe.

I remember finding and reading that in a charity shop at 17. Really liked the way it embellished on the film.

Glad you found a copy too as it's kind of a rarity today.

Backwards by Rob Grant.


Really enjoying it so far.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:Backwards by Rob Grant.


Really enjoying it so far.

UNRUMBLE!

How to write science fiction & fantasy by Orson Scott Card.

Really fascinating. I believe this is my calling.

howw too mayk frends and influnce peeple.

reely gud reed soe farr

prick wrote:howw too mayk frends and influnce peeple.

reely gud reed soe farr

What sort of business is this business you're in then? Is it a small business or a large business? Is it in the city? Is it a city business?

That's "War and Peace" finished. I knew that Russian bloke did it. Same as last time. I could have written that. I would have, too, if Tolstoy hadn't sneaked in first, only I'd have put some nudey pictures in.

I wouldn't call it "War and Peace", either.

I'd call it something more appropriate, like"A Load of Old Bollocks.

Just ordered the Fawlty Towers script book for only £1.87! Looking forward to receiving that.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:How to write science fiction & fantasy by Orson Scott Card.

Really fascinating. I believe this is my calling.

One of the best starting points is Steven King's On Writing. I'm not totally enamoured with his work, but this is probably the best foundational guide to writing I've ever read.

Citizen Clem by John Bew.

Ordered the "Sword of the Spirits" trilogy by John Christopher, the author of The Tripods trilogy.

"The stories are set in the South of England, mostly in Hampshire, in a post-apocalyptic future where, due to a worldwide ecological catastrophe, life has reverted to a militaristic, medieval setting of walled cities and perpetual warfare. Christians are a despised minority, as spiritual matters are in the hands of a priestly class of monastic "Seers" who interpret the will of the "Spirits". There are signs of the past existence of the modern world in the ruins of great cities and "high roads" which dot the harsh landscape, but the Seers have made the technology of the "ancients" anathema, and anyone dabbling in "Science" is immediately put to death."

John Christopher is one of my favourite authors so I'm extremely hyped to read this trilogy!

The Highlanders by Gerry Davis.

One of Troughton's best adventures. Kirsty and Polly rule!

Salem's Lot. Stehen King.
First time for about 40 years.