I love Terry Pratchett! Not read any for ages, though!

Mandy

quietgirl wrote:
read nearly all his books....

some of the non disk world ones are great:

Strata, good omens,

The Carpet People, Truckers, Diggers , ... i think it was called the Bromeliad Trilogy...

Tufftee wrote:
I must confess that I've not read any of the non discworld ones, although my OH has and he loves them, My favourite characters are the witches!

Mandy

Alec Empire's The Path of Destruction.

sandstorm

bangarang

G'day.

At the moment it is the latest Terry Goodkind novel, The First Confessor.

www.terrygoodkind.com/

It's a prequel to The Sword of Truth series (which is an awesome series).

I am currently reading J.G. Ballard, "Kingdom Come".

I enjoy his works, but they are disturbing.

I've just read 'Skagboys' by Irvine Welsh... it's a prequel to Trainspotting.
It's dark & brutal & funny as fuck.

Game OF Thrones right now but I also have two non fiction books on the go.

Always looking up by Michael j Fox
and Talk Show by Dick Cavett

Jealous?

EDIT: For you King fans its out now- www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wind-Through-Keyhol...id=1343339329&sr=8-6

Its meant to be just after wizard and glass (which was hard to top, probably the most emotional of the tower series)

I'm still slogging my way through Fifty Shades of Grey - can't decide whether I like it or not ! I think that the romance book market was certainly ready for something a bit "different", though.

I'm also reading Regency Summer Scandals, an anthology of Regency romance novellas. It's OK - very fluffy!

And I'm listening to The Ravenscar Dynasty, by Barbara Taylor Bradford, on audio.

I really must read something with a touch more gravitas soon!

Mandy

quietgirl wrote:
I heard most girls flick through it quite quickly...

Peter Hill - Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper
Hill writes of his time as a keeper on Pladda Lighthouse, (just off the coast of the Isle of Arran on the river Clyde).
My late father was a keeper there in the early 50's. My mother, elder sister and brother lived on the island as well during his tenure. (My sister was found sticking feathers in the soil and when asked what she was doing by my mum replied, "planting chickens.")

They gave up the service to return to the mainland when my sister was due to commence school. I was born later that same year.

Although ten years + had gone by before Peter Hill's period on the island and by then families were no longer housed there, I've found this a beautiful read and a lovely way of partially visualising my family's time there.


Of course the lights are all automated now, computer controlled from the Lighthouse Board Offices in George St Edinburgh.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.. yeah, for the romantic in me.

Just started Unmberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

It's decades since I saw the film that I can't remember much beyond the eerie atmosphere - apart from the handsome Sean Connery of course, and a very young Christian Slater.

I've bought the key to it too, so that I can understand the Latin passages.

A few pages in, and I'm liking Eco's writing style.

I'm currently reading (well, listening to on audio, which amounts to the same thing!) Shadows of the Workhouse, by Jennifer Worth. It's the folllow-up to her excellent Call the Midwife. It's very, very moving. I didn't realise that although the workhouses were officially closed in 1930, in reality they stayed open much longer as the inmates had nowhere to go. They were treated appallingly badly - hard to believe that we treated our sick and destitute with such inhumanity only a couple of generations ago. I'm now extremely grateful to have been born when I was...

(@ Gilly - did you enjoy The Name of the Rose? )

Mandy

That sounds depressing, Mandy, but her midwives series covered depressing themes too and managed to highlight the humanity in an uplifting way.

I have to confess, I'm only on about page 60 of my book. Every tine I try to read, my eyes just close & I drift off. It's brilliantly written, but I think it's the dihydrocodine knocking me sideways.

Hi, Gilly! Yes, the subject-matter of Shadows of the Workhouse is depressing, but it's also really gripping, and Jennifer Worth also manages to highlight the best in humanity as well as the bad. She never loses her faith in human nature!

I take ages to read a book as well - I'm still only half-way through Fifty Shades of Grey which I started couple of months ago! In fact, I'm taking a break from it and am reading a Regency romance novel lol! Like you, I'm doped out on meds - I'm on amitriptyline, amongst other things, which is famous for causing drowsiness!

Mandy

The People's Manifesto - Mark Thomas

I think I'll dive into The Hobbit and the Lord Of actually. I could do with a visit to the Shire and the Misty Mountains...the fresh air will do me good..not looking forward to Riddles In The Dark though. Galadriel will sort me out I'll take a carrier bag with me for when I get to Farmer Maggot's crop

malazan wrote:
AWESOME dude!!! I am presently reading through number 9 of the series Dust Of Dreams. Only one to go and I am done.
You are going to really enjoy the others. Number 3 Memories Of Ice is particulary amazing. Although I got to warn you not to get too attached to the characters, Erikson is rather brutal when it comes to that.
But then that is what I love so much about this series. It is kind of anti-fantasy in a way. He destroys all the cliches of fantasy while at the same time expanding on the whole "world creation" ideas, where his idea of geography and history for the books makes Tolkien look like a primary school pupil.
These books can be hard to read because of the massive scope of them (each 1000+ pages) with a whole world to explore and many many different threads and characters weaving together in each book.
If you are a avid fantasy fan whos getting a bit fed up of all the usual cliches, then these are the books for you. If you have never ever read a fantasy book before I would advise you not to start here. Try something abit shorter like some of David Gemmells works.