What are you reading?

Had a look for an older thread for this, but it may well have been on the previous board. Simple enough topic really - what kind of books do you like to read? what are you reading now? or about to read? are you reading on a kindle? etc...

I'm about to head off on a lengthy holiday (Hawaii and Vancouver) so am planning out what I should fill-up my kindle with to keep me entertained on the various long plane journeys.

For the other Kindle-users here - how did you get on with a transition to electronic books? I'm loving the kindle, but it seems to have changed my reading habits a bit as I am now in the middle of several different books at the same time. While its nice to always have a book that tempts you at any one point, i'm not convinced this is the best way to be reading? Anyone else finding the same?

Books I am currently in the middle of:

The Stand (Stephen King) - I've always enjoyed Stephen King, and this book always seems to be held in high regard by his fans. A good read so far about a superflu bug wiping out 99% of the world's population, and the remainder splitting into good v evil type fights. Its fecking enormous though...

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) - I read No Country for Old Men and The Road, and always enjoy a Western so picked this one up as well. Enjoying the read, but NOT a fun book. Very dark and very grim.

Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) - Cheap on the kindle so why not! I've read them all before, but it makes a nice alternative to the 2 above for a bit of lighter reading. Arthur Dent remains awesome.

I think its high-time I re-read Ball Four, so that will probably get added soon, and i've had Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles recommended so may give them a go.

How about you lot?

I'm kinda the opposite in that I'm reading a book a week now, but before I got a kindle I was going through a period of reading very sporadically and not focusing on one book. I'm actually putting the effort in. In the last couple of weeks I've Roth's 'Portnoy's Complaint', Dick's 'Ubik' (which was amazing) and Huxley's 'Brave new world'

I just downloaded the sample of Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' and I've read about 20 pages so far and I'm totally confused as whether to get the novel. It's incredibly impenetrable, notoriously, I'm not sure whether to continue. Has anyone ever read it or any other Pynchon? I'm kind of intrigued to read it, it has some amazing reviews, and Pynchon's notorious seclusion from the media is only added to it's appeal, but it's so damn difficult.

I'm reading the 'Game of Thrones' series (George R.R. Martin). The plots are pretty good, but his writing style is clunky at times.

I read a few Stephen King books, but feel that he has real trouble ending a book, I've never finished his books feeling the ending was fully satisfying.

I used to use my kindle quite a bit, but I've moved back to paper. I find it a lot easier to look back a few pages to catch up on a plot point I might have missed when I'm using a paper book, and also I can completely mistreat a paper book (take it to the beach etc.) whereas I wouldn't dream of doing this with the Kindle.

I use the Kindle mainly for reference books (how to guides etc.), classics, and cheap comedy books (Qi book of facts etc.).

Favourite book ever is 'The Great Gatsby'. It's a short classic, and would take only 2-3 days to read through. Well worth it.

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea.

A real eye opener. I knew that place was bad, but I didn't know just how bad. Absolutely crazy.

I know what you mean there. Read 'Under the Dome' last year and I couldn't put it down. The ending, however, sucked. Such an anti-climax and I was so disappointed.

I've had 'The Stand' sitting on my bedside cabinet for about a year. I haven't gotten around to reading it yet because I'm afraid it's going to be something similiar and, at over 1000 pages, I couldn't be bothered with that. I hear it's one of his best, though, so I should probably get around to it.

Love King and though some of his books have issues with endings - others work well.

Certainly Carrie, Dead Zone, all of the Bachman Books, Salems Lot and lots of others I can't quite remember had good endings - albeit not always "happy"

Just finished his Dark Tower series - really loved these books and while I'm sure the ending will have annoyed many people - I quite liked it!

Enjoy for laughs Ben Elton - especially liked Dead Famous (Big Brother murder mystery) Blind Faith (1984 style social media gone mad) and not remotely for laughs The First Casualty (novel seat in WW1)

For good old fashioned fun - the Lee Child "Jack Reacher" novels are great - good bits of violence and nothing too taxing.

The John Rain books by Barry Eisler are worth reading - mainly set in Japan following an assassin who's speciality is to kill people while making it look like natural causes or at least an accident.

Been toying with the thought of getting a kindle - thinking as I head to the States I might pick one up there and then kill 2 birds with 1 stone (cheap kindle and something to read on hols)

Im a big fan of c j sansom. Ive read all the shardlake series and winter in madrid

Finished The Stand (Stephen King) a while ago now. Enjoyed it, but thought the first half of the book was a better read. Spoiler - bit of an anti-climax that "the Stand" itself was just 4 guys walking to Vegas, but nevermind...

Also finished the Warlord chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. An amazing trilogy of books that is set around the King Arthur mythology, but presents it in a very believable fashion. Nice cross of war/history/fantasy but with very limited fantasy elements i.e. no "magic". Battle scenes are spectacular and frequent throughout the books, and mainly consist of the roman-style shield walls attacking each other. Merlin is a mad pagan, Lancelot is an arsehole and Guinevere a scheming bitch. Religion plays a part as well as Christianity is spreading throughout the course of the series and is continually fighting with the pagans. Really enjoyed these books, and i'd recommend them.

Now reading Unseen Academicals, one of the more recent Terry Pratchett books that passed me by. Always enjoy reading Discworld novels, and am considering re-reading them from the start at some point, as well as re-reading Game of Thrones and the Lord of the Rings and about 100 other books...

I'm working my way through the Harry Potter books. AGAIN. Currently at the Goblet of fire. Also reading the book of Baseball lore "Peanuts and cracker jacks" it's pretty good actuallly.

Im reading Mark Cavendish's "Boy Racer" at the moment. Just started it today.
Im thinking of getting into the "Game of Thrones" series afterwards. All advice on these appreciated as I don't know too much about it but a good friend of mine has made the recommendation.

Clearly time for an update on reading habits...

I've been reading the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series, which is probably best known for the movie Master and Commander. Excellent sea-faring stuff, and highly addictive even if they are full of impenetrable ship jargon. I'm onto the 6th book but there are 21 in total so it might take me a while.

For those mentioning Game of Thrones in the above posts, I highly recommend reading at least the first 3 - Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords - all excellent and well worth a read. After that the series slows down a bit and many readers get annoyed - the 4th book focuses on only half the characters, and the 5th book took many years to appear and still hasn't advanced the plot quite enough for my tastes... I've enjoyed reading them all, but until George Martin writes the rest of the series, i'd suggest stopping after the third.

Got a Kindle Fire for Xmas - from what I can work out it's less good for reading than the original Kindle but spending so much time away from home and this saves me lugging the laptop around the country


Reading Life of Pi currently - about half way through and enjoying it immensely.

Just read the Hunger Games series; was pretty enjoyable although a little "teen" if that makes any sense

Got lots of books piling up here that I want to get through but since doing a new project at work - time for reading has been hugely limited.

Finished Terry Francona's new book there last week. Very good read, explaining the highs and lows of his eight years in Boston. Don't know how he put up with Henry, Lucchinno and Werner for that long.

Currently reading 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer. So far so good.

Just started ''Going home again'' on Roy Williams's return to UNC basketball

reading Smoltz autobiography on my kindle at the moment and listening to the Drew Breeze autobiography in the car, both have a bit too much god bothering for my liking but both interesting insights into their careers.