Whats everyone reading?

[the 'artist' formerly known as Slips]

Ive been reading a lot of contemporary thrillers recently, travelling on the train and a need for small sized chapters.  Most interesting are the Nordic ones. 

Yesterday I just finished The Sisters Brothers, which I think has the best cover of a book in a long time.  Its also a damn good read.   

Its described as cowboy noir and its an apt description.  Everyone and everything seems covered in dirt.  Id add that this is not a book of gunfights and horses, its more a book of characters and horses.   

From the 1st of March Ive decided to re-read Dune, as its been a while. 

[Gonk]

Another dystopian fantasy "Fahrenheit 451". Books are illegal in this story and so are burnt. Resistance to this by people takes the form of commiting to memory whole books. So one person is a walking "War and Peace", and another is a walking "Oliver Twist" and so on. Books cease to be objects just exsisting on  paper and on peoples' shelves or in libraries and become instead oral performances, much as in the days of Homer.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

You know, there's a far stronger argument for Fahrenheit being sf than The Martian Chronicles.

It was Bradbury's damning critique of the cultural shift from print & radio where the audience are an active participant in the work to the passive  observer of  television.

[Gonk]

If you're seen with a book in your hand when you are on a train journey or in a cafe, you are regarded as a freak. Walking down the street oblivious of the world and people around you, while playing with your mobile or waffling away to someone on it is now regarded as normal behaviour.

[Colin YNWA]

If you're seen with a book in your hand when you are on a train journey or in a cafe, you are regarded as a freak.

Do you really think that or is that for some dramatic effect? If you do believe that - wow!

What I can say for sure is where I live and commute that is simply not the case.

[TordelBack]

If you're seen with a book in your hand when you are on a train journey or in a cafe...

I would guess 1 in 3 of solo adults on my most regular train journey are reading a book, and 50% of all solo adults in my favourite caf.  That's including the Kindlers but not counting the iPadders, who might very well be doing likewise.  And I live in an area that would not have much of a reputation for literacy.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MolIAKCJG7w

You are of course dead right about the mobile phonery.

[Gonk]

If you're seen with a book in your hand when you are on a train journey or in a cafe, you are regarded as a freak.

Do you really think that or is that for some dramatic effect? If you do believe that - wow!

What I can say for sure is where I live and commute that is simply not the case.

O.K. Colin, not a freak, but very old fashioned and a little quaint.

[Dark Jimbo]

If you're seen with a book in your hand when you are on a train journey or in a cafe, you are regarded as a freak.

Aaaaaaabsolute rubbish. A healthy 50% of the other commuters on my train read books. In twenty-six years nobody's ever looked at me 'like I was a freak' simply because I was reading a book. What on earth do you base your wild assumptions on?

[Gonk]

The fact that you can't hear yourself think long enough to concentrate on a book because of all the jabbering of mobile users....."Hello. It's me. Yes. I'm on the train. See you in about half an hour. O.k. See you." and so on through the whole journey.

[Gonk]

A.E. van Vogt. Mankind is kept docile by women and alien invaders by the use of implants and special glasses they are forced to wear.
When a pair of glasses cracks while a subservient male is wearing them, resistance reluctantly begins.

I think my glasses must have shattered a long time ago.
Everywhere I look I see people connected up to gadgets.
Seriously though, they've designed glasses you can wear for walking down the street in, which you can see and access the internet on. They give directions on the lenses, a bit like satnav crossed with google earth, to let you know your location and points out shops which you might be interested in as you walk by them, this and the usual apps to chat and read your mates' texts messages.

[Gonk]

Quite enjoyed this story of two wigged out professors who extend their consciousnes by means of a small metallic implant inserted into the frontal lobes of the brain. Needless to say it turns them into superman and gives them knowledge of superior beings who have kept mankind in it's place.

[Mardroid]

The Dead Man.

This arrived yesterday. It was a bit thinner volume than I was expecting, but on reading it, I think it was just the right size.

While the identity of the Dead Man* had been mentioned on this forum, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story. Interested to see that it's more than just a post-apocalyptic western, about a man finding himself, but a genuinely chilling horror story too.

A great read and I'm interested in picking up the stuff surrounding the story (i.e. set before and after).

*[spoiler]I couldn't help finding some of his speech a bit off though. While he is suffering from amnesia, it's understandable as, in quite real sense, he isn't himself. Or rather he IS at his core it's the rest of the charred apple I'm talking about. However there is one particular line he states that comes from before he lost his identity "What manner of devilment is this?", or words to that effect. Doesn't seem a line that particular person would come out with.[/spoiler]

[Spikes]

Brilliant stuff, the Dead Man. A real favourite of mine - and one i often re-read.
Love Ridgway's art on it as well. Its a far better story than the Epic it foreshadowed.

[Gonk]

"Diary of a Drug Fiend" by Aleister Crowley. This gives a good account of a descent into hell and debauchery brought about by drug addiction. The psychology of addiction is vividly portrayed in this novel. I like the fact that the two victims of drug addiction in this story are well to do upper class people, and not criminals trying to escape from a deprived social setting, but people with all the advantages wealth can bring. It shows drug problems can affect all classes of our society.

[mogzilla]

"trinity" a batman ww and supes team up as part of my new "must use my library card and expand my horizons" pledge also got an ultimate spidey lined up with solomon kane and having just read a batman gn with an anti-bats called "wrath"