Whats everyone reading?

[SmallBlueThing]

The Devil's Nebula is turning into one of those books that is impossible for me to find on the shelf. Ive tried four fairly large bookshops with big scifi sections so far, and nothing. I may have to (deep breath) order it off the internet. Looks great though.

SBT

[Professor Bear]

This is why God invented Kindles, SBT.  And then the Devil invented the 30 quid Argos knock-offs that are just as good but won't let Amazon cancel your licence to read something on it whenever they want to.
A good side-effect of ereaders is the direct payment to the publishers/writers instead of perpetuating a second-hand market that makes certain books harder to find in the long run.  Might be worth considering that route.

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol is a neat OGN about a teenage immigrant who falls in a well while out having a crafty fag and strikes up a conversation with the current occupant, the spirit of a murdered child called Emily who is doomed to haunt her own unconsecrated corpse on the spot where it lies.  Anya takes a finger bone from the skeleton with her so that Emily can leave her tomb for the first time in nearly a hundred years and the two soon become friends, but boy troubles lead Emily to become fixated on the "forever" part of BFF and murder attempts are soon afoot.
The art might be off-putting to anyone who doesn't like that seemingly child-oriented webcomic look to things, but get past it and there's a really good story with some nice character moments.  It's perfectly safe for all-ages and I wouldn't be surprised if it's been optioned as a movie already by an animation company.

[SmallBlueThing]

As usual prof, all very good points well-made. You may yet change my mind about a kindle or (more likely) knock-off.

On the other hand, they rip the bleeding arteries out of the secondhand books market, and as those kinds of shops is where i fully intend to be buried (under a slid pile of battered guy n smiths and peter hamiltons) when my time comes, my conscience may yet not let me.

SBT

[Professor Bear]

The second hand book market isn't going anywhere.  I can get any comic I want to read off the web and put on my cheapo tablet but I still buy pretty much every comic I plan on reading (webcomics and out of print/copyright material - Marvel's PotA adaptations, Zoids, ROM, etc - being the exception to this).  I'm not militant about paying creators their due, or even slow to embrace digital, it's just how things are done, dammit.

[Syne]

In the ten or so years I've lived in this city, about half of the second hand bookstores have closed down. Thing is though, they all closed before the ebook boom hit. What did them in, I think, was online shopping: places like TradeMe (the NZ version of Ebay).

All the surviving stores are located away from the center of town, in what I presume are low-rent areas. Hopefully they'll manage to survive. I spend money there when I can.

[shaolin_monkey]

Anyone tried libraries?  My dad gave me the book '1001 Comics to Read Before You Die', and I discovered I could order about 1 in 20 of the titles therein to Splott Library!  Good times!!!

[zombemybabynow]

recently got into http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sacred-Stealing-Christopher-Brookmyre/dp/0349114900/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_11#reader_0349114900

especially the above title. now reading the prequal which is excellent and then going to dip into http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Island-Carl-Hiaasen/dp/0751543330/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

as it's a book my wife would have read

any other recommendations in the ilk of brookmyre? (kinda reminds me of the enjoyment i used to get reading all the chuck palahniuk books in my mid-twenties

[Syne]

Anyone tried libraries?  My dad gave me the book '1001 Comics to Read Before You Die', and I discovered I could order about 1 in 20 of the titles therein to Splott Library!  Good times!!!

My local public library has an absolutely dismal graphic novel collection - and half of those have been defaced by some weirdo who's outline any suggestion of female buttock or breast in ball-point pen.

My university library clearly has a sadist on their staff. They have all the volumes of Promethea and Planetary. . . except for the last volumes of each series.

My non-local library, however, has an amazing collection of comic books - but it costs $5 per item to interloan 'em. Oh well!

[Syne]

Picked up a pile of old Chester Himes "Harlem" detective novels from one of the aforementioned secondhand bookstores today. Started reading A Rage in Harlem, which opens with a rube losing his life savings through a scam that promises to magically transform $10 notes into $100 notes

Pretty good, but then any book where the lead characters are named "Coffin Ed Johnson" and "Gravedigger Jones" has to be good.

[TordelBack]

Stone Spring, by Stephen Baxter.  After the agonising but ultimately uplifiting Ark, it looks like Baxter is back on a roll:  this is great fun.  Baxter's usual bunch of placeholder humans inhabit an exciting alternate Mesolithic which they comment on in various anachronistic ways, but it includes a prehistoric European travelogue which covers in a dozen pages what took Jean Auel 3,000-odd.  Only half-way through, but really enjoying it.

[Darren Stephens]

On Saturday, I get to visit Forbidden Planet, Southampton. I have about 20-30 quid to slpurge on comics. Can anyone recommend any good ones out at the mo? I'm a little out of the loop when it comes to comics these days, apart from the Prog, obviously....

[mygrimmbrother]

On Saturday, I get to visit Forbidden Planet, Southampton. I have about 20-30 quid to slpurge on comics. Can anyone recommend any good ones out at the mo? I'm a little out of the loop when it comes to comics these days, apart from the Prog, obviously....

Lobster Johnson - The Burning Hand if you like your pulpy Hellboy offshoots 

[Darren Stephens]

On Saturday, I get to visit Forbidden Planet, Southampton. I have about 20-30 quid to slpurge on comics. Can anyone recommend any good ones out at the mo? I'm a little out of the loop when it comes to comics these days, apart from the Prog, obviously....

Lobster Johnson - The Burning Hand if you like your pulpy Hellboy offshoots 

Good call, Matt. I'll check it out. 

[GordyM]

Finally catching up on the Dredd 'Day of Chaos' epic and it is indeed f***ing epic! Shaping up to be the best one since the Apocalypse War.

[SmallBlueThing]

Spectral Press' recent output, including 'the respectable face of tyranny' and 'abolisher of roses' by gary fry, 'the eyes of water' by alison littlewood, which was one of the best short stories ive read in an absolute age, and simon kurt unsworth's 'rough music', which wasn't.

The last two while waiting to be prodded by the doctor.
SBT