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I've not done barely any reading for entertainment since March. It's been either academic books for my course or crap on the internet.

Though I've give myself a slap lately and picked up where I left off with Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I didn't quite like it at first but that's because it's sometimes written in this really trendy way. A lot of the characters are young jet setting types and work in marketing. It took me a while to get over the hatred and get into the plot.

Though I have been dipping out of Moby Dick, but that's on my phone and I pull it out if I'm waiting for something, somewhere. It's not an ideal way to read it, unsurprisingly. Reading novels like that is kinda weird too, though I read a lot on my phone (I even read a whole Tim Rogers article once) but books feels wrong. It's like it's not sinking in properly.

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I finished Johannes Cabal The Detective by Jonathan L Howard. (Trivia: According to his book blurb, he's an ex game designer and has worked on the Broken Sword series).

The book is a comedy steampunk/sci fi adventure thing (second in a series), and it's rather enjoyable. I could see it appealing if you like Pratchett or Robert Rankin.

I bought the new Thursday Next But realised I can't remember which of the other ones I had or hadn't read. So I'm going to read them the in order they came out; starting with re-reading The Eyre Affair.

It's a comical literary fantasy / crime thriller full of literary jokes, absurdist humour, and is just a lot of fun.

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I've started reading a book I picked up called "The Secret History of the World" which is meant to be all about the stuff that went into things like The Da Vinci Code, secret societies and stuff. Problem is I'm finding it hard getting off the first chapter because already the author has asked me to "open my mind to the possibilities within the imagination" and also at the same time scoffed at science so I can't seem to get past the bias so far.

Every time I read a line like "scientists, eh? What do they really know?" with no backing up, I just have to stop reading and argue with him in my head. :unsure:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Making my way through Book 5-2 of George Martin's A Song Of Ice and Fire. After seeing series 1 of Game Of Thrones this year, I got so into It I just had to read the books. 3 months later I'm on the (current) last book.

It just goes from strength to strength, brilliant characters, and some genuine surprises. Essential reading really.

Also reading An Idiot Abroad-The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington. I've only just discovered Pilkington (talk about late to the party eh?), and I've been in hysterics.

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I've broken off from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series for now (which is great by the way, just 2 left to read), In order to read The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not...Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan's earlier life in which - remarkably - he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century. Already a huge bestseller across Europe, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun, feel-good book for all ages. Translated by Rod Bradbury.

So far it's fantastic, such a lighthearted and fun story. Last of the Summer Wine meets Forrest Gump via the Swedish crime genre.

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I've been reading The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter. Mr Baxter has done a lot of work with Arthur C Clarke, and his solo stuff is pretty good Sci-Fi. I read a two book story of his last year called Flood and Ark, and really enjoyed them.

Anyway, The Time Ships is a direct sequel of H.G. Wells The Time Machine, and authorized by the Wells estate. Also, it was released for the one hundredth anniversary of The Time Machine's publication.

The story begins with the time traveller about to go back to the far future with the intention of rescuing Weena, a small Eloi woman carried off by the Morlocks in the original book. However, as he is travelling through time, he notices differences from his last trip forward. He stops his time machine on an Earth with no sun, and is taken prisoner by what he thinks are Morlocks. Later he finds that these creatures are not true Morlocks, and the reason why there is no sun is because the new Morlock creatures have created a Dyson Sphere around the sun, and the planet Earth is now a Morlock nursery. Also, the time traveller has created a new timeline, just by the act of telling his story to his friends in the original book.

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If you like Baxter you should read his destinies child trilogy. It's epic in scope if sometimes a little ponderous.

I was thinking of doing that mate. I've got his time oddessy series that he did with Arthur C Clarke first.

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If you like Baxter you should read his destinies child trilogy. It's epic in scope if sometimes a little ponderous.

I was thinking of doing that mate. I've got his time oddessy series that he did with Arthur C Clarke first.

Yeah the time odyssey books as great. The first one is the best though.

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If you like Baxter you should read his destinies child trilogy. It's epic in scope if sometimes a little ponderous.

I was thinking of doing that mate. I've got his time oddessy series that he did with Arthur C Clarke first.

Yeah the time odyssey books as great. The first one is the best though.

So far all I've read of his is Flood, it's follow up Ark, and The Time Ships. I've got loads left to get and read.

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Ive been reading the Eye of the World, which is the first book in the Wheel of Time series. The series is all pretty new to me, somebody said to try it and it seems pretty good so far, after a slowish start im hooked now, but it appears to be universally known as the stereotypical never ending series.

Its a fantasy series, and it borrows from Lord of the rings in places, but the oddest thing ive found when reading it is that it feels like several games ive played and I cant think why, but im enjoying it.

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