What are you reading at the moment?

Now reading About Anarchism by Nicolas Walter, very good.

Where I'm Calling from - Raymond Carver If you want to know how to write a short story, read Carver. Simple. Also reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche. Last novel I read was Clubland, Kevin Sampson - great on characterisation, thin on plot

I'm reading several books at once: Liberation Day by Andy McNab - not as brilliant as the last two. Uncanny by Paul Jennings - I love the one about the ucle who has a mouse's brain and the aunt who gets a dung beetle's brain. Going Out by Scarlett Thomas - Red-Stripes-type characters on the loose in Brentwood - brilliant writer, but it's all in the present tense, which annoys me. The Short Stories of O.Henry: I love the one about the girl who sells her hair to buy her boyfriend a fobchain for his watch, while he buys her a fancy hairclip set with the money he got from selling his watch. db

am currently reading Lord Byron's Collected Letters and They Ate the Truth by Andrew Pack.

The Wasp Facroey by Iain Banks... good book

"The L- Shaped Room" by Lynne Reid Banks. It is good, in a kind of nostalgic way

The Forums. Actually 'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith. Enjoying very much. Ralph

When Nietzsche Wept by Yalom...

Blue Angel by Francine Prose - all right so far. Just read Collected stories of Grace Paley - magic, a real stylist. Before that: McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy - very funny.

Just finished. 'It's what he would've wanted' by Sean Hughes. Not bad. An interesting plot and some good one liners. He is a comedian after all.

I've just read Sleepyhead, a cop thriller by a stand up comedian, Mark Billingham. Really enjoyed that. Now i'm on something by an agony uncle, Columbus Avenue or something akin to that. Has a big brother theme. really should stop buying these books when i go to Asda. £3.84. cant help myself. Really enjoyed White Teeth meself, although I've noticed that loads of people on this site disagree and believe it to be the most pretencious and lingering heap of s.hite they've ever had to witness. Rather not start that one again it's gone on on for far too long. i'm looking forward to the tv adaptation but cant remember when it is exactly.

Just read What am I Doing Here a great coillection of stories, interviews and travel pieces selected by Bruce Chatwin just before his death and The Road to Oxiana By Robert Byron , a brilliant travel book.

i am reading "driving over lemons" because i can't find the book i WAS reading ... i think its somewhere with my mobile phone charger ... i am quite exasperated with the newspaper columnist style of "lemons" ... it is really irritating ... but occasionally there is a really good line that makes me think "oooh this bloke CAN write" and then i feel even more annoyed because the whole thing is so sloppily written and edited ... i am not sure why people put up with this kind of second rate garbage ... have they no standards?

'Lost in a Good Book' by Jasper Fforde. It's the second part of what I think is a trilogy. Not sure how to best describe it, but is extremely funny, quirky and hugely imaginative. Would definitely recommend it and the first book - 'The Eyre Affair'. Anyone else read them?

have just finished 'Twelve' by 'Nick McDonell' who's very young (only 19, i think). it's well crafted and written in a careful, spare style. it tackles Easton Ellis type themes - rich kids who don't know what to do with themselves and are alienated from society by remote parents and by having too much of everything. contains some thoughtful observations. the author is much more comfortable with his male characters than his female ones - overall, he clearly doesn't think much of his girls who are thick, manipulative, and mentally confused. the ending was a slight cop out. it's a very readable book and a wonderful achievement for such a young writer, but the terrain is one we've seen before, and the author brought more style than novelty to it.

I'm about 2/3 through Platform by Michel Houellebecq. I really like this guy's writing, but he is not for everyone. This translation (from French) is much better than the translation of his last book, Atomised. At least this time they consistently translated the slang expressions into, in this case, British English. Atomised was a real mish-mash of British and American idioms and slang, which made it sound silly at times.

The Three Pillars of Zen by Phillip Kapleau. It's non-fiction (well, I guess that depends on your religious convictions, but hey) but fabulously written. So much Zen Buddhist stuff I've read has been esoteric, tortuous, head-spinning stuff, so something so inherently no-nonsense and down-to-earth is something of a relief. *phew*

Just finished 'A Painted House' by John Grisham. I go to JG after a peiod of reading heavy stuff because his writing flows so beautifully, his plots are gripping and there's not much to think about! Now just starting 'Atonement' by Ian MacEwan. Still not sure about him but I'll give it a whirl.

I too am reading Atonement, partly because we had to read it for a writers' discussion group thingy. Unfortunately one of the members got the address of the meeting place wrong and turned up at some poor old lady's house with a big smile and the words: 'I've come to talk about Atonement'. The poor dear must have thought it was Jehoviah's or worse, The Grim Reaper.... Atonement is wonderful but you may feel cheated at the end. I am also reading the latest Reginald Hill in the garden, a light throwaway Dick Francis in the bath and Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent in bed. What can I say? I am either a highly intelligent multitasker or a lightweight with AHD.

Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" sequence, and Greenwitch still gives me the raving horrors. And still reading Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" which is so good that I only want to read it in five page bursts because I'm terrified of finishing it. (Normally I chew down about six books a week, so it has to be really good if I want to read it slowly.)

finished "When Nietzche wept" started reading "La montagne de l' âme" by Gao Xingjian (Nobel, 2000)

ah, Andrew... "when the dark comes rising, six shall turn it back, three from the circle, three from the track..." i loved those Susan Cooper books. the kindly old women who always turned out to be servants of the dark, descriptions of Cornwall and Wales that made me yearn to live there, astute points about the ruthlessness of the light. hell, i need to reread them myself.

Am reading my first Ben Okri, The Famished Road. To be honest i'm finding it quite spooky. I was reading it at home alone the other night and it freaked me out a bit, but I shall continue bravely...

Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone; Five will return, and one go alone...

Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long; Wood from the burning, stone out of song; Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw; Six signs the circle, and the grail gone before. wahoo! i love this! it's like a secret cult!

I just finished re-reading Silver On The Tree. There aren't many children's books you can come back to as an adult and enjoy, but for me the whole Dark is Rising sequence is still very powerful.

'Down & Out In Paris & London.'

'Down & Out In Paris & London.' Eek, people my age publishing books. I'm ruined.

I tried to persuade the kids at school to call me Bran when I was about twelve, and spent a long time pretending to be an albino, but to no avail. Have you read it while listening to the last Mercury Rev album Chant?

I first read 'The L Shaped Room' in 1961 have read it 3/4 times since then, and later the sequels 'The Backward Shadow' and 'Two is Lonely' equally as good. Recently finished Carol Shields 'Unless' not as good as her previous novels. David Lodge 'Thinks' .....as good as ever! just started to read a collection of short stories by Michel Faber 'Some Rain Has to Fall'

Well I took your advice and have just bought Dangerous Parking by Stuart Browne but at the mo I'm fast reading the Bill Wyman autobiography (borrowed it months ago and am visiting said lender next week). He's a better musician than writer but some interesting info - I never knew Brian Jones was the driving force behind the Stones. Also read an excerpt from The Autograph Man by Ms Smith and loved it.

sounds like an interesting combo, Andrew. hm, new thread title there, perhaps. my American housemate tells me i should watch The Wizard of Oz (on mute) while listening to Pink Floyd. any other recs?

I had heard that there are certain images and lines that crop up in Dark Side of the Moon that coincide with moments in Oz, if you set the two going at the same time. What I always most like with Oz is the cut between black and white and colour, and wondering whether the very first audiences were dazzled by the colour, or disappointed that it begins in black and white - I don't know enough about cinema to know how common or otherwise technicolour was at that time. Is a very interesting idea to use black and white, which is so obviously less real than the real world, to represent reality in all its drabness, and paint the fantasy brightly. Sadly, Pink Floyd fall into Andrew's category of Seventies "serious" rock, so not a band I've ever cared to listen to. The main track from Mercury Rev's "All is Dream" is called The Dark is Rising, and builds up a good mix of dread and hope.

ah, the Pack database whirrs into life again. what's your ROM, Andrew? i'm too poor to buy the Mercury Rev thing, though i've had my eye on it for a long time and you're tempting me in a big way by talking about it like this. Pink Floyd doesn't feature in my cd collection either.

"La montagne de l' âme" by Gao Xingjian (Nobel, 2000)---- what an awfully tedious book!!! I don't recommend it..... on the contrary I recommend When Nietzsche wept ------ fantastic plot meaningful wise! I like this thread!

Pink Floyd figures prominently in my music collection. I just love their stuff. I finished Platform by Michel Houellebecq recently. I really like this author, but he is surely not for everyone. You might be better off starting with Atomised first, though Platform is a more traditional narrative. I'm also working on Recollections of the Golden Triangle by Robbe-Grillet. This guy is great.

Deserters Songs is actually a better Mercury Rev album Chant, if you're poor. Their site usually has some downloadable stuff on it. But pasta sauces might be a better way to spend your money, given your historical dietary habits. And of course, the marvellous Bug Powder Dust by Bomb the Bass is a splendid accompaniment to Naked Lunch "Bug powder dust / and mugwump jism"

'William it was Really Nothing' goes with 'Billy Liar'... 'Song From Under The Floorboards' goes with 'Notes From The Ungerground' by Dostievesky... 'Killing an Arab' goes with 'The Outsider' by Camus...

And of course "Dallow Spicer, Pinkie Cubitt" goes very well with Brighton Rock.

"rush to danger, wind up nowhere..."

Loafing oafs in all-night chemists, loafing oafs in all-night chemists. Probably my second-favourite lyrics.

Just started 'The Cutting Room' by Louise Welsh - good so far. Recently read 'Trigger Happy' by someone, I forget 'coz I can't se it right now. 'emergence' by Steven Johnson and 'Crime and Punishment'

Oh, Susan Cooper... she was fab... Another kids' book I really want to read again is one called The talking parcel by Gerald Durrell - it's now been re-published as The Battle for Castle Cockatrice and is excellent. And I'm currently reading Lost in a Good Book, which I'm not enjoying quite as much as The Eyre Affair...

currently reading, "Off Duty" by Victor Headley...it's yardie stuff, he's published 4 so far, "Yardie" "Yush" and "excess", this is the third I've read......some of the patois is a little difficult to decipher, a bit like irvine welsh when he goes all scottish.....but i'm enjoying it...

The Vivisector by Patrick White. Very good so far.. not got to the Vivisection part yet.. anyone know this guy's books??

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I thought it time I read some classics and this is quite short.

shadowplay - Ian Shirley, bonkers and fab

Read Atonement. Don't recommend it. Just finished Women by Charles Bukowski. Excellent. About to delve into another birthday pressie, 'Mysteries' by Knut Hamsun.