Read any good books this holiday?

[Flippa]

I'm about halfway through The Girl in The Spider's Web, David Lagercrantz. It follows on from the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

 

So far, it's quite good.

[Readsalot]

I'm about halfway through The Girl in The Spider's Web, David Lagercrantz. It follows on from the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

 

So far, it's quite good.

 

I've decided to quit while I'm ahead. I've made the mistake a few times of trying to continue reading a series when the original author died and somebody else took over (like Robert B Parker's Spenser series) and I just end up disappointed and dissatisfied every time. I hope it works out for you and you enjoy it, though! 

[Tumbleweed]

Anybody into Terry Pratchett?

Read my first book by him, Guards, Guards!!!.

Bit weird, have a few others, not sure if I should try another before leaving his work.

 

My fave Pratchett is the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman: Good Omens. Like has been said, he's cool to dip into every now and then, but I've never been that into his stuff. Managed to get a signed copy of something - the truck book, I think - of his for an Xmas pressie for my boet some years back. He'd made an appearance at the Exclusives in Eastgate. Any Gaiman fans here? Got some comics he wrote - quite a bit of Sandman stuff and works with the weird Dave McKean - but he's another writer that I have never quite gotten into.

[Readsalot]

My fave Pratchett is the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman: Good Omens. Like has been said, he's cool to dip into every now and then, but I've never been that into his stuff. Managed to get a signed copy of something - the truck book, I think - of his for an Xmas pressie for my boet some years back. He'd made an appearance at the Exclusives in Eastgate. Any Gaiman fans here? Got some comics he wrote - quite a bit of Sandman stuff and works with the weird Dave McKean - but he's another writer that I have never quite gotten into.

 

I am a big Neil Gaiman fan. Did you see they are making a series about his book American Gods?

[Tumbleweed]

The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. I had to go look up tat subtitle of Good Omens. Pratchett sure knew how to stretch out oddity! Haha!

[Tumbleweed]

I am a big Neil Gaiman fan. Did you see they are making a series about his book American Gods?

 

No, I didn't! Must confess, I only latch onto series much later than the rest of the world! Haha! Is he involved in the production in any way?

[Readsalot]

No, I didn't! Must confess, I only latch onto series much later than the rest of the world! Haha! Is he involved in the production in any way?

 

Yes, he's one of the executive producers. 

[Mr Legs]

Any Hiaasen fans?

 

Found a second hand copy of Sick Puppy at home - no recollection of buying it...nor any knowledge of his work...

 

 

SickPuppy.jpg

Slightly late reply (I've been busy doing things)

 

I used to read a lot of Hiaasen ever since I saw an interview with him in Outside magazine.

At one stage he seemed to follow a recipe: weird character with some physical deformity casted as the baddie etc. Not heavy reading at all. Skinny dip, Tourist Season, Native Tongue, Lucky You, Double Whammy comes to mind. I read Hoot as well, aimed at a younger audience. My son took Sick Puppy to read during a holiday, but somebody broke into the holiday house. The next day they found the book outside, partially burnt and someone urinated on the book. Quite apt treatment, I thought, considering the title of the book.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

Terry Pratchett's books are all read to pieces by my family. Literally. They're falling apart, as whenever somebody is bored or feel like something light it's so easy to grab a favourite Discworld book and dive into it (like watching your favourite Friends episode - you know all the lines by heart and still laugh every time).

 

His books also contain a lot of satire, which makes them worth re-reading for me and of course it helps that I'm a huge fantasy fan. Guards, Guards! might not be the best book to start with, as it's the 8th Discworld book. 

 

If the Discworld books aren't really your cup of tea, you can try Good Omens which he wrote with Neil Gaiman, another favourite of mine.

 

I read a good number of forums that suggested starting here, for the fact that he had got his world sorted by then.

Will try one or 2 more but reading a few Tom Clancy books for now.

[Tumbleweed]

Slightly late reply (I've been busy doing things)

 

I used to read a lot of Hiaasen ever since I saw an interview with him in Outside magazine.

At one stage he seemed to follow a recipe: weird character with some physical deformity casted as the baddie etc. Not heavy reading at all. Skinny dip, Tourist Season, Native Tongue, Lucky You, Double Whammy comes to mind. I read Hoot as well, aimed at a younger audience. My son took Sick Puppy to read during a holiday, but somebody broke into the holiday house. The next day they found the book outside, partially burnt and someone urinated on the book. Quite apt treatment, I thought, considering the title of the book.

 

Hahahahaha! I got through some other books in the meantime, but based on wht you've written, I'll give the Puppy a squizz. 

[Readsalot]

I read a good number of forums that suggested starting here, for the fact that he had got his world sorted by then.

Will try one or 2 more but reading a few Tom Clancy books for now.

 

It really depends. His Discworld books use different sets of characters to tell stories, and fans usually have different favourites. Some prefer the stories featuring Death, and those stories start with Mort (when Death decides he needs an apprentice). Some (like the forums you read, obviously) prefer the stories featuring the guards, which usually focus on some crime or mystery.

 

The first book of Discworld is The Colour of Magic featuring Rincewind, the inept, cowardly wizard who always runs away from trouble and inevitably ends up in even bigger trouble. My personal favourites are the stories featuring the witches, since Granny Weatherwax is the kind of witch who makes bears wish they could climb trees when she goes for a stroll through the woods.

 

But honestly, Guards, Guards! is a good indication of what to expect and I suspect you will either find the humour grows on you or that it just isn't your cup of tea. Enjoy your Clancys!

[eddy]

I read an author new to me last weekend, and enjoyed it enough to get the next book in the series.  

 

The author is Mick Herron and the first book I read was "Slow Horses".

 

Slough house is where MI5 send their misfits and screw-ups to be bored by mindless tasks in the hope that they would rather quit the service, thus saving Her Majesty's Government having to boot them out and running the risk of an employment tribunal.

 

It is neither a house nor is it in Slough. It consists of 4 threadbare floors sandwiched between a  grimy Chinese restaurant and a convenience store in a very unfashionable part of Finsbury,  London. It is  named as the inhabitants who have been  dismissed as "the Slow Horses" by the rest of MI5, who all operate out of glitzy high tech offices overlooking Regent's park.

 

They are tormented by their fat, farting, dismissive, rude, slob of a boss Jackson Lamb,  who lives in semi darkness on the top floor and who hands out the punishment of tedium with undisguised relish.  Lamb has unfettered control over their lives and seeks to make it as uncomfortable as possible. He is quite possibly the worst boss I have encountered and the only thing that the other inhabitants have in common is their hatred of him.

 

Once he was a respected and feared operative who ran assets behind the iron curtain playing by "Moscow rules" i.e. watch your back. But now he is an anachronism in the modern world of high tech spying where everyone else is playing by "London rules" i.e.  cover your arse. Most that knew him are out of the service, and those who didn't, underestimate him at their peril.

 

Of course a MI5 operation goes wrong and Lamb and his slow horses are set up by the suits to take the blame. But Lamb knows where the "bodies are buried" and bullies, blackmails and cheats his way through the bureaucracy as his motley bunch take on the baddies as well as their illustrious colleagues.

 

It is funny, clever, suspenseful and Lamb is the best drawn spy master since George Smiley. I read it compulsively in two sittings and  am reading the next one this weekend. 

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I read an author new to me last weekend, and enjoyed it enough to get the next book in the series.  

 

The author is Mick Herron and the first book I read was "Slow Horses".

 

Slough house is where MI5 send their misfits and screw-ups to be bored by mindless tasks in the hope that they would rather quit the service, thus saving Her Majesty's Government having to boot them out and running the risk of an employment tribunal.

 

It is neither a house nor is it in Slough. It consists of 4 threadbare floors sandwiched between a  grimy Chinese restaurant and a convenience store in a very unfashionable part of Finsbury,  London. It is  named as the inhabitants who have been  dismissed as "the Slow Horses" by the rest of MI5, who all operate out of glitzy high tech offices overlooking Regent's park.

 

They are tormented by their fat, farting, dismissive, rude, slob of a boss Jackson Lamb,  who lives in semi darkness on the top floor and who hands out the punishment of tedium with undisguised relish.  Lamb has unfettered control over their lives and seeks to make it as uncomfortable as possible. He is quite possibly the worst boss I have encountered and the only thing that the other inhabitants have in common is their hatred of him.

 

Once he was a respected and feared operative who ran assets behind the iron curtain playing by "Moscow rules" i.e. watch your back. But now he is an anachronism in the modern world of high tech spying where everyone else is playing by "London rules" i.e.  cover your arse. Most that knew him are out of the service, and those who didn't, underestimate him at their peril.

 

Of course a MI5 operation goes wrong and Lamb and his slow horses are set up by the suits to take the blame. But Lamb knows where the "bodies are buried" and bullies, blackmails and cheats his way through the bureaucracy as his motley bunch take on the baddies as well as their illustrious colleagues.

 

It is funny, clever, suspenseful and Lamb is the best drawn spy master since George Smiley. I read it compulsively in two sittings and  am reading the next one this weekend. 

thanks! Looking for something like this... 

[eddy]

thanks! Looking for something like this... 

 

 

Let me know what you think.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Let me know what you think.

i will when I start... 

[Vetseun]

I read an author new to me last weekend, and enjoyed it enough to get the next book in the series.  

 

The author is Mick Herron and the first book I read was "Slow Horses".

 

Slough house is where MI5 send their misfits and screw-ups to be bored by mindless tasks in the hope that they would rather quit the service, thus saving Her Majesty's Government having to boot them out and running the risk of an employment tribunal.

 

It is neither a house nor is it in Slough. It consists of 4 threadbare floors sandwiched between a  grimy Chinese restaurant and a convenience store in a very unfashionable part of Finsbury,  London. It is  named as the inhabitants who have been  dismissed as "the Slow Horses" by the rest of MI5, who all operate out of glitzy high tech offices overlooking Regent's park.

 

They are tormented by their fat, farting, dismissive, rude, slob of a boss Jackson Lamb,  who lives in semi darkness on the top floor and who hands out the punishment of tedium with undisguised relish.  Lamb has unfettered control over their lives and seeks to make it as uncomfortable as possible. He is quite possibly the worst boss I have encountered and the only thing that the other inhabitants have in common is their hatred of him.

 

Once he was a respected and feared operative who ran assets behind the iron curtain playing by "Moscow rules" i.e. watch your back. But now he is an anachronism in the modern world of high tech spying where everyone else is playing by "London rules" i.e.  cover your arse. Most that knew him are out of the service, and those who didn't, underestimate him at their peril.

 

Of course a MI5 operation goes wrong and Lamb and his slow horses are set up by the suits to take the blame. But Lamb knows where the "bodies are buried" and bullies, blackmails and cheats his way through the bureaucracy as his motley bunch take on the baddies as well as their illustrious colleagues.

 

It is funny, clever, suspenseful and Lamb is the best drawn spy master since George Smiley. I read it compulsively in two sittings and  am reading the next one this weekend.

 

Sounds good