I'm still reading the Tale of Genji.

Just finished "Hallucinating Foucault" by Patricia Duncker. Winner of "the Dillons First Fiction Award 1997"!!!!. Nearly threw it away after the first page as it starts with "a dream sequence" and thats my pet hate in fiction. It got better but only just.
Ive now read two books with Foucault in the title, (Foucaults Pendulem by Umberto Eco) and Ive still got no inclination to google him. He sounds bloody hard work to be honest. Lifes too short.

Hmmm "Bobby Fischer Goes To War" (Chess) or "Bringing Down The House" (Las Vegas Scam) or "Touching The Void" (Mountaineering) or "Night Train" (Sonny Liston)next?

Holiday reading from the honeymoon:

Eighth Air Force, Donald Miller - chunky & visceral history of American bombers in Europe. Standard modern day World War II history fare.

The End of Mr Y, Scarlett Thomas - good holiday reading - not the most likeable characters (a bit perfect-for-being-imperfect) but a decent page-turner plot (very similar in some ways to The Raw Shark Texts).

The Last Godfathers, John Follain - I'd read his earlier history of the Corleonesi (A Dishonoured Society), this turned out just to be an update with the last ten years' activity. Decent mix of fact and sensationalism.

Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend, Leo McKinstry - worryingly over-enthusiastic, anally detailed history, endorsed bizarrely by both Jeremy Paxman and Jeremy Clarkson. Not a keeper.

Yes Minister - always a good read.

Nemesis, Max Hastings - okay. Not a bad potted history of the close of World War II against Japan, some interesting coverage of the war in China, but a bit skimpy and disconnected.

And the picks of the last two weeks:

Un Lun Dun, China Mieville - fantastic children's novel just as good for adults. Unsurprisingly not particularly in-depth but fantastically rich - Neverwhere meets Jumanji meets Harry Potter, sort of.

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman - had been putting this off for ages, not as good as American Gods but still a nicely imaginative read. Something about his occasional jokes and the typeface used in every Gaiman book does annoy me, strangely.

Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, G W Dahlquist - still reading this one, nicely overblown Victoriana - Sherlock Holmes with more sex and violence. Like a slightly more serious version of Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box novels.

And the overall winner:

Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman - a real tribute to every superhero and supervillain cliche, action-packed, thoughtful, with added pathos and a real sense of sympathy and comic timing ("why does nobody fear my blaster?"). Doctor Impossible is one of my favourite characters in recent reads.

You did that much reading on your honeymoon? I hope Mrs Crusoe had a good time.

Heh. We waved at each other occasionally - her sunbathing, me at the pool bar.

The Luzhin Defense was excellent. Not (nearly) as polished as his more mature stuff, but one of the most engaging things I've read of his. Probably would have been a bit better had I understood more about chess, although it pulled off very well the trick of making me fell as though I did.

I'm getting through the Webb, which is very clear-minded and committed, if a tad self-important. And I'm just about to start into Sebastian Barker's The Erotics of God. I really (, really) liked his long Nietzsche poem, so it'll be interesting to see how that cast of mind fits into a smaller format.

Not long finished 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer - slightly strange, but engaging and moving nonetheless.

Now juggling 'McCarthys Bar' (light summer reading) with 'Gulag' by Anne Applebaum. If the latter is as good as the quotes liberally plastered all over the cover suggest, then it should be a worthwhile few weeks (I don't get as much time to read as I would like!).

Oh, and I should probably say hello.

I like Ben Elton's books but not sci-fi ; would ye recommend Blind Faith? Got it from library yesterday, found the first two chapters a bit heavy.

Finished Huck Finn and since my holiday in Cuba I've been reading César Miguel Rondón's The Book Of Salsa (English translation of El libro de la salsa), which I'll probably finish this weekend.

Finished the Webb - impressive, and very informative on foreign policy/military stuff, but a bit self-absorbed...

Am reading Harlod Bloom's A Map of Misreading now, which is very tough going, but dazzlingly brilliant. I heart Harold Bloom. Not really started into the Barker properly yet.

So...just back from a week at the cottage (aka reading camp)on Lake Winnipeg and I plowed throughthe following:

We are Beginning Our Descent - James Meek
The Yiddish Policeman's Union - Michael Chabon
The Post-American World - Fareed Zakaria
Midnight in Sicily - Peter Robb
Consider Phlebas - Iain Banks
Football and Fascism - Simon Martin

Robb is excellent, the rest intermittently good, except Banks - that was the least interesting of the five Culture novels I've read.

I've now started The Travels of Marco Polo, which would be great if it weren't for enormous holes in the middle of the narrative...

Doghead by Morten Ramsland. "A saga of three generations of a family in the 20th century" would normally put me right off, but this is three generations of strange Norwegian men, rather than of working class women in Liverpool, say, so it's much better, and it's great fun.

Just finished DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage, which is quite excellent and I recommend to all.

Now starting on Nudge, the new bestseller on Libertarian Paternalism by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, which will probably be worth a thread on its own once I'm done.

Aidan wrote:

QUOTE:
I like Ben Elton's books but not sci-fi ; would ye recommend Blind Faith? Got it from library yesterday, found the first two chapters a bit heavy.

Apologies, bit late replying.

It isnt particularly sci-fi, more a case of what may be possible in the not-too-distant future.

I thought it was very enjoyable, and not quite as annoying as some of his previous efforts.