Turns out there are Expanse books. Reading the first one now, already different to the tv series.

I’ve just checked, I have the BBC The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  Would be very happy to send to a fellow fan.

Here’s a link for legit downloads of The Hobbit and LOTR BBC radio plays.


https://amp.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/7ywdr2/archiveorg_has_the_hobbit_1968_full_cast_radio/

Was gonna re-read that (read the initial trilogy back in my teens) but I think I’ll wait until after the film to give it a go. Always find that reading books first spoils films, the other way round works better for me.

Meanwhile, I’m onto the last of Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy. Very good.

Some friends bought an illustrated Hobbit for my boy, so we’ve been reading that for bedtime. Only a couple of pages a night, might take a while.

Haven't got to any songs yet, but I'm gonna go full Tolkien on them!

I read Miss Pymm Disposes, by Josephine Tey. Not quite as whodunnit-ish as I expected, but an intriguingly written book, and easy to get through. Rarely felt it was written 70 years ago, some intriguingly modern motifs within

I need to catch up on like, 12 of his shows never mind books.

Needs must at work and I've come around to reading on my phone.

Just finished in defense of history by Richard J Evans which was excellent.

Especially for its epic afterword which was written a number of years after initial release and has an in depth response to criticism.

Just starting philosphy in the Islamic world now. Written by dude who does the history of philosophy podcast.

Its written very conversationally because of that, which is no bad thing.

Still slowly doing the dispossessed at home. When I dont fall asleep.

Gremill wrote:

Reading Louie Theroux's new book, a biography of sorts - it's highly amusing and quite well written.

Really, really great book. It helps that his voice is so memorable and is in your head as you read. The stuff on Savile is predictably interesting, as is the scientology bits but it's his constant impostor syndrome and his self awareness of his shortcomings that really make it.

That makes more sense.

It's a really interesting look back into a time not that long ago.

It's about the Manson murders, in case that was not clear from my previous posts. I hardly knew anything about, didn't even realize that it happened not too long ago, as I just never looked into it, but after watching (title of film spoilered just in case, it was a popular movie last year, I didn't realize about the connection to Manson so figured some people want to realize that on their own as well)
and B mentioning Manson, I asked his mom (who has been obsessed with it for a while according to B ) what I should read to learn more about it.

Helter Skelter is written by one if the attorneys assigned to the case. So far I've read part 1 The Murders and part 2 The Killers, just arrived at part 3 The Investigation.
I've read something unbelievable on almost every page, some times it's the brutal details of the murders, some times it's the ignorance of the police forces assigned to the case. I'm curious to where this will go, the investigation part will be good, as from now on the writer was involved with the case. I don't even know how the case wrapped up, and what happened in the two years it took them to do the investigation.

Also woke up to a picture of Sharon Tate, as today is apparently the day she was born in '43. Funny how at times things pop up in different places that are related. The book was also referenced in Mindhunter, which we just finished watching.

Finished NOS4R2 last night by Joe Hill.  Wasn’t all that great.  Prose was okay, but the story was downright silly.  Maybe I should have anticipated that before starting a book with a title like NOS4R2.  Also, in this book at least, he doesn’t seem to have pulled completely out of daddy’s shadow, as Mid-World and Pennywise both get a mention.  I did pick up Heart-Shaped Box last year, but after this one I’m  not sure I’ll bother with it.

Before that I tried Obscura by Joe Hart.  Really awful.  I struggled on through two thirds of it because I thought the plot was intriguing, but the writing was so abysmal I just couldn’t go on in the end.

Just started The Reddening by Adam Nevill (he wrote The Ritual) and so far so very good, and also right in the middle of 14 by Peter Clines, which I’m really loving.  Feels quite a lot like Lost so far, only set in an apartment building instead of an island.

Raiziel wrote:

Finished NOS4R2 last night by Joe Hill.  Wasn’t all that great.  Prose was okay, but the story was downright silly.  Maybe I should have anticipated that before starting a book with a title like NOS4R2.  Also, in this book at least, he doesn’t seem to have pulled completely out of daddy’s shadow, as Mid-World and Pennywise both get a mention.  I did pick up Heart-Shaped Box last year, but after this one I’m  not sure I’ll bother with it.

Before that I tried Obscura by Joe Hart.  Really awful.  I struggled on through two thirds of it because I thought the plot was intriguing, but the writing was so abysmal I just couldn’t go on in the end.

Just started The Reddening by Adam Nevill (he wrote The Ritual) and so far so very good, and also right in the middle of 14 by Peter Clines, which I’m really loving.  Feels quite a lot like Lost so far, only set in an apartment building instead of an island.

Have you read The Fireman or Horns? Both are excellent.

^This is a fascinating book about the Manson murders and associated late-60’s subjects, whilst we’re vaguely on the subject.

poprock wrote:

I’m about halfway through this book and planning to use my day off sick to finish it. So far it’s a pleasure. Far less disorientating than The Peripheral, with just as much to offer.

Well, Agency nails it. Or rather Gibson does, again.

Two completely believable futures, one only obliquely referenced, and an equally believable alternate present. All folded into a fast-paced thriller with a central protagonist who isn’t really a protagonist – for a book about agency (not ‘an agency’ but the concept of having personal agency – ability to act) the star here has very little. She’s taken on a wild ride with almost no influence of her own on where she goes or why.

It’s dazzling, inventive, and balances the familiar and the alien beautifully.

If Agency has a flaw, it’s in wrapping things up a bit too neatly at the end. The closure comes too fast and too cleanly, for me. But that’s a common problem with sci-fi.

Gremill wrote:

I'm currently reading The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, which is a kind of gentle (so far) dystopian novel about a society of the near future (in Sweden at least) where when you reach 50 you are assessed as either 'useful' or 'disposable'.

The disposables are taken to The Unit where they live luxurious but constantly monitored lives, take part in clinical experiments and are gradually harvested for their organs until the 'final donation'.

I'm about a third of the way through and it's got a good line in sinister dread going - I'm intrigued to know where it'll go next.

30 year old Logan would be rolling in his grave.

Finished The Reddening (terrible name) by Adam Nevill yesterday. It’s exactly the sort of thing you might expect from the guy who wrote The Ritual: pagany, culty, horrory stuff. Pretty good over all, but could have probably done with trimming down here and there to improve pacing, and I was hoping for a better payoff at the end.

Finished 14 by Peter Clines the day before. This was very silly and pulpy, but I enjoyed it on the whole. Guy moves into an apartment block in Los Angeles where the rent is too good to be true, starts to notice little weird things about the place, little weird things begin to stack up, hooks up with neighbours to Scooby Do little weird things, story totally jumps shark. Despite said shark jumping I enjoyed this enough that I might read The Fold by the same author sometime down the road.

In anticipation of Villeneuve’s next film, I thought I’d read Dune next, but I was having a look at the Kindle book deals yesterday and noticed something called The Fifth Science by Exurb1a. Read the blurb (sci fi short story collection). Definitely sounded like my sort of thing; strange name for an author, though. Read some customer reviews and all were pretty gushing, and discovered he started out on YouTube. So I guess he just wanted to publish under his YouTube handle. Anyway, got home last night and decided to watch one of his videos before before digging into the first story. Some of them are actually quite brilliant and very funny in places. Here’s one of ‘em:



Then went on to read the first story in the book and honestly couldn’t put down. It is fantastic! Best thing I’ve read in a good long while. Highly, highly recommend y’all pick this up if you like sci fi. Because even if the first story, For Every Dove a Bullet, is the only good story, it’s still an absolute steal at 99p.