The "I am currently reading" thread

Ahh, just picked up a Belinda Bauer from the book trolley at work, Blacklands, was a bit unsure whether it would be up my street or not. I've kept it in reserve for that nanosecond during my lifetime when I don't have anything to read.

Just read Blacklands as well. Again, it wasn't bad but again, given it won the CWA Golden Dagger, I wasn't entirely convinced that it was as good as all that. Bauer has a very simplistic writing style which keeps you turning the page, and she drops lots of brand names into it to give it a contemporary feel (and which will make it seem incredibly dated in about twenty years time); usually that irritates the hell out of me (you don't find people in Agatha Christie nibbling on a Mars bar for example) but it wasn't over-intrusive so I'll let her off. Overall probably a 7/10.

Currently reading The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch. Love the humour in his Rivers of London series.

Reading "Watching War Films With My Dad" by Al Murray,a humorous nostalgic read.

Just finished the latest Rebus by Ian Rankin. Satisfyingly gripping. If it wasn't for having to go to bed I could have easily finished it in one sitting.

No-one could accuse you of being ill-read Taxman! I imagine you wandering around Sheffield, bumping into lampposts with your nose buried in a book.

No-one could accuse you of being ill-read Taxman! I imagine you wandering around Sheffield, bumping into lampposts with your nose buried in a book.

We have a week in Edinburgh every year and love recognising all the locations Rankin writes about, especially The Oxford Bar.

I can't for the life of me know why he hasn't set a murder

I've just finished The Lonely City by Olivia Laing. This is a fascinating book, unexpectedly finding herself alone in New York following a relationship breakdown Laing was inspired to explore how experiences of loneliness and isolation are manifested in art. It sounds quite dry from the description but is actually extremely readable. 10/10

Ive just finished Inferno by Dan Brown.

I quite enjoyed it although his books are all very similar. It has taken me over a month to read but thats not a reflection on the book, I sometimes just seem to fall out with reading

7/10

Following The Lonely City I'm now reading another Olivia Laing book, To The River. In this one she walks the length of the River Ouse in Sussex, wherein Virginia Woolf drowned, and muses on a wide variety of subjects. Deep and flowing. 10/10. I think Olivia Laing might be my new best friend, she's also written a book about the role of alcoholism in literature which I'm itching to get my hands on.

I'm reading "The North" by Paul Morley. I can only read about 10 pages at a time, because his writing style in it is so odd. He writes in long sentences with many, many, many, many commas. Its driving me mad. I want to like the book, but its hefty... Gonna take me years at this rate.

Just finished 'Dancing naked in the mind field' by Kary Mullis. He won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1993 for inventing the polymerase chain reaction, which revolutionised DNA research. But that's where the resemblance to a conventional scientist ends because Mullis is also a bit of an oddball - he took LSD in the 60s, likes surfing, believes in astrology and has some against the grain views on AIDS and global warming which often get him into trouble. Oh, and he thinks was abducted by an alien that looked like a glowing racoon.

He was also associated with the wonderful Max Gergel, whose own bizarre, scurrilous but highly entertaining memoir, titled 'Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide?' can be downloaded from the link on his Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Gergel

The Blackhouse by Peter May. Appealed to me due it's wild Isle of Lewis location. Murder and long kept secrets amongst the guga hunters. Looking forward to the other books in the series.

The Blackhouse by Peter May. Appealed to me due it's wild Isle of Lewis location. Murder and long kept secrets amongst the guga hunters. Looking forward to the other books in the series.

I really enjoyed Black house, and the next one. I found the third got a bit samey, but I did read them back to back. Perhaps I should have spaced them out a bit more, but I was going to Lewis and wanted to finish em before I went!