Reading "Up Country" by Nelson Demille. Not as cerebral a read as most of those mentioned above but his last three novels have been really good and his dry humor makes me chuckle.

Right Now I'm reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke.

By the way, if anyone could recommend any good books, could you maybe drop me a line on the PM with your suggestions? I'm due to get a new book next week (I try and get a new one every fortnight) and I'm fast running out of ideas for good books to read!!

Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan

Book 10 of the Wheel of time, the series that will never never ever end..... A great read, but not unlike FT once you start you will never stop.

Hello, W_W!

I just finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--loved it! I'm just finishing a book by National Geographic Trial On Ice: A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by K. M. Kostyal It is really great--loaded with photos and interesting info on his life and his expeditions to the Antartic. I'm trying to decide if I'm too lazy to make a quiz on his life. But, I highly reccommend the book.

I always have a marker in six books. MTV generation attention span, I guess. Currently: 1-Hard Times, Dickens. 2-Pilgrim's Regress, Lewis. 3-The Bible. 4-Daniel Deronda, Eliot. 5-The Koran. 6-Not a book, rather a magazine--the latest copy of First Things.

Alright, just got a brand-spanking new book today - The World According to Garp.

Wish me Luck

I usually have a fiction & a non fiction on the go. I've just reread George Orwell's 1984, which I hadn't read since 1984. I found it more depressing than I remembered and wish he had injected more hope into the ending.
I've just started Minette Walters' psychological thriller Fox Evil and Antonia Fraser's Gunpowder Plot, about the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

I haven't visited this forum before but am an avid reader. Haven't found a lot of time since I had a child but due to a bout of insomnia I seem to be back in the literary world. I am so out of the loop on this one it is interesting to see what current trends are. All recommendations are welcome!! At the moment I am about to read a pristine and wonderfully new smelling copy of 'The Alchemist'.

Adam Gopnik's "Paris To The Moon". It is a cronicle of the authors 5 year sojourn to Paris. He was a writer for the New Yorker Magazine and living in New York City. When his first child is born he and his wife decided to move to Paris to give the child something beautiful to remember from those formative years. A very special book. I don't speak French and there is quite a bit of it in the book but I do get the idea most of the time what he is saying. His insights are terrific. I recommend it to one and all.

I recently finished "Gerald's Game" by Stephen King, then I re-read the first Harry Potter because I hadn't got any other book left... Now I'm reading "Beneath the Skin" by Nicci French... great book... but I'll finish it tonight, I fear, and then let's see what else there is

Pearl, I remember reading "Gerald's Game" when I was about 13 or 14. My friends mother saw it and made me take it back to the library!!

And I did take it back to the library....I just waited 'til I finished it first!

Tanzen, I read "World According to Garp" when it first came out some years back, and I enjoyed it very much.

Has anyone ever read anything by English author Simon Clark? I am about half-way thru his book "Vampyrrhic", and it is the scariest thing I have read since Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot.

I just finished re-reading a book which I think is very fitting for the situation that the U.S.A. is in now with Iraq. It's called "Gulf" By Robert Westall and although it is geared towards young adults I would reccomend it for anyone.

Well, after much procrastination, I finally finished Garp (good call, Linda - I really enjoyed it! )

...Now, under recommendation from a friend, and as a result of a sincere desire to get up to date with the classics (does that make sense? ) I'm now reading "The Count of Monte Christo".

...This book is huge......I may be a while....

Tanzen, I've read "The Count of Monte Cristo", too. It is long, but I really enjoyed it. If you enjoy this, try The Three Muskateers (I hope that's spelt right)--it was a swashbuckling read.

I'm reading Alfred Lansing's "Endurance Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" and Ernest Shackleton's own book, "South the Endurance Expedition". You see, tanzen, I become fanatic about stuff. If I get on a subject, I'm obessessed with it! Since there's half-an-inch of ice frozen over everything here, Charlie thinks I'm nuts--he says it makes him cold just watching me.

...Or you could be learning some important survival tips on the off chance that you may need them!

I'm reading "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. I am reading it because I have seen it mentioned several times in the forums and it seemed like everyone had read it except me! I am about halfway through it. So far it is very interesting.

Tanzen, how right you are! Charlie ought to thank me for reading up on all these frozen continent survival stories.

Mother Goose, I read In Cold Blood, too. I thought it was a very good book, but like Helter Skelter, it was very disturbing, because both were based on true events.

I can read the goriest of nonfiction, but if it's based on actual events, then it gives me nightmares.

Now I'm reading "Tell No One" by ... what's he called... Harlan Coben or something like that. I've only just begun it, but it's suspenseful. Maybe some of you know it, from what I understood it's been on the NY Times Bestseller list for quite a while. It's just been published in Germany.

Hello everyone!
First stop in the book section, and liking it a lot.
I'm currently reading book two of the first trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.
Very good series for all fantasy lovers.
I am also reading Oliver Twist by Dickens as well as Swearing : a social history of foul language, oaths and profanity in English by Goeffrey Hughes.
And then, I've got about fifteen more books on the shelf, waiting to be read...

The book you mentioned on Swearing by Geoffrey Hughes sounds interesting. It's a fascinating topic. Not long ago, I read "MotherTongue" by Bill Bryson. He has a chapter in his book on the same topic. It's well worth reading. The first two chapters are a bit of a hard slog but after that the book gets really interesting.

I have just read such a good book! It was called The Last Girl and it was by Stephen Collishaw - has anyone read it?

I'm reading "Battlefield Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard right now. So far, its been pretty good. I didn't watch the movie,
which I knew if I did I would not only have it ruined for me, but books turned into movies usually aren't very good with
some exceptions, in my opinion.

Just recently began reading Tony Hillerman's "The Wailing Wind". This book is another in the Leaphorn-Chee Native American mysteries. I love a good mystery and Hillerman
never disappoints.

May I join in the recommendation of Dumas (pere) and his works but also mention Sir Walter Scott 'Ivanhoe', Rafael Sabatini 'Scaramouche', Anthony Hope 'The Prisoner of Zenda' , the historical novels of G A Henty, and a modern swashbuckling author Bernard Cornwell 'The Sharpe series'.
Regards,
Tin
P.S. I read at least one book per day
Today I read Quintin Jardine 'Wearing Purple' and Tom Holt 'Expecting Someone Taller'