Books you're reading... and should read. | Page 2 | Vital Football

Books you're reading... and should read.

The early Jo Nesbo novels are worth a look. He gets a bit over-the-top in the later stuff.
 
Oh, and if you want definitive classic scandi-noir, look up the Martin Beck novels. Stone-cold classics.
 
Quite like books by the likes of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, Simon Scarrow. I do like to read a variety though so I'll give most things a try. Other ones worth a look are The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz - WWII escape from a work camp story, supposedly all true, Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson, and A Season With Verona by Tim Parks is another good football one.


Yes, I've read/got Inverting the Pyramid - a present from one of my lads a while back, I think
 
Re-read the Lankhmar fantasy stories by Fritz Leiber recently along with
Black Company chronicles by Glenn Cook both classic fantasy "chaff"
Have ordered Lest Darkness Falls by L. Sprague de Camp which is getting harder to come by now on it's own.
Currently reading Retreat from Moscow by David Stahl
 
Camus - the plague is on my list at the moment. Feels timely.

On a philosophy theme, the biography on Nietzsche (I am Dynamite) is fascinating and hilarious in equal measure, really interesting life.

Other lockdown reading - very much enjoyed Futebol by Alex Bellos which I've just finished, on Brazilian culture, politics and how it's all bound up by football. Also A Season with Verona by Tim Parks (bit out of date but a goodie on football culture in Italy, although I didn't agree with some of his conclusions so much).
 
I love a lot of Michael Moorcock's work. And Simon Scarrow. For sci-fi though, Larry Niven is hard to beat. Particularly relevant at the moment is Lucifer's Hammer.
 
I love a lot of Michael Moorcock's work. And Simon Scarrow. For sci-fi though, Larry Niven is hard to beat. Particularly relevant at the moment is Lucifer's Hammer.

Don't read much SF these days, but back in the day read quite a lot of Niven - Ring World, etc.

Love the original Foundation Trilogy by Asimov (the follow-ups, not so much). Also, Dune by Herbert is a stone-cold classic (the follow-ups, not so much).
 
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks is a great read too. Some of his Culture novels (as Iain M. Banks) are also good if you like a bit of sci-fi, although I've only read a few of them. Consider Phlebas is my favourite of those I have read.
 
Reread the Foundation triology a year or so ago, seemed strangely lightweight somehow. But not as dated as the John Wyndham stuff I followed them with, great plots with obvious cold war references, but with characters attitudes so out of date I found it hard going.
 
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks is a great read too. Some of his Culture novels (as Iain M. Banks) are also good if you like a bit of sci-fi, although I've only read a few of them. Consider Phlebas is my favourite of those I have read.

Yes, I read quite a few of the culture novels, until I got to Feersum Enjin (I think it was called) parts of which were written in some weird phonetic argot (see the title, for example) that I didn't enjoy or get at all. So I gave up on the series at that point.
 
Reread the Foundation triology a year or so ago, seemed strangely lightweight somehow. But not as dated as the John Wyndham stuff I followed them with, great plots with obvious cold war references, but with characters attitudes so out of date I found it hard going.

Interesting. I probably haven't read the Foundation Trilogy in 30 years. May give it another go to see what I think now.

I think with stuff that has dated badly, you have to go with the flow and accept it is "of its time". I read a book by Saki not long ago - very culturally interesting because it reflected early 20th century attitudes that would definitely be regarded as "unusual" these days.
 
Interesting. I probably haven't read the Foundation Trilogy in 30 years. May give it another go to see what I think now.

I think with stuff that has dated badly, you have to go with the flow and accept it is "of its time". I read a book by Saki not long ago - very culturally interesting because it reflected early 20th century attitudes that would definitely be regarded as "unusual" these days.

I re-read it last year, definitely moves at the pace of a 70's sci-fi novel. Space Opera indeed

Rosewater by Tade Thompson is an awesome piece of modern sci-fi writing
 
Yes, I read quite a few of the culture novels, until I got to Feersum Enjin (I think it was called) parts of which were written in some weird phonetic argot (see the title, for example) that I didn't enjoy or get at all. So I gave up on the series at that point.
That sounds frustrating! I haven't read that one, but I did recently finish a book that used that sort of style in dialogue with lots of characters from different places (phonetically-spelt Scots dialect, eastern European, etc) and it was frankly irritating. The Culture novels I have read are Consider Phlebas, Excession, Look to Windward, and The Algebraist.
 
Has anyone into their sci-fi read Appleseed by John Clute? A friend bought me it, and it's one of the oddest books I've ever read. I had to read it twice to properly understand it (although that might be a reflection of me and not the book).
 
Has anyone into their sci-fi read Appleseed by John Clute? A friend bought me it, and it's one of the oddest books I've ever read. I had to read it twice to properly understand it (although that might be a reflection of me and not the book).

Is that what the Japanese Manga films Appleseed and Appleseed Alpha are based on?
 
Lemmy's autobiography 'White Line Fever'. Not especially highbrow (no sh1t Sherlock....) but a great read and so evocative of the rock 'n' roll scene.

Otherwise am a huge fan of historical and fantasy novels generally, voracious and slightly indiscriminate reader from an early age.