BB FANS

I've just finished 'The Lonely Dead', the follow up to 'The Straw Men' by Michael Marshall. Both very good indeed.

He also writes very funny science fiction under his full name Micheal Marshall Smith.

Darkheart: Watches BB, works with computers, reads science fiction = nerd

I am reading Rags to Riches - Shane Richie! It's great!!

Neither here nor there by Bill Bryson, I love his books.

Grim have you read A Short History of Nearly Evenrything by Bill Bryson. U'm dipping into it now and then (its that kind of book) and really enjoying it. I love his books as well.

I like Bill Bryson too - Notes from a Small Island was so funny!

I have the short history of nearly everything in my 'to read' pile.

I loved Notes from a small Island too, very funny

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. An easy read, hasn't made me believe in god yet, not much of an actual story, but for some reason I'm still motivated to read it til the end. Nearly finished it .

My mum likes Bill Bryson!

Dunno if thats a good or bad thing, never read any of his stuff

I have just started reading "Brother and Sister" - Joanna Troloppe now!

I'm reading "Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall" by Anna Funder.

Finished 'The Life of Pi' by Yann Martel (2002's Booker Prize winner). Would have finished it sooner had the light bulb not gone kapput.

I always knew I had a reason to be doubtfull over the book's promise and premise (it'll make you believe in God... apparently), ie. it didn't, it failed miserably. As an atheist (still) I found the book as a whole mildly satisfying, particularly the ending, it isn't really a book in which much happens at all, for the most part it is the retelling of a story (that of a boy lost at sea in a lifeboat with just a Orangutang, Zebra, Bengal Tiger, Rat and Hyena for company in the first-person perspective, with the author's thoughts also being in first-person with respect to the main character (Pi). So, in other words, the author is retelling someone else's story as if he was that person, if that makes any sense whatsoever, is there such a thing as second-person? I think it could be handy...

Right, where were we (I)? Yes, the book as a whole basically ended up saying a not-particularly revolutionary thought that many of us must have thunk before now, this is what dissappointed me, the book wasn't so boring as to make you put it down never to pick up again, its a light read you can pick up and put down as you please, but there is no oomph, or so I felt, I were hoping for it to be all zen like, it wasn't, it was more like a melodramatic boy's wafflings.

Anyhoo, all in all, enjoyed it, sorta, cos I know nothing about books I may as well go for last year's Booker Prize winner next .

Edit: sorry folks for not being particularly good at getting my views across, no good at this stuff .

Hi Egor
I read Life of Pi a few months ago and found it very readable and imaginative, but hardly life-changing. I actually thought the message was more atheistic than God-finding, which probably wasn't the author's intention, but there you go.

I've not read last year's Booker winner, but I did read last year's Whitbread Book of the Year - the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, which you may have seen - it's been in the bestselling top 10 for the last couple of months. It's written from the viewpoint of a teenage boy who has Asperger's syndrome. I think it was originally written for teenagers, but has been taken up by adults (NOT like Harry Potter). I thought it was an excellent book - and I remember it a lot better than Life of Pi, which may say something.

I have just finished 'George and Sam' by ex-Guardian columist Charlotte Moore. Its about her 3 boys, 2 of whom are Autistic and how different their experiences of childhood have been.

Its very well written, occassionaly funny, occasionaly sad but always fascinating.

Dakheart: gives it 5 thumbs up

double post- sorry.

Claire, I've read The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time also and thought it was really excellent. Did you notice the lack of punctutation in it. There were only full stops and the odd comma. Apparently this was a deliberate act by the author, as he tried to write it in the style that the boy would have. (I didn't notice it myself but someone else told me about it).

That lack of punctuation would go down well with some of the posters on this sight.

I think whether its theistic or atheistic comes down to what you personally believe in, as an atheist I doubted the ending, because it only gives possible reasoning to religous texts, fables, beliefs, etc. and why they're so unbelievable (unbelievable as in unbelievable, not unbelievable as in unbelievable (incredible)), but God could be anyone, and the ending wasn't particularly original, trying to not tell everyone how it ends and all that here, so its tricky.

What bugged me was the way Pi constantly talked and moaned and it irritated me and was so over the top. Can't quite put it into words myself.

Yeah, saw 'The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Nightime' on Amazon, not sure if I'd like it, I have to say the front cover is in a similiar style to 'Vernon God Little' and I keep mistaking the two, maybe its the whole it being adapted for adults thing which grates, don't really know what its about, but I read something about Sherlock Homes? Or have I gone completely mad?