Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by edbro

I'm an American who lived in England for a few years. I found the driving easy to adjust to. The hard thing for me to adjust to is as a pedestrian looking initially in the wrong direction when crossing the street.

That's very true. I work in Germany regularly at the moment and it always takes a conscious effort to remember which way to look when crossing the road.

Originally Posted by edbro

I had one British car and one American car while I was there. There were several times when I would absent mindly get in the wrong side of the car. Of course, then I had to rummage around in the glove compartment to make it look like I meant to be sitting in the passenger seat. I didn't fool anyone.

[edbro]

Reading The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin. What a great book this is!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Just finished The City and The City, by China Mieville. Actually started it a while ago, and put it aside to read something else. Restarted it Wednesday, finished it this morning. I found it a very good read.

The story is a detective/cop story. There's a crime. There's an investigation which everyone thinks will be passed over to a higher power but isn't. The investigation then only gets somewhere by one policeman going against proper procedure to get results. There's a hint of a shadowy organisation controlling things. There's secondments and co-opting. Corrupt politicians and dodgy corporate dealings.

So far, so very normal. The twist is that the story takes place in two cities which are actually superimposed over the top of each other - the city and the city of the title. Crossing between the two without authorisation is illegal, and is called breach, or breaching. In some places the two cities are cross-hatched, visible over each other if the respective citizens didn't unsee the other side. The whole setting got under my skin, aided by the subtle-ish steampunk elements. And for some reason the writing style seemed reminiscent of Peter Ackroyd

[Bluesman7]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Just finished The City and The City, by China Mieville. Actually started it a while ago, and put it aside to read something else. Restarted it Wednesday, finished it this morning. I found it a very good read.

That's one that I have been planning to get to shortly.

[kennyc]

Just saw a story on BBC America

This is the 50th Anniversary of publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Her only novel and a classic. It's now at the top of my reading list.

I'm not finding an ebook version ... but ...

[jlg432]

I'm reading "Plains of Passage" by Jean Auel - the 4th in the Earth's Children series. Great series.

John

[kainne]

Just finished Mystic River & was surprised by the ending. Very good book. Thinking of watching the movie now. Also finished Seventh Son 1st in the Alvin maker series by Orson Scott Card. Found it slow to get going, but still interesting. Started on Red Prophet (Book 2).

[MickeyC]

If you like Mystic River, give Shutter Island a go

[shootingMaNs]

Now reading "Moonfall" by Jack McDevitt.

I was going to start "The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume 1," but I think I'll save it for when we go on vacation next month.

[neilmarr]

Thanks, Cassidy. I wanted to download a couple of goodies this weekend and you've solved the problem with Mystic River and Shutter Island (if I can get them here in France). I did see the movie version of Shutter Island and thought it was superb. It did hint strongly, though, of an even better novel source. Here's karma to ya, mate. Very best. Neil

[Mindy]

Originally Posted by jlg432

I'm reading "Plains of Passage" by Jean Auel - the 4th in the Earth's Children series. Great series.

John

I thought so too, until I read Plains of Passage, and by the time I'd battled my way through it I couldn't bring myself to face Shelters of Stone. Would be interesed to hear someone else's take though, and especially whether SoS is worth reconsidering!

[neilmarr]

There are times when I get so freakin' mad that I could could spray-paint BUM in a bus stop. Absolutely no way can I (legally) download *Shutter Island* or *Mystic River* outside the US. Is it any bloody wonder folks turn to pirates? I won't, but I can hardly blame those who do. These bloody stores MUST get their acts together ... and if they want to blame publishers (often a weak excuse) they should do something about the problem instead of whingeing. So, will I buy something else instead for the weekend from these stores? Will I f*ck! I'm not without patience, but treat me with utter contempt once too often and I will treat you similarly. Neil

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

There are times when I get so freakin' mad that I could could spray-paint BUM in a bus stop. Absolutely no way can I (legally) download *Shutter Island* or *Mystic River* outside the US. Is it any bloody wonder folks turn to pirates? I won't, but I can hardly blame those who do. These bloody stores MUST get their acts together ... and if they want to blame publishers (often a weak excuse) they should do something about the problem instead of whingeing. So, will I buy something else instead for the weekend from these stores? Will I f*ck! I'm not without patience, but treat me with utter contempt once too often and I will treat you similarly. Neil

Neil, you can buy Shutter Island at Books on Board, if you pay with a gift certificate and give a billing address in the U.S. You can pay your gift certificate with a French credit card, and then use it for yourself. Unfortunately they only have Mystic River in audio book.

[neilmarr]

Thanks, Florence. I think you know my feeling about customers being expected to jump through hoops to legitimately buy a book. I won't play. If there's a grain of truth in the old, old excuse the massive online stores glibly use to justify geographical restrictions, let them simply open sales websites in those countries outside the USA where they peddle their hardware and sell European, Australian, etc editions. You know how much I always appreciate your advice, Florence, so please don't take my wee moan as anything more than a rant against an industry which seems hell bent on encouraging the very piracy they complain so much about by treating their customers with utter contempt. Very best. Neil

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Thanks, Florence. I think you know my feeling about customers being expected to jump through hoops to legitimately buy a book. I won't play. If there's a grain of truth in the old, old excuse the massive online stores glibly use to justify geographical restrictions, let them simply open sales websites in those countries outside the USA where they peddle their hardware and sell European, Australian, etc editions. You know how much I always appreciate your advice, Florence, so please don't take my wee moan as anything more than a rant against an industry which seems hell bent on encouraging the very piracy they complain so much about by treating their customers with utter contempt. Very best. Neil

No problem, I understand your frustration.

Being French, for me contempt for the customer is the normal state of things, so I'm not as shocked In fact, I understand that for a US on-line store, foreign customers may be more trouble than they're worth. I am less shocked by Fictionwise's position (they are the worst, at some point practically all their books were geo-restricted) that I am at Amazon's, who won't sell to me just because I don't have their device, or will only sell to me under the condition that I can't read their books on my Opus. But I guess we all have our pet rants

I also resent having to lie to buy what I want, but I could also do what I've been doing for years, go to expensive bookshops in Paris for English language paper books, or (more recently) use Amazon.fr. It's frustrating as heck seeing all those books right before my nose and knowing I can't buy some of them, but it's still much, much better than the situation I was in 10 years ago, where the only way to find English language books was to buy them as expensive paper books that ended up cluttering my living space