What are you reading ? 2022

I would recommend the Shardlake series by C J Sansom. I was never a fan of historical fiction but these are at another level altogether, whatever the genre.

Also, try the Karin Muller books. Thrillers set in '70s East Germany.

David Young - Book Series In Order

 

Just started Carlos Ruiz Zafon The shadow of the wind . Third time of reading . I love his books.

 

I've just finished an amazing novel called Alone In Berlin by Hans Fallada.

 

Not my 'cup of tea' but that does seem like a great read @longk.

I forget this thread exists and should post more on it.

I'm currently working my way through this, it's heavy reading being suited to history students. I like to read something more in depth, as the basics of the era that interest me have been pretty much exhausted.

Mercia by Annie Whitehead | Waterstones

 

It was a great read, all the more so because Hans Fallada *real name Rudolph Ditzen) lived through the times largely on the 'wrong side' of the Nazi idea of racial superiority having struggled with mental health issues and alcoholism. Added to which, and probably 'worse' under these ideals, he had homosexual leanings earlier in life and had written novels along such themes. Had he not been a fairly succesful and relatively high profile author he might well have been deemed unfit to live and euthanised in a psychiatric asylum.

I was never much into history and tend not to read non fiction. I used to avoid historical fiction but the Shardlake series by C J Sansom changed all that. There are good historical writers and there are bad ones. I tend to stick to the Tudor period and the 20th century.
But there is a third way and one that I am increasingly enjoying - authors of that time. My particular favourite (up until now) has been Graham Greene.

 

Just finishing the latest from Patrica Cornwell in her Scarpetta based series. Autopsy.

There are 25 books in the series and I've read them all.
The author summed up my own feeling of why I enjoy her books, in an interview she said it's not the bad people that commit the awful crimes that interest her but the good people who are so dedicated and work all hours in discovering new testing techniques in the laboratories and the police that work all hours to get justice for the dead and their grieving loved ones.

 

This was dramatised on Radio 4 a couple of years ago, really enjoyed listening to that.

 

Last night - started book 18 of the 'Zombie Fallout' series. Will be sad when the saga ends - it's been a roller coaster of gore and horror - with some belly laughs peppered throughout. There is a 19th book coming out in a couple of months - but not sure how it relates to the main characters - if at all.

 

I have started reading the first of the Vera Stanhope series (Vera, the Geordie detective of TV fame). "The Crow Trap" by Ann Cleeves. From what I have read of this first book it appears it was just going to be a standalone novel but Ms Cleeves must have taken a liking to the Vera character and decided to run with it.

 

With his own problems I'm surprised he survived too, let alone write a book about his experience.

I've seen the Shardlake series advertised but again, it wouldn't be my choice - each to their own. At school many moons ago we seemed to study Romans and nothing else which bored me. I read both historical fiction and non fiction and have a number of long fictional series on the go. The period I study is anything British between the 6th and 13th century but will venture up to 19th if I'm reading about Scotland.

I think we could say that our choice of reading is at each end of the scale, or should I say library. I wonder if there's something we could meet in the middle with @longk? Now there's a challenge.

 

Not really my choice either but I'd listened to the adaptations of the books on Radio 4 so when I saw one on a charity book stall in the Co-op I decided to give it a go. As C J Sansom is a historian he writes with authority on the period. But above and beyond that he is a genuinely good writer - he develops strong fictional characters and weaves the non-fictional characters into the plot so well, but above all his descriptions of Tudor life are so strong that you can almost smell the age.

Sci-fi!!!
People should read what they enjoy. I enjoy Sansom, J G Ballard, Graham Greene and contempory authors such as Ben Elton, Mark Herron, the late Iain Banks, and Christopher Brookmyre. If I read comic novels they need to be top drawer such as John Mortimer or Tom Sharpe. Comic fantasy by Tom Holt and Terry Pratchett works for me too.
I recently accidently left Truckers by Pratchett at my parents house. Next time that I went round my eighty year old dad had discovered comic fantasy and was devouring it! I don't think that I've ever seen him read anything other than war novels or biographies. He describes it as being gloriously silly, a bit like reading a cartoon. As I said to him, we're all entitled to a bit of fun every now and then.

 

Today I will be mostly reading the gas meter.

 

You and your dad, not surprisingly, must have the same sense of humour. Quite often people will lay their hands on a book that's been left lying somewhere. I don't know if it still happens, but there was a time when people left books on buses and trains that they'd finished reading for someone else to pick up and enjoy. With the event of e-readers I don't suppose that happens much now.

I used to read sci-fi in my teens but after reading 2001: A Space Odyssey nothing else came close. Unusually the film was very like the book.

I'm often told that a book must be read because it's hilarious but I've not found that when following the idea up.

One series that I'm reading is the Stephen Attebrook Mysteries by Jason Vail. They are set in the 13th century. The humour comes from his relationship with his disjointed friends and the spills he gets into. Stephen Attebrook is a knight and ex coroner who spends his time investigating murders.

 

This is it. Zombie Fallout book 18 will be finished tonight - and it's going to be a cracker. Let's just say that - so far - there have been 2 nuclear explosions - and it's getting even better...