Just read a rather strange book called “The Man who was Thursday” by GK Chesterton. The book is subtitled “A Nightmare” and while that may be a little strong it certainly had a rather dream-like feel to it. Towards the end , despite being set in what appeared on the surface to be the real world, it kind of had a Narnia-esc feel.
I’ve also re-read “Eaters of the Dead” by Michael Crichton. I was inspired to do so when it was mentioned on Mongoose’s Conan forum as a good basis for an adventure. They were right.
I forgot to mention a couple of books in my previous post. Like Jay I’ve also read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“, not a bad end to the series.
I’ve also read “Greenmantle” by John Buchan. This is the second book he wrote featuring Richard Hannay, the hero of The 39 Steps, and in my opinion is the better of the two. Apparently it was a favourite of “Robert Baden-Powell, Alfred Hitchcock and the Russian Royal Family”.

I have listened to a radio adaptation of the man who would be thursday. It is very interesting!

Dragon #359.

OK, so it's not literature, but I felt it worth mentioning.

I've been buying the magazine since it became available in the UK, rather than having to put up with the occasional expensive imported issues that used to appear in the (old) Games Workshop. That was issue 130, over twenty years ago, 359 is the final print issue, the end of a thirty one year run.

I know that it will be coming back as an on-line subscription magazine, having been taken back in-house by Wizards' as part of the push towards 4th Edition. But it just wont feel the same.
http://index.rpg.net/pictures/show-pic.phtml?picid=8755

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have now cracked 50 pages into 'Thursday' thanks to a 'supervise the study area' cover today - I was advised to take a book along because often it is empty ( 1 student - so not empty - but no 'work' for me to do apart from be there) thought I'd add that little snippet before you guys start thinking I am slacking off on tax payers time...

I seem to be in a "DC Comics" place at the moment. Over the last couple of weeks I have read three mini-series complications/graphic novels. The surprisingly dark "Identity Crisis" and the first two volumes of "52".
I remeber hearing at the time it first came out that Identity Crisis caused an up-roar amoungst fans of the silver-age of comics when it revealed that the silver-age Justice League (who are generaly considered to be whiter-then-white) had a couple of rather unpleasant skeletons in their closet.
I've been meaning to get 52 for a while. Not only beacuse there was a good buzz about it when it first came out (one issue a week for a year, hence the name) but because one of the major characters in it is "The Question", who easily qualifies for my Top Superheroes of All Time list.

Over the last few weeks I have been reading the first three books in C.J. Sansom’s “Shardlake” series; “Dissolution”, “Dark Fire” and “Sovereign”. Sort of a Tudor Inspector Morse the stories feature hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake as he gets involved in murder and political skull-duggery during the reign of Henry VIII.
“Dissolution” is a who-dun-it set in a remote monastery. “Dark Fire” has Shardlake searching for the murder of an alchemist who claimed to have re-discovered the secret of Greek Fire and “Sovereign” revolves around a set of documents that could unseat the king. All three are excellent (if a little slow paced) with a real eye for period detail.

Just finished reading "Dracula the Un-dead" by Dacre Stoker (Bram Stroker's great-grandnephew) and Ian Holt. Billing itself as "The Offical Sequel" the book had some pretty big shoes. As an Edwardian-era tale of vampires it's okay but as a sequel to Dracula it sucks more then a vampire in a blood-bank.
I've also been reading "The Affinaty Bridge" and "The Osiris Ritual" both by George Mann. The first two in a series of steam-punk adventures with occult undertones. They're pretty good although it could be said they're a little too full of ideas many of which never get a chance to be fully developed. The first book alone has deadly automitons, a zombie plague, a murderous, spectral policeman, a girl who can see the future and a missing person.

Recently finished 'The Blade Itself' - a good dark Fantasy read that I think lovers of Conan style fantasy would enjoy.

I'm in the middle of 'God Is Not Great' by Hitchens. Not quite so 'scientific' as 'The God Delusion', and is more of a rant like Harris' 'The End of faith', but it's still a solid read.

Listened to books

Terry Brooks - The Voyage of The Jerle Shanara
Terry Prattchett - The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.
- Feet of Clay
- The Wintersmith
and currently listening to
H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu


Doesn't count as Current Read though but thoroughly enjoy -ed / -ing them.

I read "The Amazing Maurice" a while back, great book.
I stopped reading Terry Brooks after "The Jerle Shanara", it finaly got all too repetative for me.

"Planet Narnia" for me...quite a good read.

Just finished "Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds" by Manly W Wellman and Wade Wllman. First published in 1975 it is a series of connected short stories that tell the tales of what Holmes, Watson and Prof. Challanger (of "The Lost World" fame) got up to during the events of HG Wells's The War of the Worlds.

Over Christmas and the New Year I have been reading:
"The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins, an entertaining bit of Victorian melodrama but as the "who-dunnit?" it has too few suspects and a very silly resolution.

"The Have I Got News For You Guide to Modern Britain". A Chritsmas presant from Matt and Traycie. Very funny.

and "Dust and Shadow (an account of the Ripper killings by Dr. John H Watson)" by Lyndsay Faye. A Christmas presant from Ed. A respectable non-Conan Doyle Holmsian tale.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been reading "The Horror Stories of Robert E Howard" (a Chritsmas presant fron Edd, many thanks Ed) and "She Lover of Death" the latest of Boris Akunin's Erast Fordorin novels to be translated.
On the graffic-novel front I've been working my way through the Street Fighter comics by a small comic company called Udon (which I think is a Japanese, noodle-based meal).
While not strictly liturature I've also been reading the new Doctor Who rpg by Cubical 7.