What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

Very poorly written. I'm about a third of the way in and already amazed that someone can make an insiders story of flipping mob wiseguys so dull. I doubt I'll make it to the Trump parts unless I jump ahead.

[Baron Scarpia]

Very poorly written. I'm about a third of the way in and already amazed that someone can make an insiders story of flipping mob wiseguys so dull. I doubt I'll make it to the Trump parts unless I jump ahead.

Well, he's a cop, not a writer. Good evidence that he actually wrote it, that it was not ghost-written (attributed or not).

[MN Dave]

The Darkest Part of the Woods - Ramsey Campbell
CIRSOVA magazine, issue one.
And a bio on Ernic Kovacs.

The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman (great!)
The Black Company by Glen Cook

[NikF]

I don't know anything about this but thought I'd give it a try.

[Ken B]

I don't know anything about this but thought I'd give it a try.

I have not read that but Trollope is a favorite. The Way We Live Now or The Warden are the usual first Trollope.

[SimonNZ]

The Way We Live Now is a book I keep meaning to get to. Would you rate it as one of his best?

TD:

One of the few Geoff Dyer books I hadn't read. Short and fast, but with his trademark freewheeling intelligence and unexpected digressions and connections.

[Crudblud]

Trying to get into the habit of writing more about what I read. I posted some thoughts on my blog about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I finished reading about a week ago.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

So I finally finished The Egyptian - while there were many great passages (I especially enjoyed the rather clever portrayal of negative effects that a pacifist pharaoh causes in his kingdom) Waltari is also prone to rambling which probably is one of the reasons of the book's length and there are also several oxymoron-ish sentences that don't make much sense. Overall, as a Finnish literature, it passes well enough - although if he had cut the rambling passages he could have reduced the length of the book by a half or so.

[Florestan]

Trying to get into the habit of writing more about what I read. I posted some thoughts on my blog about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I finished reading about a week ago.

Can you really read grey font on dark blue background without your eyes aching? 

[Crudblud]

Can you really read grey font on dark blue background without your eyes aching? 

I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

Edit: I made the colours lighter, seems better so far. Wordpress's customisation tools seem to be quite fickle about colour palettes.

[North Star]

I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

Edit: I made the colours lighter, seems better so far. Wordpress's customisation tools seem to be quite fickle about colour palettes.

I found the colors, and writing, eminently readable.

[Florestan]

I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

In my (admittedly very personal, non-transmissible) experience, the best is black font on pale yellow background.

[Ken B]

The Way We Live Now is a book I keep meaning to get to. Would you rate it as one of his best?

TD:

One of the few Geoff Dyer books I hadn't read. Short and fast, but with his trademark freewheeling intelligence and unexpected digressions and connections.

Yes,Way is really good and it's standalone, not part of the Palliser or the Barchester sets. I keep meaning to get to Barchester Towers myself, which most reckon his best book.

[Ken B]

I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

Edit: I made the colours lighter, seems better so far. Wordpress's customisation tools seem to be quite fickle about colour palettes.

That's what I like about Kindle: no backlight. Everything else gets wearing after a while. I find white on Black tolerable for phones. Plus it saves battery 

[NikF]

Years ago I dated an occupational therapist who told me that light text on a dark background was useful for those with eyesight problems. She had red hair.
Also, on the android tablet I'm using right now I believe that by enabling developer mode in order to simulate a colour space (in this instance, 'monochromacy') it helps save the battery.

[bwv 1080]

Another reread, will probably skip the Shostakovitch parts despite great quote like this:

Best listened to in a windowless room, better than best in an airless room—correctly speaking, a bunker sealed forever and enwrapped in tree-roots—the Eighth String Quartet of Shostakovich (Opus 110) is the living corpse of music, perfect in its horror. Call it the simultaneous asphyxiation and bleeding of melody. The soul strips itself of life in a dusty room

[Alek Hidell]

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[asin]0316042730[/asin]
The man has long needed a good biography, and this is just the man to write it. Very good so far (I'm about 100 pages in).

[NikF]

Choo choo, choo choo, ch'boogie!

For the train journey -

[Artem]

Cynics by Anatoly Mariengof.

[SimonNZ]