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Post by aubrey on Jul 7, 2011 16:16:46 GMT
OK.
At any time I have a special book for reading in bed (and one for the bath, one for dialysis, etc etc).
The bed book mustn't be too difficult because I will be tired and often a bit drunk. I also prefer something I've read before, or else early 20th century ghost stories (MR James fits both of these, and I've been through his collected ghost stories several times).
At the moment I am reading It for maybe the third time - not S King's best by a long way; but the good bits are very good, even if the bad bits are piss-poor (the clown for eg, who is more annoying than scary, and a lot of the stuff about the bike). But none of that matters. I am reading it because I watched the TV film based on it a couple of weeks back, though I mainly watched it because it has Emily Perkins in it.
Anyway: best bedtime books, please.
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Post by bonbonlarue on Jul 7, 2011 18:02:47 GMT
Currently an old Clarkson...'Born to be Riled'. I prefer dip in and out books at bedtime as I suffer the same as Aubs as soon as I hit the duvet....
Very rarely read at any other time of day but public transport demands humour and earphones.
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Post by riotgrrl on Jul 7, 2011 20:00:11 GMT
I read something very heavy at bedtime - normally a history or something (currently reading 'Sarajevo A Biorgraphy' by Robert J Donia which is very good and certainly fit for purpose.)
It helps me to sleep because I have to focus on it, and thus block out the debris of the day in my head. Plus, while it's fascinating, it's not exciting. If I'm reading a good novel - a really good one - at bedtime I never get any sleep as I'm always turning over the page to see what happens next.
I'm at the early 1900s for Sarajevo. I know what happens next.
It is a great book 'though.
And I have only one book on the go at once, so I take it on the train, in the bath, in the front room and in bed. When I have two books on the go at once I always feel like I'm being unfaithful to one of them.
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Jul 7, 2011 22:50:28 GMT
Pulp novels for light, tired reading - Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock kinda thing (all of them have been read more than once, some several times).
As for heavy dooty reading, I am considering starting on the two Dan Simmons omnibuses I have - "The Hyperion Omnibus" & "The Endymion omnibus"
AH
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Post by Weyland on Jul 8, 2011 10:11:15 GMT
I read something very heavy at bedtime - normally a history or something (currently reading 'Sarajevo A Biorgraphy' by Robert J Donia which is very good and certainly fit for purpose.) It helps me to sleep because I have to focus on it, and thus block out the debris of the day in my head. Plus, while it's fascinating, it's not exciting. If I'm reading a good novel - a really good one - at bedtime I never get any sleep as I'm always turning over the page to see what happens next. That's exactly what I do. It can include novels I've already read. I recently reread two Asimov anthologies, for instance. Right now bedtime reading is Siegfried, by Charles Whiting, which is about the struggle to breach Der Westwall (the "Siegfried Line") in 1945. I'm particularly interested because some of it remains in the vicinity of my caravan on the Dutch-German border, and I know the arena pretty well. Yes, a British sergeant-major did hang his washing out on a bunker. Also reading " Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly is a New York Times bestselling non-fiction book written by American chef Anthony Bourdain." Sex and drugs and croque-madame. Very entertaining. I hope it's all true. Current heavy reading is Biology of Spiders by Rainer Foelix. A hard slog, because I've never studied biology and struggle with the terminology, but fascinating as well. 40,000 species in 110 groupings. Only a few of them can kill you. Spiders first appeared about 400 million years ago, after the insects. Bet the insects weren't very happy about it. |
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Post by tarzanontarmazepam on Jul 8, 2011 11:18:01 GMT
Weyland wrote: Biology of Spiders by Rainer Foelix. A hard slog, because I've never studied biology and struggle with the terminology, but fascinating as well. 40,000 species in 110 groupings. Only a few of them can kill you. Spiders first appeared about 400 million years ago, after the insects. Bet the insects weren't very happy about itIdeal bedtime reading for Everso...  |
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Post by everso on Jul 10, 2011 19:50:17 GMT
Dear lord. I'd have to wear rubber gloves just to turn the pages.
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Post by aubrey on Jul 10, 2011 19:53:14 GMT
Funny you should say that.
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Post by Weyland on Jul 10, 2011 20:01:52 GMT
Dear lord. I'd have to wear rubber gloves just to turn the pages. Man's best friend, is the humble spider. Without them we wouldn't be able to breath. |
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Post by everso on Jul 10, 2011 20:15:00 GMT
I'm reading "Twisted Wing" by Ruth Newman, which is pretty grim (about a serial killer) and there's another one lined up which my daughter has lent me called "The Sleeping Doll" by Jeffery Deaver, which looks quite good.
However, I'm waiting for one that I've ordered from the library called "From The City, From The Plough" by Alexander Baron. It's based on the 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment (43rd Wessex Division), and their part in the Normandy Campaign. An elderly relative of mine was in the 5th Battalion and was interviewed for the book (it's fiction based on fact). As an 18 year old he had a pretty hair-raising time across Belgium, Holland, and into Germany.
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Post by everso on Jul 10, 2011 20:19:49 GMT
Dear lord. I'd have to wear rubber gloves just to turn the pages. Man's best friend, is the humble spider. Without them we wouldn't be able to breath. Well, I'll tell you, it's a bloody miracle I can breath when I go out to my lean-to at the side of the kitchen. This is where my false widow lives (in fact there are two now) plus many other varieties, and, by god, they spend all their time spinning great canopies of webs all over the place. Every now and again I get a stick and go round winding the web on to it - a bit like a candyfloss. I don't mind them out there - at least they catch the flies that come in from the garden - but I don't like them in my house. |
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Post by Weyland on Jul 10, 2011 20:33:24 GMT
Every now and again I get a stick and go round winding the web on to it - a bit like a candyfloss. I don't mind them out there - at least they catch the flies that come in from the garden - but I don't like them in my house. And yet you destroy their livelihood, their ability to catch pests . . . their very ability to feed their children!Shame on you, Ev. ~ Here's one of our best friends dealing with a fly . . .  |
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Post by everso on Jul 10, 2011 21:37:42 GMT
Blimey, Weyland, you can't allow the little blighters to just keep spinning their webs, willy-nilly. As it was, my lean-to was starting to resemble Miss Haversham's dining room.
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Post by everso on Jul 10, 2011 21:38:59 GMT
Actually, we were sitting out in our lean-to the other day and watched one of the false widows go for a fly and was getting stuck on her web. You've never seen a spider move so fast.
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Post by Weyland on Jul 11, 2011 10:32:38 GMT
Actually, we were sitting out in our lean-to the other day and watched one of the false widows go for a fly and was getting stuck on her web. You've never seen a spider move so fast. Oh I have, Ev, many times. How big are your false widows? Don't think I've ever seen one. I suppose I have to concede that, at least down south, where I've heard tell you all live in mansions. Up here all we have is an upturned coracle over a slate-lined ditch. ~ Actually, the biggest spider family is the Salticidae, or jumping spiders, as in the pic I posted. They don't build webs. All spiders can spin silk, but not all use it to catch prey. |
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Post by everso on Jul 11, 2011 15:42:24 GMT
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Post by Weyland on Jul 11, 2011 17:40:53 GMT
A particularly beautiful spider. You're a lucky woman. "Fanny tweaker"? The very thought! ~ Talking of brutality, my pal in Colorado, Steve, has black widows (spiders, that is) in his basement. He's careful, but he sometimes has to be brutal. Can't blame him really. |
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Post by everso on Jul 11, 2011 18:30:02 GMT
Crush 'em, pound 'em, desssstttrrroyyy 'em
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Post by alanseago on Jul 11, 2011 20:27:25 GMT
A life of happy debaucherie has led to me spending my nights connected to an oxygen pump.It is sometimes irritating when a spider climbs up one of the little pipes and explores my nostril, usually the right one. You would be surprised how inquisitive a spider can be.
Lucky we don't have a cat.
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Post by Patrick on Jul 11, 2011 21:46:43 GMT
A life of happy debaucherie has led to me spending my nights connected to an oxygen pump.It is sometimes irritating when a spider climbs up one of the little pipes and explores my nostril, usually the right one. You would be surprised how inquisitive a spider can be. Lucky we don't have a cat. Oh Alan! Hope it's not too horrible for you. Best Wishes.  |
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