[dogscoff]

Banks is an absolute joy to read, and rates as my number one all time sci-fi author (in fact, any genre) so far. I have "Use of Weapons" sitting on my bookshelf at the moment, unread, taunting me. I'm resisting the urge to read it next though, I'm saving it for when I really need it. Does anyone else do this? Save up good books like this? I call them my "emergency books". For example I recently read Hardy's "A Pair of Blue Eyes" and hated it (awful beginning & middle, quite a good ending.) By the time I had drudged through to the finish I was in serious need of some decent reading and had to indulge myself with an emergency book. ("Consider Phlebas", Banks again)

I recently acquired a small sci-fi collection from my Dad, most of it written in the 50s and 60s, and had a few books of my own unread as well. I've also just done a bookswap with a friend of mine, so my "unread" shelf is currently at 30 or more titles which will keep my busy for months.

Anyway, I've just finished 20,000 leagues under the sea which is over a hundred years old but holds it's own against much modern scifi, imho. That's my recommendation of the week.

Right now I'm ploughing through "The Illustrated Man", a collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories. It's OK, but I keep finding myself thinking "Asimov is better."