I finished another Iain M Banks book, "Surface Detail." Another brilliant book that makes you think and concentrate to fully comprehend it as well as its analogies to real life. I am finding it increasingly difficult to read other authors, in particular sci-fi ones. It's very sad there won't be more books set in the "Culture" universe/galaxy. No one could do it any justice to tell you the truth.
Tried reading Ursula K Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" but couldn't get into it. I have Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" on order.
Dickens "A Christmas Carol" is next.