Jon, it is the August book... Hope you can find it! Back when I started reading these books, ten years ago or so, most of them were only available in the UK, so I had to order them from Amazon UK. At least they're available in the US now!

I'm having a terrible time finding this book. None of my local libraries have it and neither do the used book stores.

Are we reading or discussing Consider Phlebas in August? If not until September, that at least gives me a few more weeks to locate a copy.

Makes perfect sense. :)

Kelly wrote: "Does Tokyo not have libraries?! I just read Consider Phlebas a few months ago and really wanted to talk about it so I'm glad we're going to read it."

Tokyo does indeed have libraries. However, as you might imagine, most of the books are in Japanese. I can read pretty competently in Japanese (I would hope so after living here 18 years!) but since I'm a native English speaker I prefer to read in English when I read for pleasure. They do have a few Englsih books at our local library but outside of the children's section, they're mostly Ken Follett, Harold Robins, bestseller mass-market stuff.
Luckily I got Consider Phlebas cheaply off Amazon Japan and I'm looking forward to reading and discussing it!

Does Tokyo not have libraries?! I just read Consider Phlebas a few months ago and really wanted to talk about it so I'm glad we're going to read it.

Consider Phlebas is a good book but not my favorite in the Culture series, to say the least... Still, it's the first book so it's good to start with it. It's a shame we're going to start reading the Miles Vorkosigan books soon, because the Culture series is high on my list to be re-read too... as is the whole Foreigner series by CJ Cherryh. So many books, so little time...

Looks like Consider Phlebas is doing well in the poll! I'm quite serious about not buying more books and whittling down my TBR stacks this year. Consider Phlebas is the only one I've already got. The other two choices sound excellent but I just can't afford to buy more books (for both financial and spacial reasons!) , and here in Tokyo I don't have the option of getting them at the library.

We have 3 options in our SF run-off poll this time, because 3 books were tied for first place!