Previously I had these thread labelled as monthly threads, but I have had an incredibly busy few months and had not been able to keep up with it. So this is now going to be a general sticky that will be replaced "every so often" when the previous thread gets overly full :)
I've been reading The Culture series by Iain M Banks. I gave up on the first book a while back, which I've heard is quite common, but I plan to go back and finish it.
I've just read The Player Of Games and Excession and both are exceptional.