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What, are you reading? (January 2009)
- Thread starter Alucard
- Start date
NoitoraJirugajr
Neo Member
I just started the first book. They are taking a bit longer to be translated into English but the translation seems to be high quality. Love it so far though ;3Oikistes said:
It is the forth book in the Witcher Saga. The first two books are awesome, then it gets a bit more typical and loses some of its charm but remains a good reading. The focus needs to return to the main character and his bard friend. They are much funnier to read about than the rest of the cast.
CajoleJuice
Member
What the fuck, I just got these two books from Amazon.ahoyhoy said:
and later
GET OUT OF MY HEAD
B-B-Bomba!
Member
I was really enjoying Atlas Shrugged, but am afraid I'm never going to finish it ... I got halfway through John Galt's epic rant at the end, and made the mistake of discovering just how many pages of said rant 'another half again' would entail ...
Seriously, who ends a book with a lecture? Way to blow to smithereens several hundred pages of careful character/thematic thread-weaving. I cannot be bothered!
Seriously, who ends a book with a lecture? Way to blow to smithereens several hundred pages of careful character/thematic thread-weaving. I cannot be bothered!
DOBERMAN INC
Member
I'm half way through The Death and Life of Great American Cities. On the surface it seems like the book would be incredibly dry (the chapters have names like "The need for small blocks" and "The uses of sidewalks: Safety") but it is actually a lot of fun. Her love for cities is contagious.
We got a really early translation because after Game of Thrones was finally translated and turned to be a success editors everywhere started looking for more good foreign fantasy. Thankfully, as before that almost everything you got was Forgotten Realms and spanish fantasy, which kind of sucks.
NoitoraJirugajr
Neo Member
Are there any other fantasy writers who are like Sapkowsky? I love steven brust but besides him and sapkowsky most fantasy is forgotten realms type stuff I can't stand.Oikistes said:
I'm not much a fan of short story collections, but I got Peter S Beagle's The Line Between and it was mostly a good read.
Favorites were a little story about a mouse that tries to be a cat because he doesn't want to be hunted, a little short story sequel to The Last Unicorn that is as wonderful as the book, four lovely fables, a story about a sister and her brother that can do magic, and Salt Wine, a tale about a man who saves a merman and the gift he receives along with its cost.
Bit from one of the little fables:
I'm reading three books (I like to alternate).
I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (had to check it out at the library since I lost my copy at my old workplace. How do you lose a book that size at a pool?)
I'm reading So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams (the 4th book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy).
I'm just getting started on Howl's Moving Castle (the book that Hiyao Miyazaki's movie is based off of).
Im still trying to get through Favorite Folktales from Around the World (my fav textbook ever, only some stories were assigned for Mythology class). I own this one so I'm putting it off since the first two are library books and the third one I am borrowing from a friend.
I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (had to check it out at the library since I lost my copy at my old workplace. How do you lose a book that size at a pool?)
I'm reading So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams (the 4th book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy).
I'm just getting started on Howl's Moving Castle (the book that Hiyao Miyazaki's movie is based off of).
Im still trying to get through Favorite Folktales from Around the World (my fav textbook ever, only some stories were assigned for Mythology class). I own this one so I'm putting it off since the first two are library books and the third one I am borrowing from a friend.
I'm about 2/3 through Anathem and I'm completely blown away.FirewalkR said:I'm now in the process of convincing myself to start reading this behemoth:
I think it must be selling horribly though because it's so dense, so weird, and requires such concentration and contextual reading abilities.
Stephenson's probably the most intelligent novelist I've ever read. Not only did he create a completely different yet familiar world, but his book about it is stuffed full of totally bizarre yet internally consistent and logical philosophy and physics discussions that he manages to make insanely fascinating.
DefectiveReject
Banned
I'm re-reading the Brethren Trilogy by Robyn Young Robyn Young (Due to the release of the 3rd book)
They're the most well paced books i've read in a long time, and tell the story of the crusades very well from both sides. Really highly recommended
They're the most well paced books i've read in a long time, and tell the story of the crusades very well from both sides. Really highly recommended
British Monsoon
Member
FirewalkR said:I'm now in the process of convincing myself to start reading this behemoth:
Do it! It's a really awesome book so far, but very difficult reading at the beginning - for the first 200 pages or so I was contemplating taking the book back, as it was really doing nothing for me and seemed to be going absolutely nowhere, but somewhere around the 250-300 page mark it all started coming together and now i'm absolutely hooked. I've never read one of Stephenson's books before, but the way he has crafted his world and brought it to life in Anathem is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Obviousley it's a book that took some serious devotion, and then asks the exact same of the reader - but it's so worth it, probably the most intriguing book i've read in years.
StriKeVillain
Banned
Left 4 Dead has me really interested in zombies right now.
cubicle47b
Member
It's been on my Amazon wish list for a while and someone finally bought it for me.
gutterboy44
Member
cubicle47b said:
DefectiveReject said:I'm re-reading the Brethren Trilogy by Robyn Young Robyn Young (Due to the release of the 3rd book)
They're the most well paced books i've read in a long time, and tell the story of the crusades very well from both sides. Really highly recommended
Did you by any chance read the books about the Templars from Jan Guillou?
I recently read Old Man's War by John Scalzi and enjoyed it so much that, upon learning there were sequels, I abandoned the paperback I had started and went out and bought a copy of the second book in the series, The Ghost Brigades, immediately. Old Man's War is about a future where mankind has colonized the stars and found a lot of competition in the form of various alien races who we are frequently at war with. The people of Earth are isolated from the galaxy but they do know that on your 75th birthday you become eligible to join the military. Presumably some sort of revitalization process takes place, but beyond that they don't know what they're getting into, and that's where the book begins. It's an excellent, fast paced read that owes a lot to Starship Troopers and The Forever War, but not in a particularly political way. It's a terrific read, and there's a lot of life left in the world Scalzi created, as The Ghost Brigades was also excellent and I've already got a copy of The Last Colony on hand and ready to go.
Still, I was able to bring myself to go back to the book I abandoned for The Ghost Brigades: John Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl. I'm fifty or so pages in and it's off to a slow start, but I can say that the book is Le Carre's take on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and that it's starting to become engrossing. I look forward to reporting back, as I'm expecting it to really get going before long.
Finally, thanks to a Borders 40% off coupon I was able to justify buying True Crime Detective Magazines 1924-1969 by Eric Godtland and Dian Hanson. Godtland provides the nerd obsession with the subject, Hanson the experience of having edited true crime magazines, and in the glorious Taschen tradition they provide an overview on the subject in between page after page of glossy photographs of lurid covers and screaming headlines. Now, this is not the most quotable Taschen collection I've ever seen - that honor goes to their Men's Adventure Magazines volume - but it's still pretty fantastic. Go to the Amazon link for True Crime Detective Magazines (or the page at Taschen's website) and you'll find plenty of interior images and headlines to gawk at, such as this one:
It's a beautiful thing to behold.
FnordChan
Nostrildamus
Member
FnordChan said:
I recently read Old Man's War by John Scalzi and enjoyed it so much that, upon learning there were sequels, I abandoned the paperback I had started and went out and bought a copy of the second book in the series, The Ghost Brigades, immediately. Old Man's War is about a future where mankind has colonized the stars and found a lot of competition in the form of various alien races who we are frequently at war with. The people of Earth are isolated from the galaxy but they do know that on your 75th birthday you become eligible to join the military. Presumably some sort of revitalization process takes place, but beyond that they don't know what they're getting into, and that's where the book begins. It's an excellent, fast paced read that owes a lot to Starship Troopers and The Forever War, but not in a particularly political way. It's a terrific read, and there's a lot of life left in the world Scalzi created, as The Ghost Brigades was also excellent and I've already got a copy of The Last Colony on hand and ready to go.
FnordChan
i was much in the same boat RE: Scalzi, but i read that the second one retreads the same ground but from the opposite direction, so it's been back burnered.
I'm currently trying to do 52 books in 52 weeks for a communal project w/ another forum.
i recently wrapped Brian Keene's The Rising and found it enjoyable but flawed. As an early novel though, it should be fine. I have the immediate follow up on deck but am moving away from that genre for the time being.
my next book is Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Baron.
Fnord, Vintage Crime just put back into print Joe R Lansdale's Bad Mojo. Get thee hence. and purchase immediately if you haven't already read it.
also, Ed McBain's 87th Precinct is another recent revelation.
i'm working on a blog for the time being as well
http://thekrakennaps.blogspot.com/
Eric P said:
Hrm. That's a fair assessment but I still enjoyed The Ghost Brigades quite a bit. Also, I'm hoping that now that he's well and truly established the setting that he can kick off The Last Colony without doing a lot of recap. I'll report back on that one.
I've had the pleasure of sitting next to Joe Lansdale at a dinner and chatting with him, but still haven't managed to read one of his books, despite having copies of The Drive-In 1 & 2 at the house. I'll add Bad Mojo to the list and try to bump him up the queue a bit. Meanwhile, I recently read Shotgun, the 23rd book in the 8th Precinct series, and liked it quite a bit. I picked up another random book in the series recently - can't remember which one off-hand, alas - but will probably get into it before too long.
Good luck with your book a week project! Also, let us know how Bug Jack Barron turns out, as I've always been curious about that one.
FnordChan
i started with Axe and read in a day. If I had started it after work I probably would have burned through it in a day. It's great stuff if you like police procedurals. I have a ton more of them thanks to ebay, but I'm trying to cycle through book genres so I don't read 6 detective novels in a row.
re: Lansdale, Savage Season is the first book. My Mistake. It's a quick entertaining read. I think you'll really dig it.
Start with two best friends who practice martial arts in their free time: one a straight white guy, the other a black gay guy. Add a conniving ex-wife in a blue-jean miniskirt. Throw in half a million in a muddy creekbed somewhere near the Sabine River in East Texas. Add an ex-radical from the '60s and two naive idealists who want to save the world. Mix them all together in a half-assed plan, season with double-crosses, and then top it off with a hilarious and chilling drug dealer named Soldier. Bloody mayhem a la Lansdale. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
re: Lansdale, Savage Season is the first book. My Mistake. It's a quick entertaining read. I think you'll really dig it.
Start with two best friends who practice martial arts in their free time: one a straight white guy, the other a black gay guy. Add a conniving ex-wife in a blue-jean miniskirt. Throw in half a million in a muddy creekbed somewhere near the Sabine River in East Texas. Add an ex-radical from the '60s and two naive idealists who want to save the world. Mix them all together in a half-assed plan, season with double-crosses, and then top it off with a hilarious and chilling drug dealer named Soldier. Bloody mayhem a la Lansdale. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I've had this book for a while now and kept having to restart it as I would get sidetracked with uni work. Finally finished it today.
Definitely not my favourite of his books. It moves along in fits and starts until you're two-thirds of the way through and then it finally kicks into the kind of gear you know Morgan is capable of. The three main characters are all quite interesting. The old war hero aspect of them all was rather fascinating but by the end I felt I hadn't really gotten to know them completely.
I'm guessing and hoping this turns into a series of books. If it does then this could be considered a good foundation.
Definitely not my favourite of his books. It moves along in fits and starts until you're two-thirds of the way through and then it finally kicks into the kind of gear you know Morgan is capable of. The three main characters are all quite interesting. The old war hero aspect of them all was rather fascinating but by the end I felt I hadn't really gotten to know them completely.
Ringil in particular looks to have an entertaining future in store...
I'm guessing and hoping this turns into a series of books. If it does then this could be considered a good foundation.
Cosmic Bus
pristine morning snow
Dan said:Now I'm going through:
Wish I could find this locally. I never manage to pull the trigger when I see it online...
I just finished reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, and have moved on to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I have waited a long time to read these books, but I'm glad to say that the wait has been worth it. I love Adams' wit and charm, and his piercing insights into human behaviours and motivations. Plus, he's hilarious. If you're into sci-fi or humour at all, I highly recommend the Hitchhiker books by Douglas Adams.
Spruce Moose
Member
And I plan on starting this on the weekend.
FateBreaker
Member
Currently working on:
and
should have both finished by the end of the weekend.
and
should have both finished by the end of the weekend.