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What are you reading? (August 2011)

M

Mumei

Member
I'm about twenty pages off from finishing Gulliver's Travels. The descriptions of how gross the people of Brobdingnag were, due to their size, were quite disgusting. I think that my favorite part was when he went to see the various inventions of the Laputans.
 
V

Verdre

Unconfirmed Member
1602670.jpg


The Gods of Pegana - Lord Dunsany

Decided to read all the Gutenberg Dunsany books. This one is basically just the history of a fictional pantheon of gods.
 
M

Mumei

Member
Finished Gulliver's Travels.

I've started reading The Complete Fairy Tales, a collection of George McDonald's eleven shorter fairy tales and his essay The Fantastic Imagination.

I've only just read the introduction, the essay, and the beginning of The Light Princess. It's pretty great stuff so far.
 
A

amitaiwinehouse

Neo Member
Finished A Dance with Dragons earlier this month.

Then went on to complete The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Now I'm reading Gulliver's Travels. Not that it's obvious I've just got a Kindle.
 
L

Lear

Member
CUrrently reading
life-and-fate-orange-.jpg
. It's quite an obscure work, only having been published in the 80s (it was written in 1959), but it's absolutely amazing. It's been descirbed as the 20th century's version of War and Peace and I can understand why. I'm only 200 pages in and I can already tell it's going to go down as one of my favourite books. There's one chapter which is just the most moving thing I think I've ever read.

It's pretty heavy going though, so I've been reading a few other things concurrently.

6a00d83451bcff69e2010534d1b51e970b-200wi
418K1ZRTEHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg
the-sense-of-an-ending-julian-barnes.jpg
 
P

peakish

Member
Finished:

After the Mourning by Barbara Nadel, the last crime novel I picked up for the summer. It was very boring. Few things happened at all and the main character did nothing himself and wasn't an interesting bystander either. All the crime novels I got disappointed me but this was the worst by far.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco was better and had a really interesting structure. The main character is an antiquarian which lost all his memories in an accident, he only remembers stuff he has read. He decides to return to his childhood home to search for his past. I didn't love it but it was a good read overall, especially the last parts where he draws a parallel between his life and Cyrano de Bergerac.

From the Earth to the Moon by Verne. Not as interesting or good as Journey to the Center of the Earth but enjoying. Now I feel like reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Below the Sea.

I don't know what I'll do now in the meantime. Reread Moby Dick?
 
M

Maklershed

Member
Still working through Pandora's Star and just started Manhunt


Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Kind of in the mood for it after watching The Conspirator (which I highly recommend btw)


Unrelated: For Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner fans, unless it was just an amazing coincidence there's a great easter egg in Deus Ex ...
after the first mission and after you go to the LIMB place for the first time you go to a police station. One of the terminals belongs to P.DICK and when you access it you can hear on the loud speaker Detective Deckard being paged.
 
M

mike23

Member
wuxF9.jpg


Like it, a bit slow in the beginning but it definitely picked up towards the end.

Reading this next:

lrjiJ.jpg


Cellphones and other forms of long distance communication have hurt my enjoyment a bit for classic style fantasy novels. I always get a bit frustrated when the disjointed knowledge becomes a bit plot point.
 
T

TestMonkey

Member
My epic journey continues. Just finished Midnight Tides which I really enjoyed and am moving onto Bonehunters. I thought Erikson did some great things in Midnight, fleshing out a lot of things but I missed the Bridgeburners. Also only read the first few pages of Bonehunters and Spite is mentioned. Excited!
 
L

Larsa

Member
TestMonkey said:
My epic journey continues. Just finished Midnight Tides which I really enjoyed and am moving onto Bonehunters. I thought Erikson did some great things in Midnight, fleshing out a lot of things but I missed the Bridgeburners. Also only read the first few pages of Bonehunters and Spite is mentioned. Excited!
Click to expand...

Hah, I actually just finished House of Chains and I am about to start Midnight Tides. Really loving the Malazan universe.
 
T

thomaser

Member
Lear said:
CUrrently reading
life-and-fate-orange-.jpg
. It's quite an obscure work, only having been published in the 80s (it was written in 1959), but it's absolutely amazing. It's been descirbed as the 20th century's version of War and Peace and I can understand why. I'm only 200 pages in and I can already tell it's going to go down as one of my favourite books. There's one chapter which is just the most moving thing I think I've ever read.

It's pretty heavy going though, so I've been reading a few other things concurrently.
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning this, I have never heard about it before. Seems like a great read - goes right on my to-buy-list. Here's a nice quote I found: "...there is no higher happiness than to be able to crawl on one's stomach, out of the camp, blind, one's legs amputated, and to die in freedom, even if only ten yards from the cursed barbed wire."

Still reading Against the Day by Pynchon. Almost halfway through after a month and a week. Slow going, but it has been interesting all the way. Often very funny!
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
Just finished ADWD. Awesome book. Much better than Feast.

Considering Eon by Greg Bear or maybe the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Gonna read the latest Game Informer first and then I'll decide.
 
C

CiSTM

Banned
Stranger by Albert Camus - Awesome, I love the main character.
Gun Slinger by Stephen King - Not very far into it but hasn't really grapped me. World is rather interesting but dunno, it's Linda boring so far.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Behemoth_Westerfeld_Cover.jpg


I should be finished in time for the 3rd and final book in the trilogy to drop! I definitely went into Leviathan thinking I wasn't gonna be into the series, but now I'm enthralled with the premise quite honestly.
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
Brettison said:
Behemoth_Westerfeld_Cover.jpg


I should be finished in time for the 3rd and final book in the trilogy to drop! I definitely went into Leviathan thinking I wasn't gonna be into the series, but now I'm enthralled with the premise quite honestly.
Click to expand...

Oooh, is the 3rd book coming out? Can't wait! This was one of my favorite series of last year.
 
M

Maklershed

Member
AngmarsKing701 said:
How was/is it? This is on my short list of scifi.
Click to expand...
Don't know about Judas Unchained yet as I just started it but Pandora's Star was great. A lot like Foundation but way more fleshed out and tons of interesting concepts.
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Recommendation request: what's the best book out there on Nikola Tesla?
 
O

OrangeGrayBlue

Member
demon said:
Recommendation request: what's the best book out there on Nikola Tesla?
Click to expand...

I'm interested in this as well. Having done a little Amazon research, this seems to be one of the better reviewed options. Other books actually written by Tesla regarding his inventions rather than himself (Specifically "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy") also seem highly regarded.

I'd like the input of someone who's already a Tesla expert, though.
 
K

Kunohara

Member
CiSTM said:
Stranger by Albert Camus - Awesome, I love the main character.
Gun Slinger by Stephen King - Not very far into it but hasn't really grapped me. World is rather interesting but dunno, it's Linda boring so far.
Click to expand...

Stick with Gunslinger, trust me. The second Dark Tower book that King wrote was almost a decade later, and is much better. That's why the first and second book are quite different in how it is written. The whole series is really good, fuck anyone that says the last few books are bad. They were all good.
 
K

KingGondo

Banned
Kunohara said:
Stick with Gunslinger, trust me. The second Dark Tower book that King wrote was almost a decade later, and is much better. That's why the first and second book are quite different in how it is written. The whole series is really good, fuck anyone that says the last few books are bad. They were all good.
Click to expand...
I haven't read past Wizard and Glass (book 4), but books 2 and 3 are some of the best stuff King has ever written.

----

As for me, I finished Stardust by Neil Gaiman a couple weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to read some light fare (albeit with a dark, violent edge) after being absorbed in ASOIAF for the last 4-5 months.

Now reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, really enjoying it. Although it doesn't get a ton of actual laughs-out-loud, it's always entertaining and amusing at the very least. I'll probably take a break from the series for a while before continuing on though.

After that, I'll likely move on to Fall of Hyperion or The Terror by Dan Simmons.
 
K

Klorox33

Neo Member
Pretty good month for me. I finished Gardens of the Moon on my kindle!

I have also had the pleasure of listening and finishing a Game of Thrones on audiobook during my daily commute to work. I am about halfway through A Clash of Kings atm. What will happen next?? My ride home awaits!!
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Reading the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson again while waiting for The Alloy of Law.
Good stuff though Well of Ascension is rather slow for my taste. Oh and of course i'm reading Sanderson's annotations, after reading a few chapters, i read the annotations of those chapters.
Oh and is there something wrong being very intrigued about Hemalurgy?

Also, trying to read Halo: Cryptum again but... first person narrative couple with rather sparse descriptions is not my thing.
 
A

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Kunohara said:
Stick with Gunslinger, trust me. The second Dark Tower book that King wrote was almost a decade later, and is much better. That's why the first and second book are quite different in how it is written. The whole series is really good, fuck anyone that says the last few books are bad. They were all good.
Click to expand...

This. Absolutely. I almost gave up mid-way through The Gunslinger, but pushed through and fell in love by the second volume. Keep on the path.
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
AngmarsKing701 said:
Just finished ADWD. Awesome book. Much better than Feast.

Considering Eon by Greg Bear or maybe the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Gonna read the latest Game Informer first and then I'll decide.
Click to expand...

All right, going in a different direction completely. Starting Robert B. Parker's "Painted Ladies" today.
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Wow, I got halfway through Gunslinger and didn't like it at all. Does it really improve that much by the second book?
 
K

KingGondo

Banned
demon said:
Wow, I got halfway through Gunslinger and didn't like it at all. Does it really improve that much by the second book?
Click to expand...
All of the books are extremely different in both quality and tone.

I re-read the first 3 books of the series multiple times in high school, and remember really enjoying books 2 and 3.

It's worth pushing through The Gunslinger to get to the rest of the series IMO, especially considering how short it is.
 
M

Maklershed

Member
demon said:
Wow, I got halfway through Gunslinger and didn't like it at all. Does it really improve that much by the second book?
Click to expand...
I hated Gunslinger. Honestly not sure why I even bothered reading any more than that but I did and I can assure you book 2 is good. I really have to start that series up again.
 
I

_Isaac

Member
It's nice to hear that book 2 of the Dark Tower series is much better. I also read through Gunslinger and was underwhelmed. I think I'll give the next one a shot now.
 
K

Kunohara

Member
The best part of Gunslinger honestly is the very first line in the book. One of my favourite openings alongside Neuromancer.
 
B

beelzebozo

Jealous Bastard
_Isaac said:
It's nice to hear that book 2 of the Dark Tower series is much better. I also read through Gunslinger and was underwhelmed. I think I'll give the next one a shot now.
Click to expand...

it is an exponential leap over the first book, for my money. DRAWING OF THE THREE is one of the most exciting sci-fi/fantasy books i've ever read.
 
D

Dresden

Member
I think the second volume is the best of the series, followed by the fourth novel.

I really don't like Wolves of the Calla and the books that come after it.
 
A

Alkimia

Neo Member
I've had a lot of spare time recently so I went to the library and started reading some of Asimov's stories, as well as continuing the Discworld series.
 
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