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What are you reading (May 2011)

Goody

Member
I finished up Child of God last night and started Postcards by Annie Proulx today. I like what I've read so far, but I would have better enjoyed it had it not been so hot out today.
 
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Leeness

Member
^I set aside I Am the Messenger to read Game of Thrones. :( I'll read it once I finish Game of Thrones.

So, reading now:

Game of Thrones

Up next:

I Am the Messenger, Markus Zusak
 

RickA238

Member
Currently reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway, prepping for my trip to France/Spain later this summer. Magnificent thus far, as usual for Hemingway fare.

I'm also thoroughly on the Ice and Fire bandwagon, finished Clash of Kings yesterday. I plan on plowing through Storm of Swords once I finish Sun, and probably A Visit From the Goon Squad. These Ice and Fire books are excellent and very engrossing, but they take up a good chunk of reading time so I'm trying to mix in a bit of variety. The first two books have taken me like 2-3 weeks, and Storm is several hundred pages longer than each.
 

Sleepy

Member
Trent Strong said:
Gravity's Rainbow. (Just kidding.)


Why j/k? It the greatest book of all time. It's better than the bible.

Still going through The Pale King. Anyone read Franzen's article about DFW in The New Yorker?
 
I'm like 95% of the way through The Gods of Mars and will start Warlord of Mars. I hope to get through most of the series this month since I'll be done with college for the time being.
 

Karakand

Member
phisheep said:
Halfway through volume three now. I don't think I will ever have the energy to read it again, but I certainly won't regret reading it once and slowly. Needs to be taken at an easy pace because there are so many really wonderful individual sentences and insights and little character twists that if you blast though it you'll miss them. When Musil says "exactly as if" followed by what appears to be a wholly inappropriate technological/mathematical/social something-or-other you often have to stop and think a bit - but it turns out every time he is exactly right. Every character gains depth all the way through and you see their own doubts, turmoils, hesitations and hidden desires even in the course of a single short conversation.
I read The Confusions of Young Torless last month in my vain attempt to inch towards reading Without Qualities. Thanks for inching me a little closer to it.
 
Scythian Empire said:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IP1cvrobf_k/TVMof7gYysI/AAAAAAAAB1o/staGOTZnfnk/s1600/I+am+the+Messenger.jpg[/im

Simply incredible. Just got up to the 3rd card, and I'm so drawn into Ed's world. Can't wait to find the secrets at the conclusion.[/QUOTE]
I enjoyed it when I read it two years ago. The ending is... interesting.
 

Qwomo

Junior Member
Reading

a-game-of-thrones-book-cover.jpg


as well, and I'm nearly through. Simply amazing. Literally the best fantasy series ever written (take that, LOTR!), and maybe, just maybe, one of the best books I've ever read.
 
Still continuing my journey with Mr. Wolfe. Just finished up Lake of the Long Sun the other day and have now started Calde of the Long Sun. but due to finals and graduation I haven't had much chance to do any enjoyment reading =( soon though, soon.
 
angelkimne said:
Wow, I'm glad I don't have that version.

Edit: Then again the new TV show cover ain't much either.

i hate when books are made into movies/tv shows and that shit gets plastered all over the covers
 
Reading another book by one of my fav. authors:


The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov

Weird that this book has so many alternate titles. So far, so good and very very neurotic.


Bootaaay said:
Just got done reading these two;

Now I'm reading Ink & Steel by Elizabeth Bear, and I wish I wasn't. It's a fanciful tale of magic and intrigue set in the realm of Elizabeth the 1st and with Shakespeare as the protagonist, but it's too full of itself for my liking and I'm having trouble getting through it.

n252780.jpg


Can anyone else recommend me some interesting sci-fi novels? It's a genre I traditionally have preferred to watch rather than read, but Tau Zero has given me a taste for it, so something similar would be welcome as I'll probably abandon Ink & Steel before the end.

I don't blame you. I read Dust by Elizabeth Bear and thought it was just awful. Very full of itself and its pseudo-Christian mythology. I'm through with her after that.

How about Diamond Age for sci-fi? It's a big book and takes a while to get going while the world is established, but once you get to know the characters, it's kind of like watching a series.


The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson


Weenerz said:
5ySyD.jpg

Comes out Tuesday, Amazon says it'll be here by Wednesday.

Oh nice, I forgot this was out. Not sure if I'll jump on this yet. I was so disappointed with the last book in the series, I don't know how much more I can take. As soon as the (spoiler for the series)
fairies appeared in the series, it was downhill.
 
Nothing at the moment =(. Might look into grabbing a used copy of Surrender to the Will of the Night by Glen Cook (Instrumentalities book 3) in hardback rather than wait for the paperback this fall.
 

Ratrat

Member
Ashes1396 said:
This book ruined maybe up to five books that I followed it up with. One of the best books to be ever written.
That is good to hear. I'm enjoying it so far(1/4 in) but I think the blurb on the back cover spoiled the ending. So annoying.
 
Finished this a few days ago. It got more interesting after Abrahams decided to turn one of his characters on its head. Well, maybe not completely on its head, but enough for me to drop my assumptions about where each character was going.

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

At about the half way point in this. It feels a bit more like work than I was expecting.

Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1 by Mark Twain

I'm about 30% (my kindle still doesn't show page number - even with the update) into this so far. Its unique enough to keep me interested despite some corniness and stilted dialogue.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
 

_Isaac

Member
I finished up A Game of Thrones last month before the series premiere. I just forgot to post about it here.

Now, I'm halfway through A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I had already started this a while back, but AGoT interrupted it. Now, I'm back on it.

Lw6xh.jpg
 

Ashes

Banned
Ratrat said:
That is good to hear. I'm enjoying it so far(1/4 in) but I think the blurb on the back cover spoiled the ending. So annoying.

spoiler:

Pretty sure, It hasn't.

I don't like calling these things masterpieces, but for lack of better word, another on a similar scale of grandness, try Madame Bovary .
 

T1tan

Neo Member
nakedsushi said:
Reading another book by one of my fav. authors:


The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov

Weird that this book has so many alternate titles. So far, so good and very very neurotic.

I applaud your taste in authors. Personally I cannot get enough of the opening paragraph of Lolita. The harmonic almost mellifluous rhythm of his sentences made me a Nobokov fan for life.
 

Zizbuka

Banned
The Edge Chronicles on my recently rooted Nook Color. I'm up to book #4 out of 10. Great series, kinda like Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings.
 

sixghost

Member
Reading textbooks at the moment, fucking finals

After the semester I'm going to make my first real attempt at reading Infinite Jest, unless I can get my hands on a copy of DFW's unfinished book that was just published.
infinite_jest-300x4631.jpg
The+Pale+King.bmp
 
nakedsushi said:
How about Diamond Age for sci-fi? It's a big book and takes a while to get going while the world is established, but once you get to know the characters, it's kind of like watching a series.


The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

Done and done, I really enjoyed Anathem, but haven't had a chance to read his other stuff, this seems like as good a place as any to start so thanks for the recommendation :)
 
sixghost said:
Reading textbooks at the moment, fucking finals

After the semester I'm going to make my first real attempt at reading Infinite Jest, unless I can get my hands on a copy of DFW's unfinished book that was just published.
infinite_jest-300x4631.jpg
The+Pale+King.bmp

I hope you plan on getting the physical copy of Infinite Jest, and multiple bookmarks . I can't imagine reading the kindle/ebook version. Has anyone tried?
 

choodi

Banned
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Still trudging through this...it is getting a bit better, but I am over a third of the way through and NOTHING is happening!

At least I am starting to like some of the characters (Glokta and Logen) and am a little interested in their back stories. Is Jezal meant to be so boring and unlikeable?
 

meadowrag

Banned
The Possessed (or Demons if you prefer) by Dostoevsky.

Yet again, finding Dostoevsky so hard to put down that I'm pulling all-nighters and stumbling into work in misery the next mornings. Worth it though.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Gaf, I need a fantasy recommendation, I've just read in this order

Everything by Joe abercrombie
Both scott lynch books
both Patrick rothfuss books.

They were all gold in order of shinyness

1. Patrick rothfuss
2. Abercrombie
3. Scott lynch

now I need something Very similar to fill the void until the next patrick rothfuss book :(

Anyone got something similar? ASOIAF already read/pre-ordered.

EDIT: Almost done with Stephen King 'the dead zone' it's alright I guess, not one of kings best by any stretch.

Next I have a book by china meiville called 'the scar' and after that Dune (which I never read)

Still trudging through this...it is getting a bit better, but I am over a third of the way through and NOTHING is happening!

At least I am starting to like some of the characters (Glokta and Logen) and am a little interested in their back stories. Is Jezal meant to be so boring and unlikeable?

I don't remember this being the case at all. Stick with it. Yes Jezal is supposed to be a tosser.
 
catfish said:
Gaf, I need a fantasy recommendation, I've just read in this order

Everything by Joe abercrombie
Both scott lynch books
both Patrick rothfuss books.

They were all gold in order of shinyness

1. Patrick rothfuss
2. Abercrombie
3. Scott lynch

now I need something Very similar to fill the void until the next patrick rothfuss book :(

Anyone got something similar? ASOIAF already read/pre-ordered.
qYifM.jpg


Greatest fantasy series ever
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Emonga said:
qYifM.jpg


Greatest fantasy series ever
will look into. thanks for the recommendation.

How.... magic is it? Something I like about the books I've been reading is that the wizards and crazy crap is always from a very limited source. With Abercrombies books, there is only a bit, with the Rossfuss books it's almost from a scientific angle and so on. Same with ASOIAF.
 
catfish said:
will look into. thanks for the recommendation.

How.... magic is it? Something I like about the books I've been reading is that the wizards and crazy crap is always from a very limited source. With Abercrombies books, there is only a bit, with the Rossfuss books it's almost from a scientific angle and so on. Same with ASOIAF.

Malazan is also my favorite fantasy series, but comes with tons of magic n' wizards n' dragons n' such.

I just started the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, and based on your list - you'd like it. So far there hasn't been much 'magic', but a system more akin to sympathy in the Rothfuss books.


Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Edit: I keep calling it "Mystborn." errr. :|
 

Fritz

Member
doppelleben_die_andere_bibliothek_band_309.jpg


Doppelleben (double life) by green party congresswoman Antje Vollmer.

I recommend it for everybody mildly interested in the 3rd Reich and able to read German. It's a biography of Count and Countess von Lehndorff and how they became part of the plot to assassinate Hitler (yes, the one from the Tom Cruise movie). Vollmer is an unlikely biograph because she comes from the political left and she admits herself that she didn't plan for this biography to be as favourable of the Lehndorffs as it turned out to be. So it is a very honest book on the dynamics of the Nazi regime and why the German elites and intellectuals didn't stand up against it way, way earlier.
 
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