I haven't read a book in some time. In fact, I think it was Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: Outbound Flight and that was in March. I go through short stories pretty regularly or pick up an old favorite and skim parts I don't remember very well.

For the most part, I'm keeping in formation with Harlan Ellison, Robert E Howard and Steven King short stories.

"Mrs. Todd's Shortcut." Best SK short story ever.

Jerusalem's Lot, honey

I just JUST got Eats, Shoots, & Leaves in the mail today and am about to read it after I click 'Post Quick Reply." Being the grammar Nazi that I am, I expect to find this book immensely enjoyable (as it deals with such grammatical and punctuation issues in the English language).

<3 Amy Tan. Most of her other stuff is really awesome, too. I haven't read her newest book yet, though.

I'm currently reading all the Blue Monday TPBs by Chynna Clugston-Major, except for Painted Moon, which I don't have yet. I read these at the beginning of every summer, just about. They're so cheerful.

I just finished reading Night, by Eliezar Wiesel, which I picked up for a buck at a used book store, and Obasan, by Joy Kogawa. Both despressing WW2 books, but very worth the time. Night is especially short and minimalist. Extremely powerful.

Night is a great book. I read it about 5 years ago, but I still remember it very well. It was so short, but it's made such a lasting impression on me.

I'm reading a book called Duel in the Sun, by John Brant. It's about the '82 Boston Marathon. If you're not into running, it probably wouldn't be as interesting, but I think it's a good book so far.

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings
by Edgar Allan Poe

I've only read some short stories by Poe in school, but lately, I've been reading alot of horror themed books and I'm really starting to like it alot. My sister recommended this one and she even bought me this copy, along with H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu (can't wait to get my hands on this one, from what I've read about it and some excerpts, it seems very interesting). So far, Poe's writings have proven to be more than I expected. For the first time I ever, I feel like I've found my "genre".

Heh, that's what I said a while back. If you like Elie Wiesel, then you'd better not read "The Holocaust Industry" by Norman G. Finkelstein. You may not like him so much afterwards. Coincidentally, I just finished both books about a month ago. :)

I'm reading "A Lesson Before Dying" for school now, "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast, and the newest book by Robert Fisk, "History of Civilsation in the Middle East."

Having recently reread Anchee Min's Red Azalea and finished another title of hers, Becoming Madame Mao, I took an interest in communism and Mao Tse-Tung. I've a copy of Mao's Selected Military Writings of Mao Tse-Tung from my East Asian Military Traditions class so I've been reading selected passages here and there. It's a rather tedious read, as you can imagine, and I much prefer Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but once you cut through Mao's ego it's not too bad.

For lighter fare I keep my copy of Golding's Lord of the Flies at work for slow lunches and Anchee Min's Wild Ginger on my nightstand. Oh, and assorted manga, too.

I forgot to mention that I've been reading that one on and off here lately. I downloaded an eBook version of The Call of Cthulhu as well as 'The Cats of Ulthar.' So far Cthulhu has been pretty good...I even started sketching the statue. I figure there's been enough fanart for that particular book, though.

I was initially intrigued by that in the context of Survivor's Quest, but dismissed it as proposterous when I saw that Obi-Wan and Anakin were in it. Though I suppose I should have more faith in Timothy Zahn.

I just finished reading The Ditchdigger's Daughters. It's a biography about a poor black family--with 5 girls--whose father wants them all to be doctors. They work extremely hard (despite having many doors closed to them because of their race--but their father insists that they only use that as an excuse to try harder) and all become very successful women.

It was a very interesting read, and addressed racism in a unique way. The main character (the middle daughter) describes it like the frog whose leg is tied down because scientests want to see how long it will take it to atrophy, but it ends up being the strongest leg because he struggles against the rope for so long.

During my enormous flight delay home I picked up the Perfect Dark Zero novel, Initial Vector. I finally had time yesterday to sit down a read some of it.

At first glance it's very technologically detailed in explaining situations. The story is so far is a bit scattered. The exposition has always been my least favorite part of books. I'm hopeful that it won't disappoint.

There will be a sequel to this book released in August so I'm guessing it might be a bit of a cliffhanger.

At this point I'd like to bring up my hatred of the classics. I think it's no wonder that today's schoolchildren don't enjoy reading, when they're forced to read such droll and unbelievably boring titles. We did read a few great books (such as Night, which I loved), but for the most part I hated school-assigned reading, and I love to read.

My least favorite books, that I would not use for anything other than wiping my ass:

- The Scarlet Letter
- Great Expectations
- The Grapes of Wrath

I'm sure they were more but I've forgotten them, which is really no surprise since these books were dull, depressing, and totally lacked any vision other than encyclopedically cataloguing melodramatic human misery. I hate Charles Dickens beyond words - he specialized in this genre.

There are plenty of 'classics' that I thought were good reads. In fact, that's the reason I took AP World Lit. in high school (not that I couldn't have read the books outside of school, but I figured I might as well get credit for reading them :)). I mean, these were 'required reading' for me when I was young, and I enjoyed them then and now:

- Anything by Edgar A. Poe
- Jane Eyre
- Wuthering Heights [yes, it's completely depressing, but still is a good book]
- Ender's Game
- Brave New World
- Dante's Inferno
- Watership Down

Also, I did not have to read the Grapes of Wrath (argh I hate John Steinbeck) or anything by Dickens. It seems that writings about human misery are almost guaranteed to be lauded 'the best book ever' and are bestsellers, like Frank McCort's Angela's Ashes. I have no idea why this is, because I really don't like to be depressed by my entertainment. But whatever -- my grandma likes that kind of stuff, so maybe it's the old people that dictate this.
There are other classics that I think should be read in American schools (ie: The Master and Margarita or the Gormenghast novels), but they're not.

I just finished reading An Apology of Mathematics (actually, I read it in a day) by GH Hardy.

Now I'm reading Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh. It's rather un-technical, but I guess that's okay since I'm only an A-level (end of high school) student anyway. It's more of a story book about how Andrew Wiles solved it, and the origins and relatives of the theorem itself (The theorem goes something like "For integers x, y, z, n, x^n+y^n=z^n will never be true for n>2").

I'm gonna read some infinity book, after, and possibly Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

Because I am just the apex of cool.

Well. Naw, I'm gonna have some interviews for university soon, so I want to look like I'm a well read character, who reads as well as counts.

Okay, I guess I only meant certain classes. I never got to read any of the good ones. Several you listed I KNOW are good books. And I love depressing things, it's just that the protagonist has to be someone that I can actually feel for instead of wishing them a slow and painful death.

Just picked up a new copy of Lords of Chaos: History of BM. I've owned 2 different copies in the past, but i've loaned them out to people, before i've ever gotten the chance to read it and never got the loaned copies back.

That book sounds really interesting! I can't read fiction books i just don't see the point but i enjoy reading biographys and true storys, im currently reading Cosa Nostra by John Dickie and it's superb. It focuses more on the sicilian mafia and also explores Sicilian and italian history. I can't put it down, really interesting yet quite shocking.

Started House of Leaves a few days ago. Man it's weird. It was suggested to me by many of my friends. Unfortunatly i can't give a good description on what it's about but it's about a man who buys a house that's bigger on the inside than on the outside, and weird shit starts happening in this labyrinth type deal he finds in his house.

It seems to be a written documentary about this thing, it's really interesting. Has anyone else read this? They'd probably be able to give a better idea as to what it's about.

Hell's Angels - HST. Interesting read albeit a bit slow in parts.

Wow, what a coincidence!
I just finished this book. Great commentary on the media.

I was thinking picking up Thompson's Rum Diary, but I started on One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest instead.

Just started A Closed Eye by Anita Brookner. Her writing definitely brings to mind Henry James (and apparently Jane Austen, though I've never read anything of hers), with loads of great insight into the minds of the characters.

A while ago, I started reading War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, and I made a bet with my sister that I would finish it before I started reading anything else. Good news is that I've kept my end of the bet and I'm relatively close to finishing the book. Bad news is that I made that bet over a year ago. :tpg:

I'm not a slow reader, but during the school year I simply have no time to read. Maybe I'll get through a chapter a night, but the book has 20-30 chapters per book (the novel War and Peace is comprised of 15 'books' and 2 epilogues). Take that times 17 and it'll take me like a year and a half to finish the book. :tpg:

But anyway, I've only had time to read on the weekends, and I've always had something better to do. I'm more interested in the book now, so I'm taking time during the day and reading a few chapters at a time during my lunch break, but I still have almost two hundred chapters to go. >_>; It's one hell of a book, but I really love it. I am very, very glad I decided to sit down and read it (and stick with it, at that).

Next up, The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky. (Well, maybe C&P can wait, since it's ridiculously huge as well. :tpg: I need to start diversifying, or all of this 19th century Russia will be the end of me. ;_;)

I found an old copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People so I gave that a quick read.

I'll be traveling soon so I'll have to pick up something. Actually I'll probably just do crossword puzzles, but I'd like to read a book for a change. I'd love to finish Pynchon's V., which I did get about 2/3 through back in high school, but at this point I'd have to start from the beginning for what would be the third or fourth time. Maybe I'll try Gravity's Rainbow instead--I think I have a copy somewhere.


<3 Death. =D


Really, Ender's Game as a requirement? I'm jealous. I think I was the only person in my class who legitimately enjoyed "Brave New World". We did a lot of Shakespeare in AP Lit--ugh--but thankfully we also did some Eugene O'Neill. It was the same with novels; I suffered through "Heart of Darkness" and Dorian Gray to get to Vonnegut and Salinger.