What are you currently reading?
 

Simply enough, this is the thread for ranting about litterature we're currently reading, Manga and comics not included.

I recently got myself the book "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. I've just started reading it so I can't tell much about it yet, but the back print really caught my attention.

"Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to 'My dear and unfortunate successor'. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history. In those few quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright - a hunt for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the Dracula myth."

I'm reading Dragonlance: Dragons of Winter Night. I'm about half way through it. It's not that difficult of a read, I just get real busy with stuff. It's a pretty good fantasy novel that's based around Dungeons and Dragons so if you're into that kind of thing, you'll enjoy this book.

This book is the second one out of a trilogy.

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I've started with book 1, and now I'm at page 130 or so of the fourth book. After this I planned to read part 5, 6 and eventually 7.

I just inhaled the latest Harry Potter and now I'm flipping through Prinicipa Discordia, "wherein is explained absolutely everything worth knowing about absolutely anything."

I finished that book a couple of months back, and personally I thought the way the story developed wasn't all that great. Right now, I'm reading the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, which is way better, in my opinion.

Lol, if I remember correctly, it says I'm a Pope and that when having a ceremony, members should chant: WATERMELON WATERMELON!

difficult to read when you're nowhere near it and have to read it on the internet: www.anonib.com/bookchan is great!

Anyway:

Currently reading "The Flies" by Jean-Paul Sartre
Journey to the West vol. 1 by Wu Cheng'en
and something else. Forgot what it was tho...

"The Sprawl Trilogy" (Gibson) =o

Well, soon. It'll occupy me on the boat, methinks. I also have "State of Fear" (Crichton) followed by "Band of Brothers" (Ambrose).

The Dark Tower Series

On the 6th book, its been great so far!

Der Schwarm, a techno-thriller novel by Frank Schätzing.

Across the oceans, more and more strange and dangerous incidents take place: Humpback whales and orcas attack whale watchers near the coast of Canada, swarms of small fish sink South American fishing boats, and a strange poisonous lobster causes an epidemic in parts of France.

I'm in the middle of A Civil Action, by Jonathan Harr, which is about a civil case involving the dumping of chemicals and the poisoning of water wells (a true story). It was on my school's suggested summer reading list, the second book I've read off that list, and I'm super intrigued. I can see why they recommended it, it both makes trial law seem like it would be immensely interesting and horrible to practice all at the same time.

I'll rent the movie when I'm done, which I hear is pretty good.

It's definitely a bathroom book, which seems appropriate. =D

For debate I have to read The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. It's not really the kind of book I read (nonfiction) but it's sufficient in keeping my interest. It's easy to follow and interesting if not flawed. It's much more entertaining that On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, which was the last thing I read, to say the least.

I'm currently reading Repairman Jack novels by F. Paul Wilson. I read the summary for The Tomb and went from there. I suppose I should read the rest of the The Adversary Cycle at some point, though...

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Weirdly laid out (the sharing of stories by the pilgrims remind me of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) for a modern book, but it's well-written and interesting, I'm liking it so far. Those Bikura sure were creepy.

His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. It blows Narnia and Harry Potter so far out of the water it's not even funny. And I found out they're making a movie out of the first book, The Golden Compass (also known as Northern Lights), this winter.

Also finishing up American Gods by Gaiman. Good stuff, but it lacks the quirky charm of Neverwhere, which I still prefer (and which has a pretty cool BBC miniseries preceding it. Yes, preceding--the book is a novelization of the series, but both were written by Gaiman).

I'm currently reading Lolita because I should have read it a long time ago.

The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
Madame Bovary, by Flaubert

Currently reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. Don't know why but I'm just in the mood to read this again.

I just picked up Nikola Tesla's My Inventions, which is actually a series of magazine articles he wrote in 1916. Should prove to be very interesting.

It does sound awfully interesting knkwzrd.

I recently picked up Dune by Frank Herbert. It's supposed to be a legendary Science Fiction and I've never read it so I decided to give it a go after not having the will to finish the Foundation Trilogy.

I'm currently reading Monster Island by David Wellington.

However, I'm reading the print version. I know I could've saved $10 or so by reading it online, but I read books to get away from looking at screens all day. *shrug*

I finished the Dragonlance trilogy awhile ago.


I'm in the middle of Shantarum which is a book about an escaped Australian thief who was convicted for armed robbery and sentenced to ten years in prison. He fled to India where he started integrating himself in the seedy underbelly of the world there by getting involved with mob. Eventually he gets recaptured sometime down the line and returns to India to start up free health clinics. It's a really well written book and I recommend everyone to read it.

I'm also reading Corrupted Science which talks about the instances that science is attacked by various governments and religious fundamentalists and how fraudulent scientists plagiarize each other or fudge numbers to receive grants or recognition or something else. Very interesting read.

I'm currently working my way through Mikhail Sholokhov's "And Quiet Flows the Don," which I got from a secondhand bookstore quite a while ago. It's got that great old-book smell to it, which is just <3

It's an enjoyable book, about the Don Cossacks from the period right before World War I up to, I think, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. I hear it's kind of like Tolstoy's "War and Peace," except not on such a grand scale.

I took a slight risk on buying it, but I don't regret it. Nice book.

I'm currently reading Twenty Years Later, the sequel to The Three Musketeers, and it is just as excellent, perhaps even more because it seems to move a lot faster than it's predecessor. It's fun to read about stuff that I used to learn about in history classes a long time ago, but that's slowly coming back to me, and combined with Dumas' amazing writing, this book is rapidly becoming one of my favourites (still about 200 out of 900 pages left though, so I'll have to wait with my final judgement, give me a couple more days).

I'm currently reading Fulgrim - Visions of Treachery published by the Black Library and part of the Horus Heresy series. Basically, if you're a fan of Warhammer 40,000 you'll love it. If not, you might still enjoy it but might need to read around the subject a little first to really understand it. Once I finish it I'm going to read the prose Edda while I save up for the rest of the Horus Heresy books.

I've finally laid my hands on a copy of Ship of Destiny, the last book in the Liveship Trader's trilogy by Robin Hobb. Ever since I read the Farseer Trilogy I've been thoroughly hooked on her works, and this book is an absolute gem. Utterly absorbing stuff.

Finished my French book, and moved on to Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a couple of months ago, and it just blew me away. The humoristic writing style that sometimes resembles a stream of consciousness novel, the likeable main characters, the use of pictures (especially the falling man in the end), have made this one of my favorite books ever. Now that I started with Everything is Illuminated, I see that he used a lot of similar plot devices, the focus on various characters, time shifts, and a certain feeling I get from the text. I'm about half way through, and I don't get the same vibe that I had with his second book, but than again, my opinion can change (I didn't realize what an awesome novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was until the last couple of chapters).

I've just got my hands on the first two books in "The Gentleman Bastards" sequence, "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and "Red Seas Under Red Skies". I've got to admit, it was a slow start and I actually stopped reading the first book for a few weeks but my brother kept pushing me to keep reading and I'm glad he did. I really loved it. It's about this guy Locke Lamora who is a natural born con-man. He and his "family" of other such people, the Gentleman Bastards, work together to get as much money and stuff from the people of their city, Camor. I love the way this guy writes, he's very articulate and has a very colourful language which is a lot of fun to read sometimes. Good timing, lots of twists, very clever and great characters. For people who are a fan of George R.R. Martin books, he is a big fan of the series as well. That's what got a friend of mine into reading them as well.

I'm currently reading Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. It was recommended by my cousin. I just started it, so I don't know much about the book except that it's supposed to be really good.

Currently in the middle of Alan Furst's Red Gold. Jenkin's biography of Churchill and Gombrich's Story of Art are currently on the back burner, taken up every now and again.

Finished with "Everything is Illuminated", read "The New York Trilogy" (Paul Auster), and moved on to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami Haruki). I liked Everything is Illuminated, but it feels unfinished. Foer experiments with the layout of his text, but it it doesn't blend in as well as it did in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I also didn't really care for the story that Alex told, I even thought that his story was a bit forced near the end, but I did like the story about Brod and Trachimbrod.

I never read Paul Auster before, but my boss is always raving about him, so I thought I would give it a shot, and what better way to start it then with his most famous novel? I wasn't too fond of the first part, City of Glass, perhaps because I was expecting a more traditional detective story, but I have to say that the book as a whole grew on me. I really liked Ghosts and The Locked Room (perhaps because this one also added clarification to the first two stories, and because it was the closest story to a real detective novel). Question though, does anyone know if all of his books are written in this style, or does he also do other genres?

I think that it'll take a while reading Murakami, not only because it's his biggest novel (about the same length as Kafka on the Shore), but also because I decided to read it in Japanese. I already read KotS in Japanese, which took me two months, but it was a much better experience than going through the translations (Jay Rubin does an excellent job though, but the guy who did KotS missed the ball a couple of times. I haven't really tried the Dutch translations yet, although they are supposed to be good, I know the guy who did them). A lot of my classmates tell me that the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is his best work, and since I already loved Kafka on the Shore and Norwegian Wood, I have high hopes for this one.

I picked up Murakami's "Norwegian Wood" again and started to read it, picking up from where I left off (which wasn't far, about chapter 3) last time.

It's a great book. Well-written, great characters, great story and perhaps, yes, a bit... sexy as well. I love it, I really do.

I can ruin the story for you...:)

Just kidding....

Anyway, I am currently re-reading "The Alexandria Link" by Steve Berry. I just finished his latest "Venetian Betrayal."

I originally thought the concept was incredibly cheesy, but ended up enjoying the Liveship Traders series far more than I ever expected too. Of Hobb's 3 trilogies, I'd say that one is by far the best.

I've been on a kick lately of reading some of the 'modern classics' that I never got around to. Finished Brave New World yesterday, and am starting on Catcher in the Rye today.

I just picked up Literature and Evil by Georges Bataille, which I hope is as good as it sounds.

I've also got to read This Business of Music by M. William Krasilovsky - which looks about as entertaining watching paint peel.

I'm currently re-reading Candide. I read it back in high-school and I liked it alot, never really took my time to understand it back then though, so that's why I felt interested in reading it again.

I actually read Candide a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed it, and it's nice that it's not a particularly hard read, although I did try to read it in French originally. That kind of failed...

Right now I'm reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. It's definitely keeping my interest and I'm anxious to finish it, but if someone were to ask me for a description I'd have no clue what to tell them.

I am reading two books:

One is Controversary creates Cash. It's basically an autobiography of Eric Bischoff who built WCW up which almost beat WWE.

The other is The Death of WCW. This is basically another view of how WCW was built up and then went down.

They are interesting as there is quite a bit of contrasting views on them. Each book brings out points the other did not. Then there are some points when the second book brings up something dumb that WCW did only for Bischoff to explain why it happened, and why a good bit of it was out of his hands.

Hopefully, with me being non-specific, that doesn't spoil anything for ya all.

Heh.
I'm reading Networking for Dummies a All in One Desk Reference (10 books in 1).
I'm working on becoming a Networking IT so...

I just finished The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I don't know yet what I'll read next.

I've been reading a bit of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, but for some reason it hasn't really grabbed me as much as some of his other books have. Which is why, I guess, I decided to pick up Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and read through it again.

I've been pushing these books on people since Lies came out. Best modern Fantasy book, and the first fantasy book I've read in ages that I didn't immediately put down and get bored of because it was Dragonlance-Tolkien-Forgotten Realms on each page.

I've been going over Milton's Paradise Lost again recently, as well as Gladwell's Tipping Point and Dead Leprechaun in a Tire Swing by T.G. Flemming. It's hilarious.

I am re-reading Hobbit, followed by RINGS. Might read Gaiman's Dream Hunters later.

I was at a book fair the other day and bought a fair few secondhand books: Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels, George Orwell's 1984 (yes, I know), Nicholas Blincoe's The Dope Priest and Robert Sabbag's Snowblind and decided tonight to start working through the four.

Picked Snowblind first, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I love the way Sabbag wrote the book, very entertaining.

I just finished reading The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It is a bittersweet book about an Dominican weeaboo, Oscar Wao, who hopelessly pursues women while nursing a love for D&D and anime. However, it is also an immigrant saga and a strange history of the Dominican Republic in which dictators are compared to Sauron and Darkseid. I highly recommend it.

I'm currently reading Papillon by Henri Charrière. You probably all know this from the movie with Steve McQueen, but it is quite enjoyable to read as well.

I didn't realize it was autobiographic either...

Other than textbooks, I haven't read much lately, but I've started reading newspapers and weeklies lately.

But I have a job now that allows me a lot of time to sit and read, so I'm halfway through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which lurker gave me for Christmas. Very hard to get through, but my reading ability has dwindled since high school. Slowly getting my ability to read smoothly back, though.

Very philosophical. Maybe a little more than I would expose myself to normally, but what better to whip me back in shape?

I'm approaching the end of my exams, so i will be reading much more in the coming days. Last semester i was to read almost two novels a week, which i can't do, i can't read that fast. I'm working at finishing the ones i'm truly interested in, and first on the list is The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. It's good so far, about halfway through. I know who did it, but i don't really know how, so i'm reading it with great interest.

I've read that book (I randomly picked it from amongst the myriad books my dad has on philosophy and stuff like that), but I never did finish it, if I recall correctly. Might be time to try and do so.

Currently about halfway through this puppy:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA240_.jpg

Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 (1929-1964).

Absolutely classic Golden Age sci fi stuff. They were voted on by the same group of SciFi authors that vote on the Nebulas, and the point of the anthology was to honor short stories that would have won the Nebula, had it existed back then.

Definitely a worthy addition to your collection if you like Science Fiction.

I recently exchanged my The Vampire Lestat for a friend's Rainbow Six, which I just start reading.

I'm reading The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. It's about a man who decides to base his decisions in life, both grand and trivial, on the fall of the dice. But it's not just a method of resolving indecisiveness: he includes options that his normal self wouldn't consider, and through being compelled to carry out these options by the law of dice, hopes to destroy that idea of 'the self', or the self preserving ego, and all the restricting habits and inhibitions that go with it.

I don't read books often enough, but I haven't been able to put this one down.

I'm currently reading After Dark by Haruki Murakami, my favourite author.

Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver finally managed to pull me in. Tried reading it some years ago, but it was just a wee bit too... I dunno, just not my thing back then, but right now I think it's the bomb.

Lawhead wrote a series, I forget the name of, and I've been tearing through the first few books. Hood and Scarlet. As one might glean from the titles, they're a take on the Robin Hood myth (a personal favourite of mine), done in a sort of gritty fashion that really catches my interest. It doesn't neglect the original stories, just gives them a nice new coat of paint. The paint, in this case, being glue and sandpaper. A nice follow-up after a quick re-read of the Corwin books of the Great Book of Amber.

I've read a couple of things by by Lawhead. I read the Song of Albion trilogy so long ago(eighth grade) that I really could not tell you much about it. I've read Taliesian, Merlin, and Arthur, which were a decent take on you know what. Though not as good as Mary Stewart in my opinion. The most memorable book that I've read by Lawhead is Byzanitiam which is about a monk that gets captured by pirates while transporting an ornate rendition of the Book of Kells to Constantinople.

I had been meaning to read The Chronicles of Narnia ever since "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" premiered in theaters, even more so with the approach of "Prince Caspian", but I never quite got around to it for the longest time. I found a solution: I rented a CD audiobook of the series from the local library so I could listen to it on my iPod during a good chunk of my workday. I've been going chronologically, and I'm about halfway through The Last Battle now. Interestingly enough, this one is read by Patrick Stewart. Hearing him imitate the "hee-haw" of a donkey was hilarious. And I'm liking the books, too.

You know, I never was able to make it through Chronicles. I just don't like the way C.S. Lewis writes. Didn't dig the movies, either. The BBC lion the witch and the wardrobe has a special place in my heart, but man... do I not care for average joe English kid goes through a wardrobe and then becomes a brilliant military strategist and great warrior stories.

I've been tearing through George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series lately (I've been on a fantasy kick, can you tell?) and am just finishing up with Feast for Crows. I'm thinking after that, it might be time to dig into a few of the Philip K. Dick works I haven't gotten to yet.

I had to put down Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I was about to beat my head endlessly into a brick wall until my brains spilled out.
Unless you've got a penchant for an overload of philosophical bullshit, I wouldn't recommend this one; but that's just me.

I read Dante's Inferno in a poetic translation, and mildly enjoyed it...somewhat. It's hard to read something when you have to read the footnotes every 5 lines. I'm not sure whether or not I'll attempt Pergatory or Paradisio, but if I do, I'll pick up prose copies.

I picked up a new release, Borne in Blood, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Apparently part of some Count Saint-Germaine series about a Vampire. I like it, and the setting placement and the structure of the story is good, but I'm 1/3rd of the way through it, and the only action I've seen is some dude falling off a wagon. And there was a sex scene in the second chapter. A bit premature if you ask me.

And since I haven't read any classics, I've got The Gunslinger and Stranger in a Strange Land on the backburner.

I have read the Second Chroicles of Conan by Jordan, which was quite enjoyable. Nowhere else have I seen the word callipygian used.

I have never read any Conan books other than that particular collection, though I have read some of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series by Fritz Leiber, which are in the same vein.

How is it? I read Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings when those were the only two published and I loved them, but resolved to wait until the entire series was finished before I read any more.

They're good, I still vote the first two were the best of the four so far, but they certainly aren't massive disappointments or anything. Definitely worth the read. The grit factor is there, they just lose some of the cohesion as the series goes on. Lots of hope for the fifth book, though.

i just finished a series by Terry Goodkind, The Sword of Truth. Pretty good books, I enjoyed that imensely. Now it's onto an American literature book, Microeconomics, and intro to astronomy :)

I finally got around to re-reading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha earlier this week. When I originally read it in sixth or seventh grade, I didn't fully grasp all of the philosophical implications being thrown around, so I really enjoyed revisiting it. Hesse's prose, too, was wonderful. He managed to pull so much power out of very simple dialogue and vocabulary, along the lines of a McCarthy or Hemingway novel. It was impressive. For all the vast cosmological overtones, I enjoyed reading it thoroughly, and look forward to reading more of his works.

Currently, I'm working my way through William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales for my high school English class.

Goodkind? Really? I would chalk that up as the worst fantasy series I've ever read any of. Worse than the Wheel of Time. Terry is just... awful. I always found his stuff horridly formulaic. Oh hey, Kahlan got kidnapped. Again. Oh, here's the portion of the book that we get to see how Goodkind's wife clearly won't let him have rough sex with her, so he'll get it out on the page. Oh, so this is the point that his self inserted character gets to be Superman. Or how about the part where he topples communism by building a statue to FREEDOM? He had some good ideas in there, or at least some I didn't hate, but at the end of the day, the man was on a soap box thumping his chest and writing diatribes about politics thinly veiled as fantasy. And Richard was just so bloody infallible, making him, by far, the least interesting hero I've ever seen. He's the only Seeker, AND the last war wizard, AND the only male confessor, AND the only man able to survive a confessor's touch etc... etc... And Kalahn was just so bloody useless. She was the Princess from Super Mario. All she was good for was getting kidnapped to further the plot.

What I'm trying to say is Goodkind is a shoddy author. Seriously, go read some Scott Lynch.

I've personally been derailed in my readings lately by T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars. Great book. Sure, the guy was lying about the majority of it, but the philosophy and depth of language used makes it worth the read.

Lately I've been all wrapped in reading Hunter S. Thompson's two collections of correspondence, The Proud Highway and Fear And Loathing In America. I'd strongly recommend them both if you've read and enjoyed a good deal of his other material.

Add Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972 to that list. His coverage of that year's pivotal presidential election for Rolling Stone is alternately hilarious and dispiriting, but, as always with Thompson, highly entertaining.

Thompson is one of those dudes I get sick of hearing the hipster kids wax intellectual about, but man, I can't knock the sheer readability of his works. He's a smart guy, no doubt. And his stuff was certainly up there in terms of quality, but he's like the literary version of the Che Guevara bag. You know 3/4+ of the people who have it on them are doing so more for fashion than for substance, yeah? Palahniuk is getting that way, too.

I was just reading through the earlier posts in this thread and saw some appreciation for Stephen Lawhead. I really wasn't sure how well known he was, but he's actually a pretty good family friend. Him and my uncle are chummy as all hell. Holiday dinners together and such. Signed first editions out the ass.

Regarding Thompson, I find you can usually tell the hipster douchebags from the genuine appreciators of his work by talking about his sportswriting. Hipsters can't handle his love of football.

That was me, with the Lawhead love. I'm sort of 50/50 on his stuff. Not all hyped on his Arthurian stuff, but I love the Robin Hood work. That's cool that he's a family friend, though. He's a talented guy. I hate you for your first editions. You prick. (<3 the knk)

Also, yeah. The difference is palpable when it comes to Thompson fans.

I've been reading a number of things as of late. Finally started in on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by the man himself, Philip K. Dick. I'm about half-way through it and I'm enjoying it immensely. I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone, whether they're a fan of science fiction or not.

Been reading through the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny once again simply because it's one of my favorite series ever. Corwin and his boy are some of the best protagonists to ever grace paper.

I keep the Tao Te Ching next to my bed for quick reading before I drift into dream land. I can't help but identify with some of the simple (yet at times surprisingly complex) verses found within it, and I find a bit of peace in the words when I've had a particularly stressful day. In a similar vein, I also have my much flipped through Zen Mind Beginner's Mind by Suzuki laying near by.

Thats it for now, but with summer break coming up I'm sure I'll start flying through books of various kinds. I'll most likely try to broaden my classical horizon a bit in the warm months.

Also
Glad to see Murakami has been getting some love around here as of late! I truly admire his works. Check out The Wind Up Bird Chronicle if you haven't yet, Capo. It's a great work of fiction.

I'm currently reading Battle Royale. I was going through one of my boyfriend's boxes and found it. It's pretty good, twisted but intense.

I don't usually read a lot, but I can hardly put this book down.

I actually was a little disappointed when I read this for the first time a year or so ago. I had expected so much from all the praise that is generally heaped upon it, but the prose middling and took you out of the story at times. The ideas he had were wonderful, but the execution could have been much better.
I have.

Right now I'm juggling between three books: Ken Bruen's Priest, Nicholas Blincoe's The Dope Priest and an anthology of works by Kahlil Gibran entitled A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran.

I've been reading the Bruen book most, and it's, as typical with Bruen, quite bloody good.

I plan to acquire William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch soon.

Ironic that you happened to mix him up with someone whom has also written Conan books. I used to always get Stephen R. Donaldson and Stephen R. Lawhead mixed up in my head.

I'll read some of Howard's Conan books if you read some of Jordan's.

Reading a few, back and forth..

The Chrysanthemum and the Bat - Robert whiting
- The author (an american) writes about his years of involvement with Japanese baseball. Reading this one because i love baseball, and am curious to see how the game differs between nations (let's see how accurate that Tom Selleck movie really was)

Toons for Tunes - Dan Goldmark
- Just a book about cartoon music. Almost finished this one - not a bad read at all, though quick. Talks about Carl Stalling, Scott Bradley, and then about both jazz and classical music's influence on the medium.

Psychology of Music - Diana Deutsch
- This one will take a while. Basically a collection of 21 academic journal articles on music psychology research. Very tough read! But it's where i wanna go with my life, so let's hope it's worth it

Good luck on Chaucer, I hated it when we had to read the Tales in high school (maybe it's different for you since you're a native speaker, but to me it was incredibly boring). I really like Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, although I read some of the stories before in his other work. I think that it shows you that Murakami has grown in his writing, especially since it seems that he can come up with short stories on a whim, whereas he seems to have more difficulties with novels. Look at Kafka on the Shore, for example, brilliant book, read the first volume in 2 days, but near the end he somehow got lost in his own story. He doesn't seem to have this problem with simple stories, although they can be rather confusing too.

I haven't really been reading for pleasure lately, too busy for my Japanese Literature class. I've had to read Oe Kenzaburo's The Silent Cry (horrible, horrible book, really overrated), Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki's Sasameyuki (awesome), and I just started Confessions of a Mask (Mishima Yukio). I'm still a bit baffled that the teacher failed to include Natsume Soseki's work, seeing as he's probably the best Japanese writer ever.

I have a few books lined up for when I finish my exams, Jose Saramago, Chuck Palahniuk and Alexandre Dumas (again), but if you guys have recommendations, I'm always open to suggestions.

Chaucer's not all that bad. Just like anything else that's used widely in school settings, it's over analyzed, and as such, incredibly dreary. The actual linguistics of it are really interesting, the usage of old and middle English for punning and comedic effect. Now, I find a lot of the old stuff incredibly dull. I get that Virgil and Chaucer are incredibly important, but I've read them once. And that's enough, yeah?

Finished Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Borne in Blood.

It ended well, so I was pleased with having finished it, at least.

Pros:
Good language.
Very historically accurate.
Good ending.

Cons:
Drags on. Too many scenes about how the fuck nobles dine, dress, and travel.
At some points, reaks of female sex fanfics. I can't remember the word for that for the life of me right now, but yeah.

Overall, I'd only recommend this book to a girl that was into sci-fi or manga or like shit. For being the TWENTIETH book in said particular series, I'm kinda let down. I've yet to decide if I'll read any at all of the other nineteen, but the answer is probably no for a long while.

And right now I'm halfway through The Gunslinger.

And so far, I likey. But FUCK does Stephen King have a dirty fucking mind. Guy needs to lay off the sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

The Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler: I've just started this one, so I've only been introduced to Mr. Pontifex...

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: GREAT BOOK. Written by Anne Fadiman, it's about the cultural difference between a Hmong family whose daughter has epilepsy, and the Californian doctors that want to treat the epilepsy...except Hmongs believe that people with epilepsy are blessed by God, and they don't see it as the life threatening condition that modern American society does. It's fabulously written, and it's really really good.

The Golden Compass, by Phillip Pullman: Ummm...I finally got around to reading this because people kept on telling me how amazing it was, but I don't know if I like it or not so far. I like the story line, but not the way he writes it...

Philip Pullman is great if you're 12. After that, holy christ dull.

Right now I'm reading Bunker 13 by Aniruddha Bahal. Got it for cheap at a warehouse clearance sale (like, USD$1.50 or something?) and I have to say that I'd have paid quite a bit more for it, judging by what I've read so far.

It's set in India, deals primarily with a reporter getting involved with a certain regiment (is that the proper word?) of the Indian army involved in the Kashmir (Kashmiri?) conflict who are, for lack of a better term, morally loose.

It's a bit demented, perhaps, as a review would have it, but I'm liking it so far.

The quote from the Guardian on the cover goes like: "Imagine Catch 22 rewritten by Hunter S. Thompson [and] set in an unapologetically modern India.", which may just describe it quite well. I'm not familiar enough with Catch 22 and/or Hunter S. Thompson to say for sure, though.

I very, very strongly recommend you grab Catch 22 next. And then some Hunter S. Thompson. Can't go wrong with either.

Will do.

I've been meaning to do so, actually but got side-tracked by my sudden desire to read Burroughs' Naked Lunch (which I have now finished, by the way. I liked it.).

Would Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas be a good starting point in regards to Hunter S. Thompson?

I'd probably dive in regardless, though.

Godddamn, I love Naked Lunch. Ever seen the movie adaptation? It's tremendous.

Anyway, yeah, Fear and Loathing is a good starting point, in that it really does a nice job of acclimatizing you to Thompson's sheer madness.

It's an awesome book, isn't it? Quite... crazy, if I do say so myself. Haven't seen the movie adaptation, though. Will try and track it down.

Ah, ok then, Fear and Loathing it is.

One of the few times the movie is as good as the book, but that's largely because the movie is just so excellently handled. Absolutely brilliant.

And cheers, have fun with Fear and Loathing.

So I bought Fear and Loathing the other day, yeah, and I started reading it tonight.

Up to the fifth chapter now and I can tell that I'm going to enjoy it greatly.

Didn't really feel like studying the last week, so I spent most of my time reading books in the park. The first one I read wasThe Gunslinger, the first book in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King (first of his works that I read). They've only recently started translating the series to dutch (never bothered trying to read the English version), and it was cheap so I thought I'd give it a shot. It took me a while to get into it, since the story seems to move rather slow in the beginning, and it's difficult to understand the world that it's set in, but it got a little bit better near the end. Of course, The Gunslinger basically serves as the prologue to the rest of the series, so even though it got me intrigued, I'll wait until I read the next volume before I write a more conclusive review.

The second book I read is Mo Hayder's début, Birdman (I read Tokyo before). Most people say that it's pretty gross, and I'm not saying that it's pretty, but I guess that TV shows like CSI present roughly the same level of gore (aside from one or two rather disturbing scenes), so I've gotten used to it. I liked the book, Hayder knows how to create a creepy setting, and how to give you a feeling of uneasiness during certain moments. The characters that she describes are interesting, and even though the story lacks balance at some points, it's still better than your average Nicci French book.

The last book I read is called Op Drift by Belgium's famous detective writer Pieter Aspe (although I seriously doubt that anyone knows him outside Flanders). He has written like 20 books about two detectives, Van In and Versavel, and even though he seems to be running out of inspiration to describe settings or characters, the stories are still quite entertaining, and make for a nice afternoon.

I just started Kader Abdollah's The House by the Mosque. He's one of the more famous muslim writers in the Netherlands, and this book was voted second best dutch book (The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch was number one, and I would seriously recommend it to everyone). Abdollah's been on the news quite a lot for the past few months, with the whole Fitna debate, and his own interpretation of the Quran, so I thought I'd check out his most famous novel, and so far (halfway), I'm really liking it.

I've been working my way through the Black Library's Horus Heresy series and I've now caught up to the current releases, being halfway through the seventh book, "Legion" (First six are Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, The Flight of the Eisenstein, Fulgrim and Descent of Angels). The books tell the story of events surroundng the Horus Heresy in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe and although they're squarely aimed at fans of the games, I reckon they're good enough science fiction to appeal to anyone with a passing knowledge of the subject material.

Each is written by a different author (To enable them to release one every six months or so I imagine) but there aren't such differences in narrative style that you lose cohesion from one book to the next. The stories are largely tales of great battles and deep betrayal but the last two, Decent of Angels and Legion have been less about the big battles and a bit more thoughtful and explore more behind the scenes stuff.

If you like Warhammer 40,000, you'll fucking love 'em basically. I can't wait until Battle for the Abyss comes out in August and Mechanicum in November.

Finished The House by the Mosque. A pretty good book, although I feel that the praise that it has been getting is a bit exaggerated. The first half lacks a clear sense of direction, and Abdolah sometimes doesn't seem to know if he wants to write about the major events of the revolution in Iran, or about the life of a traditional family that has to deal with those events. The writing could also use some work, he manages to pull of some really nice chapters, but at other points you can clearly see that he's not a native speaker.

Started with Invisible Monsters, by Chuck Palahniuk, and am still working my way through the Genji Monogatari. I knew Palahniuk from Fight Club of course, but I only recently started discovering his books. I liked Choke and Survivor, but Invisible Monsters doesn't seem to have the same appeal. Only read the first 100 pages though, so maybe it'll change for the better?

For some reason I've been re-reading William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch recently. Started re-reading it, what, two weeks after I first finished reading it? Not sure myself.

I like the book very, very much. <3

Still haven't got around to finishing Aniruddha Bahal's Bunker 13, though. In the closing stages of the novel now, but I haven't really felt like picking it up and finishing it.

I read kids' books. Seriously. I have Asperger's, is that an excuse? I'm a nerd.

Okay, but anyway, Grey Griffins is a guilty pleasure of mine. The characters are cartoonishly exaggerated, the situations almost random, and interesting ideas get introduced and later forgotten in the rush to make cool things happen. Yet, it's pretty fun, probably because it takes itself just seriously enough to be fun instead of annoying.

I reviewed it at my list of Amazon reviews here. I haven't gotten into the third yet.

I've also enjoyed a graphic novel called Amulet. It's rather, well, formulaic, and it has a mixture of original ideas and not-so-original ones. But it's also fun. Like Grey Griffins, it feels like it has arbitrary elements in there to make for a diverse "who knows what will happen next" kind of story, but done well enough to be enjoyable.

No you fucking don't. No one does. Complete horse shit. Being a socially awkward prat isn't a disorder. Get out of your house. Interact with people. Asperger's. Please. Fucking internet disorder.



I've gotten into THE END OF FAITH, by Sam Harris. Fantastic book about the clash between organised religion and rational thought. A little simplified at times, but the man makes no end of good points. Tolerance of religion is encouragement of idiocy, basically. Can't argue with him on that. Definitely something anyone with half a brain should give a read.

Asperger's is high functioning autism. I didn't speak my first word until I was 3, and was eventually mainstreamed into kindergarten. Yes, I always was socially awkward, and always a little behind the times socially, unable to understand the norms. Does that sound like an internet disorder to you?

It's real, though I'm sure idiots have overused the term "Asperger's" and thrown it around until it lost all meaning, much like how words such as "satire" have lost all meaning due to overuse by people who don't know what it means.

I get out of the house to go on many walks and get into shape, and that's all I care to do outdoors.

Anyway, is this going to turn into a fucking flame war about autism/Asperger's and whether or not it's real? Anyway, I read and sometimes review kids' books, and that's the truth.

EDIT: Okay, I just looked up "Asperger's" on Encyclopedia Dramatica. It looks like the term is somehow a fucking internet fad, which is why apparently many people believe it doesn't exist for real. Apparently I should just say "I was diagnosed autistic as an infant and said my first word at age 3", which at least means something. Well, the condition exists, even if people who don't have it claim to, or if, much like ADHD, it's over-diagnosed. Stupid internet fads and attention whores (and believe me, I do NOT like attention whores), taking something legit and stripping it of its meaning.

Look, regardless of that whole mess it's just tactless to march into a thread with "I HAVE ASPERGER'S". It looks like attention-whoring. Everyone has their own tics, but we don't need to announce them.

You don't need to provide an excuse for reading children's books anyway, even if you have one — half the people on this board don't read anything other than Harry Potter unless it's assigned to them.

On-topic, I'm working through Empire Express a history of the Trans-Continental Railroad. Mainstream history teaching basically boils down this decades-long undertaking to a photograph of two tycoons shaking hands, so there's a lot to learn here.

Point taken. You're right. I don't like attention whores, and I don't want to be one either. I've seen some especially annoying ones in my time, believe me, and I don't want to join their ranks. Thanks for the hint - I'll take it to heart.

Lol, probably true about the Harry Potter comment! Although people who read it have an "excuse" as well - the author herself said that Harry Potter was originally intended specifically for adults.

Then again, so was Donkey Kong.

J.K. Rowling also considers herself a fantastic author.

Protip: This isn't true.

Aaanyway, back to the topic at hand, I don't read very many children's books, but there are a few here and there on my shelves. Maybe the best of these, and one all of you should check out, is The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, by Lemony Snicket.

The title alone was enough to sell me on it, but the content is equally subversive and hilarious. I'm sure he had an older audience in mind when he wrote this, as it gets a little odd for a toddler at points, but it somehow works. I only wish I could find it online.

Finally started the final book in The Dark Tower series and I just picked up "The Selfish Capitalist."

Stephen King's The Stand.

I was in town and I really had an urge to buy a book to read, for some reason I can always rely on good ol' Stephen to entertain me. It's not complex, the characterisation isn't always amazing but I do enjoy the genre. I was going to pick up the first of the Dark Tower series, but it wasn't there =(.

I always meant to read the Dark Tower series myself, although a friend of mine said that the books tended to drag on quite a bit. I found that with a few of his other books, but I still love to read them.

I've started a long distance English Literature course recently, and the first book on the list is Michael Frayn's Spies. I've heard mixed reviews, but mostly the bad ones are from previous students. This makes me believe that I will enjoy the book since I've had a tendancy to enjoy texts from my previous English classes.

Just finished World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness. It's the novelization of Warcraft 2. It was actually quite good. I've been on a Warcraft book kick lately. Before that I read the War of the Ancients trilogy.

I just started reading the first Harry Potter book last night.

:gonk:

Just tore through The Great Derangement. Everyone needs to read it. Especially the religious. Same with The End of Reason.

On a less religious note, Mistakes Were Made is a fantastic read about memory and how it works. Brilliant.

China Mievelle's Perdido Street Station. Brilliant work of blending genres in a steampunk setting. Very in-depth imagery of both the hideous, and beautiful. It is very difficult to find a steampunk novel like this. (Heck, it is hard to find a steampunk novel in general)

Also reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Fascinating details about ancient pagan gods being overrun by current "gods" of America. Profoundly captivating and astounding descriptions of each gods and their role throughout the various landscapes of America.

Just started reading some HP Lovecraft. Nothing much to say about that.

The last 3 books are the main culprits so far. First four are golden though. Last 3 are still great though.

Just finished John Steinbeck's East of Eden not long ago. While I wasn't too fond of Grapes of Wrath, I decided to give Eden a go, since I heard that it was an excellent read. Well, I wasn't disappointed. Some parts dragged, but by "some," I mean a fairly insignificant number of scenes. Otherwise, I was glued to the book. Perhaps the characters weren't entirely realistic, as you get your extremes of good and evil, but I felt that they were very well-fleshed out. Great themes as well. I was glad to see that Eden wasn't as "preachy" as Grapes, even with the themes and points, and even without the details to analyze, the plot holds as well.

So yeah. I really did enjoy Eden. In fact, it's now one of my favorite books.

Both of these sound highly intriguing. Gawd, I'm in the mood for steampunk. I'll definitely be looking into these, since I just finished Eden. Actually, I'm still in the middle of The Beautiful and the Damned by Fitzgerald, but I never really got around to it. Maybe I'll finally finish it this summer. It's a shame, really. I absolutely love Fitzgerald's way with words.


Edit: So I just started Perdido Street Station. It's pretty good so far, although I wasn't too enthused about all the excessive details and descriptions. Well, this seems promising, so I'll see where it leads.

Currently reading The Algebraist. It's hard sci-fi, written about human interaction with the rest of the galaxy 2000 years in the future, mostly concerning their interaction with an ancient gas-giant native race called Dwellers. Covers a wide variety of themes, quirky at some points, almost h2g2 humor, but deadpan delivery. The author has a keen understanding of human nature and ambition.

Recently completed Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk, and liked it quite a lot, more so than any of his other novels that I've read. It appears a bit gimmicky at some points, but not as much as his later books, and there was one bit at the end that I didn't really like, but the characters where interesting, the writing still fresh (unlike Snuff, which is quite possibly one of his worst books yet), and the conclusion is actually satisfying, unlike the ending of Choke for example. If only his more recent novels still ahd that fresh feeling, but nowadays he only seems to care about shock value.

Finished reading Blindness (Jose Saramago) last night. Not my first book from this writer, so I was already used to his writing style (little to no punctuation, extremely long sentences), but this book was still a surprise to me. In an unnamed city, a man who's waiting for the light to turn green suddenly loses his sight. The city soon realizes that this is just the beginning of an epidemic, and the government decides to quarantine all those who are already blind or those who may be infected in an old mental institute, forcing the blind people to rely only on themselves for help, without any contact with the outside world.

The beginning of the book was pretty creepy to me, since the author places you in the blind man's perspective. You get the feeling that you have no idea what's going on, that you are guided by unknown people, and that you yourself are left blind. It isn't until a woman shows up who can still see, that I lost this unsettling feeling, only to be confronted with the horror that people are capable of in the mental institute. The author frequently interacts with the reader, commenting on the situations that he creates in the institute, making it all the more disturbing since he uses it to analyse the dark side of the human mind. The descriptions of the institute and the city are also depressing, showing people who have lost all sense of organisation and behave like animals, without any consideration for others, Saramago paints a terrifying portrait of the social degradation that occurs.

The book has also been made into a movie by Fernando Meirelles (Cidade de Deus, the Constant Gardener) starring Julianne Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal, which has already been shown in Cannes and will be released in September or October. I'm curious to see how Meirelles can evoke the disturbing feeling from the first part, when the reader is basically blind, and how he can create the same atmosphere that the book has. I have high hopes though, since Meirelles is an excellent director, but still worried that a story of blindness can't be brought to the big screen.

I started Notre-Dame de Paris, by Victor Hugo. I tried to read it before, in a horrible dutch translation, so now I'm trying the French version. I also got Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words by Jay Rubin (the translator of Norwegian Wood and the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) from one of my classmates, which should be an interesting read.

Sounds interesting. I have been contemplating the acquisition of his new book "Matter" which just recently came out. The only book that I have read by this author is Inversions, which is about two friends from a space-faring culture that insert themselves into two different countries on a pre-industrial world to test their differing theories on how best to bring about social reform. An excellent book and definitely not your typical speculative fiction.

Last week I went out and bought a bunch of books. So far I've been through How Wal-Mart Is Destroying America (And The World), I Am America (And So Can You!), The Rape of Nanking, Nothing Sacred, No End In Sight and 1984 (again...).

Right now I'm reading through this little book called Anything For A Vote. Quaint little summary of presidential campaigns since the start of this country and how low they've plotted and schemed in order to win their respective elections. Honest Abe really wasn't as honest as you'd like to think.

I'm about halfway through American Psycho right now. I can't decide whether to pick up Fight Club after I finish it or to finally get started on the second Dark Tower book. Or finally get around to finishing the second Harry Potter book. I can't seem to get into that one for some reason.

I'm about a third into Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. So far, I'm enjoying it. I've always been a fan of him and I'm sure this won't disappoint.

Before this, I read The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. I randomly decided to pick it up at a local used book store and I wasn't disappointed. It took me a little while to get into it and pick up Bellow's writing style, but that's mostly because I had read Hemingway before and it was quite a change. By the end of the book, I felt myself totally relating myself and my own experiences, thoughts and desires to what Augie was expressing. I recommend it.

I've got a couple books going right now. I'm the type of person who can't read just one book at a time. I'm pretty heavily into The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon. It's hard to explain, but it has to deal with a Jewish immigrant who is killed by the chief of police in 1920s Chicago for being an "anarchist assassin." Then 90 years later a journalist delves deeper into the story, trying to uncover the details.

I'm also reading Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman. It's a funny parody of comic book superheros, told in narrative form. An epic story of good versus evil! This book is great fun...and a relatively quick read (if I weren't reading 3 books at once!)

And one other fun read that a friend recommended... Rumo by Walter Moers. It's about a cowardly dog that finds a demonic sword that urges him to go on a quest to kill monsters (in the most basic sense). Very imaginative read with a lot of adult humor hidden between the lines (verry Potter-esque in that it appeals to both kids and adults, for different reasons. was suggested by my friend who is a huge potter-phile).

Mieville is probably one of the best steampunk authors you can read, in my opinion. I loved Perdido, but I think I liked The Scar even more. I'm currently reading Iron Council and it's quite good too, but it's not my favorite. He has another, Rat King, that he wrote before Perdido, and I hear it's quite good as well. Just have a lot on my backlog.

Another good author in the genre is Hal Duncan -- he has his The Book of All Hours trilogy (2 of 3 completed: Vellum and Ink). Highly recommended and I'm anticipating the third book.

I finished the Road awhile ago by Cormac McCarthy. It was an interesting read up until the end where it felt like the author had enough of the book and just decided to end it. I kind of wish there was more character development between the father and son. Overall he did a good job describing the environment but I feel the book is over hyped.

I'm currently reading The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu. It gives an interesting insight and history on comic strips and comic books. Comics have pretty much been attacked since their inception. If it wasn't for their supposed corruption of youth then it was because they were regarded as a lower art form. Sounds pretty familiar doesn't it? There are many parallels between comic books and video games in this regard. The are attacked by politicians and religious groups for supposedly causing violence among the youth. Hajdu does a fine job describing the incidents providing facts and adding spice through some creative adjectives. A good read.

I also picked up several graphic novels a week or two ago and I've yet to read them yet.

I'm gonna finally jump into this thread, something that should have happened ages ago.

I just finished Nelson DeMille's Wild Fire, and will be putting a full book review in my journal sometime soon. His books always have just enough reality to make their concepts terrifying, although this particular book dragged, despite the nukes involved.

Just last night, I finally picked up Dante's The Inferno and have reached the Seventh Canto. I think I'll be finding a complete copy of Dante's Divine Comedy though, because the copy I got from my Grandmother's basement is not only just Dante's trip through Hell (and not Purgitorio or Paradiso), but its also over 50 years old at this point, and I'm sure a better translation has come out since then.

That one is currently sitting in my 'books to read' pile, and I cant wait to get to it.

Just bought a re-print of Elric by Micheal Moorcock....
Just finished Daughter of the Forest...
I started Son of Shadow but but I was getting slow.. so I stopped reading.
I also just re-read Storm Front and Blood Rites of the Dresden Files... I wish they had more of the Dresden books in the store. I just read book 1 then jumped to book 6! (There were times I had NO IDEA what they were talking about).

Oh hi there book thread. Long time book reader first time book poster abouter.

I just recently finished My Tank Is Fight from the Something Awful crew. It's actually a pretty interesting read if you're into war machines, even if you aren't a fan of the site.

I'm currently splitting my attention between Stephen Colbert's I am America (And So Can You), which is the first book I've ever openly chortled at while reading, and Richard Dawkins's The Blind Watchmaker. It's a fantastically non-stuffy argument for natural selection and has provided lots of excellent material for me to use if I ever find myself arguing with a creationist. I also recently purchased the His Dark Materials series (Wow at all the atheist books, didn't actually plan that.), but I haven't actually cracked the cover because I don't want to read three books at once.

In honor of The Master, I have pulled a few of his books off my shelf and am currently re-reading them. I started reading "Sometimes A Little Brain Damage Can Help" last night after I finished reading "Napalm & Silly Putty". When I'm done with that, I'm going out to see if I can find "When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?" at Borders since I don't have that one yet.

Additional Spam:
I just finished that one myself a couple of weeks ago and it's probably one of my favorite comedy books. I especially loved his section on religion where he outlines all the benefits of religion and how we can benefit from them.

"If you're good, you don't die. It's my favorite gift of religion because it's the most practical. For instance, I recently purchased that PBS Civil War series on DVD but I haven't had the time to watch it. But, thanks to religion, after I depart my earthly body I'll have all of eternity to watch those DVDs with Abraham Lincoln! Surely he'll be able to tell me if Ken Burns got it right."

I'm currently working my way through Headcrusher by Alexander Garros and Aleksei Evdokimov, and so far it's quite an entertaining read. I bought it pretty much as an impulse buy along with two other books (Smalltime by Jerry Raine and Espedair Street by Iain M. Banks) at a bookstore which sells defective (for lack of a better term . . . still very readable, though, mostly just minor defects) books, extra print runs and the like. Which means the books are often quite cheap.

I might start reading one of the other two soon. If I can tear myself away from all the gaming that I've been doing, that is.

I'm still trying to finish The Student Conductor by Robert Ford, which was written by a UT grad student a few years back, and is about music, so I figured it would be right up my alley. I just have problems getting around to reading these days...

While I'm on planes, trains and automobiles in Europe I'm going to read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice at the request of my best friend. I've never read anything by Rice, so I'm not sure what to expect... as much as I like vampires, most people think I've read her stuff. Not so.
We'll see.

I finished Tender is the Night just the other day. I think that it's a wonderful book, but I probably would have enjoyed it much more if I hadn't kept putting it down, then picking it up and reading it a couple of days later. I'll file it away for rereading later.

I have since started reading The Winter of Our Discontent by Steinbeck, who remains one of my favorite authors. I'm a little over halfway through it and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I really like Ethan Hawley and his thinking, on top of Steinbeck's wonderful ability to capture the idea of American, small town values.

Reading it as well. And loving it to pieces.
Wouldn't call it steampunk though... Even if I can't come up with any other useful label, short of "urban fantasy".

In the past few days I've read done a good bit of reading, namely making my way through three collections of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. I enjoyed the movie adaptation, but his voice comes across so much more clearly in its original form. He manages to make the day to day minutiae we so routinely ignore hold great meaning. Even more impressively, he manages to make his life compelling without indulging or embellishing a thing.

I've also just started on Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. For the short bit that I've read (sixty pages or so), it's a wonderful novel. The story is charming and engaging, and the prose is so full of energy and life it's astounding. Sixty pages, and I can already tell Rushdie is a master of manipulating words, making every last one fit exactly as he'd like. I know it seems a hyperbolic rush to judgment, but it's refreshing to see such innovation in style, such originality in story, even if it all was written over twenty five years ago.

Victor Hugo - Notre Dame de Paris



Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves



Jay Rubin - Murakami Haruki and the Music of Words



Up next: A quick reread of The Brothers Karamazov before my huge Amazon shipment arrrves.

I pretty much just skipped over the the whole Truant fiasco and ended up enjoying this book quite a bit. I did find the bit with the letters from his mother to be very good, independent of anything else in the book. But hey, I'm a sucker for some good tragedy. I also enjoyed many of the poems in the back.

I just finished Grossman's Soon I will be Invincible. Loved it. It abounds with cliches, but works with them in such a way that makes the whole story original, and hilarious to boot. It makes the comic book lover in me laugh and cringe at the same time.

Right after I finished that, I moved onto Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide, which will be following by his World War Z novel. I've heard amazing things about that book, and I cant wait to crack into it.

Well, I finished The Winter of Our Discontent and, true to my love of Steinbeck, I enjoyed the book a whole hell of a lot. It isn't nearly as epic as East of Eden - my all-time favorite book - or The Grapes of Wrath, but it managed to seat itself as my third-favorite Steinbeck, preceded by the aforementioned two.

Today, I picked up a used copy of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, which, from the buzz surrounding it online and amongst people around me, is supposed to be pretty damn good. I read the first chapter on the bus and I like it, although it is a small taste of the book. I've heard Franzen's name mentioned alongside Michael Chabon, whose The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a personal favorite of mine.

The writing style of the letters was ok, but I didn't really care for her story,since you already knew how it would end from the main book. I read through most of the Truant part, since his descent into madness was quite interesting at some points, but when he would go on rambling again about god knows what, I'd just skip it all together.

I just finished reading a few short stories from Kim Edward's "The Secrets of a Fire King," and I absolutely loved "The Story of My Life." I totally wanted more, and I completely horrified when I flipped the page and realized that it was over :P

Right now I am reading this horrible play called Othello, The Moor of Venice. Its required for a lit class I have.

This is sarcasm, yeah?

I finished reading The Corrections earlier this week. I thought the book was way over-hyped. I was let down, horribly. That's not to say that I didn't like it, but it didn't come close to the expectation I had for it. I liked Denise's and Chip's story arcs, but (I guess this was the point) hated Gary's. As a friend of mine pointed out, Franzen has a knack for getting way too into describing mundane things, it almost detracts from the flow of the narrative. But anyway, I can say that I read it.

I started reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. It's not long and pretty easy to get through, so I'm nearly finished with it already. It's more a book about life and one's observations of it, in a weird pseudo-philosopical sense. It's given me things to think about, which, if a book can do, gets a thumbs-up from me.

Midway through Claudius the God. Not as tight as the predecessor, the whole Herod Agrippa subplot, depsite being interesting, also bogs down the narrative somewhat. The anecdote about the 'cult of Joshua ben Joseph' is pure class.

Still hacking through Rob Fisk's The Great War for Civilisation. Thing is a 1300-page BRICK and is reinforcing my own politics and prejudices more than challenging them. It's probably one of the best general primers on Middle Eastern politics around despite its bias.

Once Graves is finished (Fisk's going to last until Gulf War III) it's onto George Eliot's Middlemarch, as I do the whole masochist thing on occasion.

I'm currently reading through Watchmen. Quite a fantastic graphic novel. I recently finished V for Vendetta. Though I'm probably going to reread that since I took several long breaks from it for some reason.

Finally got around to finishing American Psycho. Kind of a weird ending, if it can be called that. Sort of just quits on you.

Anyway, I've just started on Drawing of the Three. So far, it's pretty good.

I picked up Oscar Zeta Acosta's The Revolt of the Cockroach People (among a couple of others) for cheap the other day (3 books for the equivalent of US$5 meant that I was willing to take a bit of a gamble) and I decided that I'd start reading through it before I tackled any of the other books in my backlog. Not for the Hunter S. Thompson association (I'll admit, though, I bought it because of that), but because it seemed like a genuinely interesting book.

And, yes, I'm finding it quite interesting so far. No, he's not the greatest writer, but I'm enjoying it. I like the fact that the book's not just about the Chicano movement, but also about himself and his "personal saga," to quote the blurb at the back of the book. Adds something, I find. I'm not sure what exactly, but . . . yeah.

Been having the itch to read lately so I've picked up a few books and knocking them out one by one.

Warcraft Archive Finished that the other day. I really enjoyed it with probably Lord of the Clans being amonst one of my favorites.

Metal Gear Solid Finished this yesterday and thought it to be exactly what I wanted when I wondered if they were going to make novels based on each game. It actually felt like I was reading the game. Which I know was the intent of the book, but the author did such a great job with that.

Don't know if I should start on Starcraft: Ghost - Nova or the second Warcraft Archive book War of the Ancients

That's funny, I felt that watching the movie was almost like playing it.

I've finished Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, both of which I enjoyed immensely. I've slacked on the book reviews, but I'll get them up in my journal eventually.

Right now, I'm in the middle of Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead. Its fascinating, and the attention to detail has me mesmerized in many places. I'm tearing through it, and should be finished with it by the end of the week.

Finished Elementary Particles (Michel Houellebecq), see the spoiler and moved on to some more academic reading in preparation of next year's dissertation (I can be such a nerd) with Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (Louise Young), since I have no idea what to write about.

Bringing this thread back from the dead.

I've read a few books since my last post, including Islands in the Stream, A Moveable Feast, and (for the first time, believe it or not) The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway; Watchmen (for the I-lost-count time) by Alan Moore; The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller; Seize the Day by Saul Bellow.

Now, I'm currently reading a giant biography of Steinbeck entitled John Steinbeck, Writer by Jackson J. Benson. As of now, I'm about 200 pages into it and, although it is the first real biography I've read in quite a long time, I'm enjoying it. For as long as I've loved Steinbeck, I've never read anything truly about him. This book is fantastic for not only learning about his life, but also the things that he thought, the backround of his writing, his philosophy, and the ways he was so concentrated and fixated on his writing.

Simultaneously, I'm reading God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Charles Hitchens. I am a Christian, but not one so narrow-minded as to stay away from anything that criticizes the faith. To be honest, the book has given me much to think about and research. A friend lent the book to me along with The Portable Atheist, a collection of writings selected by Hitchens, that is next on my agenda to read.

Christopher Hitchens. Are you reading a paperback or hardcover copy? This book is right at the top of my list but I'm waiting for paperback.

I'm reading a hardcover copy that a friend lent to me. I'm not sure if it's out on paperback yet.

Just finished The Waste Lands and started on Wizard and Glass, by Stephen King. This is the first series I've ever torn through like this. I'll have to get the box set with the rest of the books pretty soon.

In between those two, I also read The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox. Delightfully chauvinistic, and a hilarious read.

Wizard and Glass could prove to be the gigantic speed bump in your progress, Wolf. I tore through The Gunslinger, Drawing of the Three, and The Wastelands in 2 days during a summer and then it took me a good week just to finish Wizard and Glass.

Yes, it seems pretty long, especially since it's part of that four-piece box set with the first 4 volumes. The books are quite small. Smaller than any Stephen King print I've seen.

I've been reading Neal Stephenson's newest book, Anathem.
The book is fantastic. Stephenson literally creates a whole new world, called Arbre, and an entire backstory is provided in appendices, even a time line is included.

I'm also reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. It's part memoir and part training diary.

It's not really the length, it's the way the story reads. It's very much attrition compared to the high points the first three books can hit at near breakneck speed.

murder at the vicarage and murder on the orient express by agatha chrisitie.
The catcher in the Rye is one of my most favourite books.

I actually found Wizard in Glass to be the best of the Dark Tower books, with the Gunslinger being my least favorite. I've spoken to many people who think just the opposite. It's a stylistic thing - Wizard in Glass definitely has a different sort of structure from the rest, and is easily the least surreal.

What part of W&G did you like best?

The part where nothing happened?

The part where nothing happened for an incredibly long stretch?

The part where something minor of no consequence to the larger plot happened?

The part where a character was introduced just so he could be killed off?

Because those are all good times and the last thing I want in my books about magic pistoleros is surrealism.

Ah, I'm gonna have to side with Lord-of-Shadow on this one guys... Wizard and Glass was by far my favorite of the series, and I was disappointed when it ended (granted, I can say that about the whole series). The look into Roland's past was an unexpected one, and a welcome one. It made them a true ka-tet to know what they're leader had gone through, and why he was the man he was.

Anyways, back to what I'm currently reading: The Gathering, by Anne Enright. I have to admit, I'm struggling through this book. It paints a difficult picture of a large Irish family that I just cant get my head around. I feel like this is the type of book that would be easier to get through if the reader has experienced Dublin at some point. As it is, I'm about halfway through, and I feel like NOTHING has happened.

Finally finished the Churchill bio and I'm now looking over Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche.

Finished the new Artemis Fowl which was pretty good and now I'll either finish the Fountainhead or re-read the bartimaus trilogy.

I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and so far I'm loving it.
It has a nice twist on mythology, and while I only see a vague significance yet the extra side stories of different people who've moved to America add a nice atmospheric touch to the whole thing. Plus the basic plot behind it is just so original and unique.

American Gods is fantastic, Atomic. One of my favorites, by far.

I just got a copy of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. Haven't read any of his stuff before, so I'm hoping I've found a new author to enjoy.

^
Niel Gaiman is an incredible author. His best is Neverwhere imo. Everyone I recommended simply loved it.

Currently Reading or recently Finished:
-Steve Alten's "The Trench", and "Meg: Primal Waters"
Basically a giant killer shark novel, I have been a sucker for Jaws so this book was immensly entertaining. A great thriller.
-F. Paul Wilson's "The Keep"
Amazing WWII Vampire novel that ISN'T Campy like all those other vampire novels I have seen in book stores. Highly recommended for fantasy historical fiction thriller fans.
-Brian Keene's "Dead Sea"
A first person novel about survivors on a boat trying to escape zombies. Not as great as I thought it was going to be.
-M.John Harrison's "Light"
I have no idea what is going on (Something about a spaceship with a human brain), and I am probably going to drop it. This sci-fi work that reminds me somewhat of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Damn...I want something to grab at me like Neil Gaiman or China Mievelle. Still looking for an author like that.

I am currently reading "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" by Dai Sijie.

I never read a book from this author, it is the first. I like it anyway.

Are you suggesting that it is your inclination to automatically dislike the first book you read by any author?

I bought John Birmingham's Off One's Tits on Sunday and just started reading it today. It's a collection of previously published essays and articles and, honestly, it's pretty good. Some articles are perhaps slightly Hunter S. Thompson-esque, while some are more serious and thoughtfully written. I'm liking it so far. Nothing overly special, but not bad. Paid all of US$3 for it, too.

Just began reading Dune by Frank Herbert (Second restart I think). I really want to read more, but I can't find any time for it :(

Started "Les Bienveillantes" (the Kindly Ones I think) by Jonathan Littell a week ago. It won the Prix Goncourt in 2006, and I had my eye on it for a while, but decided to wait for the Dutch translation. Now that it has been published costing 45 euros, I decided that I would bite through the bullet (1400 pages) and get the French pocket for 13 euros (Although it's another Folio edition, I hate those books, they always fall apart after I finish them).

The story is set up as the memoires of a fictional SS-officer, Max Aue, who was stationed at the Russian front during the Second World War, and describes the horrors that he encountered there. The descriptions of the massacres are disgusting, but what's really gruesome is the apathy of Max, he doesn't seem to care when tens of thousands of Jews are executed, and he doesn't seem to be able to show any real emotion. I'm only 300 pages in, but so far there have been 3 or 4 scenes that were so sickening that I had to put the book down. I'm usually fascinated by the darker side of man, by madness, but this was just too much for me. Nonetheless, it continues to be an interesting read, although it's impossible to immerse yourself in the horror for too long. The only complaint I have so far is that there are too many military terms without an explanation, which can be incredibly confusing because of the fast pace of the story.

Finishing up Warner Brothers - A History of the Studio: Its Pictures, Stars, and Personalities by Charles Higham. Published in 1975 it only really bothers with things up till the 1950's but it does have the benefit of being researched when most respective parties were still alive. Will be following this up with an 'official' history (replete with pretty pictures) to see how they stack up against each other.

I'm about two-thirds through the book and loving it. He does a fantastic job making each character unique by changing his own writing style. I'd have to say that poet was my favorite to read through so far, though Sol's tale is very touching. After that one I'll read the sequel.


Prior to that book I finished up Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer. Really good book that postulates are we bound by fate or do we have control of our destiny? The science behind the book is really good and made me curious about some of the theories brought up in the book. Flash Forward is being adapted into a TV show but instead of people seeing their futures 21 years ahead, it's only six months. And all the characters have changed. About the only thing that is the same is the basic plot.

I'm currently 2/3 through a new compilation of the Nordic sagas. It's a trilogy of books called "Det Nordiske Testamente" ("The Nordic Testament"), containing most of the essential sagas of Norse Mythology, like stories of Valhalla and the Gods, Beowulf/Bjovulf, Rolf Krake and so forth.

And no, I don't believe in religion, but it's interesting because of my Scandinavian heritage, and seeing how it has influenced our ways of thinking in this part of the modern world.

After reading the description on TV Tropes, I've started reading Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium. Its not that bad, pretty funny and not as GRIMDARK as apparently some WH40k related books are.

I just bought David Cross' book "I Drink For A Reason" and Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". One was a Daily Show recommendation and the other was a gift from my cousin Eric. I'll start with the latter.

Most of them are pretty grim and dark. I'm still buying each Horus Heresy book as it comes out although the quality has slipped a touch since the initial trilogy and Fulgrim. They're still decent reads though if you're into that kind of thing and the most recent, Fallen Angels was certainly much better than Mechanicum. The next couple to come out are Prospero Burns and A Thousand Sons which will tell the story of the Space Wolves attacking Prospero with each book being told from the opposite side's perspective, I think they're pretty much going to be a simultaneous release. No idea when though, I just order the next one each time they release one and get a nice surprise when it turns up.

Finished Hyperion. Really good, though the ending was a little abrupt. Highly recommend if you're looking for a new science fiction book to read. Now I'm going to start the Fall of Hyperion, which is obviously the continuation of the Hyperion Cantos.

Woohoo, thread necromancy!

I've recently been reading my way through Peter James' series of crime novels about Detective Roy Grace. They're set in and around Brighton which makes them more interesting for me (Especially as we live no more than 400 yards from Sussex Police Headquarters which features heavily) but even without that, they're great crime novels and worth a read if you're into that kind of thing. Of the three I've read so far, they all have something of a twist near the end as is typical with books like these and thus far, I've not completely seen any of them coming.

Well thought out crimes, good characters and generally well written stories. I'd recommend them. First one is called Dead Simple, then Looking Good Dead then Not Dead Enough ten a couple more to date.

I'm currently reading through every single Nero Wolfe novel by the unbelievable Rex Stout. Best pulp detective novels ever.

Right now I'm reading through a book called The Nature of Metals. I found it randomly at the library while hunting around for the cookbook section. It's an older book (published in the early '60s) that's about halfway between a textbook and a general interest book. I really like it since there's a TON of pictures of what the author's talking about. I'm really learning a lot more about basic materials characterization and the fundamentals you never really learn in school and are instead expected to just learn on the job.

I'm also about 2/3 of the way through Blue Highways. It's a pretty decent road-trip novel. Basic outline for his reason to go is his wife served him with divorce papers and he lost his job as an English professor within a few days of each other, and he says "Fuck this shit" and goes on a roadtrip with his rape van and something like $250. The chapters where he's talking to people are fantastic, while the ones that are just him waxing masturabatorically about how he's looking for this deeper meaning are complete trash (and obviously the failed English professor in him trying to come out). It's an alright book, but the last book I read, Desert Solitare, was much more thought provoking.

Oh RR you nerd!

I'm currently reading Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (duh). It's a very entertaining book, and I'm currently 1/3 through it. You can't imagine how he was able to weave a very intricate web of events filled with twists and conspiracies and secrets on every turn, while giving the book an adventurous and humor-filled tone at the side.

The last book I read was Lord of the Flies. (better late than never)

I'm mostly reading the metals book since I've got my big candidacy exam coming up, and I wanted something that would sort of help tie together a lot of the separate ideas I've been studying so much for the last few months. :(

Ha! Finished that book long ago. Great read still, though the ending seemed to have a bit of a deus ex machina going on.

I think I read the Commonwealth Saga which is comprised of two books: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, by Peter F. Hamilton. Good space opera with a ton of parallel storylines that can get a bit confusing. After that I believe I read JPod by Douglas Coupland. It was good until the half way point then it just got utterly ridiculous and had some major deus ex going on.

Replay by Ken Grimwood was next and I really enjoyed that book. Jeff Wintson suffers a heart attack but is then thrust back about 20 years into his own past forced to relive it all over again.

I'm currently reading the Falcon and the Snowman by Robert Lindsey. A true story about two childhood friends who end up selling American secrets to the Russians. Really good so far.

Please download and disseminate the biggest load of shite I have read in a long time. It's Dan Brown's latest offering, "The Lost Symbol". The only book I have read recently that is worse is Kate Mosse's "Labyrinth", which is truly frightful.

Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol: MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Currently Reading His Majesty's Service By Naomi Novik. It's set in the napoleon era, France vs Europe. It follows the history of those events, only.... There are dragons.

Woohoo, thread necromancy again!

I've just finished reading the latest Horus Heresy novel, The First Heretic. It's a really, really good book, up there with the best of the series and I'm loving what Black Library are doing with the series. I've also been reading the Space Marine Battles series of books which are pretty good but seemed to be aimed at a slightly younger audience. I was going to launch into a highly nerdy discussion of the WH40k universe here but I think I'll save that for my journal...

I just finished War of the Worlds, and now I'm reading Moby Dick. Better late then never!

Fiction-wise I'm occasionally dipping into two books - Sylvia Plath's Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (a collection) and Graham Greene's Complete Short Stories. The Graham Greene in particular is quite unsettling in places (a good writer, then, considering some of the content); so far "A Little Place off the Edgeware Road" has been my favourite.

Non-fiction I'm reading Life on a Young Planet by Andrew H. Knoll. It's essentially about earlier periods of evolution. I never knew I would come to care about fossils and rocks as much as I now do. I'm also going to be getting hold of a copy of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, since almost all of our lecturers have told us it is the dog's bollocks.

Vemp, I've yet to read Moby Dick! I have been meaning to for a while but I feel more comfortable with short story collections I can dip in and out of - when I'm reading a good long piece of fiction I can get quite absorbed - I will literally do nothing but read all day, and I have been known to sacrifice sleep to keep reading when I'm hooked badly.

Short stories are the way to go, man. Novels tend to eat up a lot of your time and sometimes I mix up the events if I stop reading for a while.

Just read the latest Horus Heresy book (The 15th I think), Prospero Burns. It's very good, although not the best of the series but it makes a nice change for one of the books not to be rammed with Space Marines killing each other.

I know nobody else but me cares but they're really good books.

There are certainly a lot of books listed here in this thread's three and a half years of life that I have to check out. American Gods is one I've been looking at for some time now; now I'm definitely gonna have to pick that up.

Glad to see fans of the classics here as well. Agent Marty, your posts about Steinbeck have gotten me excited to finally read East of Eden. It's one I've set aside for a rainy day. Fitzgerald is another I have some serious catching up to do with.

Heya Vamp, have you managed to finish Moby Dick? I'm curious to know what you think of it.

As for myself, I'm currently reading The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. It's a short and easy read so far, likely because it's written in the first person from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy. The basic plot is about an odd group of three siblings whose parents die and they are left to bicker and mindlessly drift around and, occasionally, take care of each other over the course of a summer. It doesn't really try to be anything of a tragic tale; the real meat of the novel is about the interaction of the boy with his two sisters, the eldest of which he has developed a sort of carnal attraction to. I love stories which utilize such unconventional and deviant behaviors. Also, the general coming of age genre really resonates with me.

An ebook version is available here if anyone's interested in downloading it.

I am also halfway through Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - The Untold History of English by John McWhorter. I have a great interest in linguistics and love learning about any language. It's less a history of English as it is about the author's attempts to argue that English acquired some of it's commonplace grammar from a few Celtic languages during its "Old English" stage, a view which apparently isn't commonly accepted.