Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845427 times)

jrderego

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Reply #900 on: March 17, 2009, 02:39:45 PM
The House of Mirth: Edith Wharton.

Let us know how that goes.  I've been thinking about it for a while, waffling.


It's a fun read, dense, but reading about a character careening towards disaster is always fun. I didn't like House of Mirth when I had to read it in college, but since then I've grown to appreciate a load of the classics that I could barely bother with back then.

I read Snowcrash way back in college to. Was okay as I remember it, loved the opening scene with the pizza delivery, could have done without the additional 15000 pages of unreadable pointless crap that followed it. I always preferred W.T. Quick to Stephenson anyway.

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stePH

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Reply #901 on: March 17, 2009, 03:46:12 PM
I read Snowcrash way back in college to. Was okay as I remember it, loved the opening scene with the pizza delivery, could have done without the additional 15000 pages of unreadable pointless crap that followed it.
You must have the "uncut" version.  My copy is only about 460 pages (mass market paperback edition).

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Reply #902 on: March 17, 2009, 04:52:49 PM
Kind of on a little Jonathan Lethem kick right now. Read his Men and Cartoons collection which was...interesting. But am now reading post-apocalytpic road-trip novel Amnesia Moon and it's bending my brain in very good ways. Very weird thus far, and also very funny.


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Reply #903 on: March 17, 2009, 06:32:36 PM
just finished reading pratchett's discworld series and Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Neverwhere in succession. My local bookshop is selling SF masterworks 3 for 2, and I had quite a bit of fun in there the other day. Now reading

Flowers For Algernon Daniel Keyes (read many times, but new copy)
The Demolished Man Alfred Bester
Stand On Zanzibar John Brunner



wherethewild

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Reply #904 on: March 19, 2009, 12:27:11 PM
Feuchtgebiete (English title: Wetlands) by Charlotte Roche.

Do not pick up this book if you are even slightly prudish. Even I found myself blushing reading it, and on the train I felt like I'd just been caught looking at porn by the old woman across from me. It's REALLY in-your-face bodily functions, WITHOUT being erotica.

here's an English review

Despite, or actually probably because, it's completely full of taboo subjects I'm enjoying it. I really like that it's not written as erotica (I'm a fan of erotica, but it's cool to see someone cover the same subject matter without resorting to just trying to make you horny).

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Reply #905 on: March 19, 2009, 12:59:19 PM
Feuchtgebiete (English title: Wetlands) by Charlotte Roche.

Do not pick up this book if you are even slightly prudish. Even I found myself blushing reading it, and on the train I felt like I'd just been caught looking at porn by the old woman across from me. It's REALLY in-your-face bodily functions, WITHOUT being erotica.

Yeah, most of my stories involve going to the bathroom, but not the mechanics of "I sat down and grunted..." et al. There's only so far you need to go when making a poop reference.

And the same goes for the mechanics of orgasm.

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MacArthurBug

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Reply #906 on: March 21, 2009, 02:58:53 PM
finished: Deathwish by Rob Thurman
re-reading: entire Callahans series- I need the comfort they bring me
finished: the last of the Sandman "comic" books. Magnificent, can't believe I hadn't found these before- Have now devoured almost everything (that's still in print, or easily found) by Mr. Gaiman
reading: Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand  by Carrie Vaughn(so far much slower then her other books)


So glad to have time again to read anything other then text books!

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Planish

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Reply #907 on: March 23, 2009, 06:47:19 AM
Now about 1/3 through At All Costs, David Weber's eleventh "Honor Harrington" novel.
:oThat was May 12, 2008, and I haven't read anything on dead tree substrate since. Haven't even resumed At All Costs yet.
I think I'm being corrupted by podcasts and audiobooks. :-[

One of the things not mentioned here that I got was The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.  Has anybody read them?  Two of the three say on the cover that they won the Hugo for best novel. 
I own all three, but they've been collecting dust shortly after I started the second one, I think. It just could not hold my interest.
As near as I can recall, the world-building was okay, but I could not connect with the characters.

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OliverM

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Reply #908 on: March 24, 2009, 04:21:59 PM
Feuchtgebiete (English title: Wetlands) by Charlotte Roche.

Do not pick up this book if you are even slightly prudish. Even I found myself blushing reading it, and on the train I felt like I'd just been caught looking at porn by the old woman across from me. It's REALLY in-your-face bodily functions, WITHOUT being erotica.

here's an English review

Despite, or actually probably because, it's completely full of taboo subjects I'm enjoying it. I really like that it's not written as erotica (I'm a fan of erotica, but it's cool to see someone cover the same subject matter without resorting to just trying to make you horny).

Me too.
Its definatly a challenging read. The challenge is part of the intended effect and yet despite this it also makes an enjoyable read.



jrderego

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Reply #909 on: March 24, 2009, 05:47:32 PM
The Kindly Ones: Jonathan Littell

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Reply #910 on: March 24, 2009, 05:52:06 PM
Sweet Like Maple Sugar by some dude named DeRego



jrderego

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Reply #911 on: March 24, 2009, 06:03:40 PM
Sweet Like Maple Sugar by some dude named DeRego

I heard he sucks.

"Happiness consists of getting enough sleep." Robert A. Heinlein
Also, please buy my book - Escape Clause: A Union Dues Novel
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stePH

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Reply #912 on: March 24, 2009, 07:46:08 PM
I finished Modern Magic by Anne Cordwainer about an hour ago.  I'll be posting a review in the fantasy forum soon, as it was a LibraryThing Early Reviewer copy and I owe the publisher quid pro quo.

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Reply #913 on: March 25, 2009, 02:55:15 PM
Terry Pratchett, "Feet of Clay", arguably the 2nd-best Watch novel after "Men at Arms". They're all quite good, and often my favorites of the Discworld series, but MAA and FOC are my favorites.

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Reply #914 on: March 28, 2009, 04:22:03 AM
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! Trilogy.  I'm maybe a quarter of the way through.

What a load of brazen horseshit in novel form.

Yes, I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

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stePH

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Reply #915 on: March 28, 2009, 04:32:09 AM
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! Trilogy.  I'm maybe a quarter of the way through.

What a load of brazen horseshit in novel form.

Yes, I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I love that book, though I bounced off of it on my first attempt to read it.  The sudden, without-warning change of scene/narrator/POV threw me and it took me some time to get over it.  But I love how just about every eetee conspiracy theory is worked in there, including the Cthulhu mythos.  I particularly liked how the JFK assassination is revisited several times, from the viewpoint of each of the half-dozen-or-so assassins stationed in various places about the scene. 

And I want to sign on aboard the Leif Erickson.

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Reply #916 on: April 10, 2009, 05:26:25 PM
2001: Reading it for my Strange Creations class, first time I've read it since I read the series in middle school. A bit aggravating to talk about in class, because I keep almost referencing what happens in '10/'61/3001. Also it's provoking flashbacks to reading in a corner of the middle school library during lunch and recess, which is interesting. And reminding me of The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which I read right after that series and which altered the course of my life.

Anathem: I lost slightly over a day reading it and it was good.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Almost done with this one. I like Pride and Prejudice sans the walking dead (and ninjas), so the addition of Zombies is interesting, if not necessarily an improvement.

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Reply #917 on: April 10, 2009, 06:02:46 PM
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Almost done with this one. I like Pride and Prejudice sans the walking dead (and ninjas), so the addition of Zombies is interesting, if not necessarily an improvement.

So, it's fun?

How close does it follow Pride and Prejudice? (Which I also enjoy.)


stePH

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Reply #918 on: April 10, 2009, 06:15:03 PM
Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne.

I already know it's true, of course, but the way the author shreds the case for "intelligent design" is a thing of beauty. ;D  And he does it without coming off as an arrogant jackass, like Richard Dawkins is said to (I haven't read any Dawkins).

Of course, the people who really should read this book, never will.  :(

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Reply #919 on: April 10, 2009, 06:19:10 PM
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Almost done with this one. I like Pride and Prejudice sans the walking dead (and ninjas), so the addition of Zombies is interesting, if not necessarily an improvement.

So, it's fun?

How close does it follow Pride and Prejudice? (Which I also enjoy.)

It is fun, and there's very little deviation from plot of Pride and Prejudice. There are some changes to the details of the plot, but it’s still a girl meets boy, dislikes boy, finds out boy is in love with her, is greatly offended by boy on many levels, boy does damage control, and girl is eventually won over by boy kind of story. It's the kind of story that provokes a review out of me, which I'll probably post here at some point like I did with OSC's Empire.

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Listener

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Reply #920 on: April 10, 2009, 06:31:38 PM
Now up to "Thief of Time" in my quest to do the entire Discworld in order.

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Reply #921 on: April 11, 2009, 01:31:38 AM
I just started reading "The Terror" by Dan Simmons.  I think I'm getting frostbite.  He captures the sense of being in the Arctic so well.



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Reply #922 on: April 11, 2009, 01:51:22 AM
Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne.

I already know it's true, of course, but the way the author shreds the case for "intelligent design" is a thing of beauty. ;D  And he does it without coming off as an arrogant jackass, like Richard Dawkins is said to (I haven't read any Dawkins).

In Dawkins' defense, when he's good he's really good.  I haven't read his latest religion-bashing tome, but The Selfish Gene is extraordinary.  And I have a special place in my heart for The Ancestor's Tale, which is approximately 700 pages of letting Dawkins run wild.  I had a blast reading it, although admittedly I find the evolutionary history of the animal kingdom to be geekily fascinating.


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stePH

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Reply #923 on: April 11, 2009, 02:42:04 AM

In Dawkins' defense, when he's good he's really good.  I haven't read his latest religion-bashing tome, but The Selfish Gene is extraordinary.  And I have a special place in my heart for The Ancestor's Tale, which is approximately 700 pages of letting Dawkins run wild.  I had a blast reading it, although admittedly I find the evolutionary history of the animal kingdom to be geekily fascinating.

Then do yourself a favor and check out the book I'm reading.  It's really really good.  And I'll check out The Selfish Gene soon.

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Reply #924 on: April 11, 2009, 07:44:20 AM
For a little light relief, Mark Barrowcliffe's "The Elfish Gene", sadly I recognised far too much of myself in there  :-[

Just as a taster (from the back cover)

Quote
In the summer 1976, twelve-year-old Mark Barrowcliffe had a chance to be normal. He blew it. While other teenagers were being coolly rebellious, Mark—and 20 million other boys in the 1970s and 80s—chose to spend his entire adolescence pretending to be a wizard or a warrior, an evil priest or a dwarf.

Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.