What are you reading?

[danooli]

Listening to GRRM's A Storm of Swords, and about 2/3 through. Dammit, why did those characters have to die! (I kind of figured it was coming, but still. That hurt.)

My friend is not quite at that point in the book but is close and I cannot wait till he gets to that!

[DKT]

Listening to GRRM's A Storm of Swords, and about 2/3 through. Dammit, why did those characters have to die! (I kind of figured it was coming, but still. That hurt.)

My friend is not quite at that point in the book but is close and I cannot wait till he gets to that!

See, that's how my friend at work has been...and then he went on a business trip this week. Probably for the best. I think he was going to take too much glee in my reaction. 

[Anarquistador]

I'm about halfway through Infinite Jest right now.

Yeek.

Okay, this is not a book. This a very long, very dense cry for help from a damaged individual. Did no one try to help this author before he committed suicide?

[kibitzer]

Listening to GRRM's A Storm of Swords, and about 2/3 through. Dammit, why did those characters have to die! (I kind of figured it was coming, but still. That hurt.)

My friend is not quite at that point in the book but is close and I cannot wait till he gets to that!

See, that's how my friend at work has been...and then he went on a business trip this week. Probably for the best. I think he was going to take too much glee in my reaction. 

You think THAT'S surprising? Wait'll they all come back as zombies!

(Oh btw -- spoiler alert)

[Chuk]

I just finished Jim C. Hines' Libriomancer. If you like the Dresden Files and you like reading books, you will probably like this book. I'm looking forward to more of them.

[danooli]

Listening to GRRM's A Storm of Swords, and about 2/3 through. Dammit, why did those characters have to die! (I kind of figured it was coming, but still. That hurt.)

My friend is not quite at that point in the book but is close and I cannot wait till he gets to that!

See, that's how my friend at work has been...and then he went on a business trip this week. Probably for the best. I think he was going to take too much glee in my reaction. 

You think THAT'S surprising? Wait'll they all come back as zombies!

(Oh btw -- spoiler alert)

eek! 

but, seriously...

[Listener]

"Apollo's Outcasts" by Allen Steele. YA, not bad, moves very quickly; I finished the first half in about an hour and a half last night.

[DKT]

Listening to GRRM's A Storm of Swords, and about 2/3 through. Dammit, why did those characters have to die! (I kind of figured it was coming, but still. That hurt.)

My friend is not quite at that point in the book but is close and I cannot wait till he gets to that!

See, that's how my friend at work has been...and then he went on a business trip this week. Probably for the best. I think he was going to take too much glee in my reaction. 

You think THAT'S surprising? Wait'll they all come back as zombies!

(Oh btw -- spoiler alert)

eek! 

but, seriously...

Okay, finished Storm of Swords.

Damn. That's a hell of a book.

Pretty sure I'll give myself at least a couple of months before starting the next one...although I'm tempted to dive in right now. But I think I'm going to enjoy controlling my wait-time for the next two books, since when I catch up with the general reading public, I'm gonna have to wait until Martin finishes the next one like everyone else

[Devoted135]

Listening to GRRM's A Storm of Swords, and about 2/3 through. Dammit, why did those characters have to die! (I kind of figured it was coming, but still. That hurt.)

My friend is not quite at that point in the book but is close and I cannot wait till he gets to that!

See, that's how my friend at work has been...and then he went on a business trip this week. Probably for the best. I think he was going to take too much glee in my reaction. 

You think THAT'S surprising? Wait'll they all come back as zombies!

(Oh btw -- spoiler alert)

eek! 

but, seriously...

Okay, finished Storm of Swords.

Damn. That's a hell of a book.

Pretty sure I'll give myself at least a couple of months before starting the next one...although I'm tempted to dive in right now. But I think I'm going to enjoy controlling my wait-time for the next two books, since when I catch up with the general reading public, I'm gonna have to wait until Martin finishes the next one like everyone else

That's exactly what I'm doing. I finished the third book about 16 months ago, so I figure I'm just about due to read the fourth one. C'mon, George RR Martin!

[Bdoomed]

The longer you wait, the more prone you are to intercepting rogue spoilers.

[kibitzer]

So anyways.

"Greywalker" by Kat Richardson. I think I picked this one up at the library coz the cover looked interesting.

The blurb says folks who like Jim Butcher (i.e. Harry Dresden) and Charlaine Harris (no idea who she is) will like this book. Or upcoming series of books

"Harper Blaine was a small-time P.I. until an assault left her dead for two minutes. Her 'death' has made her a Greywalker -- able to move between the human world and the mysterious cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift is about to drag her into that strange new realm, whether she likes it or not."

The story was good enough to keep me there until the end. There was something missing but not quite sure what! I remember Jim Butcher's 'Harry Dresden' series didn't excite until about the fourth book. He'd created great characters and situations -- enough to keep me reading -- but I didn't feel he really 'got' his universe until four books in. And that's how I feel about this. I'll give Kat some space to develop her world.

I just hope it doesn't go into bat-shit insane territory like Anita Blake.

[Umbrageofsnow]

Labyrinths by Borges

I've realized that I have quite literally hundreds of short story collections, very few of which I've read.  I tend to read one or two stories at a time in any given collection, then move on to the next one and never get back to the first, except for a few stories here and there.  There are some exceptions, but I really want to polish off some of my half-read collections. So I'm starting with Borges, because I want to introduce a math-teacher friend of mine to him, and I want to be able to talk about all the other stories.

At least in Labyrinths, I will probably have to switch authors after this, as much as I want to complete some short story collection reading, I still need variety of authors.

So far, my favorites of the Borges deep-cuts: The House of Asterion; The Zahir.

[Sgarre1]

If you can, scare up the audio of his Harvard lectures from 1968 -"This Craft Of Verse" - great stuff!

[DKT]

Listening to Vampire Empire: the Greyfriar. It's read by James Marsters, it came pretty highly recommended to me, and I wanted to love this post-apocalyptic steampunk vampire tale...but I'm over halfway through, and generally pretty underwhelmed. The writing is mediocre, the plot and characters flat and entirely predictable. A pet peeve of mine are characters I'm continually told are smart but who continually act idiotic. The political intrigue of the vampire courts...it just all makes me a little bit sad. I hate it when a book I want to love, and hear how much other people love, bums me out. The only thing it really has going for it is the setting and tech (Fahrenheit blades are totally bad-ass). But that's not enough to make me want to continue the series.

Ah, well. Better luck next time.

[Listener]

I'm in between books right now, but next up is the forum's own Jonathan C Gillespie's "The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man".

[Chuk]

So anyways.

"Greywalker" by Kat Richardson. I think I picked this one up at the library coz the cover looked interesting.

I've read two of those but didn't really feel the need to pick up any more.
Recently read Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines and it really scratched the Dresden itch, while having enough difference in character/setting and especially magic system that it didn't seem to just be a straight ripoff.

[Leishalynn]

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. The only of her six novels I hadn't yet read, I'm almost finished with it.

[CryptoMe]

Finally picked up something by Garth Nix - Mister Monday, Keys to the Kingdom. It's just okay, so far. I think it is suffering from too much hype and not being able to live up to the halo. We'll see how it progresses...

[DKT]

Let's see...been a while since I've posted here.

Shadow Show: All New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle. This may be one of my new favorite anthologies - it's got stories by Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Kelly Link, Margaret Atwood, and Harlan Ellison. The awesome in this collection is high, and I think Joe Hill's story is probably my favorite thing I read this year.

Dreadnought, by Cherie Priest (audio). If you look far enough upthread, you can find me waxing disappointment with Boneshaker. Several people told me Dreadnought was better, and I like Priest's work, so I gave it another shot. Wow, this book is made of win. I think Mercy Lynch might be one of my new favorite female protagonists.

Also listened to free versions of Dracula, Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Sign of Four, all good.

Currently reading Joe Hill's Horns and Tina Connolly's Ironskin.

All in all, my recent reading/listening pile has really been kicking my ass in the best possible way 

[lowky]

Inkspell by Cornelia Flunke
Stolen Prey by John Sanford

before those two that i am currently reading I read Kiss the Dead by Laurell K Hamilton
Read some Conan the barbarian ebook collections, don't recall titles of the two but seems like one or two of the stories repeated or overlapped in a slightly different retelling/different POV

[Listener]

before those two that i am currently reading I read Kiss the Dead by Laurell K Hamilton

Ooooh... I'm sorry to hear that.

http://escapepod.org/2012/07/06/book-review-kiss-the-dead-by-laurell-k-hamilton/

[lowky]

before those two that i am currently reading I read Kiss the Dead by Laurell K Hamilton

Ooooh... I'm sorry to hear that.

http://escapepod.org/2012/07/06/book-review-kiss-the-dead-by-laurell-k-hamilton/

I did get it from the library at least.  This one was lacking much in plot tension etc.  Let's face the whole book takes place in about 36 hours.  willing to overlook a lot, as I don't mind the poly thing.  It does seem as if she is leading up to possibly Anita no longer being a vampire hunter.  More characters are seeing the lines blur more and more between her and the monsters.  I think if she actually went furry, that would be it, she would be hunted down herself.  the big bad in this one pretty much seemed to not be.  I think Anita was closer to the big bad with her latest metaphysical mishap than the "villain" was.  Not her best work, not her worst.  I would really like to see the meridith gentry books merge with the anita blake books in the future.

[jrderego]

Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells, then The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Blank (I am reading it on a bet), after that Moby Dick (again)

[danooli]

I'm reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn...non genre for a change. I just got to the twist and...wow.  I have this checked out from the library and it's due today...not going to finish it in time I think.  There's a waiting list 742 people deep, so I can't renew it.

But, that's OK because I have "The Warlock's Curse" by M.K. Hobson to read!  Squee!!

[Devoted135]

Finished Redemption Ark by Alasdair Reynolds. Wow, does that guy know how to write.


Now I'm reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. The novelization! It's much more "modern" than my usual fare if that makes sense, but I'm really enjoying it so far.