Author Topic: What are you reading? (Read 849900 times)

lowky · **Reply #200 on:** September 22, 2007, 02:54:10 AM

I have read almost everything and would recommend all of it except for haunted. It was just way too slow. twisted as anything else he has written, but real slow and plodding.

Planish · **Reply #201 on:** September 22, 2007, 04:54:45 AM

Quote from: ajames on September 13, 2007, 11:36:30 AM

Thanks for the tip, Planish. Funny you should mention it, as a friend of mine also recommended this book, very enthusiastically. It is definitely on my list now.

Which - Dancing Wu Li Masters or Gravity's Rainbow?

Gravity's Rainbow is a rather difficult book to read. Not as hard as Finnegan's Wake, but at times a sentence might run on for half a page or so, people are talking that you don't know who they are, you don't know whether stuff is happening for real or in imagination, settings change without warning. Oh, wait a minute..., it was publish just after the '60s. There's a big piece of the puzzle.

from wikipedia:

Quote

The plot of the novel is complex, containing over 400 characters and involving many different threads of narrative which intersect and weave around one another. The recurring themes throughout the plot are the V-2 rocket, interplay between free will and Calvinistic predestination, breaking the cycle of nature, behavioral psychology, sexuality and conspiracy theories such as the Phoebus cartel and the Illuminati. Gravity's Rainbow also draws heavily on themes that Pynchon had probably encountered at his work as a technical writer for Boeing, where he edited a support newsletter for the Bomarc Missile Program support unit.

I'm still only about 100 pages in.

I've also added The Difference Engine to my stack of books to reread.

ajames · **Reply #202 on:** September 23, 2007, 01:38:56 AM

Dancing Wu Li Masters, though now you've got me interested in Gravity's Rainbow, too.

Listener · **Reply #203 on:** September 25, 2007, 01:05:12 AM

Just finished Harry Potter 7 again. Less impressed this time around than I was the first time.

Now reading "The Diamond Age" again. I pick up new subtleties each time around. (This is the third or fourth, I don't recall.)

"Going Postal" and "Thud!" (both Pratchett) are on deck.

Cobb County Library Book Sale is 10/12 - 10/14, so I'm hoping those two will tide me over until that weekend.

DDog · **Reply #204 on:** September 26, 2007, 02:13:25 AM

Been reading The Tin Drum for a very long time now, because I keep pausing to read other books very quickly along the way. One of these I just finished is Blue Moon of the Anita Blake series. It's the only one I hadn't read in order (I've read everything else up to halfway through Dance Macabre) since it wasn't in the library the other summer when I went on my Anita Blake kick. Kind of an interesting trip back in time, and I finally know what happened in Tennessee.

Leon Kensington · **Reply #205 on:** September 27, 2007, 02:45:29 AM

Just finished David Wellington's 13 Bullets

Starting on Neil Gaiman's American Gods

Next is either Snow Crash or HP7

Roney · **Reply #206 on:** September 29, 2007, 06:59:30 PM

Enjoyed The Execution Channel. I always liked Ken MacLeod's nearer-future stuff more than his space opera, and this one's as near-future as it gets. It's also a tense thriller right up to the rather wacky ending.

Currently enjoying The Atrocity Archives. Very silly but enormously good fun, even by Charles Stross's grin-inducing standards.

For those forum readers who are also signed up to Facebook I recommend the Bookshare application (if you like to see what people are reading, and get mini book reviews). It's also not bad at making recommendations, given that it's got a lot less data to work from than Amazon.

Planish · **Reply #207 on:** September 30, 2007, 03:08:15 AM

"Gravity's Rainbow" is now officially on hiatus, because I found a shopping bag with a copy of Turtledove's A World of Difference that I had forgotten I had bought last summer, and I've started on that.
It pays to try to clean your desk once in a while, I guess.

Also listening to Bill DeSmedt's "Singularity", from podiobooks.com. Seems to be more of a techno-thriller than SF, but enjoyable. It's the first story involving a micro-singularity that I've read since Niven's "The Hole Man", but maybe I just don't read enough.

DKT · **Reply #208 on:** October 01, 2007, 05:41:08 PM

I started reading Un Lun Dun this weekend. Pretty cool, thus far, although I'm getting Zanna and Deeba confused at times.

Listener · **Reply #209 on:** October 01, 2007, 07:27:51 PM

Finished "Going Postal" for the 3rd time. Now reading "Thud!" for the third time in advance of "Making Money", which I just ordered.

Listener · **Reply #210 on:** October 01, 2007, 07:28:16 PM

Quote from: DKT on October 01, 2007, 05:41:08 PM

I started reading Un Lun Dun this weekend. Pretty cool, thus far, although I'm getting Zanna and Deeba confused at times.

I never really got them confused, but the first six or seven chapters of that book were a little blah, IMO. But don't worry, it gets better.

DDog · **Reply #211 on:** October 02, 2007, 04:23:46 PM

Quote from: Listener on October 01, 2007, 07:27:51 PM

Finished "Going Postal" for the 3rd time. Now reading "Thud!" for the third time in advance of "Making Money", which I just ordered.

I'm behind on my Pratchett.

DKT · **Reply #212 on:** October 02, 2007, 05:08:15 PM

Quote from: Listener on October 01, 2007, 07:28:16 PM

Quote from: DKT on October 01, 2007, 05:41:08 PM
I started reading Un Lun Dun this weekend. Pretty cool, thus far, although I'm getting Zanna and Deeba confused at times.

I never really got them confused, but the first six or seven chapters of that book were a little blah, IMO. But don't worry, it gets better.

Maybe confused was the wrong word. I just meant they both seemed very similiar to me. But yeah, it's definitely picking up now

Leon Kensington · **Reply #213 on:** October 12, 2007, 02:58:43 PM

So is Terry Pratchett any good? I've seen his stuff at the book store from time to time, but been a little leery of it.

Alasdair5000 · **Reply #214 on:** October 12, 2007, 03:04:45 PM

Short answer is yes.

The Discworld novels get better as they go along although there's a little bit of an intellectual speed bump to get over in the early books where he's trying out different protagonists. However, once you get past that and onto the idea that the world is in essence the character, tons of fun are to be had.

If you're slightly leery, may I recommend Good Omens, co-written with Neil Gaiman? Great book and some off the best work by both authors.

DKT · **Reply #215 on:** October 12, 2007, 03:50:32 PM

I'll second Good Omens as a good place to start. I've read some of Pratchett's solo stuff and liked it, but I think Good Omens is really good.

I'm about halfway through Un Lun Dun. That book got wicked exciting very fast and it's hard for me to put down right now. Maybe I'll get to finish it this weekend...

Russell Nash · **Reply #216 on:** October 12, 2007, 05:18:56 PM

Quote from: Leon_Kensington on October 12, 2007, 02:58:43 PM

So is Terry Pratchett any good? I've seen his stuff at the book store from time to time, but been a little leery of it.

One of my posts back in January or so was asking this question, because someone had just forced a bag of Pratchett on me. I'm on Discworld number 12 or so right now and I love 'em.

Bdoomed · **Reply #217 on:** October 12, 2007, 08:49:15 PM

I'm on my 13th book since june!

Im reading Foundation and Earth. After reading Foundation's Edge and Prelude to Foundation, Asimov is seeming a little childish with incorporating his robots... like.. 'yea, foundation, and stuff happens... AND ROBOTS YEA COOL!' Great tie in in Prelude to Foundation, a little forced in Foundation's Edge... ill see how Foundation and Earth goes.

anyways, in school i just finished reading 4 short stories by Franz Kafka. I read "The Judgement", "Metamorphosis", "In the Penal Colony", and "A Country Doctor". I liked "In the Penal Colony" and found the rest were okay.... yeeep.

jodymonster · **Reply #218 on:** October 14, 2007, 10:45:33 PM

And people say the printed word is a dying art form! Thanks everyone for proving (at least to me) that real, physical books aren't anywhere close to obsolete. I'm currently reading Dangerous Visions, an anthology of short scifi by lots of big names and a few I hadn't discovered before. It's edited by Harlan Ellison and I think it's worth reading just for his intros and insights. I'm a little biased, I've had a kind of writer's geek-crush on him ever since I read I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream when I was about thirteen.

I am also reading The Dreams of Dragons by Lyall Watson, which is more like speculative non-fiction. It's a great book to plant ideas in your head for new stories, or just to find a bunch of really enertaining musings on the natural world.

I just finished Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy. Don't be scared by the 'Young Adult' classification. This is great entertainment reading, fastpaced with enough action to keep me awake (and reasonably sane) through an eight hour flight, but intellegent enough so that I didn't get bored. Speaking of, somebody better invent the hoverboards they have in this book. I don't care how much I have to pay, I want one. I'll sell a kidney or something. But anyway, I liked this trilogy so much I went out and bought everything else I could find of Westerfeld's, which was unfortunatly only the young adult books, and I didn't really like the Midnighter's trilogy as much. It's leaning toward fantasy, which I normally prefer, but just didn't quite get sucked into it. Still read all of it though, and felt it was worth my time. Also, I suggest giving either of these to any young adult you know. It's intellegent and PG.

gedion_ki · **Reply #219 on:** October 15, 2007, 04:30:46 PM

Currently I'm reading The Difference Engine by Gibson & Sterling and Listening to Alvin Maker book 6 by Card.

Next up for me is Stardust by Gaiman, haven't seen the movie yet but it's queued up in my NetFlix account so I thought I would get the book in before it is released.

Listener · **Reply #220 on:** October 15, 2007, 06:07:47 PM

Just finished Pratchett's "Making Money". It was in the same vein as "Going Postal", but it was even funnier (the Mr. Fusspot's New Toy gag was hilarious) and the dynamic between Moist and Spike is still good. Also, this one perhaps had the most Vetinari we've seen since Feet of Clay. If it fell down somewhere, it was that... okay... this isn't really a spoiler, but for the sake of argument, very rarely are Pratchett's bad guys killed by the good guys; mostly, they're victims of their own hubris... and in "Making Money", the main villain is (a) pretty weak and (b) pretty thin in terms of character development. I mean, the guy was developed so that you know why he's doing what he's doing, but it felt weak to me.

Still, I was overall quite happy with the book.

Now reading Michael Jan Friedman's "Death in Winter". So far okay; not brilliant. But then, MJ Friedman's books usually get much better toward the end, and I've rarely truly disliked any of them. Except some of the later Stargazer novels.

Russell Nash · **Reply #221 on:** November 12, 2007, 08:49:26 PM

Just finished ~~Faust~~ Eric, Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, and Witches Abroad, in my continuing quest through Discworld.

Finished The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe.

Darwinist · **Reply #222 on:** November 13, 2007, 03:31:40 AM

Just finished "Cloud Atlas". Loved it.

Next up: "Across Realtime" by Vinge . The time it will take to get through my "to read" pile probably exceeds the time I have left on this planet.

Russell Nash · **Reply #223 on:** November 13, 2007, 07:41:40 AM

Quote from: Darwinist on November 13, 2007, 03:31:40 AM

The time it will take to get through my "to read" pile probably exceeds the time I have left on this planet.

I can't remember the last time my "to read" pile was down to one book.

Listener · **Reply #224 on:** November 13, 2007, 08:36:52 PM

Modified per Russell Nash's instructions.

Finished "The Historian" (Elizabeth Kostova). Will post my thoughts in that thread.

Now reading "Wicked" (Gregory Maguire). Very amusing.