Author Topic: What are you reading? (Read 1060343 times)

Scattercat · **Reply #2050 on:** November 10, 2011, 01:54:05 PM

My copy of "The Weird" is in! Woo!

jrderego · **Reply #2051 on:** November 11, 2011, 04:55:56 PM

The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

DKT · **Reply #2052 on:** November 11, 2011, 05:07:16 PM

Quote from: Scattercat on November 10, 2011, 01:54:05 PM

My copy of "The Weird" is in! Woo!

That's the VanderMeer anthology? Wow, it looks massive. Should be some great reading.

Scattercat · **Reply #2053 on:** November 12, 2011, 11:29:39 PM

Read "Fuzzy Nation" last night. A fun, light-hearted story about a heroic sociopath. No, really. Good times...

DKT · **Reply #2054 on:** November 16, 2011, 06:53:45 PM

Good to hear. I've enjoyed the Scalzi books I've read. They're fun, and I turn the pages faster than I think I do any other author.

Read Cherie Priest's Clementine. I don't know. Liked it more than Boneshaker, I guess, but still just didn't love it anywhere near what you'd think I would.

Finished listening to Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue, which is a fairy tale detective story. They had it at my library and I was still kind of coming down from reading the Welcome to Bordertown anthology, and thought this might hit a similar spot. But it wasn't really my thing. Instead of the story being about outcasts from the elf courts and runaways, it dealt with fairy courts and hierarchies (although there were runaways and changeling bastards, etc., but the story felt like it was more about maintaining the status quo than I would've liked). My library has two more of these, and Mary Robinette Kowal reads them, so I might check out the next one if I'm hurting for something to listen to.

So I was thinking I was a grump but then I started reading Carolyn Ives Gilman's Isle of the Forsaken, which is rollicking fun with pirates and uprisings and magic, etc.

Also started listening to Tim Powers The Stress of Her Regard which I'm LOVING. Very dark and twisted, but it's got Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy and Mary Shelley as supporting characters (thus far) and creepy weird ass vampires, so yeah. I'm in love.

Also started reading the Ghosts by Gaslight anthology that I got at WFC. Two stories in, and am loving it. So maybe I'm not as grumpy as I originally thought

Listener · **Reply #2055 on:** November 16, 2011, 08:44:58 PM

Finished the Hunger Games trilogy. The first was definitely the best of them, and I wasn't thrilled with how the climax of the final battle in the third was handled -- seemed too fast -- but overall I enjoyed them.

Now reading "11/22/63" by Stephen King.

Talia · **Reply #2056 on:** November 18, 2011, 03:28:34 AM

I am loving 'The Alloy of Law.' It's certainly fluffier than Sanderson's previous works, but it's very enjoyable - a rollicking good action adventure tale with a healthy dose of comedy.

BlueLu · **Reply #2057 on:** November 19, 2011, 04:12:35 AM

Just finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lainie Taylor--YA urban fantasy, girl living in Prague raised by demons. Quite good.

Sandikal · **Reply #2058 on:** November 19, 2011, 05:06:51 AM

Quote from: Talia on November 18, 2011, 03:28:34 AM

I am loving 'The Alloy of Law.' It's certainly fluffier than Sanderson's previous works, but it's very enjoyable - a rollicking good action adventure tale with a healthy dose of comedy.

It reminded me a lot of the old TV show "Wild Wild West".

Darwinist · **Reply #2059 on:** November 20, 2011, 05:35:11 PM

I recently blew through Steele's Coyote trilogy. I thought the books were really good. There are some ancillary Coyote books that I'll eventually pick up.

Talia · **Reply #2060 on:** November 22, 2011, 03:14:56 PM

Finished 'Alloy of Law,' loved it! Lots of fun.

Also finished Pratchett's 'Snuff,' and I really do feel it might be his finest work. It's absolutely wonderful. Loves me some Sam Vimes.

raetsel · **Reply #2061 on:** December 07, 2011, 09:43:25 PM

Just finished Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. Or Midnight Riot as it is known in the Americas according to the authors website the-folly.com

I haven't enjoyed a book as much as this in ages. Part of a series and best described as "what if Harry Potter had joined the London Metropolitsn Police" Not a kids' book though I should stress.

FireTurtle · **Reply #2062 on:** December 22, 2011, 02:29:20 AM

Finished Rivers of London and the sequel. Have to agree that they were very enjoyable. Got a quick fix from Patricia Cornwell (Red Mist) and am plowing through yet another Diana Gabaldon as light bedtime reading.
The main reason I am here...has anyone read Rule 34? Amazon conned me into buying it and I am struggling. I hate wanting to quit reading but I'm having a hard time getting any enjoyment out of it at this point. The second person perspective is killing me slowly, and given that there are several narrators I am spending an inordinate amount of time feeling either lost or like i"m reading something written by Sybil.
Has anyone made it through this thing? Is it worth it? I hate to give up, but I don't want to waste precious minutes of life being frustrated.

Talia · **Reply #2063 on:** December 22, 2011, 04:01:45 AM

I haven't read Rule 34, but I DID read 'Halting State,' also by Stross, and ALSO read in second person narrative. In fact, I DID struggle with that one for a while too.

But I tell you what, I eventually did adjust, and by the end found the book really rewarding. So I'd suggest sticking it out; perhaps it will pay off like it did for me.

Listener · **Reply #2064 on:** December 22, 2011, 04:28:50 PM

"Out of Oz" by Gregory Maguire.

DKT · **Reply #2065 on:** December 22, 2011, 04:29:46 PM

I've heard several people here praise Aaronovith (and I'm pretty eytanz mentioned him to me earlier). I really wish there was an audio version of those books, because I'd like to check them out.

Fireturtle, I haven't read Rule 34, but I have struggled partway through books that eventually break open for me. The times in mind are all by authors I already appreciated, though - so maybe it depends on how you feel about Stross? (And I've also read quite a few that ended up frustrating me more than anything.)

FireTurtle · **Reply #2066 on:** December 22, 2011, 09:17:22 PM

Quote from: Talia on December 22, 2011, 04:01:45 AM

I haven't read Rule 34, but I DID read 'Halting State,' also by Stross, and ALSO read in second person narrative. In fact, I DID struggle with that one for a while too.

But I tell you what, I eventually did adjust, and by the end found the book really rewarding. So I'd suggest sticking it out; perhaps it will pay off like it did for me.

Sigh....Ok. I think I'm going to take a break and read something else and get back to it when I'm at work. DKT- I hear you, I have the same problem with books and movies. I wish I had a crystal ball to tell me how I'm going to feel at the end! There have been parts of Rule 34 that have made me laugh, I just...well...you know. Guess there's no choice but to read the damn thing and find out if I like it when its over.

Talia · **Reply #2067 on:** December 24, 2011, 04:36:02 AM

Oh goodness. I just finished China Mieville's 'Embassytown,' and it's bloody brilliant. Set in a far off world on the edges of a distant universe, it tells the story of the relationship between the resident aliens of a planet - "the Hosts" as others refer to them - and the human colonists. The plot's way too complex to summarize, let me just say he explores some fascinating ideas here. These "host" aliens - their language - is made up of two voices speaking at once. They only understand when others are speaking to them as two voices at once - but with only one mind behind the words. (two normal people speaking at the same time doesn't do it, the aliens just hear it at noise).

Mieville's exploration of linguistics is truly fascinating. It's not a field I've ever particularly been interested in, but his treatment of it here is just.. neat! And humanity comes up with the most fascinating workaround to open conversations with the aliens.

So lots of big ideas probed, with language being a major part. Reallly super engrossing.

One minor issue: the first part of the novel jumps around in time a lot. Didn't love that. Overall though, I expect the book to win awards, and am pretty sure it will at least be Hugo and Nebula nominated. It's fantastic.

Gamercow · **Reply #2068 on:** December 28, 2011, 03:44:50 PM

Just blasted through "Ready Player One" in about 3 days. Good book, if you're into 80s pop culture and video games. Nothing too ground breaking or revolutionary, no big twists, just pure fun delivered in a nerdy package.

iamafish · **Reply #2069 on:** December 28, 2011, 06:08:04 PM

been reading some discworld of late - Mort, The Colour of Magic and Going Postal. Lovely them all, but Going Postal was my fav.

Now reading Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I hope I enjoy this one more than the Gathering Storm, which was a little sketchy.

kibitzer · **Reply #2070 on:** December 30, 2011, 07:27:28 AM

Reading through the "Millennium" Trilogy -- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and all that. Very unusually for me, I saw the movies (the Swedish/Danish ones) before reading the books. My dear wife gave me the trilogy (the books) as one of my Christmas presents so I've finished the first and am halfway through the second.

They are exceptionally well written! Tightly-plotted; interesting and very off-the-wall characters; some truly horrific happenings; quite a bit of social commentary along the way, particularly abhorring violence against women. These are very intelligent stories which demand your attention all the way through.

And may I say, whilst I'll probably go and see the English-language version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I strongly recommend the existing Swedish movies. Do not be put off by subtitles, people. The actors are all fantastic, especially Noomi Rapace (Salander) and Michael Nyqvist (Blomkvist) and the movies encapsulate the spirit of the novels very well indeed.

Devoted135 · **Reply #2071 on:** January 03, 2012, 02:57:20 PM

Currently reading Century Rain by Alasdair Reynolds and loving it.

Apparently he's usually more on the space opera side of scifi, but in this case it's mostly just alt history with a sprinkling of spaceships and wormholes. (oh, and nanobots, mustn't forget the nanobots!)

stePH · **Reply #2072 on:** January 06, 2012, 03:04:18 PM

Just finished The Great Divorce; just started Out of the Silent Planet (both by C S Lewis).

Inspired to pick up The Great Divorce by a commenter on Fred Clark's "Slacktivist" blog.

kibitzer · **Reply #2073 on:** January 06, 2012, 11:51:16 PM

Quote from: stePH on January 06, 2012, 03:04:18 PM

Just finished The Great Divorce; just started Out of the Silent Planet (both by C S Lewis).

Inspired to pick up The Great Divorce by a commenter on Fred Clark's "Slacktivist" blog.

Aha. What did you think of it?

DKT · **Reply #2074 on:** January 07, 2012, 12:00:24 AM

Been so long since I read the Great Divorce. I really need to check that out again sometime soon.