The Books/Reading Thread

[Matt]

K, pretty self explanatory. Right now, I'm trying to read Tolkien's Silmarillion again because it's boring and I skipped a lot of parts when I first read it. I also just finished Children of Hurin, and that was very good.

What have ya'll be readin?

 

[Zephyrus]

I'm in the middle of reading Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler, but I may break that since I've recently acquired a copy of Dante's Inferno (which, by the way, is totally copied from Book 6 of Vergil's Aeneid).

 

[Matt]

I had to read Dante's inferno for my hon lit class last year.

 

[RedinTheSky]

A song of ice and fire George RR Martin

 

[skeptik]

I'll be beginning The Thing On The Doorstep, a collection of works by Lovecraft, soon.

 

[Dazed and Brutal]

Macbeth. Seriously the best thing I've ever read.

 

[s_a_o]

K, pretty self explanatory. Right now, I'm trying to read Tolkien's Silmarillion again because it's boring and I skipped a lot of parts when I first read it. I also just finished Children of Hurin, and that was very good.

What have ya'll be readin?

I heard Children of Hurin was great.

Currently reading "109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos" by Jennet Conant. Amazing book.

 

[skeptik]

Edward Teller was way cooler. And yeah, I've been meaning to pick that Tolkien book up as well.

 

[Hammer of Might]

My favourite books:

Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
Mistress of the Empire

A superlative fantasy trilogy by Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts.

~~~

I don't read anything like as much as I would like to, mainly through business/laziness/the internet. I tend to go for the fantasy genre when I do though.

At the moment I am trudging through Michael Moorcock's Corum: The Prince in the Scarlet Robe, having already read a collection of his Elric stories (incidentally, the character who appears on every Cirith Ungol album cover). However, I have to say that I find these books totally unsatisfying, and I am only continuing to read this Corum thing because there is no alternative on my bedside table.

For me, his books fail in the three most important categories of a great novel: i) characters, ii) plot, iii) writing style. The characters are not delved into much at all, the plots are extremely linear, based on a "quest" like journey from place to place and artefact to artefact, and his writing style just generally strikes me as rushed and uninspiring - probably the reason why he's shitted out over 100 books.

Totally overrated.

~~~

What I've read by Feist however has been fantastic. The Magician trilogy is also excellent (Magician, Silverthorn, A Darkness At Sethanon), and sensible to read before the ..Empire trilogy, but I far prefer the latter works. Can't recommend enough.

 

[Sigma]

Currently reading through Michael Shermer's "Why Darwin Matters" and Douglas Adams' "The Salmon of Doubt."

 

[Death Aflame]

Neuromancer by William Gibson. But I guess I'm listening to it since its an audio tape. I wanted the actual book but my lame public library only had this version. Great so far.

 

[Hammer of Might]

Audio tapes are a cool idea actually, but I haven't listened to one in probably over a decade!

We used to listen to things like Roald Dahl stories during car journeys - we heard the same ones so many times, my parents must have been sick of them! It was great though.

 

[Ender Rises]

Just finished re-re-re-re-reading Shadow Puppets, one of the "sequels" in my favorite series, the Ender series. I forgot how fucking great that book is.

I re-read a lot.

 

[Satanstoenail]

I'm reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson atm. It's great so far. I love his writing style. It's taking me ages though, I don't read as much as I should.

Some of my fave books:

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Perdido Street Station - China Miéville
Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Weaveworld - Clive Barker

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I like reading, but I'm slow as fuck at it - I usually read as if I were saying each word aloud to myself. Between that and not having much of an attention span for long readings, I typically only get through about 2 to 4 novels a year.

Last year's readings were as follows:

Interview With the Vampire - amazing sensory descriptions, and lots of emotion; though a little tiring because of all the intensity
Ender's Game - fucking awesome story, great irony in the ending
Speaker for the Dead (sequel to Ender) - liked it even better than the first book; much more mature writing style, better character development, and more philosophical stuff going on
Neuromancer - only got about halfway through it; really jargony language, kinda hard to follow, but awesome sci-fi concepts, and a pretty complex plot

 

[Matt]

Ender's Game was very good. I enjoyed it

 

[Death Aflame]

I used to rarely read recreationally. Then I had trouble getting to sleep so I started reading every night before bed and it worked like a charm. I've also churned through a decent number of books in the process as well.

Has anyone here read The Dice Man? If so what did you think of it?

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I used to rarely read recreationally. Then I had trouble getting to sleep so I started reading every night before bed and it worked like a charm. I've also churned through a decent number of books in the process as well.

Heh. I have trouble sleeping too, but I just put on soft music every night to fix that. Maybe I should try out your method. Only thing is that I have very little self-control, and if the book got really good, I'd stay up clear through the night reading it. I'd probly also be in a super-contemplative state after a long reading session, which would lead to even more time lost as I stayed up jotting down my various thoughts. So... I might have to be a bit selective of my reading material.

 

[entanglement]

Reading it for the 6th time.

 

[challenge_everything]

Just finished re-re-re-re-reading Shadow Puppets, one of the "sequels" in my favorite series, the Ender series. I forgot how fucking great that book is.

I re-read a lot.

Orson Scott Card is my favourite author, and I must have read Ender's Game about 15 times. Songmaster is amazing too, especially for people like those on this forum who find music an incredibly emotional experience.

The Shadow series is pretty average though, it gets worse as it goes on. I wish Card would stop milking the Ender series and put his mind to writing something new.