The Books/Reading Thread

[Vilden]

About Halfway through Dune by Frank Herbert. Much more interesting and engaging than the movie by David Lynch.

Dune is one of the best SF-novels ever. The rest in the series are good too but not on the same level. They get more and more annoying as they progress, I hated pretty much all characters in Children of Dune for example. x)

 

[The Ozzman]

Much more interesting and engaging than the movie by David Lynch.

That's because David Lynch movies fucking suck

 

[Thoth-Amon]

That's because David Lynch movies fucking suck

not 'the elephant man'

 

[zerostatic]

That's because David Lynch movies fucking suck

I found that out when I made the mistake of watching Fire Walk With Me after viewing the Twin Peaks series.

 

[Pessimism]

Currently reading my gigantic Conan anthology.

 

[Draehl]

How is the Conan series? I've never really heard much.

 

[Pessimism]

Honestly, I think it's amazing. Anyone who only knows Conan via the movies is doing themselves a huge disservice.

 

[MetalliFio]

I'm actually reading 'Domes of Fire', the first book of the trilogy of David Eddings called 'Tamuli'

 

[mutantllama]

Picked up

a few days ago and really enjoying it.

 

[unknown]

YES! Pretty much features all of Ligotti's best works. From there you can pick up the individual collections, My Work Is Not Yet Done and Conspiracy Against The Human Race and become a fanatic like me

 

[Cronopio]

Some quality stuff, mutantllama. If you manage to get your hands on the ominibus called The Nightmare Factory, get it! (Or any of the individual collections therein, although they're even harder to come by.)

 

[Einherjar86]

A Canticle For Leibowitz was a real treat. Good writing, an awesome story, and plenty of philosophical chatter on science versus religion (which was handled very well, despite all the lead characters being monks or abbots in a far-future Christian sect). The whole novel spans several centuries and deals with the old adage that history repeats itself, put simply. More specifically, it looks at how scientific discoveries can come to be viewed as miracles, how knowledge gets misinterpreted, the representation of abstract ideas, and preparation for consequences rather than prevention of disaster. And it features some really great dialogue.

Now I'm totally psyched, because until George R.R. Martin's new book comes out in a few days, my attention is on the first story in Glen Cook's monumental Black Company series, and so far it's badass.

 

[skeptik]

Almost through The Iliad, will read The Odyssey after, naturally.

How much time would you guys say that you spend reading books? I always feel like I'm not reading enough. I just got a handful of nice used books that should be keeping me occupied though.

 

[Zephyrus]

I always have that feeling, coupled with the frustration of thinking I'm a slower reader than most people.

 

[skeptik]

Ha! I definitely feel like I'm a slower than average reader. The proportion of my free time that I spend reading is seriously disappointing to me though.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm a very slow reader, and frequently reread the same page or passage twice before moving on.

I always feel like I'm not reading enough, but that's because I always have too much to read. I only read one fictional work at a time, but I like to keep myself occupied with a few theoretical texts as well. Lately, I've been bouncing back and forth between Jameson's Postmodernism: or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism and Virilio's The Information Bomb.

 

[Cythraul]

I was reading Three Faces of Fascism: Action Francaise, Italian Fascism, National Socialism by Ernst Nolte while I was riding the trains around Spain. I stopped reading it though, because I have a hard time getting through serious historical texts. Maybe it's the way historians tend to write, or maybe it's that they're constantly throwing discrete fact after discrete fact at you so that after a while it just becomes an information overload. I guess my thinking style is too abstract to really get a ton of enjoyment out of that sort of stuff.

So I've decided to start rereading this:

 

[mutantllama]

YES! Pretty much features all of Ligotti's best works. From there you can pick up the individual collections, My Work Is Not Yet Done and Conspiracy Against The Human Race and become a fanatic like me

So far my favorite has been Purity, all though I've enjoyed all the stories I've read so far.

Some quality stuff, mutantllama. If you manage to get your hands on the ominibus called The Nightmare Factory, get it! (Or any of the individual collections therein, although they're even harder to come by.)

I thought it got a reissue?

How much time would you guys say that you spend reading books? I always feel like I'm not reading enough. I just got a handful of nice used books that should be keeping me occupied though.

For me I generally find a book, obsess over it for a month or two, and then I don't pick up a book for quite awhile. I don't ready nearly as much as I should, however by doing this I get really into the book. As for actually reading them I tend to read them at a slow rate.

 

[Zephyrus]

I usually have a book for pleasure reading at all times, but I think I'm going to start reading every book and article written on the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. I'm seriously considering making him the focal point of my specialty in ancient history.

 

[unknown]

mutant: all of the individual collections (Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Grimscribe, etc...) are being reissued. I would just get those since not all of the stuff from those collections are in The Nightmare Factory (even though TNF is what got me into Ligotti and is an outstanding collection).