What are you reading?

Decided to check out All You Need Is Kill. Infinitely superior to the movie (though I can't deny I also really enjoyed the film). That ending left me quite melancholic for a while.
 
I just started Dead Wake by Erik Larson. It's about the sinking of the Lusitania. It's good so far. I've read 2 of his other books, The Devil in the White City, and In the Garden of Beasts and I really enjoyed those. They can feel a bit slow moving at times, but all the historical info and perspectives he incorporates into them are great. He gives multiple sides of the story in the books I've read so far and that has a nice way of creating perspective on the events. For example in Dead Wake he tells the story of the people on the Lusitania as well as the story of the people on the German U-boats. It's pretty interesting stuff, especially if you're a history buff.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Almost done with The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker.

It's pretty good, but focuses too much on Harry D'amour and not as much on Pinhead as I thought it would.
 
Almost done with The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker.

It's pretty good, but focuses too much on Harry D'amour and not as much on Pinhead as I thought it would.
Hey John, did you finish Way of Kings??

Anybody here reading the Dresden files? I picked them up and i quite enjoy them. I am currently at book 7.
 
Joe Chip said:
Anybody here reading the Dresden files? I picked them up and i quite enjoy them. I am currently at book 7.
That's a great series! :guts: It's pretty intense. Once the action starts it's a nonstop crazy ride to the end. LOL It's been a few years since I read it, but I remember once I picked up a book it was really tough to put it down. I had to know what was gonna happen!
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Joe Chip said:
Hey John, did you finish Way of Kings??

Unfortunately, no=/ I put it down and had many other things to read. I've been meaning to make my way back to it, but the page count is really intimidating at the moment.

Finished Scarlet Gospels. Absolute waste of time.
 
JMP said:
That's a great series! :guts: It's pretty intense. Once the action starts it's a nonstop crazy ride to the end. LOL It's been a few years since I read it, but I remember once I picked up a book it was really tough to put it down. I had to know what was gonna happen!
Yeah its really fun, as you already said, it's non stop action till the end. I really enjoy them.
Johnstantine said:
but the page count is really intimidating at the moment.
Yeah, i can understand, the books are huge. It's funny to think that there is going to be 10 of them.

I also picked up Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange. You guys seem to really like this book, so i decided to read it.

I bought a kindle Paperwhite a few months ago. It wasn't available in my country, but fortunately i had a friend who traveled to Germany, so he got one for me. This way i could save some of the shipping costs. I've grown quite fond of it. Honestly, i didn't expect to like it this much.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Joe Chip said:
I also picked up Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange. You guys seem to really like this book, so i decided to read it.

Glad to hear it! You should know going in that it starts pretty slowly, which has turned a lot of people off to the book. But don't give up, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished reading Mona Lisa Overdrive over the weekend. I really enjoyed Neuromancer and Count Zero, but Mona Lisa Overdrive was really disappointing, especially the ending, which felt like it was tacked on as an afterthought.

I've started reading Northern Lights (known as The Golden Compass in the U.S.), because I've heard good things about it and the rest of His Dark Materials from a number of friends.
 
Finished Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The story is about two worlds, the narration of each world runs in parallel with alternating chapters. Hard-Boiled Wonderland is modern Tokyo with big advances in technology, people known as Calcutecs process high volumes of encrypted sensitive data and they're an obvious government asset or to anyone wanting to break secure codes. A Calcutec's bio-engineered to use his/ her subconscious to process data and you're riding with a Calcutec on one of his jobs. The other story's about End of the World - a mysterious desolate high walled town with beasts, a dreaded forest and a place where shadows are separated from people. You're introduced to someone new to town, seeing the town through his eyes. His job is that of a Dreamreader and the longer he stays, the more his mind fades.

It was an engaging read till the beginning of the 3rd act and then I lost a little interest. Didn't touch it for 2 weeks and finished it over the weekend. It got to a point where the excitement and mystery that was building up had come to an end for me and I knoew how or expected it to end a certain way, which it eventually did but I didn't feel the need to go through the last 100 pages just then. Not disappointed at all, just had a better experience overall reading the last 3 books I read by him.
 
This has been my best year for reading in pretty much forever. Things I've read this year:

All the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin (WAY better than the show)
Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (super amazing)
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton (amazing)
Pluto by Naoki Urasawa (interesting but the ending was underwhelming)
Berserk (hence being here)

Currently reading (on and off):
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (finished vol. 1 'Shadow of the Torturer' a month ago, just started the second volume a few days ago)
Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges (finished Universal History of Iniquity and Fictions, now halfway through The Aleph)
And Borges inspired me to read the Arabian Nights, which I'm about 200 pages into out of the 3000+ page long modern Penguin edition

Definitely gonna keep posting in this thread! Gives me encouragement to keep this pace up.

Rhombaad said:
I finished Count Zero yesterday and started reading Mona Lisa Overdrive. Walter, I highly recommend you check out Count Zero. I thought it was awesome.

I really loved Neuromancer and I kept meaning to read the sequels in the Sprawl Trilogy yet never got around to it - maybe I should give Neuromancer a re-read, since I read it like 5 years ago, and then dive into Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Gonzo said:
I really loved Neuromancer and I kept meaning to read the sequels in the Sprawl Trilogy yet never got around to it - maybe I should give Neuromancer a re-read, since I read it like 5 years ago, and then dive into Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with rereading Neuromancer; it's a great book. Count Zero comes highly recommended as well, but like I said above, I didn't care for Mona Lisa Overdrive. That being said, as a career completionist, I still think you should give it a shot. You may feel differently about it when you're finished.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Spurred by its 50th anniversary this year, I started reading Dune again -- for the 4th time. I'm sure those who have been on this forum a while already know how much I love this book. And this time, maybe just maybe I'll read Herbert's other Dune books as well. :void:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
And this time, maybe just maybe I'll read Herbert's other Dune books as well. :void:

They may not be as brilliant, but you can't call yourself a fan without having read them! :puck:
 
for those of you who have read it, what do you guys think of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan? i have some of the books in the series on my shelf, still haven't touched it.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Ken said:
for those of you who have read it, what do you guys think of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan? i have some of the books in the series on my shelf, still haven't touched it.

Long story short, it doesn't live up to its potential. If you've already got the first few books though, you might as well read them. They're not too bad.
 
the last few books in the series he wrote before passing away had terrible ratings for the most part but then the ratings went back up when Sanderson continued the series. I'll read the ones i have and see what its all about
 
Walter said:
Spurred by its 50th anniversary this year, I started reading Dune again -- for the 4th time. I'm sure those who have been on this forum a while already know how much I love this book. And this time, maybe just maybe I'll read Herbert's other Dune books as well. :void:

Girlfriend and best friend keep saying I need to read Dune asap, I really should get around it, because i'm pretty convinced that i'd like it (political intrigue, warring houses, economic conflict, etc).

Aazealh said:
Long story short, it doesn't live up to its potential. If you've already got the first few books though, you might as well read them. They're not too bad.

i read what the series is about once and it sounded very good vs. evil, lone hero on epic quest (without subverting either like Berserk does), and the sprawling length of the series means I've been too intimidated to see if that's actually what its like.

As far as huge fantasy series goes, I've heard Malazan by Steven Erikson is really good.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Walter said:
Spurred by its 50th anniversary this year, I started reading Dune again -- for the 4th time. I'm sure those who have been on this forum a while already know how much I love this book. And this time, maybe just maybe I'll read Herbert's other Dune books as well. :void:

Nice! Have fun! :serpico:

Aazealh said:
They may not be as brilliant, but you can't call yourself a fan without having read them! :puck:

Damn straight. :puck:
 
Walter said:
Glad to hear it! You should know going in that it starts pretty slowly, which has turned a lot of people off to the book. But don't give up, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
I'm currently at the beginning of the book (around 70 pages in), but i can already tell you that i really like it. I love the way the book is written, the author is really talented, plus the characters look really interesting.

Walter said:
Spurred by its 50th anniversary this year, I started reading Dune again -- for the 4th time. I'm sure those who have been on this forum a while already know how much I love this book. And this time, maybe just maybe I'll read Herbert's other Dune books as well. :void:
IMHO Dune Messiah is just as good. I've never read the books after that, i was a bit burned out by the time i ended the second book, but i will read the next books as well.

I also ended the Dresden Files and i got to say that i really liked them. After a while you become really interested with the characters so i personally couldn't wait to see what will happen next.
 
Getting ready for a re-reading of Tolkien's Middle-Earth from start to finish:

* The Silmarillion
* The Children of Húrin
* Unfinished Tales (Acts I & II)
* The Hobbit
* The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring
* The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
* The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King
* Unfinished Tales (Acts III & IV)
* The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
* Bilbo's Last Song
* The History of Middle-Earth
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
VengeanceQuest982 said:
Getting ready for a re-reading of Tolkien's Middle-Earth from start to finish:

* The Silmarillion
* The Children of Húrin
* Unfinished Tales (Acts I & II)
* The Hobbit
* The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring
* The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
* The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King
* Unfinished Tales (Acts III & IV)
* The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
* Bilbo's Last Song
* The History of Middle-Earth

I'm actually doing this now as well. About Halfway through The Silmarillion and just ordered Children of Hurin off Amazon. I have one book called Unfinished Tales but I'm a little confused. I didn't realize it was part of a series??
 
Oburi said:
I'm actually doing this now as well. About Halfway through The Silmarillion and just ordered Children of Hurin off Amazon. I have one book called Unfinished Tales but I'm a little confused. I didn't realize it was part of a series??

....I'm sorry for the confusion Oburi the 1st 2 acts of the Unfinished Tales are set in the First and Second Ages of Middle Earth. Act 3 spans the period of time after The Last Alliance and into events set during the Lord of the Rings the 4th Act is an appendix.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
VengeanceQuest982 said:
....I'm sorry for the confusion Oburi the 1st 2 acts of the Unfinished Tales are set in the First and Second Ages of Middle Earth. Act 3 spans the period of time after The Last Alliance and into events set during the Lord of the Rings the 4th Act is an appendix.

Ah. Got it.
 
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