What books are you reading?

[Chloe]

Yeah, I didn't like that one as much. And it's put me off rooftop swimming pools for life.

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by Richard W

I read one of his once and didn't like it. (Boiling a Frog, I think). Are the others better or do I just not like him?

I thought it started well, and I wanted to like it, but it all became a bit over-the-top and straw mannish. (Spoilers) Not only did the evil tele-evangelist turn out to be trying to destroy California (literally), but he was a paedophile as well. One or the other, please... There's no need to demonise people to that extent to make your point. I mean, I'm sure I dislike tele-evangelists as much as the next person, but most of them surely aren't megalomaniacs AND paedophiles.
)

That was "Not the End of the World", and definitely my least favorite of his books. The first I read was "Quite Ugly One Morning", and whaddya know, I understand Scots. Though sometimes it took a couple of readings. Then I read "Not the End of the World" and I told my SIL "I'm not sure if I like him or not." She said read something else, and she was right.

Chloe, let me know what you've got! Thanks! I'm checking my library, too.

[musicgeek]

Intrigued by the movie trailers, I downloaded A Princess of Mars from Project Gutenberg. A fun read if you don't mind the dated sensibility.

[Lachrymose]

I'm rereading the Dark Tower series. (Available on Kindle, if you care.)

It's the first time I'm reading the revised edition of The Gunslinger, and although it seems to fit a little better with the rest of the series, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I always looked at that novel as being basically a "short" introduction to the rest of the series, anyway.

[Starla]

I recently finished Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot. I thought it was the weakest of his books, but still a decent read. The main characters were all a bit insufferable.

[Morgaine]

I'm currently reading "Gil's All-Fright Diner' by A. Lee Martinez. Gotta love a book with zombie cows. I have dropped it for a few days because a friend loaned me 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by EL James. I'm reading it but I can't say I'm really enjoying it. Its barely holding my interest & the writing is IMO juvenille (as juvenille as a book about a sadist can be). Its bad Harlequin romance with some bondage & spanking thrown in.
At work I'm reading 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse. Not bad. Interesting enough to hold my attention but doesn't require a ton of brain power. Shades of Dan Brown & Steve Barry.

[Richard W]

I've very nearly finished War and Peace (I know I said that two weeks ago, but I've only got 20 pages to go now).

I mention it now because I keep thinking that JoeBentley would like it. He would probably be infuriated by it in equal measure... the thing that finally spurrred me to mention that is the chapter I just read, Epilogue Part II Chapter 8, in which Tolstoy discusses the question of free will. A subject that I know incenses JoeBentley. But Tolstoy is great at being cynical about general theories of history and military strategy as well. It's the cynicism I think Joe would like.

Anyway, as a whole it's basically a soap opera, interspersed with various historical theorising on the part of Tolstoy. Some of that is hard to identify with, in that I think Tolstoy might have been quite influential, and some of the arguments he makes are taken for granted now (or I take them for granted at least), so it's not easy to see them as arguments. (He also has a habit of bathetic resumptions to 'the Deity' as an explanation; I think he's aware of the bathos, though, and is putting it out there knowing he's nothing better to say. At times, he gets close to the point and then just misses it...) I usually say that you don't have to be looking for the "meaning of life" in great novels, and if you were, then nobody would read them. Tolstoy does a good job of getting his own opinions on the meaning of life (or at least history) in amongst the soap opera, though.

Personally I prefer the war bits to the peace bits. You have to bear with the first few chapters, while you get to know who everybody is; and there are other bits in which he goes off into tangents that aren't necessarily relevant any more.

I read Rosemary Edmonds's translation before; the one I just read is the current Penguin Classics edition translated by Anthony Briggs. Anthony Briggs's is more colloquial - he says in the introduction that it's closer to Tolstoy's original style, and that previous translations were too stuffy, but it's always a matter of judgement which you prefer (assuming that, like me, you can't read Russian). Somebody translating Dickens into "modern language" might make the argument that he was always a popular author who was easy to read, but any change to the language would lose an awful lot...

[KingDavid8]

Currently reading "Stirred" by J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch. Interesting book. The two authors are using the heroine of Konrath's "Jack Daniels" comic crime series, and pitting her against Luther Kite, the villain of Crouch's "Andrew Z. Thomas" horror series. Supposedly, it's the final book in both series, which is too bad, since I'm a fan of both series.

[Richard W]

OK, apart from finishing War and Peace, in May I read:

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer. Fun history. It's more or less what the title suggests - a history of everyday life in late medieval (14th century) England, in the rough form of a guidebook for a modern person who somehow ends up there.

That also inspired me to read more of Canterbury Tales. I've read up to the end of the Wife of Bath's Tale. I think if you only read two bits of Chaucer (or of Canterbury Tales at least), they should be the Miller's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue.

Embassytown by China Miéville. I think every one of his books I've read has been better than the one before. It's more philosophy fiction than science fiction - I suppose "speculative fiction" covers it. Anyway, he seems to be able to have original ideas and then actually think them through and develop them, rather than just putting them out there and not quite explaining how they would work. The whole "my name is unpronouncable in your tongue" thing is a bit of a cliché in some circles, but I've never seen such an interesting mechanism for that before, or any exploration of what it might mean.

I'm currently half way through A Clash of Kings, the second in A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin. I'm really enjoying it - I think it's better than the first one. (Possibly partly because I've not seen any of this series of the TV show yet).

[Auburn Red]

Soon I will be reading:

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo-a WWI-era novel about an injured soldier. The video to Metallica's "One" features clips from the film version(the book inspired the song's lyrics). If that's any implication that is one of the most gripping, graphic songs and emotionally disturbing videos (I still can't go through the video more than once in awhile because of how draining and sick I feel listening and watching it) then the book will be about the same.

More Historical fiction epic Rutherford goodness with Sarum!

Me By Katharine Hepburn-The autobiography of one of my favorite actresses who was every bit as witty, strong-willed, and charming as her characters.

and More mythological Time-Life goodness with Sagas of the Norsemen.

[Cure the Blues]

Finished The Ruling Sea a while ago and while Redick doesn't have as many named people killed as, say, GRR Martin, I have to hand it to him since he killed somebody who I would have sworn had had mithril-adamantine alloy +11 plot armor. I've also finished Jim Butcher's Fool Moon, and Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet: Fearless (who is fast becoming one of my favorite mil-SF writers). All of these were second entries in SFF series as it happens. I also finished all of Barbara Hambly's Windrose Chronicles books, including Stranger at the Wedding. And for good measure I whipped through Brandon Sanderson's Elantris in about a week and liked it enough to move his Mistborn series up in my TBR queue.

I'm about 3/4's through Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Triumph and I just started Araminta Station by Jack Vance since it (as well as the other Cadwal Chronicles books) just showed up in the Kindle store. Strictly speaking, this is a re-read although it was so long ago that I'm hard-pressed to remember any details other than there was a lot of eco-political intrigue, backstabbing, crime and I really loved it. Should be interesting to see if it holds up.

[llewtrah]

From the Deep of the Dark by Stephen Hunter. It's a mix of far future fantasy (you pick up clues that this is a far future Earth, or far future parallel Earth) and steam-punk. The "power electric" is unreliable and "transaction engines" and Steam-men are powered by coal/coke.

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon by Mark Hodder. Time travel has caused all sorts of technological leaps in what should have been the Victorian age. It's pretty mad stuff and impossible to really explain!

I have just started Peter Wilkins: or, the Flying Islanders by Robert Paltock.

[chillas]

Just finished "Ready Player One." It's been brought up before so I won't go on at much length about it, but I will say that anyone who grew up in the 80s would find much to like in it, gaming/tech geeks would really love it, and gaming/tech geeks who grew up in the 80s need to go read it now (if they haven't already).

[Dropbear]

I loved Ready Player One - I was really ready for it to be horribly manipulative in it's 80's references but instead it was just fun, awesome fun. Fun like The Avengers in some ways - a work by someone who understands the material and loves it without being slavish to it.

Dropbear

[ULTRAGOTHA]

I'm just about finished with Redshirts. If you are a Star Trek fan, or want some of your fiction very meta-y meta, this is a book for you. Plus, Scalzi!

I'm also re-reading The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Some of the very, very VERY best characterizations in SF. The Ivan Booke (Captain Vorpatril's Alliance) is due out in November (eARC any day now!) so I'm ginning up on the rest of the series.

[Blatherskite]

I'm reading The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, follow up to The Name of the Wind. It's a pleasure to read just like the first, but in both books the protaganist hops from one situation to another with brain-jangling suddenness. I keep putting the book down for long stretches of time and when I pick up from where I left off it takes me a minute to determine where he is, why he's there and what's going on.

Originally Posted by Richard W

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer. Fun history. It's more or less what the title suggests - a history of everyday life in late medieval (14th century) England, in the rough form of a guidebook for a modern person who somehow ends up there.

Sounds good!

Damn it, I've vowed not to buy anything I don't need from now until at least October. I'm going to have to start avoiding this thread.

[chillas]

Originally Posted by Dropbear

Fun like The Avengers in some ways - a work by someone who understands the material and loves it without being slavish to it.

Thank you! I've been trying to think how best to describe the overall feel of the book, and I think you nailed it there.

[ULTRAGOTHA]

Originally Posted by ULTRAGOTHA

The Ivan Booke (Captain Vorpatril's Alliance) is due out in November (eARC any day now!) so I'm ginning up on the rest of the series.

Wow, that was fast. The eARC is already out!

[ULTRAGOTHA]

Waffles Waffles and more Waffles for space

[kjbrasda]

Reading Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe right now. It's going really slow due to trying to work out the long rambling sentences while somewhat sleep deprived.