What books are you reading?

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by PrairieBlueEyes

Just recently finished Brad from Georgia's two e-books, Atlanta Bones and Cuban Dagger. They have a great protagonist with a good buddy, an intriguing and yet-to-be-completely-revealed back story for the hero and lots of mayhem and twists and turns to keep you reading.

Thanks very much! And thanks to Tammy P, who mentioned on Facebook that another e-book of mine, The Dancer in the Dark, is on Amazon.com's "Recommended" list! Woohoo! With the sales this will generate, I can buy that car I've had my eye on!

'Course, it's just a plastic model, but still....

[RobDBlackwolf]

I am currently reading "Cuban Dagger" and am enjoying it. Once the third book is done and published I will definetely get that one too.
And I really loved "Dancer in the Dark". It was one of those books that I wished were longer, so I could enjoy it longer. Can we get sequels to that one?

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by RobDBlackwolf

I am currently reading "Cuban Dagger" and am enjoying it. Once the third book is done and published I will definetely get that one too.
And I really loved "Dancer in the Dark". It was one of those books that I wished were longer, so I could enjoy it longer. Can we get sequels to that one?

Tom's estate is up for it. I'll have to see if there are any radio plays or stories that Tom left and that might suggest a plot line.

"Eden Feint" is now up to 32,500 words...not quite halfway through. Of course, that's a draft and revision and editing and so on lie ahead!

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Last night, I was out of books, so I decided to read Let the Right One In.

I don't know why I waited so long. In less than three hours, I was over half way done.

It's got some issues, notably the near-complete lack of female characters, but it's pretty compelling, I must say.

[Auburn Red]

More Jeeves and Wooster, the cure for what ails ya! and Symbols and Signs, intriguing subject!

Just beginning The Sunne in Splendour-very good perspective already!

The Story of Philosophy-It's interesting to read these different possibilities of the great questions and what they mean even now.

The 50 Worst Movies and How they Got That Way-A fun read! I have read it many times, some MST3K films too (like Horror at Party Beach and Eegah)

Heroes of the Dawn: Myth and Mankind- A terrific collection of Celtic myth and legend from the gods and goddesses to the tales of King Arthur

And a fun puzzle book called 5 Minute Mysteries (sort of like Encyclopedia Brown but for adults since they do go into graphic subjects like murder and violence). Some are easy to figure out and others are tested but it's fun to sharpen observation and deduction skills.

[Ellestar]

I just finished Patton Oswalt's Zombie Spaceship Wasteland last night.

It was a very good read, which I was expecting since his stand up is so complex, interesting, and funny.

It sways a lot between hilarious send-ups (fake script notes and movie treatments for example) to some autobiography of his childhood, teen years, and start in stand up. Everything has a comedic edge, but his straight prose is almost lyrical. The man can write.

That said, the switching in tones between chapters can feel a little odd and even a tad pretentious, but I enjoyed the book as a whole.

Seriously, it was worth the money just to read his alter ego, Eric Blevin's movie treatments. I laughed out loud at least once a page for those.

[Richard W]

I finished Anna Karenina before I went on holiday, and so I've got through plenty of holiday reading as well.

A Dance With Dragons (parts 1 and 2) by George R R Martin. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Now I'm wishing I'd read the German translation, which is up to ten books already - I'd still have three to go... if only I spoke enough German.

Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre. I started to read this during a Catholic mass in St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna that I unexpectedly found myself attending. Hopefully people thought I was praying... It was much better than the last of his that I read. I'll probably read more now. I really enjoyed it, especially when the scientific straw-man turned out to be a red herring and the baddy was a religious straw-man after all.

Looking for Jake and other stories by China Miéville. I'm still really impressed with China Miéville. These were fantastic. He reminds me of Jorge Luis Borges somewhat, especially in short stories.

Currently reading The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carré. (I should have an "authors with acute accents in their names" month). It's a good book to read on random park benches in foreign cities - I read a few chapter in a dusty little park by the side of the Sacré Coeur in Montmartre yesterday, with a view of the Eiffel Tower. (I know you can't see the Eiffel Tower from the front of the Sacré Coeur, but you can if you go round the side. I tried to read some on a bench at the front, but it was right in the sun and I was already burned. Also it smelled of piss and there was a couple snogging at the other end of the bench. Very Parisian, but I could only manage half a chapter under those circumstances).

[Darth Credence]

I just read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I started it on a plane, and was disappointed when the plane was landing and I had to put it down for a bit. The author is just a couple of years older than me, and seems to share the same pop culture obsessions as I do. If you like 80s/90s pop culture or video games, this is a must read.

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre. I started to read this during a Catholic mass in St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna that I unexpectedly found myself attending. Hopefully people thought I was praying... It was much better than the last of his that I read. I'll probably read more now. I really enjoyed it, especially when the scientific straw-man turned out to be a red herring and the baddy was a religious straw-man after all.

I know, right? I stayed up reading until 3 in the morning, because I couldn't figure out how he could possibly blend two such different plotlines. And then the answer: carnage!

[Embra]

I've just read How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran.

It's like a breathless, hilarious pub conversation. It's very enjoyable to read sentiments you agree with written by someone of a similar age with a lot of the same cultural references.

I had fun on the train trying to turn away from people so they wouldn't see me scrunching up my face and crying laughing. I obviously haven't moved on at all since I was 13: the passage that made me laugh so much was just a list of slang and cutesy words for the vagina... I think something very similar in The Diary of a Teenage Health Freak had the same effect on me in about 1986.

[kitap]

I'm reading L Frank Baum's The Sea Fairies- it was free for my kindle and I've never been able to get ahold of it before.

[Auburn Red]

Kitap, have a wonderful time! I just bought Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Baum, it's one of my favorite holiday books ever.

Anyway some Halloween reading with Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner-one of my favorite obscure classics definately excellent portrayal of a middle-aged spinster embracing her independence and a love of witchcraft

Sunne in Splendour was so much fun that I decided to read the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory again starting with The Constant Princess-An interesting look at Catherine of Aragon and her first marriage to Prince Arthur and then to King Henry. Definately an intriguing strong-willed character.

Finishing up Story of Philosophers and soon to be reading Great Political Theories involving the likes of Karl Marx, Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, (gulp) Hitler (Hey what about the ladies? Emma Goldman and Mary Wollstonecraft had some interesting theories too. )

The Book of Hollywood Scandals-From Fatty Arbuckle to O.J. Simpson, very delightful gossipy read. It defends the people in question more than any version that I have ever read (with Arbuckle it implies that he was an innocent victim of circumstance and did not rape Virginia Rappe), very unusual takes.

Continuing with Symbols and Signs, and Dream Interpretation-It's been very helpful with my dreaming so far.

Myth and Mankind: Saga of the Norseman- Some of the darker stories, violent, passionate, and thanks to Loki a lot of fun to read.

[LizzyBean]

I just finished "Animal Dreams" by Barbara Kinsolver. I didn't find it quite as good as "The Poisonwood Bible", but I liked it all the same. It was a bit jarring for me to be reading it, and suddenly the two main characters where on the Navajo reservation in Chinle, AZ, and at Spider Rock. I've been there and it brought back wonderful images. I just wasn't expecting a work of fiction to be so real to me.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Chloe

I know, right?

Annoyingly, Waterstones hardly has any of his books at the moment - only the one I bought, and another one that's in hardback.

After finishing The Honorouble Schoolboy, I read Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, in the hope that she could fill in for George R R Martin for a bit while he gets on with his other books. It wasn't bad - I'll read the others in the trilogy, in fact I'm already reading the second one - and I enjoyed it, but I'm hoping it will develop a bit as it goes on. (I think it was her first published book).

It seems a bit thin compared to George R R Martin; there's not much going on that doesn't directly relate to the main character or plot in some way. There are only two or three sub-plots as well as the main one! Surely fantasy novels need at least twenty or thirty sub-plots? Fitz's characterisation seems a bit inconsistent too - they did explain the seeming massive variability in whether or not he's any good at his various abilities to an extent, although it still seems a bit random as to whether he's able to do them without thinking, or not able to do them at all. (And can he still "repel" people like he did all the time at the beginning?) But how long can you spend living in the tower, being educated with the other noble children, with your status being common knowledge, with private audiences with the king and the various heirs and princes, and with half the plot revolving around you, before the people working in the stable stop thinking you're "just a stable boy", or before people in the town start to know who you are? OK, a reasonable part of the education and plotting is supposed to be secret, but enough of this should be obvious public knowledge that it isn't terribly convincing at times.

[Embra]

Now reading Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre.

I'm only on page 9 and I'm already being educated thoroughly about systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Thanks Ben.

And so far I am very glad that I am not currently being prescribed any medication. My mother-in-law, on the other hand (who has expressed an interest in having the book after me)...

[ganzfeld]

A per the recommendations of several snopesters, I read Their Eyes Were Watching God and Brave New World over the summer. Somehow I had managed to get to this age without ever hearing anything about what either of these books were about so it was as if I'd discovered them myself. Both of them were rather amazing. I kind of don't want to spoil them for anyone who hasn't read them yet but it blew my mind that the Huxley could have been written yesterday rather more than eighty years ago.

[kit_n_caboodle]

Yesterday I treated myself and bought a copy of Banksy's Wall and Piece.

I am so glad I did. I am really enjoying his captions, especially.

[Richard W]

I've got that, but it's in storage... I'm really looking forward to getting my books out of storage, so that I can look at these things again. Roll on completion date!

I've seen a few of his pieces "in situ" - the one I liked most was the one with the security camera that's looking straight at a wall, and the wall has "What are you looking at?" stencilled on it. It is (or was? I've not looked lately) in a subway by Marble Arch on the corner of Hyde Park, and I spotted it randomly when I was walking through there one day and thought it was hilarious. I didn't know it was Banksy until I saw it in that book.

It's only just occurred to me that he might have put the camera up as well. At the time I assumed it was a real security camera - it's positioned pretty much where you'd expect a security camera to be, except it's angled wrongly so that it's looking at a wall, making the graffiti very funny. I wonder whether he did put the camera up too? What does the book say? I can't remember.

[kit_n_caboodle]

That one is a full two-page spread in the book, with no caption or explanation, sadly. Well, except "Marble Arch, London 2004"

I hope one day to see something of his in person. I understand he travels...

[Algae]

I finished The Casual Vacancy yesterday. I liked it, not so much for the story, but as a character study type of piece. I didn't like the characters, but I don't think that we were meant to like these people. What's the quote "They're all very unpleasant people" from? That kept running through my mind.

I also finally finished The Disappearing Spoon. While that was really good - it's an in depth look at the discovery of elements - I kept wishing that it hadn't been so long since I'd taken chemistry. Despite what the author wants you to think, it's not a book for laymen. I had to reread passages some times to really get what was being said. I've gotten used to lighter scientific fare, such as Mary Roach, so this was a good brain workout, but not one I'd really recommend to most people.