What are you currently reading? Post here!

Finished Lovely Bones last week, loved it.
Onto Vicious by Kevin O'Brien, which reads like a super-generic serial killer novel, but its a page turner.
 
Reading - The Soccer book (Best book to start if you want to know the principles, contains loads of good info that any soccer/football would want.

Also reading "Expressionism"
 
Still reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodking. Despite it's minor nuances, I am still thoroughly enjoying the book. Also started The Essential Doctor Strange Volume 2. What a great character Stephen Strange is.
 
Finished Glass Castle and on to Feed

51D5wpcgF1L._SL500_AA266_PIkin2,BottomRight,-22,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
 
[quote name='Fjordson']
I think ADWD will be out within the next year, possibly even the next 6 months.[/QUOTE]

George recently blogged that he only has two chapters left to write. I think it'll still end up being released in 2011 after all the proofreading that has to be done by the editors.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']George recently blogged that he only has two chapters left to write. I think it'll still end up being released in 2011 after all the proofreading that has to be done by the editors.[/QUOTE]
Ah, good point. In my anticipation I've completely overlooked that there's still work to be done with a book after it's been principally written. Yeah, I'd say 2011 seems likely.

Anyways, I'm thinking of checking out Asimov's Robot series of novels. Anyone read these? The first one is called "The Caves of Steel", IIRC.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The robot series are good although far too many of them seem to have their basis in detective fiction. And Asimov really seems to overuse stock characters.
 
Just stated The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. it's interesting and it seems like I'd have to know both spanish and geek to really 'get' the book. And I only speak geek.
 
American on Purpose - Craig Ferguson

First autobiography I've read. Has a good wit to it and pretty interesting the life he has lead.
 
Just finished One Day on Mars and Tau Ceti Agenda by Travis Taylor. Both were "24" style narrative, military hard science fiction. They were action packed and filled with science that is mostly extrapolated from developments occurring today. If anyone is looking for a quick and enjoyable read, I heartily recommend them.
 
i reread the hobbit yesterday after watching the trilogy over the weekend. i was going to go through the next three but thought i should read something new instead. so i just started assassins apprentice, the first book in the farseer trilogy.
 
Doing a Tolkien re-read myself. Almost finished with the Silmarillion (will polish it off today) and then on to Children of Hurin.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Doing a Tolkien re-read myself. Almost finished with the Silmarillion (will polish it off today) and then on to Children of Hurin.[/QUOTE]

yeah i have a few of those lying around, but i wasnt ready to tackle the whole thing. silmarillion is an exercise in patience.
 
Yeah, parts of the Silmarillion are pretty dense. Several chapters are very good reads, but a few are painful. Children of Hurin is a pretty easy read. Never bothered with any of the other books--besides Hobbit and LOTR of course.
 
Lol, I just ordered Silmarillion and the 50th Anniversary one-volume LotR hardcover a couple days ago. Should be here any day now.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Lol, I just ordered Silmarillion and the 50th Anniversary one-volume LotR hardcover a couple days ago. Should be here any day now.[/QUOTE]

i almost bought the 50th anniversary LOTR last night (after reading the hobbit last night). youll have to let us know how nice it is. theres also a 70th anniversary of the hobbit i saw, but i decided to hold off on both.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Lol, I just ordered Silmarillion and the 50th Anniversary one-volume LotR hardcover a couple days ago. Should be here any day now.[/QUOTE]

Is the 50th anniversary version the sweet Leatherbound edition that came out in 2004? I've always wanted to get that.

I'm nearly done with Wizard's First Tale and it's getting pretty generic to me so far. The whole Richard/Samuel thing is almost identical to Frodo and Sam/Gollum. I'm not really sure I want to continue the series unless the book ends on a high note.
 
No, not that edition, sadly. That was one nice as hell. This one is trimmed down a bit. Still has a leather style cover from what I understand, but the product description shows it with a slipcover (like a paper cover, not that sleeve with the edition you mention). So you can at least take that off and have it resemble a nice old leather book.

I wanted the Silmarillion in hardcover but just settled for the paperback.

Was going to get the Hobbit 70th, but I heard bad things about it. Bad paper, bad binding, poor illustrations. My brother got a previous hardcover which was the best edition I've ever seen. Here's a link, can still be found for decent prices used:

http://www.amazon.com/HOBBIT-J-TOLK...r_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278573531&sr=8-19

It'll be nice to have replaced all my raggedy tore-up paperbacks from when I was younger. ;)

Lol, I hear you on Wizard's First Rule. I couldn't get as far as you did. Sword of Shannara is the only book to blatantly rip off LotR (and I mean BLATANTLY) and somehow manage to deliver, and Terry Brooks really did a great job finding his own niche and delivering 5 excellent books afterwards. I haven't read beyond that but did get Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara trilogy in hardcover. Brooks has three awesome hardcover trilogy "collections" that look really slick on the bookshelf, although one of them is missing a map which I just printed out on photopaper to use as a bookmark.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Lol, I hear you on Wizard's First Rule. I couldn't get as far as you did. Sword of Shannara is the only book to blatantly rip off LotR (and I mean BLATANTLY) and somehow manage to deliver, and Terry Brooks really did a great job finding his own niche and delivering 5 excellent books afterwards. I haven't read beyond that but did get Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara trilogy in hardcover. Brooks has three awesome hardcover trilogy "collections" that look really slick on the bookshelf, although one of them is missing a map which I just printed out on photopaper to use as a bookmark.[/QUOTE]

I feel the same way about Shannara series. The first book was ok even though it was a blantant copy, but I gave the second one a try and got more and more into the world the more I read. I finished the first four books, when I find the other trilogies for cheap I plan to check them out.
 
I didn't care for the first one so much because I had no idea what was going on but I'm liking this one much better already. Very interesting. I have to wonder if this is King documenting his memories of a monumental acid trip. :lol:

BTW - is your name the same on GAF?
 
[quote name='Maklershed']I didn't care for the first one so much because I had no idea what was going on but I'm liking this one much better already. Very interesting. I have to wonder if this is King documenting his memories of a monumental acid trip. :lol:

BTW - is your name the same on GAF?[/QUOTE]
Totally relate regarding the first one. The Gunslinger left me with a very vague view of the plot and characters, but it really picks up at Drawing of the Three.

And yeah, same name, but unfortunately waiting out the infamous approval process so no posting for me for possibly a while.
 
Just finished The Magic Engineer by L. E. Modesitt. It is the third book in the Magic of Recluce series. I am starting book 4, The Order War tonight.
The Magic Engineer was much more like The Magic of Recluce than The Towers of Sunset and, consequently, was a book I enjoyed a great deal as the first Recluce book is one of my all time favorite fantasy novels.
 
[quote name='Maklershed']Finished Feed and on to The Drawing of the Three
[/QUOTE]

How was Feed? It looks interesting enough, but I'm not sure if I want to pull the trigger on it, or wait to borrow it.
 
I'd say borrow it. It's an ok, middle of the line book. I wouldn't call it bad but I wouldnt call it very good either. In my opinion it has three problems:

The things I have in these spoilers are not spoilerish at all but I figured I'd do this as a courtesy anyway in case anyone is particularly sensitive about not knowing the slightest bit of info ....

a) I simply can't buy the premise that blogs have replaced tv and movies as the worlds favorite source of entertainment, and by extension, bloggers are the modern day rock stars. b) wayyyyy to much emphasis is placed on the technical aspects of how the fictional website is run by the main characters. c) I felt that the interaction and dialogue between the characters was hollow and not very organic.
 
bladeitself.jpg


I want to get started on A Storm of Swords, but I'm also hesitant to burn through ASOIF too quickly. Decided on this one instead for now. Really good so far, puts a nice twist on a lot of traditional fantasy tropes.
 
[quote name='Fjordson']Totally relate regarding the first one. The Gunslinger left me with a very vague view of the plot and characters, but it really picks up at Drawing of the Three.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah it picks up. Unfortunately the last 3 books weren't very good and it left a bad taste in my mouth after investing so much time reading those 7 long ass books.

But I'm just not much of a King fan, nothing I've read of his has blown me away, so I'm pretty much done giving him a chance.
 
Still working my way through Justin Cronin's The Passage. It's amazing but it's a fucking doorstop...just hit page 500 and still have another 300 or so to go.

Nice to see an author who can actually do something new and compelling (and EPIC) with vampires. If you liked King's The Stand, McCarthy's The Road, or del Toro's The Strain you'll probably love this.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yeah it picks up. Unfortunately the last 3 books weren't very good and it left a bad taste in my mouth after investing so much time reading those 7 long ass books.

But I'm just not much of a King fan, nothing I've read of his has blown me away, so I'm pretty much done giving him a chance.[/QUOTE]


That's too bad because I'm loving this one. I put down 200 pages today. Great read so far.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yeah it picks up. Unfortunately the last 3 books weren't very good and it left a bad taste in my mouth after investing so much time reading those 7 long ass books.

But I'm just not much of a King fan, nothing I've read of his has blown me away, so I'm pretty much done giving him a chance.[/QUOTE]
Really? Damn. I loved all 7 books. I was legitimately sad to reach the end of the last one.

I consider myself to be a pretty big King fan, but I've only read The DT series, The Stand and Salem's Lot. Loved all of 'em.
 
I've read:

The Stand--best of the ones I read. Solid book, but didn't blow me away.

Needful Things--ok.

Eye of the Dragon--alright fantasy story I guess.

Darktower Series--loved parts of it, but a whole lot of it was pointless to the main story in the last 3 books. i.e. the flashback, the wolves etc. And I didn't care much for the ending. And hated how
King wrote himself into the books.

Salem's Lot--just read it. Was ok, but no pay off. No real build up to Barlow and they
kill him with little effort
. Found it very anti-climatic.

Like I said, King's just not my cup of tea apparently.
 
Yep, although I don't have enough experience on goodreads.com do a comprehensive compare and contrast between the two.

I have accounts on both, but there are more people that I personally know on Shelfari.

There's a lot of bibliophiles on CAG; maybe we should start a CAG group on Shelfari?
 
[quote name='doctorfaustus']There's a lot of bibliophiles on CAG; maybe we should start a CAG group on Shelfari?[/QUOTE]
That would be cool. I've only had my Goodreads account a few weeks, and I've enjoyed it, but I'll probably make a Shelfari account sometime tomorrow.

It's cool that the book covers seem to be prominently displayed on Shelfari. Goodreads only has tiny thumbnails on most pages, and they're usually either bad quality or incorrect.
 
King's books are pretty hit and miss with me. Miss for the most part, sadly. The book I've enjoyed most by him is Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Dolan's Cadillac is probably my favorite short story of that collecter.

I tried to get into The Dark Tower, but halfway through the second book I stopped because I was bored. It's funny, though. I couldn't get past the second DT book, but I can't stop reading The Dark Tower comics. Same with The Stand comics.

I've created a profile on Shelfari. A CAG group would be sweet. Still putting books in here...
 
Been holed up at a relatives house so I have been reading a lot of books my cousin has.
Paper Towns by John Green
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (for the first time)
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Hunger and Paper towns were okay for kids books. Mockingbird surprised me, I am kinda sad I didn't read it when I was younger.

Went to a bookstore yesterday so my next books are
The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry
Four Quartets by T.S. Elliot
Also picked up an anthology of Robert Frost's poems for cheap so I will be having a poetry-fest for a few weeks.
 
Gave up after about 40 pages of Feersum Endjinn by Iain Banks.

Started Memories of Ice by Steven Erickson. Typcial fantasy 900+ page doorstoper. (complete with a map and listing of characters)
 
[quote name='bmachine']Still working my way through Justin Cronin's The Passage. It's amazing but it's a fucking doorstop...just hit page 500 and still have another 300 or so to go.

Nice to see an author who can actually do something new and compelling (and EPIC) with vampires. If you liked King's The Stand, McCarthy's The Road, or del Toro's The Strain you'll probably love this.[/QUOTE]

You want a different take on Vampires? read Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. In short it takes out the blood and plays up mind control


Speaking of him I just finished Black Hills and it is one of the saddest books I have ever read but it was brilliant.

As far as King I love him but I can see where people have problems. Dmaul I'd give It a shot before you write him off for good
 
Nearly done with Wizard's First Rule (ugh) and Essential Dr. Strange Volume 2 (amazing writing, I love old school comics). Will probably start Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks next. The third and last book of the rather surprising Night Angel trilogy.

Also, I am the Winter Soldier on Shelfari, so friend request away!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top