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Theft of Swords by Michael J Sullivan.

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Eh. It's not bad. The writing is pretty simplistic. There's no flowery sentences or pages of description and narration.
And so much banter everyone banters. It's like I can see the characters turning their head to the camera and smirking ala Jim from the Office.
 
I finished the Color of Magic yesterday, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was planning on reading something else next, but now I'm going to start:
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I'm definitely on a discworld kick now. I finished The Light Fantastic, which was again quite good.

I then immediately downloaded and started
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This series so far is better than I expected, and I've heard the books only get better as you go along.
 
Finished up This Book Is Full of Spiders by David Wong and The 50 Year Sword by Mark Danielewski. Spiders was good, albeit a little disappointing. Not entirely sure what Wong was going for with the furgun, and I'm pretty sure he didn't mean for Amy to come across as such a huge asshole. 50 Year Sword initially irritated me with its gimmicks, but it wasn't really an issue.

Starting up The Way We Never Were after years of mykevermin talking about how great it is.
 
Reading the Princess Bride. The movie didn't talk much about Fezzik's past, considering Inigo's relationship with that cheapskate six fingered Duke did take up a good part of the story.
 
[quote name='jlarlee']11/23/63 was my favorite book from last year[/QUOTE]

I'm not a King fan, but that is one of my favorites, too.


Currently reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.
 
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear

[quote name='jlarlee']11/23/63 was my favorite book from last year[/QUOTE]

I actually got to go see King give a talk when he was promoting the book shortly before it came out (had a 1-in-3 chance to get a signed copy, but no luck sadly). Seriously, if you ever have the opportunity to do this, don't stop to give it a second thought. For someone that likely spends most of his time locked in an office in front of a computer or typewriter, the guy is far, far more entertaining than you'd expect. If you knew nothing about him other than the anecdotes he had, you'd think he wrote humor books rather than horror.
 
[quote name='Cantatus']Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear



I actually got to go see King give a talk when he was promoting the book shortly before it came out (had a 1-in-3 chance to get a signed copy, but no luck sadly). Seriously, if you ever have the opportunity to do this, don't stop to give it a second thought. For someone that likely spends most of his time locked in an office in front of a computer or typewriter, the guy is far, far more entertaining than you'd expect. If you knew nothing about him other than the anecdotes he had, you'd think he wrote humor books rather than horror.[/QUOTE]

I grew up about an hour from where he lived in Maine and read everything he has written. Seen him talk twice he is indeed very entertaining.
 
Currently finishing up Robert Jordan's A New Spring. Going to finish just in time to read A Memory of Light on Tuesday. I think I am going to try to find a book store that will be open at midnight on Monday so I can get the book and start reading. I am so fucking stoked to read it!
 
I think I'm maybe only 25% interested in reading A Memory of Light. I stopped Wheel of Time somewhere around the 5th or 6th book. There's a nagging sense that I should read the last book, just to get it over with, but it's not that strong.
 
I finished Equal Rites. This was my third Discworld book in a row, but I didn't find it as good as the first two.

I definitely plan on reading more of the series, but I'm going to take a break from it for a while.

Next up...
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Ubik by PKD. Not sure how I missed this but it's great and a tad different than most. It's still filled with his signature paranoia and existential crises etc...

Excited for a new Pynchon novel this year (Bleeding Edge fall 2013). I thoroughly enjoyed Inherent Vice. It was as like Pynchon got his hands on The Big Lebowski script.
 
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi.

Pretty good. It's a fiction story more than a Science Fiction one. (It's on an alien planet, with creatures but there's little science involved. Should be more accessible to mainstream readers)

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[quote name='Mr. Sax Appeal']I finished Equal Rites. This was my third Discworld book in a row, but I didn't find it as good as the first two. [/QUOTE]
I really like Pratchett's witches, they're my favorite of his characters.

I don't think it's fair to judge discworld by Rincewind, either. I really didn't care for Rincewind until Eric, and part of that has to do with Eric's length, I suppose. Faint-of-heart protagonists are always tough for me to read, because I feel like an author can only do so much with them. For instance, you can only pull so many internal witty asides about hauling ass in the other direction.

That's part of why I liked Eric, because it gave Rincewind something new to bitch about besides saving his own hide. His exchange with Eric over "horology" is an example of that, Rincewind's able to stretch his legs a bit.

I know you're wanting a break, anyhow, but if you were to push on from the 3rd, you'll hit some good stuff right away: Mort (#4) is funny, especially if you enjoy Death (I do). Then Wyrd Sisters (#6) is soon after, which is good if you like the witches and reading Pratchett poke fun at Shakespeare.

EDIT: I should note I didn't hit a lull in Discworld until Moving Pictures (#10). Took a while to get through that one.
 
I skipped over most of the early Discworld books.

ZStarted with some of the City Guards books, worked my way through those then just picked up whatever titles I could find.

Aside:
How do you set up a reading challenge or goal on Goodreads?
 
[quote name='eldergamer']Aside:
How do you set up a reading challenge or goal on Goodreads?[/QUOTE]

It should just be on the right-hand side of your front page, under "My Profile". If not, try this link.
 
[quote name='dothog']I really like Pratchett's witches, they're my favorite of his characters.

I don't think it's fair to judge discworld by Rincewind, either. I really didn't care for Rincewind until Eric, and part of that has to do with Eric's length, I suppose. Faint-of-heart protagonists are always tough for me to read, because I feel like an author can only do so much with them. For instance, you can only pull so many internal witty asides about hauling ass in the other direction.

That's part of why I liked Eric, because it gave Rincewind something new to bitch about besides saving his own hide. His exchange with Eric over "horology" is an example of that, Rincewind's able to stretch his legs a bit.

I know you're wanting a break, anyhow, but if you were to push on from the 3rd, you'll hit some good stuff right away: Mort (#4) is funny, especially if you enjoy Death (I do). Then Wyrd Sisters (#6) is soon after, which is good if you like the witches and reading Pratchett poke fun at Shakespeare.

EDIT: I should note I didn't hit a lull in Discworld until Moving Pictures (#10). Took a while to get through that one.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your input. I'm not tired of the series at all - I actually really wanted to start Mort right after I finished Equal Rites. I also enjoy Death's character, at least the comparatively small parts he's had so far. I took a break because my brother really wanted me to watch the Hunger Games with him, and I refused to see the movie until I read the book. I'll be going back to college this weekend, so I wanted to make sure to watch it with him before I left.

And I still enjoyed equal rites, just not quite as much as The Color of Magic and Light Fantastic.

I've read Hunger Games and Catching Fire since my last post. I'll probably go ahead and finish the trilogy, then either return to Discworld or read something I already have. I might finally read Brave New World, Hunger Games has me in a mood for another dystopian novel.
 
Started reading Gateway by Frederick Pohl. I always thought he was a sci fi writer that was heavier on the science, but so far this book is pretty quirky and character based. Looking forward to reading it.
 
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronvitch

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Eh. Not bad, nothing spectacular. Sort of a mix of Police Procedural with fantasy types and magic thrown in. They really should have gone into more detail about how the magic works with science. The main character just accepts all the strangeness in stride, he really should be more skeptical.
 
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi

It's basically a retelling of The Last Colony, but from Zoe's point of view. The change of perspective is more refreshing than I expected, especially since it tells some side-stories that weren't in the previous novel.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Finished up This Book Is Full of Spiders by David Wong and The 50 Year Sword by Mark Danielewski. Spiders was good, albeit a little disappointing. Not entirely sure what Wong was going for with the furgun, and I'm pretty sure he didn't mean for Amy to come across as such a huge asshole. 50 Year Sword initially irritated me with its gimmicks, but it wasn't really an issue.

Starting up The Way We Never Were after years of mykevermin talking about how great it is.[/QUOTE]
Read these one star reviews, some are just bitching, but some basically prove the author right, that people are ignorant of the truth.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Never...?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0
 
Little over half way into The Strain. Couldn't really get into the first 200 or so pages however now it seems to be picking up.
 
So went to the library used book sale on Friday. Sci-Fi & Fantasy was jumbled in with the regular fiction. Thankfully, some of it already had library stickers that it was sci-fi or fantasy.

Picked up a book. If it had a girl on the cover, and mentioned anything about vampires or werewolves, put it back down.
So many variations of: "Shapeshifter copy lady loves vampires, but fights werewolves." or "Shapeshifter PI lady loves werewolves but her vampire ex-bofyfriend is causing complications."
So many True Blood or Twilight re-hashes. I hate "Urban Fantasy".
Can't be Urban without some black people, Yo!
 
Currently reading:

The Scar by China Mieville. Weirdness personsified. Nice almost poetical style to some of his writing too. Closer to "literature" than "writing".

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Reading Ulysses now which is really entertaining but pretty challenging. There are so many stream of conscious asides that I'm not sure which ones to really pay attention to and which ones to just sit back and enjoy the play of language. About 15% done and not really getting why it's the greatest modern novel, but it may be like Citizen Kane in that it did so many modern conventions first but reading it now it doesn't seem as impressive.
 
I had a hard time reading it and couldn't get past 10% of it. I wish I read it in school so I could understand it better, but that wasn't the plan. Damn it that our school system is failing us, and the highest level book to be read by under 18 year old has to be "To Kill a Mocking Bird."
 
Well the start of the semester definitely ate into almost all of my reading.

I finally finished Mockingjay a few days ago. I thought the trilogy was ok, but too much of it was focused on Katniss's love triangle for my liking.

Yesterday I started
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Have all of you reading In The Garden Of Beasts read Devil In The White City? Personally I liked that one much more and I'd recommend it to anyone. So if you haven't read that one, do it.

Right now I'm reading Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I'm only about 25% through and it's alright but seems more anecdotal than scientific so far which is pretty meh to me. Hopefully it gets better.

After that I'll be reading The Signal And The Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't by Nate Silver
 
Finished up Neuromancer by William Gibson. Easily the best Cyberpunk novel I've ever read, and possibly the best Science Fiction novel. Seriously considering doing my master's dissertation over the book.

Starting Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. I loved Snow Crash and thought Cryptonomicon was decent, so I can't wait to see how this one plays out.
 
And then you have to read the Robot novels for the later crossover with the Second Foundation trilogy.
It's good reading, if not necessarily good writing and well-drawn characters.

Currently reading:
Long Legged Fly by James Sallis

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Detective noir. Really short book. Only about 160 pages. Should finish it by tomorrow or Sunday.
 
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