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[quote name='Short Round']I finally hopped on the World War Z bandwagon. It was entertaining, but it definitely does not deserve the universal CAG circle-jerk that this thread portrays.[/quote]

I agree with this, actually. I thought the book was really boring.

I had complained about WWZ here in the past and another CAG (I think it was Sneaky Penguin) had suggested that I checkout the audiobook. I'd definitely echo that recommendation; while it's unfortunate that they abridged the text, it comes off as a NPR-style "radio play" that really enhances the book.
 
Just finished Rising Sun by Michael Crichton and I've already started another one of his books, The Terminal Man.
 
I loved Crichton when I was a wee lad in my primary and middle school days. I recommend Eaters of the Dead.

As for Perdido Street Station, I am about a hundred pages into it. Mieville is an amazing wordsmith. When people say "anyone can be a writer", I'm going to reference Mieville in my opposition. He is explicit and engaging. Mieville has a great sense of pace and knows how to make readers care about his characters.
 
"The drawing of the three" by Stephen King. I finished "The Gunslinger" and it really picked up and I really liked it. So I guess now I'm gonna be reading the entire Dark Tower series.
 
[quote name='Chase']I loved Crichton when I was a wee lad in my primary and middle school days. I recommend Eaters of the Dead.[/quote]

I read that a couple months ago, it wasn't too bad. It definitely was one of his I liked least. I just started reading his books a while back and have been spacing them out in between Dragonlance and Star Wars books.
 
A collection of short stories by David Drake called Other Times Than Peace. So far the first three stories were pretty good, especially the one set in a post-nuclear war
America.
 
I just finished reading Rock Island Line by David Rhodes a few days ago. It's definitely one of the best books I've ever read; this man knows how to make characters come to life. Everyone needs to read this book.
 
Just finished The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan and will be starting Marley and Me shortly. I recommend the former as I was able to relate to a lot of how his childhood upbringing was with his Catholic upbringing and the doubts he had about it as well as trying to find your place in this world. Excellent read.
 
I finished in the last week or so American Gods and Neverwhere both by Neil Gaiman and 2000 AD - a collection of short stories about how crazy frightening the world will be the by the year 2000.

Now I've just gotten about 70 pages into John Brunner's Sheep Look Up.
 
finished A Feast Unknown, quite loved that one though its still odd to read porn from Farmer.

Also read the graphic novel version of The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith (the novel won the Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society in 1980). The story is pretty good but the hamfisted way that the message is told turned me off a bit. Worth a read


Just about to start The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. With all the praise that this guy got and with the English translation finally coming out here a few months ago, I was quite surprised to find it already remaindered at B&N this weekend
 
The New Kings of Non-Fiction - a collection of stories put together by Ira Glass (the This American Life host)

From Cliche to Archetype by Marshall McLuhan.
 
Just finished, War of the Worlds, I am Legend, Word War Z by Max Brooks (liked it a lot, nice perspective of a zombie world) and am about 1/3 of the way through The Tommyknockers.
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']Word War Z by Max Brooks (liked it a lot, nice perspective of a zombie world)[/QUOTE]

should have done the audio book
 
[quote name='fart_bubble']should have done the audio book[/quote]


...I....did do the audio book.

I probably should have said that. :)

If you know, it sounded like one of the readers was that guy for MASH do you know if that is true?


To GOOGLE!
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']...I....did do the audio book.

I probably should have said that. :)

If you know, it sounded like one of the readers was that guy for MASH do you know if that is true?


To GOOGLE![/QUOTE]

yep, that was Hawkeye (Alan Alda)
 
In the middle of both "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, and "My Year of Meats" by Ruth Ozeki. Nowhere close to the fare of what the board usually reads, unless some of you like strange and unique Early American Gothic.
 
[quote name='fart_bubble']yep, that was Hawkeye (Alan Alda)[/quote]

I knew it. As soon as I heard him talking I flashed backed to when I was a kid and sat on the floor as my mom watched 4 episodes of mash in a row every Wednesday.:lol:


Do you think Max Brooks can keep it up? He is making some rather entertaining and creative ways to get more life out of the zombie franchise that we all know and love.
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']I knew it. As soon as I heard him talking I flashed backed to when I was a kid and sat on the floor as my mom watched 4 episodes of mash in a row every Wednesday.:lol:


Do you think Max Brooks can keep it up? He is making some rather entertaining and creative ways to get more life out of the zombie franchise that we all know and love.[/QUOTE]

not really, the Handbook was pretty good but World War Z sucked as a book but its great as a audio book mainly for the fact that it uses it self as a radio play which has sadly died off (I myself prefer big productions rather than just a guy talking into the mic).

Oh and zombies really need to be put back into the pasture and shot. As a monster, they've hit past the level that vampires were on in the early 90's due to Ann Rice. Everyone has been doing zombies for too long, especially in the small press. Flooded the market to the point that no one gives a shit for them outside of an occasional book (Kim Paffenroth's Dying To Live is really good)
 
[quote name='VioletArrows']In the middle of both "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. Nowhere close to the fare of what the board usually reads, unless some of you like strange and unique Early American Gothic.[/quote]


 
That's close to what I'm reading for. Beloved's for Gothic and Horror Literature (second in greatness only to the sci-fi lit class), and Meats is for Women's (*coughFEMINISTcough*) Literature. After Meats, we're reading another of Morrison's, Paradise. Good Lord is this woman ever graphic...
 
[quote name='VioletArrows']That's close to what I'm reading for. Beloved's for Gothic and Horror Literature (second in greatness only to the sci-fi lit class), and Meats is for Women's (*coughFEMINISTcough*) Literature. After Meats, we're reading another of Morrison's, Paradise. Good Lord is this woman ever graphic...[/quote]

Those classes sound great! well, i probably wouldn't be so hot on a women's lit class...but the rest are interesting. Wish I wasn't graduating this semester so I could take more cinema and lit classes. I took one called Kafka and the Kafkaesque which was awesome, then I was going to take a Topics in Japanese Lit class, but there was never a section for modern Japanese lit (not so hot on older books.)
 
Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore. If I read more, I'd have been done a looong time ago. Need to get on that. Great start though.
I'm hoping to finish all of Moores books before Feb. 10th.
 
[quote name='ninja dog']Those classes sound great! well, i probably wouldn't be so hot on a women's lit class...but the rest are interesting. Wish I wasn't graduating this semester so I could take more cinema and lit classes. I took one called Kafka and the Kafkaesque which was awesome, then I was going to take a Topics in Japanese Lit class, but there was never a section for modern Japanese lit (not so hot on older books.)[/quote]

Even being a woman I'm not hot on this class. Blah blah blah PATRIARCHY blah blah EXPRESSION blah blah blah ECOFEMINISM (wut) blah help help I'm being oppressed. If you didn't hate men before this class, you will by the time it's over. @_@

There's tons of foreign language lit classes here... you just have to know that language. I wanted in to French Lit, but I rushed through my second semester and decided against it even though it's the 4th year I've taken French.
 
[quote name='DarthPuma']I'm reading both A Seperate Peace and Slaughterhouse 5 for english.

I absolutely love S5 so far.[/quote]

Slaughterhouse 5 is a great book, I read it for the first time a few months ago.
 
[quote name='DarthPuma']I'm reading both A Seperate Peace and Slaughterhouse 5 for english.

I absolutely love S5 so far.[/QUOTE]

Let me add that A Seperate Peace is also a great book. One of the books that really can make you feel like or remember a specific time in your life. Captures being an adolecent boy really well.
 
[quote name='VioletArrows']Even being a woman I'm not hot on this class. Blah blah blah PATRIARCHY blah blah EXPRESSION blah blah blah ECOFEMINISM (wut) blah help help I'm being oppressed. If you didn't hate men before this class, you will by the time it's over. @_@

There's tons of foreign language lit classes here... you just have to know that language. I wanted in to French Lit, but I rushed through my second semester and decided against it even though it's the 4th year I've taken French.[/QUOTE]

haha, I know how it is. I took a gender and politics course that was great, but when it got to the theoretical side of things and class discussions, I was feeling a bit awkward.
 
[quote name='Azumangaman']I'm hoping to finish all of Moores books before Feb. 10th.[/quote]

Have you read Lamb yet? I think that's his best.

What happens on February 10?
 
I started a short-story collection titled Looking for Jake. China Mieville is a most prodigious writer. His paragraphs are lexicology seminars and each chapter is a profound movement within the Renaissance that is bound between covers. His Bas-Lag world is the Fallout 3 to George R.R. Martin's Fable 2.
 
Man, with all the good game releases lately, my reading has fallen to the way side. I still haven't finished The War Within or Atlas Shrugged.
 
Currently reading Watchmen. Never thought this style and genre would appeal to me, but I am rather enjoying it.
 
[quote name='bmachine']Have you read Lamb yet? I think that's his best.

What happens on February 10?[/quote]
His new book "Fool" is released.
I'm ALMOST done Coyote Blue. I picked up Lamb,Practical Demonkeeping and You Suck a couple days ago. I'm excited to read Lamb. Its a brilliant concept.
 
Borders is running a BOGO-half-price sale this week on all fiction books.

Check out the coupon here. It expires on 11/18.

You may need a Borders Rewards membership to take advantage of the deal.
 
Finished Flatland, now it's on to The War of the Worlds.

Also just bought Wheel of Time books 4-8 (already had 1-3) for a buck a piece. I should probably start the series, seeing as how I have 2/3rds of it.
 
I just finished The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton and now I've started on another of his books, Disclosure.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']I know a few George R.R. Martin fans here are going to flip out when they read this.

http://grrm.livejournal.com/58155.html[/quote]


I heard! :bouncy::bouncy::bouncy::bouncy::bouncy:

I forgot to post that last week. Good god, that is going to be, as the kids say, "epic."

I can hardly wait. I hope they do justice to the GRRM's amazing fiction. I wonder who they picked to portray Jaime... :whistle2:k

This is going to be amazing. Hopefully. :pray:
 
I've always wanted to start on the George R.R. Martin books after hearing so much praise for them. Any recommendations on where to start?
 
[quote name='deszaras']I've always wanted to start on the George R.R. Martin books after hearing so much praise for them. Any recommendations on where to start?[/quote]


I recommend starting with the Song of Ice and Fire series. The first book is A Game of Thrones. Beware though, it is highly-plausible that you will become an addict and dedicate absurd amounts of time to quickly completing the present books in the series. ;)

After reading the Song of Ice and Fire books, I recommend reading both volumes of Dreamsongs, and then his individual fiction, like Armageddon Rag. If his Wildcard series was easier to find, I'd recommend it. Unfortunately, those books are quite a rarity.
 
Game of Thrones is definitely what you want to start with. I haven't read any other series by him (like Wild Cards, etc). Takes about 50 pages for the first Martin book to get its hooks in you and then you will start reading when you get home and night and the next thing you know the sun came up.

Fortunately for newcomers to the series, you have like 4 massive books to enjoy, all readily available in paperback, instead of reading one and the torturous waiting for the next one.
 
'Cancer on $5 a Day' by Robert Schimmel, my favorite stand-up comedian ever. Also been leafing through one of the Astro City books and 'More Information Than You Require' by John Hodgeman.
 
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