What are you currently reading? Post here!

I've been reading the Song of Ice and Fire currently about to finish book three, Storm of Swords, but I wanted to take a break before I start book four. I was looking for a good horror story book, outside of Stephen King, any recommendations?
 
Finished The World According to Garp.

Fantastic book, one of the best I've read. John Irving is definitely one of my favorite writers, I've read four of his books thus far and loved all of them. The other three I've read are The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules and Until I Find You.
 
Anyone here use the site GoodReads?

I've been using it the past few months to keep track of books I want to read, what i've read, etc. It's pretty cool, plus it has a book swap feature that i'm totally taking advantage to get rid of a bunch of books I wasn't fond of.

Currently Reading:
40764130.JPG

locke-key-head-games-joe-hill-hardcover-cover-art.jpg
 
Just started Perdido Street Station.

[quote name='RockinTheRedDog']Anyone here use the site GoodReads?[/QUOTE]

Yep, found that site a few months back and have become horribly reliant on it. It's a fantastic way to organize your books, while keeping track of what you have read and what you have yet to read. Highly recommended to any bibliophile.
 
I use Goodreads as well. Supposedly they're working on adding in Netflix like recommendations based on your ratings. Looking forward to that.

Picked up some books at the library today and started up:

51xiG0ldG0L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


and

51Jtxp1221L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


Still reading the Fareed Zakaria book mentioned earlier on the Kindle in the gym as well.
 
Currently reading Robinson Crusoe. Fopp (the shop in the UK) are selling lots of classics for £1 each.

Not enjoying as much as I thought I would. The language is fine and some of it is great, but his sentences go on forever. I shall persevere though.
 
[quote name='Ashwood']Currently reading Robinson Crusoe. Fopp (the shop in the UK) are selling lots of classics for £1 each.

Not enjoying as much as I thought I would. The language is fine and some of it is great, but his sentences go on forever. I shall persevere though.[/QUOTE]

I had the exact same problem when I tried to read it. I almost always finish a book I've started, but this one was the exception.
 
I've used good reads but all I could see to do was just rate/comment on what I'm already reading. I already do that here. It keeps a record of what I've read, but so does my memory.

I really need something to recommend more obscure books. I asked for a recomendation of noir crime novels and all I got was the standard Chandler and Hamlett recomendations. i've already read all those.
 
As I noted above, they're supposed to be working on a system to reccomend you books based on what you've rated--like Netflix does with movies

That should solve part of that problem as it shouldn't recommend things you've already read and rated. Know way to know if it will recommend obscure things or common things already on your "to read' list though.
 
Reading The Relucant Mage by Karen Miller.
Kinda okay but heard the sequel is way better.
And i loved Kingmaker, Kingbreaker.

Cant wait for Eldest
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']As I noted above, they're supposed to be working on a system to reccomend you books based on what you've rated--like Netflix does with movies

That should solve part of that problem as it shouldn't recommend things you've already read and rated. Know way to know if it will recommend obscure things or common things already on your "to read' list though.[/QUOTE]

It just got put into open beta.
 
[quote name='Maklershed']A Canticle for Leibowitz
Oryx and Crake / The Year of the Flood
Parable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents[/QUOTE]

Oryx and Crake is thoroughly depressing, even for Margaret Atwood. Good, but read it when you want something very bleak.

The Parable books are terrific, the first more than the second. Octavia Butler is a favorite of mine.

Just finished: A Clash of Kings
In progress: Dead Until Dark, Y: The Last Man vol 5, Ex Machina vol 7
Up next: A Storm of Swords

I didn't have much hope for Dead Until Dark, but it's surprising me with how faithful the series was to the book and how the different media shaped each of them. It's one of the few cases where one is not automatically vastly superior, but they each bring interesting things to the table.

Will probably drop Ex Machina since I'm not digging it, but I've exhausted pretty much every other graphic novel at the local library.
 
I finished Dance with Dragons, Ghost Story, and the Half-Orc series. I enjoyed them all, though was a little disappointed at parts of Dance with Dragons. Ghost Story was great and it amazes how the Dresden Files seems to keep getting better with each book. The Half-Orc series was a little blah to me towards the end but not bad. Anyone have any suggestions of what to read next? I've finished all the Dresden Files, Song of Fire and Ice, and the Nightside books. Is there anything in the lines of those to start on that anyone can recommend? I always have such a hard time picking out new books to read and I found Dresden, Nightside, and the Half-Orcs through this thread.
 
Second book in "The Quickening" series.


About hafl way through it. I liked the first book better so far. It's got a great setting and a good (if underused) premise. This is definately something you can read with your mind turned off though. All the characters explain what they're going to do, and then go do it. Even all their internal monologues are "Should he do this? Wyl knew he had no choice." Almost like reading a James Patterson mass market thriller (So I presume)
 
For anyone that's looking for a book or series and you enjoyed Asimov's Foundation, Mass Effect, Hyperion, or exploration of the unknown in space I highly recommend Pandora's Star (which is book 1 of the Commonwealth Saga). I'm only half way through and I'm absolutely loving it.

Mass Market Paperback = $8.99

Kindle edition = $8.99

Nook = $8.99

(somebody please get it so I have someone to talk to about it :))
 
Finished the V for Vendetta graphic novel. Found it a bit underwhelming. One of those rare cases where the movie (which changed a lot) was better.
 
finished cross the stars sort of a scifi take on the odyssey and sort of an amusing old school scifi story, and I think I'm going to have to look for the hammer's slammers novels, seems like I might enjoy them in a somewhat similar way to the gaunt's ghosts novels but they're alot older. oooo everything in 3 volumes of The Complete Hammer's Slammers .
[quote name='Maklershed']For anyone that's looking for a book or series and you enjoyed Asimov's Foundation, Mass Effect, Hyperion, or exploration of the unknown in space I highly recommend Pandora's Star (which is book 1 of the Commonwealth Saga). I'm only half way through and I'm absolutely loving it.

Mass Market Paperback = $8.99

Kindle edition = $8.99

Nook = $8.99

(somebody please get it so I have someone to talk to about it :))[/QUOTE]

ok I'll try and dig out my copy and give it a shot brought it with me on a trip a while ago and never got around to reading it.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Finished the V for Vendetta graphic novel. Found it a bit underwhelming. One of those rare cases where the movie (which changed a lot) was better.[/QUOTE]


Indeed. Blade Runner being the only other one I can think of to put on that list.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Finished the V for Vendetta graphic novel. Found it a bit underwhelming. One of those rare cases where the movie (which changed a lot) was better.[/QUOTE]

I somewhat disagree, though I don't mean to take anything away from the movie. I think it is underappreciated how well it adapted the source and maintained some of the truly iconic parts. I don't think it could have been done better as a two-hour movie.

I particularly love the way the novel ends with Evey
figuring out who V is under the mask
. It's hardly a new idea, but it's particularly well implemented. There's also just a lot of really nice things in the book that had to get cut, as well as all of the pieces falling into place. The book doesn't always hold together consistently, but it's rich in text, artwork, characterization, and ideas.
 
[quote name='noone13']I've finished all the Dresden Files, Song of Fire and Ice, and the Nightside books. Is there anything in the lines of those to start on that anyone can recommend?[/QUOTE]

I really dug The Magicians by Lev Grossman, and the sequel The Magician King (which just came out last week).

Anyone else read those books, by the way?
 
[quote name='Maklershed']For anyone that's looking for a book or series and you enjoyed Asimov's Foundation, Mass Effect, Hyperion, or exploration of the unknown in space I highly recommend Pandora's Star (which is book 1 of the Commonwealth Saga). I'm only half way through and I'm absolutely loving it.

Mass Market Paperback = $8.99

Kindle edition = $8.99

Nook = $8.99

(somebody please get it so I have someone to talk to about it :))[/QUOTE]
Loved the first 3 Foundation books, and Hyperion is on my to-read list. How long is the series so far?
 
[quote name='blandstalker']I somewhat disagree, though I don't mean to take anything away from the movie. I think it is underappreciated how well it adapted the source and maintained some of the truly iconic parts. I don't think it could have been done better as a two-hour movie.

I particularly love the way the novel ends with Evey
figuring out who V is under the mask
. It's hardly a new idea, but it's particularly well implemented. There's also just a lot of really nice things in the book that had to get cut, as well as all of the pieces falling into place. The book doesn't always hold together consistently, but it's rich in text, artwork, characterization, and ideas.[/QUOTE]

Fair enough. I just didn't like a lot of things like:

-The police state rising out of a nuclear war rather than a disease launched by the government on it's own people as in the movie IIRC.

-The stupid Fate computer

-All the characters vying to become the new leader--that muddled down the central plot of a terrorist riling up the public to overthrow the police state. And it was hard to keep all those characters straight since it jumped around a lot.

-The stupid Scottish hitman/thug character they wrote with an accent that made much of his dialogue nearly jibberish

Just wasn't my cup of tea I guess. Though I should preface that by saying I'm not at all a comic/graphic novel person in general.
 
Just started A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. A little slow so far (2 chapters in), but hopefully all the gushy praise stamped all over it actually rings true. We shall see...
 
Finally got around to finishing Wise Man's Fear. Now the waiting game for the final Kingkiller book begins. Now I know how Fire & Ice fans feel.

Moving on to Eros In Orbit, edited by Joseph Elder. Pretty much a quick book of short stories about fucking in space. At the very least it'll be a decent palate cleanser before I move onto another book with body.
 
Just started Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Been slowly going through The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. (As a Catholic, I find it equally interesting and amusing)
 
[quote name='pete5883']Loved the first 3 Foundation books, and Hyperion is on my to-read list. How long is the series so far?[/QUOTE]


I believe the Commonwealth Saga is just 3 books but there's apparently another trilogy afterwards that's considered a sequel to the Commonwealth Saga.

[quote name='jupiterjones']Just started A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. A little slow so far (2 chapters in), but hopefully all the gushy praise stamped all over it actually rings true. We shall see...[/QUOTE]


It's not bad. Not great either imo. But then again I'm not really into depressing books about people's emotions and such.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']
Just wasn't my cup of tea I guess. Though I should preface that by saying I'm not at all a comic/graphic novel person in general.[/QUOTE]

I don't know if you read the foreword (I usually don't the first time I read something, because I hate spoilers, and then I usually forget afterwards). The book was written in the 80s as a response to Thatcher and rising intolerance in Britain. The threat of nuclear war made much more sense then, though it is something that I think was smartly changed by the movie.

And I guess you should never read Trainspotting. ;)
 
Yeah, I read the foreward and afterward etc. I didn't have a problem with it being a nuclear war rather than disease. I just liked that in the movie
it turned out that the government had released it on it's own people to take power.
In any case, that was a minor comment. The other stuff I listed was more of why I didn't really care for it.


Anyway, finished The Rum Diary. Very good, but I still like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels more.

Started up:

41A13jNOrEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
 
I picked up Soviet era classic The Master and Margarita at the Borders going out of business sale this month. It has a Gogol-esque absurdity to it that I quite like.
 
About halfway through one of the books in Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series.


Not terribly thrilling, and very little science in its fiction. It's an easy enough read even if the motivation for the characters are explained over and over every 20 pages.

I really perfer the far out there hard sci-fi of guys like Reynolds, Stross, and early Stephen Baxter.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']I really perfer the far out there hard sci-fi of guys like Reynolds, Stross, and early Stephen Baxter.[/QUOTE]

Have you tried Vernor Vinge? A Fire Upon The Deep was fantastic hard sci-fi.
 
[quote name='SneakyPenguin']Have you tried Vernor Vinge? A Fire Upon The Deep was fantastic hard sci-fi.[/QUOTE]

Yup read it a few years ago. Think I read the sequel as well but I can't remember. Also read his "Rainbow's End" which wasn't as "hard" but was still good.
 
This business of music: the definitive guide to the music industry

books


You will learn more from this book than any school will teach you. I have a friend who went to Musicians Institute is in debt $60,000 still didn't learn as much as you did from this book.
 
i stocked up hard today. went to Borders going out of business sale, everything 40-60% off and got some stuff ive been interested in heres a quick run down.

Barack Like Me - David Alan Grier ($2)
Always Look Up - Michael J Fox ($2.50)
Men's Health Big Book of Food and Nutrition - ($13)
Boys Will Be Boys, The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys- ($8)
The Book of Basketball - Bill Simmons ($9)
My Footprint - Jeff Garlin ($13)
New Rules - Bill Maher ($2.50)
What Would Susie Say? - Susie Essman ($2.50)
In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks - Adam Carolla ($7)

im currently half way through DAG's Book, Barack like me and its pretty interesting, good read if your a fan of his.
 
[quote name='sublime90']
Boys Will Be Boys, The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys- ($8)
The Book of Basketball - Bill Simmons ($9)
My Footprint - Jeff Garlin ($13)
In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks - Adam Carolla ($7)
[/QUOTE]
I like your taste in books :applause:. TBOB is amazing so far (about 125 pages in), I really enjoy Bill Simmons writing. I'm also a big fan of Carolla so I would be interested to hear if you enjoyed that once you get around to reading it.



In other news, I just ordered World War Z, The Shadow of the Wind, and Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox on Amazon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top