Reading the Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough. Pretty good so far, Political intrigue, obsession, war, compelling characters, and a history lesson all wrapped up in a nice package. Really makes ancient Rome come alive.

Also I'm listening to the Wheel of Time on audiobook to pass the time in the car. It's a pretty decent series as fantasies go, but I've been spoiled by the Song of Ice and Fire series and so it doesn't rank nearly as high as it would have before. The convenient coincidences, awkward female characterization, and repetitive, stereotypical "Evil Big Bad Dark Dude with his evil army of evilness" kinda gets to me more than it would have a year ago. Still a fun read though.

I am reading Our Town by Thornton Wilder because I absolutely love the third act.

I am listing to the audio adaptation of DC Comic's Kingdom Come because I love superheroes. Anyone heard it? They did a great job with this one. It's such a visual story... I didn't think they'd be able to pull it off, but it's awesome.

Okay I just want it reinstated in the record that I'm a huge Superhero geek.

I just finished How to Be A Superhero.

Now I'm gonna read (in order)
The Superhero Handbook
How To Be A Villain
Haunted Arizona
The Girl Who Owned A City
The Government Manual For New Superheroes

And I got three more coming. Wooo!! Can't remember

Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. great. that all that needs to be said.

The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, just started. Finished Gibson's Starship Troopers...nothing at all like the movie, actually. Not necessarily a bad thing...just sufficiently different to warrant a scratching of the head at odd-minute intervals.

Reading a collection of stories that were eventually turned into episodes of the Twilight Zone.

Good stuff.

I'm about to start the Time Traveler's Wife. It looks interesting...we'll see how reading with a two month old goes :)

Little Red Death wrote:

...we'll see how reading with a two month old goes :)

I remember learning the importance of having a good relationship with bookmarks. You know, you want something interesting... something you won't resent looking at often. think of it as a friend that reads the book along with you.

The problem is, once the kid(s) get to a certain age... bookmarks are those interesting things that hang out of books simply asking to be pulled for further examination.

Imperium- Historical novel about the life of Cicero.

A Sorrow in our Hearts- Historical novel about the life of Tecumseh

Dread Empire's Fall Trilogy - Great space opera by Walter Jon Williams. Not the best I've ever read, but a darn good read and has great system of patrons and clients.

Just recently read the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. Robert Jordan should study her intensely to learn how to write a hero's tale. In short, Robert Jordan sucks, Robin Hobb is awesomesauce. That is all.

Read a couple Robert Parker novels. When it comes to Snappy dialogue, he's hard to beat, but I've haven't yet been gripped by one of his novels in the same way JK Rowling, Robin Hobb, or G R R Martin grip me.

Kweejibo wrote:

Zombie Survival Guide

That one has a place of honor on our shelves :lol:

Current reading: Richard Dawkins' "Ancestor's Tale." I've been a fan of his ever since reading "Selfish Gene" back in high school, and I've yet to find anyone who gives a clearer, more readable explanation of the various aspects of neo-Darwinism while remaining scientific and intelligent.

Just got through with a couple of Ursula LeGuinn novels - "Disposessed," which I had read before, and "Four Ways to Forgiveness," which is new. Remembered why I can only take her in small doses: her writing style is impeccable and the stories themselves are great, but can be just so increadibly preachy....

Also just finished Stanislaw Lem's "Return from the Stars." If you can get past the first 30 pages - phantasmagoric to the point of being virtually unreadable - it's a worthwhile story. Nowhere near as deep as "Solaris," but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I also have to wonder how much of the "unreadability" is a result of translation problems: I always have more problems reading him in English translation than in Russian (which is much closer to his native Polish).

Dawkins and Lem? Excellent taste.

I just recently read The God Delusion (which wasn't as great as Dawkins' earlier stuff, but still an interesting read.)

At the moment I'm reading Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and Neil Stephenson's "Quicksilver" (which is going incredibly slowly, but I've been assured that after the first 400 pages, the series gets great.)

Quicksilver is (ironically) pretty slow going throughout. I made it through the first two volumes before getting hopelessly distracted by more accessible material. Strangely though, I'm planning on picking up the series again in the near future - it's interesting, damn him, even if it does make my brain ache (though I suspect it's because I hit Stephenson immediately after posining my brain with Mercedes Lackey and assorted manga. Thinking hurts.)

"Snow Crash" is, so far, the best Stephenson work I've read, and "Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (I just love the name) is only slightly duller. Amazing to think that Snow Crash is actually pretty old - the guy's a modern prophet if ever I read one. And his futuristic stuff is much more up-tempo than his historical fiction. I keep meaning to pick up "Cryptonomicon," but I always put it back because it's a sort of bridge between his historical Quicksilver stuff and the cyber-punk moden novels, and so I feel like I'm cheating if I just cut to the good parts.

Read Cryptonomicon first. I've read Snow Crash, Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon and I can say that while Snow Crash was the most fun, Cryptonomicon was the best.. and I think reading the Baroque books is made more enjoyable having Cryptonomicon already finished.

Ah good, something else on which to spend my book allowance :twisted: Keep 'em coming - I'm always looking for recommendations.

I'm currently reading the Orphans Seris by V.C.Andrews...

I finished Butterfly (the first book in the seris)
Now I'm on Crystal.

"Retreat? HELL!" by W.E.B. Griffin and "The Haj" by Leon Uris. Trying to buff up on my history, and I love these two authors.

Finally got around to reading "Catch-22" and now I'm seeing the term "jamais vu" and the name Yossarian everywhere. :shock:

Rei wrote:

Finally got around to reading "Catch-22" and now I'm seeing the term "jamais vu" and the name Yossarian everywhere. :shock:

I keep telling myself I'll pick that up the next time I'm at the bookstore, one of these times I'm going to have to do it.

Meh, just go to a library.... I never buy anything unless
a. I know 100% that I will want to read it again, or
b. our half-arsed library system doesn't have it and probably never will

Definitely a worthwhile read tho - aside from the dark humor, it's still amazingly relevant and a must-read for anyone who still harbors delusions of "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." (Click the link if you don't get the reference. Click it if you do get the reference also - never hurts to be reminded.)

In fact, I think all the WWI poets should be mandatory reading for all military personnel, all kids who want to enlist, and all politicians.... Owen, Graves, the whole lot. And WWII stuff like "Catch" for good measure.

Reading James Joyce?Ǭ¨?Ǭ•s Ulysses... man, it?Ǭ¨?Ǭ•s gonna take a while to finish it.

YonyHC wrote:

Reading James Joyce?Ǭ¨?Ǭ•s Ulysses... man, it?Ǭ¨?Ǭ•s gonna take a while to finish it.

Luck with that. I don't have the patience for Joyce - read "Dubliners" for a college project, and that was as far as I want to go with him, and that one wasn't even stream of consciousness. I can't shake the feeling that Joyce was having a long, hearty laugh at everyone else's expense while writing them, sort of a literary version of Marcel Duchamp: "Let's just see if the critics and snobs will actually take this seriously."

I've read good reviews from critics I dislike and bad reviews from authors I respect for Ulysses. I can't claim to have read it but I don't plan to either.

ValarMorghulis wrote:

I've read good reviews from critics I dislike and bad reviews from authors I respect for Ulysses.

I can explain why.

If you see writing as a form of communication (as most authors tend to), then Joyce is a miserable failure. To communicate well you must communicate clearly, and Joyce's writing is anything but clear.

If you see writing as a means of separating those "in the know" from the unwashed, unliterary masses (as most critics do), then Joyce is an unqualified success.

Moreover, his writing is so dense, circular, and obscure than you don't actually have to read it to be able to praise its existential angst, or its tender yet brutal nature, or its moments of despair juxtaposed against the overall theme of hope and renewal, or any other literary drek you can pull out of your nether regions. Note that I came up with all of the jargon above without having read more than a smidgin of Ulysses, which I don't remember at any rate. It's completely meaningless, and yet I guarantee you can find all of it in criticism on Joyce.

currently reading:

Dearly Devoted Dexter

Just finished:

Dexter Dreaming Darkly

next up:

Dexter in the Dark

Opinion: The books aren't as good as the TV series. They are fun reads, but they aren't brilliant. Dexter is brilliant TV. Jeff Lindsay's book series on the other hand is just fun popcorn reading.

I'm just rereading 'the codex' while I wait for a new book to come swinging by and smack me in the forehead.

The Godfather - following up on this thread from MOVIES/Citizen Kane... bigman47 wrote:

Jake wrote:

Jake wrote: Funny enough, I am reading The Godfather right now, and believe it or not, I've never read it and I've never seen any of the films!

What do you think of the Godfather so far? Because i am trying to get it at my library and should hopefully be reading it soon.

Though I'm not finished yet, but I'm finding the novel really solid. Not always tasteful or "nice" (and definitely not PG-13!), but then neither is the subject matter. In a culture becoming obsessed with a different idea of gangsters and organized crime, this book is a seminal work. Interesting, too how the novel fosters reflection on the current drug culture given the naivete of the 1940s world it describes. I found it a little slow to start with, so if you do too, I recommend you hang in there until something "big" happens - you'll know what it is when it happens - and then I'm pretty sure you'll be hooked as I was. After that point, the plot has a sense of driving inevitability toward... something - obviously I don't know yet what, but I want to find out! And then I can't wait to watch the movie and see Brando, Pacino, Caan and Duvall, & friends do their thing. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the book, and then maybe we can start a thread on the movie. ;)

Jake wrote:

The Godfather - following up on this thread from MOVIES/Citizen Kane... bigman47 wrote:

Jake wrote:

Jake wrote: Funny enough, I am reading The Godfather right now, and believe it or not, I've never read it and I've never seen any of the films!

What do you think of the Godfather so far? Because i am trying to get it at my library and should hopefully be reading it soon.

Though I'm not finished yet, but I'm finding the novel really solid. Not always tasteful or "nice" (and definitely not PG-13!), but then neither is the subject matter. In a culture becoming obsessed with a different idea of gangsters and organized crime, this book is a seminal work. Interesting, too how the novel fosters reflection on the current drug culture given the naivete of the 1940s world it describes. I found it a little slow to start with, so if you do too, I recommend you hang in there until something "big" happens - you'll know what it is when it happens - and then I'm pretty sure you'll be hooked as I was. After that point, the plot has a sense of driving inevitability toward... something - obviously I don't know yet what, but I want to find out! And then I can't wait to watch the movie and see Brando, Pacino, Caan and Duvall, & friends do their thing. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the book, and then maybe we can start a thread on the movie. ;)

I recomend after reading the book, watching Godfather 1 and 2.

Right now I'm currently waiting till september so I can read 'Brisingr' the third book in the inheritance trilogy. :wink:

Bliss wrote:

Right now I'm currently waiting till september so I can read 'Brisingr' the third book in the inheritance trilogy. :wink:

WOO! Cant Wait!!!!

bigman47 wrote:

Bliss wrote:

Right now I'm currently waiting till september so I can read 'Brisingr' the third book in the inheritance trilogy. :wink:

WOO! Cant Wait!!!!

Alright, It looks theres two of us now.