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[deadbeef]

I am still reading The Magus, by John Fowles. It is picking up - Urfe has met Conchis and is spending time with him, and strange things are starting to happen.

I also started this book last week, trying to read both books in tandem.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

At home:

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont

Lunch breaks at work:

The Girl with the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block

 

[bggrthnjsus]

I'm reading The Mist by Stephen King and thankfully it's quite short. Quite shitty and quite short.

I'm about to start a Cormac McCarthy novel because I loved No Country for Old Men so much and I picked The Road at random. I haven't picked it up yet but is this a good choice or should I try another one for my first?

i think the road was a faster and more enjoyable read than no country

i'm reading

...really slowly...i've got school and stuff so i have to read a lot of textbooks first. legacy of ashes is pretty horrifying though.

 

[Eric P]

At home:

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont

that book is a lot of fun!

 

[Absinthe (Permed)]

Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises
Yasunari Kawabata - The Sound of the Mountain
Willam Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina

Probably won't finish all of them this month, though.

Great list except for The Sound and the Fury. Hated that fucking book.

 

[Yasser]

i've been sitting on catch 22 for a while and started that. about 40 pages in and i hate all the characters so far =/

 

[Cdammen]

I'm past the prologue and like 80 pages into the book. Excellent reading about an remarkable man. And this is also the first non-fictional book that I'm reading on my spare time

 

[Mr. Banana Grabber]

Great list except for The Sound and the Fury. Hated that fucking book.

There is a point when Faulkner's writing goes from, "Wow, he's such a good writer that he doesn't even need to specify when the voice changes between characters." to, "Use some fucking punctuation you racist prick!"

 

[Celery&Lager]

I have just finished this,

and after having been recommended countless times by GAF, I am starting this tonight,

 

[thomaser]

Still going on Steinbeck's "East of Eden". Great book. The poor characters get into all sorts of shit, but it's still a pure joy to read. Steinbeck's powers of characterization and "naturalness" remind me of Tolstoy's.

I would normally be done with it a long time ago, but I chose to continue my history-studies, so most of my fun reading is put on hold by Palmer, Colton and Kramer's mammoth "A History of the Modern World". But it's so well written and interesting that it doesn't matter.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Just drug these out of the longboxes.

YAYYY!!!

 

[QVT]

You win.

 

[cicero]

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - Definitely Maybe (it's from a series of paperbacks called Best of Soviet Sci Fi and my knowledge is rather lacking in that department)

Have you read Hard To Be A God yet?

 

[roosters93]

For school.

 

[regrib]

 

[JavaMava]

I'm a little over half way through it. Rather slow start for some one who's musically literate, but becomes ridiculously interesting when they start talking about how the brain likes to categorize things.

Also just picked this up. Only through the first chapter. Rather intimidating in size. Kind of wishing I bit the +$10 bullet and bought the larger font version though.

Ohh, don't know if it counts but I also picked up

scorebooks.

 

[Octagon]

regrib your book reminds me that the first 4 books of the Dark Tower saga were great
and that the rest was so bad that i stopped reading half-way through the final book.

Anyways i am just reading the last pages of this:

I am going to start reading this afterwards:

One of the few Murakami books i haven't read yet.

 

[Eric P]

Have you read Hard To Be A God yet?

No. I found this randomly. I have never read any Russian Sci-Fi (not even Solaris)

 

[lastendconductor]

Re reading Elric of Melniboné.

 

[Eric P]

Re reading Elric of Melniboné.

i would kill to find a good omnibus edition of those for an inexpensive price

 

[tammolives]

This is amazing.

Edit:
Apologies to JavaMava
It's cool because, well, it's a blind guy that traveled all over the world, he even went to medical school. He's basically the Teddy Roosevelt of blind people.

 

[datruth29]

Half way through. Incredible take on the Great Depression, eye opening at the very least. Probably be done by this weekend.

Haven't started yet.

Can't wait to start on this!

A teacher I worked with recommended this and let me hold her copy. Can't wait to read this either!

 

[keeblerdrow]

Guys, fear not. The Wheel of Time is in extraordinarily good hands.

I just finished Elantris a couple weeks ago and it was fantastic. A page turner with great characters and maybe one twist too many. After that, I started my final re-read of Wheel of Time while I acquired the Mistborn books. After being burnt out by books 7 and 8 and not touching the series for years, it was nice reading The Eye of the World. When I got done with it I was thrilled. I put the book down and said aloud "Now I remember why I love these books so much."

 

[QVT]

I gave up on the defense after 150 pages of 250. I simply do not care about anyone in that book. The worst Nabokov I've read, by far. I imagine it'd appeal to somebody who didn't think chess was stupid though.

 

[Eric P]

hilariously awesomely bad

it's like the davinci code meets the secret meets the freemasons meets the author's insanity minus an editor or fact checker. my motivation to keep reading is based upon what other crazy shit the author can pull from his rectum. I'll post some choice stuff tonight if I remember

 

[S. L.]

aaand

(german)

 

[beelzebozo]

fascinating

 

[Future PhaZe]

Per gafs suggestion. Really enjoying it thus far.

 

[Guzim]

 

[Keen]

Final part of the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

 

[cubicle47b]

Fast Food Nation

 

[sorryaboutdresden]

Just ordered that, It's only $6 new off Amazon, Huge discount

still reading..

and

 

[Tamanon]

Interesting stuff, Hanssen was an absolute douchebag for what he did, especially when there wasn't really any ulterior motive besides getting money.

 

[Guileless]

 

[electricpirate]

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day
Web development in C# .net 2.0
Contact Harvest

 

[JavaMava]

This is amazing.

Why?

Also a quick qualm about what your reading/listening to/playing topics. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE include some sort of detail about what its about, or how your enjoying it. Something other than a picture of the cover. Threads like these are like the exact opposite of "don't judge a book by it's cover".

Thank you.

 

[Snidely Whiplash]

Per gafs suggestion. Really enjoying it thus far.

Same here.

 

[Alucard]

I am just finishing this book up right now. Honestly, I am not really finding it that enjoyable. There are a couple of amusing parts, but at this point I just want to finish it so I can start on the below.

Yeah, I couldn't really read much of this one. Self-satisfied, uninformed grandstanding and cynical mouthing off. Klosterman is an ass.

 

[Eric P]

i'll be done in about an hour and a half.

a worthy evening's entertainment

 

[Alucard]

I recently finished these 2 books, dating back to the end of last month:

I will admit that I am not a highly science-minded individual. My understanding of many of the concepts explored in this book borders on total ignorance. Regardless of these factors, I immensely enjoyed this strange tale, which tickled my brain with its themes of human ambition, ego, and the desire for personal glory regardless of the potential cost; in this case, the potential explosion of Earth's sun. Split up into three sections, the book spans Earth, an alien parallel universe, and the colonized moon. The second section in particular is noteworthy. Asimov creates a brand new universe, with a society that is wonderfully imagined; one where beings mate in triads, and feast off pure energy. Whereas it may have sounded ridiculous in the hands of a different author, Asimov fully buys into this alien world, making us believe in it, and care about its odd inhabitants. From what I have read of Asimov so far, this story features some of his strongest prose. Despite its heavy use of scientific theories and terms, this can still be enjoyed by anyone who likes reading about possible futures, with a healthy dose of relevant philosophy. "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."

This is a brisk 150 page sci-fi adventure that is ultimately flawed due to its brevity. Anderson introduces a load of various races and languages, but does not spend a lot of time on each, making the reader confused as to what exactly is going on from time to time. Also, humanity has apparently achieved immortality, but Anderson spends no time explaining how this happened. In short, while the clash of civilizations that Anderson tries to pull off here is a classic idea, the execution lacks substance. The book comes off half-baked, which is a shame, because with some extra care and extrapolation of themes, this could have been something special.

I started this last weekend and have slowly been chipping away at it...

The title is fairly self-explanatory. It is very accessible and written in a language anyone can pick up and understand. The prose writing is actually rather simplistic, but it helps to understand the philosophic theories that much more. This book starts from myths, and works its way up through the Socrates, Marx, and just about every other significant philosopher in Western thought.

After I get through this, I will be reading these two...

I have read great things, and just browsing the summary whets my appetite for some excellent science fiction.

I figure it's about time for me to dip into this man's work. I picked this up based on GAF's recommendation. I don't think you guys will let me down, will you?!

 

[Eric P]

Rendezvous with Rama is EXCELLENT

ignore the rest of the "series"

if you like Rendezvous, please check out Childhood's End by the same writer.

 

[npm0925]

I was really disappointed with In Green's Jungles. The stuff that takes place on Green is fantastic, so strange and hellish. It's some of the best material Wolfe has written. The remainder of the book, which accounts for about 80% of its pages, is Robert Jordan style filler about a petty, uninteresting war. This is undoubtedly the worst Gene Wolfe novel I've read, and I have no desire to finish the trilogy now.

 

[G-Bus]

In the middle of this.

Got an 8 hour flight on Thursday and I have been meaning to start this. Would of already but I fucking HATE paper backs. I'm going to try and track down a hard cover copy before I leave. =\

 

[coldvein]

good to see so many people reading game of thrones.. i might have to go through the series again a third time before the next book comes out. crap.

 

[Eric P]

just finished the ruins.

aside from some RATHER annoying parts in the book, i found it to be good overall. i liked the ending.

 

[Guileless]

 

[dark_chris]

The whole series. Starting with Twilight.

 

[Juice]

Reading this now and it's going really fast, thankfully, my book backlog is getting out of control.

That book is a very good introduction to what it's like to be a clueless JET teacher IMHO.

 

[Echoes]

Got it yesterday, so far so good.

 

[Femmeworth]

The whole series. Starting with Twilight.

Yay, another gaffer reading the series.