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What are you reading (June 2012)

One day, I'll actually read Atlas Shrugged.

Anyway, I was told reading glasses would allow me to read for a much longer period. So, I'm holding off from novels until I can snatch myself some glasses. Reading a book for 15 minutes and getting a headache is not good at all.
 
Finished this in the bathtub:


Wool Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey

Aaah it was so good! Thanks for the recommendation, whoever it was on GAF who recommended it. It's wonderful if you like post-apocalyptic fiction. Even if you don't like it. If you want an exciting and emotional ride, it's a great pick-up. It's only $6 for all 5 ebooks on Amazon.
 

mike23

Member
Finished in the past week:

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Currently reading:

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I highly recommend the Mageborn series. Top 2 or 3 indie series for me easily. First one is free with Amazon Prime and I can lend the second and third kindle versions if anyone is interested. PM me.

Keeping up with my Goodreads challenge:

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Uriah

Member
Winter is coming...or is it here? I forget. I kind of lost interest after book two bored me. Hoping some more intense drama unfolds in this book after the events in the previous.

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Oh, there are some surprises in store.
 

Ceebs

Member
Oh yeah it's June! There is a new Terry Pratchett Non-Discworld Sci-Fi book out this month. I completely forgot about it until Amazon popped it up for me as a preorder recommendation.
 

CorvoSol

Member
I just finished reading:

The Name of the Wind
The Wise Man's Fear


So so so so want the next book in the series to come out. Wanna know what trouble Kvothe gets himself into next! But screw you, Bast. You are the worst character in the whole series.

I will soon read:

DON PENDLETON'S: MACK BOLAN THE EXECUTIONER: STAND DOWN
DON PENDLETON'S: MACK BOLAN THE EXECUTIONER: TREASON PLAY


I once read a book called Mack Bolan Save the Children. There was so much violence and killing that I recorded it all. I will do that again with these books. It's a thing I do for Mack Bolan. HE'S SO MATURE.
 
I'm going to reread all of SoIaF after I complete my summer classes. I was talking to a friend about the book, after I finished reading SoS a few years back, I have missed so many details, and the show does a poor job in reenacting the true glory of the books.
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
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Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God, some see human arrogance reaping the punishment it deserves. Jessie Lamb is an ordinary girl living in extraordinary times: as her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her towards the ultimate act of heroism. If the human race is to survive, it’s up to her.But is Jessie heroic? Or is she, as her father fears, impressionable, innocent, incapable of understanding where her actions will lead? Set just a month or two in the future, in a world irreparably altered by an act of biological terrorism, The Testament of Jessie Lamb explores a young woman’s determination to make her life count for something, as the certainties of her childhood are ripped apart.

Just finishing up The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers. It's very good, and well deserving of the the Arthur C. Clarke award, which it recently won. Deals with some heady stuff, and not exactly a light read, though a quick one. Highly recommended.
 

I like the show, but I do not consider the show, especially this season, being a great representation of the novels. The show butchered my favorites scenes from A Clash of Kings. Hell, the producers are making me hate a character who I adored from the novels (Jon).
 

ultron87

Member
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Redshirts by John Scalzi. Picked it up today, already 40% in. Quite enjoyable. It approaches its main concept far more directly than I expected.
 

jayb

Member
Winter is coming...or is it here? I forget. I kind of lost interest after book two bored me. Hoping some more intense drama unfolds in this book after the events in the previous.

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aSoS is the best book in the series...

After flying through books 1-4 at the end of last year, I took a break to read some other stuff. But I'm back and am 42% into aDwD. I'm really enjoying it so far, especially after the semi-chore of a read that was the 4th book.

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Ceebs

Member
Read through these earlier in the week. They have some very fearsome villains, but the main character feels pretty helpless for most of both books.

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Jarlaxle

Member
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I know the rest of Gaf was already read through it months ago, but school mang. Afterwards plan on reading the two newest Sigma Force books.

I just finished up Well of Ascension yesterday and started this today.

While I'm still enjoying the series, I thought the first book was better than the second. Hopefully this third one will wow me.
 

Jasoneyu

Member
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Interesting biopunk novel. It just drives me crazy how many times they repeat the same diseases/concepts over and over again. I swear if they say blister rust or ciorbisics one more time....
 

Quote

Member
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Finished: I couldn't be happier with how it ended. Sadly, in 2012, it was too easy to see how this was all going to play out, but still great. One of my favorites.

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I think I'm going to read this next, i've heard great things about it.
 

Seanspeed

Banned

I just finished re-reading Game of Thrones and now I'm onto this. I wanted to start the Master and Commander series, but the GoT series is just itching at me right now so I had to go and re-read it. Its gonna take up a lot of time and it sucks, cuz I enjoy reading new stuff, but after re-reading Game of Thrones for the first time, I realized how many details I missed. With this series, where it throws up so many names and details, it definitely helps to go back a 2nd time. I'm enjoying it, even though I also feel like I'm missing out.
 

jayb

Member
I just finished re-reading Game of Thrones and now I'm onto this. I wanted to start the Master and Commander series, but the GoT series is just itching at me right now so I had to go and re-read it. Its gonna take up a lot of time and it sucks, cuz I enjoy reading new stuff, but after re-reading Game of Thrones for the first time, I realized how many details I missed. With this series, where it throws up so many names and details, it definitely helps to go back a 2nd time. I'm enjoying it, even though I also feel like I'm missing out.
I plan on re-reading them again as well. There's some important history sections that I think i didn't pay as much attention to the first time.
 

Gelry

aka Bastiaan
Almost through "The Name of the Wind" (98%)
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I really don't know what to think about it. It's not great. It's "OK" I guess, but it's just a series of events. The whole book really feels like it just sets the stage for the real story that will come in the next book.

Am I correct in this?
 

Ceebs

Member
Almost through "The Name of the Wind" (98%)
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I really don't know what to think about it. It's not great. It's "OK" I guess, but it's just a series of events. The whole book really feels like it just sets the stage for the real story that will come in the next book.

Am I correct in this?

How far are you into it? It really comes into it's own about halfway through or so.

The second book really has no resolutions to anything either. Book 3 will either be the payoff or finishing the setup for the next series of books. It does not really matter to me because I enjoy the characters enough to not care about where it's going.
 

Ratrat

Member
Read through these earlier in the week. They have some very fearsome villains, but the main character feels pretty helpless for most of both books.

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How are these? was interested in Phillip Pullmans other books while reading His Dark materials but saw that this was the cover and avoided them.
 

Gelry

aka Bastiaan
How far are you into it? It really comes into it's own about halfway through or so.

The second book really has no resolutions to anything either. Book 3 will either be the payoff or finishing the setup for the next series of books. It does not really matter to me because I enjoy the characters enough to not care about where it's going.
Almost finished. 98% says my Kindle. One or two chapters remaining.
I'll read some other things before I continue the series I think.
 

Ceebs

Member
How are these? was interested in Phillip Pullmans other books while reading His Dark materials but saw that this was the cover and avoided them.

HAHA most of the other covers are AWFUL.

They are pretty well written pulpy Victorian era mystery novels. They are pretty suspenseful reads too. I had to stop after the second one because they had a sense of oppression to them where you were always waiting for the other shoe to drop anytime something positive happened to the protagonists. As I said originally the villains are great and you know who they are from the beginning. They feel like they are in total control up until the end.

I would say I liked The Golden Compass more, but these are better than the other 2 books of that series.
 
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Redshirts by John Scalzi. Picked it up today, already 40% in. Quite enjoyable. It approaches its main concept far more directly than I expected.

Got this Tues, finished it yesterday morning which is probably the quickest I've finished a book.
Literally laughed out loud at the ending
:)
 

Verdre

Unconfirmed Member
Almost through "The Name of the Wind" (98%)
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I really don't know what to think about it. It's not great. It's "OK" I guess, but it's just a series of events. The whole book really feels like it just sets the stage for the real story that will come in the next book.

Am I correct in this?

Kingkiller Chronicles is a story about stories, like The Last Unicorn, which the author lists as his favorite book. He's playing off heroic fantasy like Beagle was playing with fairy tales. I don't find the actual story of his series particularly great, but he does interesting things within the frame of the story.
 

eznark

Banned
Almost through "The Name of the Wind" (98%)
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I really don't know what to think about it. It's not great. It's "OK" I guess, but it's just a series of events. The whole book really feels like it just sets the stage for the real story that will come in the next book.

Am I correct in this?


Not really. The first book I really liked because of the promise. The second book pretty much made me completely disinterested in the series and couldn't have lowered my opinion of the author further. Just abysmal in every facet.
 
I just finished re-reading Game of Thrones and now I'm onto this. I wanted to start the Master and Commander series, but the GoT series is just itching at me right now so I had to go and re-read it. Its gonna take up a lot of time and it sucks, cuz I enjoy reading new stuff, but after re-reading Game of Thrones for the first time, I realized how many details I missed. With this series, where it throws up so many names and details, it definitely helps to go back a 2nd time. I'm enjoying it, even though I also feel like I'm missing out.

That's the reason I am rereading it. I know the characters now, so I realize I will probably pick up on a lot of details I missed prior. Especially with the show going through the main plot, I can focus on the more subtle items.
 
The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach.

Pretty good. Like a more whimsical Wolff's Old School.

What kind of comparison do you see between the two? I've read both, and I'm not seeing it, neither thematically or in quality. I had high hopes for The Art of Fielding and ended up disappointed. I came for baseball and left with a series of cardboard-cutout characters thrown into high-drama by the author as a means to disguise that there was nothing meaningful there.
 

Pepboy

Member
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Dear GAF, I am 70% through this novel.
I enjoyed the first third, and parts of Jubal's house were neat - e.g. learning about the powers that the Martian way of thought can induce. But the last 15% has felt hamfisted, with all this discussion about Fosterites and having (presumably) dead characters talking. It's just starting to feel like one big "Oh is ____ good or evil? Mike Smith will tell us, he can sense wrongness!" after another.

I enjoy the core idea of having a human raised by aliens. But I'm not really digging the Heinlein religion hour that the second half has become.
Which aspect(s) of the book made it so famous? Is there a big payoff at the end, was it the core setup, or do people enjoy the philosophies espoused? In short, should I keep going with this novel? If I didn't know how highly it was regarded (and if I didn't enjoy his Starship Troopers), I probably would have dropped it by now. Thank you.


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Redshirts by John Scalzi. Picked it up today, already 40% in. Quite enjoyable. It approaches its main concept far more directly than I expected.

I was curious, at 40% does it seem like the concept has enough depth to warrant a full book? The premise felt like a good short story or novella, but I enjoyed Old Man's War.
 

Lumiere

Neo Member
Finished Rise of Endymion, while some parts dragged too much and others even annoyed me, overall I still liked it a lot. I'm not even sure of why I feel that I liked it D:

Now I'm reading

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Should I read Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go first?

I really liked Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, but in different ways. If this is the first Ishiguro you're going to read, I'd go with Never Let Me Go because the plot moves a long pretty quickly so you have incentive to read. Remains of the Day is more mellow.
 
Reading Star Trek TOS novel 'Dreams of the Raven' by Carmen Carter and am enjoying it so far, but feel there's probably better TOS novels out there - does anyone have any recommendations?

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Also picked up 'Caliban's War' by James S.A. Corey and can't wait to get into it, as I loved 'Leviathan Wakes' - it wasn't the space opera many touted it as, more insular than you would expect, but it was a highly enjoyable read and a great page turning adventure. Hope this one lives up to its predecessor.

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*edit, also, looking for more people to friend on goodreads - here's my profile if you want to add me; http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3372708
 

Jay Sosa

Member
I'm on a roll.

Finished this in two days:

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Have to say it's a super easy read when you read a Sagan book before that :D

Then I started reading this:

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Absolutely hilarious book, probably one of the funniest I've read.

And after that one I think it's time for another Cristopher Moore gem.
 
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