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[Gadfly]

Was pleasantly surprised to see this in Waterstones today as I thought it was out this Thursday.

Just finished it and I'm somewhat disappointed.

Not as witty as his other books. It was as "meh" as Thud and not as good as "Going Postal". Among his recent books "Nation" was good so hopefully this is not a sign of running out of ideas or getting stuck on repeating the same old jokes about wizards.

 

[Falt]

Just coming to the end and as always, pure vonnegut gold.

 

[Skittleguy]

So I gave up on "We Need To Talk About Kevin". I'm not in the right mindset for it now anyways.

However, I did find one I like so far.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller Jr.

I love it. It just does such a good job at being a historical post-apocalyptic novel, and it's actually funny to boot!

 

[BlueTsunami]

I love it. It just does such a good job at being a historical dystopian novel, and it's actually funny to boot!

I love that book too, an amazing read.

I just finished the short story "The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi. Wow, the imagery and the subtext of the story is very thought provoking. What would happen if we become immortals? Gods? and what aspects of our humanity would we relinquish? all of it? It also makes a point of pointing out the alien nature of these beings.

 

[A Penguin]

Currently reading for the first time:

Same here.

Picked this up on a recommendation, haven't started yet:

Also, for school; I enjoyed what I've read of it. Certainly not a bad work to be forced to read:

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

and it rocks. It rocks, I say. Once I'm finished , I'm gonna fire up this

1100 pages fuck yeah!

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

and it rocks. It rocks, I say. !

oh man...I forgot about that. I'll get it tomorrow, thanks for reminding me.

 

[Dan]

Finally wrapped up Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

I'll finish this up tonight:

Next up is one of these two:

 

[ronito]

Easily one of the most fascinating books I've read in recent history.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Last month, I read:

Australia - (Bill Bryson): Taught me a lot about the country I live in that I wasn't aware of - and all of it from a foreign perspective. I never stop to think about how big this country is. It was lucid and entertaining and oddly hilarious at times. Loved it.

Made in America - (Bill Bryson): The story of American English and how it became the way it is now. It dispelled a few notions I had about the American and English accents and also made me less of a grammar nazi. It was pretty compelling and a good look at the development of the US over the last century or so.

Magician - (Raymond E Feist): Really quite good, but tended to fall down in every part of the book wherein Pug wasn't the main focus. Are the sequels worth looking into?

The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil - (Philip Zimbardo): Got bored with this about half way through and stopped. It's really quite depressing and I can already see where its conclusion is going (I read the executive summary). It's an important book for the way it explains how social pressures change behaviour and the conclusions it comes to, but the actual account is dry and harrowing.

I'm just now starting:

The Folklore of Discworld - (Terry Pratchett): Really quite fascinating as a companion to the main Discworld series. I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't read any (or indeed, most) of Terry Pratchett's books, but otherwise, it's really enthralling. I love folklore and customs.

The Great War - (Les Carlion): It's an account of World War I in France from an Australian perspective. It's a paving slab of a book and looks quite intimidating to start, but it's a surprisingly easy read. Not up to Cambrai or the end of napoleonic bayonet charges just yet.

 

[aidan]

Just finished:

The Happiest Days of Our Lives by Wil Wheaton. An awesome little collection of non-fiction. Very geeky, very touching. Has an awful cover.

 

[crowphoenix]

Just finished it and I'm somewhat disappointed.

Not as witty as his other books. It was as "meh" as Thud and not as good as "Going Postal". Among his recent books "Nation" was good so hopefully this is not a sign of running out of ideas or getting stuck on repeating the same old jokes about wizards.

Hopefully the Alzheimers isn't effecting him faster than he expected. Still, I'm glad he chose to keep writing.

I'll be starting it today, and if the books on Thud's level, than I'll be happy. I didn't like it the first time I read it, but once I read it again after rereading the whole of the Watch series, I loved it.

 

[Blackface]

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

I'm about 30 or so pages into the new Hitchhikers book and it's not bad...I'm enjoying it so far. The "way out" was kind of boring but then I suppose when you have that ending to work with and you have to find a way out of it, it's the best you can do.

 

[Bit-Bit]

DOES NOT COMPUTE

Reading Defeating Darwinism so that I can familiarize myself with how the "other side" argues. As it turns out, they just lie and make up shit about evolution. I couldn't stand reading for more than five chapters so I didn't finish the book.

 

[WedgeX]

Finished up W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 late last week. The biography was great! If you want to start a journey into the roots of how change came to be in the mid 20 century up until now, read Lewis's second volume about DuBois.

I breezed through Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King on Monday and Tuesday. As it tied directly into the Dark Tower series, it held my attention the entire way. I'm thinking of having my parents read it and get their opinion on King's thought on his (and their) generation - promise, tragedy, hope and all that jazz.

On Saturday I went to the used bookstore in downtown Detroit (if you're ever in the city for a day, make it a priority to go to John K. King Used and Rare Bookstore!) and picked up two books with the parchment gift certificate (another reason to go, they're just that cool) that was set to expire. Had been searching for a bit, my girlfriend had already found six different books about music and teaching she wanted, and I had none. Finally went into the last section that looked interesting and started rummaging around. Found one book that was ok, and which happened to mention Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma on the back cover. I started explaining to my girlfriend what Myrdal did, how he got the job to put all of this social research together that W.E.B. DuBois had really wanted to do, but the Carnegie foundation didn't want him to...her eyes glazed over and she happened to look up and said "hey, isn't that the book you're talking about?"...and holy crap it was!

Only part of a chapter in so far. Thus far it seems like if you want to be simultaneously hopeful, depressed and yet still want to know more about the American system of democracy, ideals and everything else and how blacks are/were oppressed by whites with a point of view of how what and maybe even why whites think that way and how it might be overcome....read it! And thats only from reading the preface intro and part of the first chapter.

 

[wrowa]

Got it today, finally. So far I only have read about ten pages, I love the hithhiker trilogy so much, I'm still woried that Colfer fucked it totally up :lol But so far it seems to be surprisingly good. And fuck it, it's great to read a new hithhiker after such a long time, even if it's not written by Adams.

 

[Tucah]

Got it today, finally. So far I only have read about ten pages, I love the hithhiker trilogy so much, I'm still woried that Colfer fucked it totally up :lol But so far it seems to be surprisingly good. And fuck it, it's great to read a new hithhiker after such a long time, even if it's not written by Adams.

Bought this on Monday, have slowly been going through it. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Sure, it's not Adams' Hitchhiker, but it's still really nice to have these characters back and Colfer did a much better job than I expected him to.

 

[finowns]

Started the first book of the Dresden series. The writing is pretty amateurish and it all seems a bit silly. Unless it finishes stronger than it has started then I won't bother with the rest of the series.

Dresden Files is a great series. Storm Front is Butchers first novel so it suffers in the writing. If you can get past the first two books the writing improves and the story really gets interesting in Summer Knight. I hope you make it past book 1 and 2!

I am reading American Gods and Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/b2/9a/64f1810ae7a0c5a2ae05e110.L.jpg

 

[sharkmuncher]

Sometimes its fun to read a book being held together by a few strips of tape

 

[Quake1028]

Took a quick break from A Storm of Swords to give this another shot:

 

[Asbel]

Finished A Clash of Kings recently and if I were asked to sum it up in one phrase

Spoiler

"I YIELD!"

Still a great story but I hope the annoying characters are dead by the next book. I'd like to move on to the next plot already.

Anyway, taking a break from the series and reading Death on the Nile. Getting to know the characters before the murder right now.

 

[NumberTwo]

I bit disappointing. I find myself agreeing with pretty much everything he says, but his rants and delivery read more like a post from any smartass that posts on a message board.

 

[BorkBork]

Bit late to this, someone actually thin-sliced me and got me interested in the topic. Really good read, full of interesting anecdotes.

I'll have to start on Tipping Point and Outliers soon.

 

[NeoForte]

So after years of not reading a novel for the fun of it I decided to get this:

Taken back by how thick it is but I am hoping I will enjoy it~ I remember seeing a play of it as a kid and liking it.

 

[vegee]

Enjoying it so far...much more than the Robin Hobb book I started a couple weeks ago. Talk about an about face away from her usual stuff that I love.

 

[Cheshire]

Took a quick break from A Storm of Swords to give this another shot:

Just finished this. Amazing, but

Spoiler

I hated the placement of the last paragraph. It just seemed really tacked on. I know he had to wrap the story up but... that paragraph...

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Almost finished with H2G2:6 and it's started to wear on me with how many characters there are in the book. The guide is a character now for some damn reason. Too many asides and wink wink, nudge nudges frankly. Maybe he should have turned his excitement of writing a Hitchhikers book down a notch or something.

 

[Fireblend]

Finished Lolita. Pretty good, but definitely not my genre and I felt more like an observer than anything during the book. I enjoyed the first half much more than the second, and it seemed to drag a little at times, but I guess that's because of Nabokov's style. Still, glad I read it. Moving onto I Kill Giants, which shouldn't take me long, and then Norwegian Wood.

 

[Peronthious]

Finished Lolita. Pretty good, but definitely not my genre and I felt more like an observer than anything during the book. I enjoyed the first half much more than the second, and it seemed to drag a little at times, but I guess that's because of Nabokov's style. Still, glad I read it. Moving onto I Kill Giants, which shouldn't take me long, and then Norwegian Wood.

Hey, what do you know.

I started into it a while back and got about halfway through, but then something else caught my attention and I put it down.
Dove back in last week and it's even better than I remember.

It happened for instance that from my balcony I would notice a lighted window across the street and what looked like a nymphet in that act of undressing before a co-operative mirror. Thus isolated, thus removed, the vision acquired an especially keen charm that made me race with all speed toward my lone gratification. But abruptly, fiendishly, the tender pattern of nudity I had adored would be transformed into the disgusting lamp-lit bare arm of a man in his underclothes reading his paper by the open window in the hot, damp, hopeless summer night.

Only Nabokov could make masturbating sound so poetic.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

his rants and delivery read more like a post from any smartass that posts on a message board.

As much as I like '90s David Cross, this is why I simply can't stand his shtick now. He's more irritating than funny.

 

[X26]

Finished a few books in the last week and a half or so

A Feast For Crows - George R.R. Martin
Fairly uneventful and not even a fraction as good or interesting as the first 3, but it was alright.

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
Great, great book. Not sure if I'd put it o npar with the first but I really enjoyed it. Now to wait for the last one to be translated

Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Nice short read, and the first Gaiman book I've read. Have American Gods on hand so might start that soon

 

[WrathOfOtaibah]

1100 pages fuck yeah!

I pre-ordered this as it comes out in the US on 11/3

 

[Fireblend]

1100 pages fuck yeah!

Damn, that looks cool. Now I'm very tempted to preorder it as well.

 

[ihateyourhat]

Just finished:

Contact - Carl Sagan

I've seen the movie a couple times and enjoyed it, so, for the most part, I knew what I was getting into with the book. Overall, the book, like the movie, was interesting but slow. I think I would have enjoyed it more if some of the political and religious conversations that didn't really add to the progression of the story were removed from the middle of the book. Its been awhile since I've seen the movie, but I think this is one of the cases where I enjoyed the movie more than the book.


About to start:

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

At 1150 pages, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to finish this monster since I typically only read before bed.

 

[Skittleguy]

Finished Canticle. It was sooooo good.

Reading this now:

"God Says No" by James Hannaham. Impressions when I get it started.

 

[aidan]

Deep into:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Loving it so far. Sure, it totally rips off Narnia and Harry Potter, but it's told with a fresh, more adult tone that makes it all exciting to read again.

 

[Verdre]

Finished The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson

It was an amusing look at some absolute loons that tried to do wacky things for the military. Such as staring a goat to death, remote psychic viewing, etc.

I enjoyed it well enough, but felt the way he told it was rather clunky. Seemed a bit like he was chasing his tail in circles trying to tell the story.

I know the very last story was him trying to make a point, but it just felt completely out of character for the book. While the others were amusing, it was just a sad look at a man that spent his entire life obsessed with finding out the truth about his father's death.

 

[jason10mm]

I'm reading "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet.

Pretty damned good. His use of the language isn't all that inspired and his characters are a bit cardboard, but a few are genius and he does dialogue very well. Lots of good twists and turns and the medieval setting is used very, very well.

 

[thomaser]

Just finished Jane Austen's "Emma". The best of the four novels by her I've read so far in the Complete Novels Deluxe Edition from Penguin.

Started the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson today. A few pages into the first novel, "The Eye in the Pyramid", and I already know that this will be as far from Jane Austen as it's possible to come. Seems very confusing, but that's to be expected when the first part is called "Verwirrung". I've had this trilogy on my shelf for nearly three years, so I can't wait to get into it!

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Picked it up yesterday and just started it.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
Great, great book. Not sure if I'd put it o npar with the first but I really enjoyed it. Now to wait for the last one to be translated

Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Nice short read, and the first Gaiman book I've read. Have American Gods on hand so might start that soon

The final book in the Millennium trilogy is the weakest IMO. The first one was definitely the best.

As for Gaiman, enjoy Stardust. It's great. American Gods is good too, although I think it tends to drag a bit here and there. Be sure to check out Coraline, Good Omens and Sandman too. And that graphic novel he did for Alice Cooper (The Last Temptation).

Got it today, finally. So far I only have read about ten pages, I love the hithhiker trilogy so much, I'm still woried that Colfer fucked it totally up :lol But so far it seems to be surprisingly good. And fuck it, it's great to read a new hithhiker after such a long time, even if it's not written by Adams.

I really want to read this, but after having read the first Artemis Fowl book (which was fuck awful), I'm scared Colfer has ruined Adam's creation

And I'm currently reading Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchetts Good Omens. Again.

 

[Ceebs]

 

[roosters93]

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

On about page 50 at the moment. It is one long book lol.
Some of the context goes right over my head but I get the gist of it.

 

[aidan]

Goooooood choice. Have you read anything else by Powers?

 

[Ceebs]

Goooooood choice. Have you read anything else by Powers?

Nope, this is the first one I have read and only found it looking for pirate novels.

Any recommendations of his other stuff? I am really liking what I am reading.

 

[UraMallas]

 

[aidan]

Nope, this is the first one I have read and only found it looking for pirate novels.

Any recommendations of his other stuff? I am really liking what I am reading.

The Anubis Gates is probably the best of his books that I've read, and ranks as one of my top favourites. Really, though, anything written by him is worth reading. If it sounds interesting on the back, you can be assured that it's even more interesting once you read it.

As for On Stranger Tides, you're aware that it's the basis for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie?

 

[Ceebs]

The Anubis Gates is probably the best of his books that I've read, and ranks as one of my top favourites. Really, though, anything written by him is worth reading. If it sounds interesting on the back, you can be assured that it's even more interesting once you read it.

As for On Stranger Tides, you're aware that it's the basis for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie?

I knew it had the same title but was unsure it was related. I did however hear it was part of the inspiration for the Monkey Island series which makes me wonder why I never read it before.

 

[ilikeme]

If the title doesn't lie and this is Almodóvar on Almodóvar and nothing else, I am so over this. One of my pet peeves is when people try to analyze other people and then sell that information on to others! Can't I just be given that persons words and analyze it myself? Or choose not to? Stop butting in and creating these lives for other people.. Almodóvar probably knows best when it comes to Almodóvar.

So Cosmic, what did you think of the book?

Personally, I'm reading way too many Swedish books.. can't bother to post all.. may include them in a later post.

In English:

Sadly I haven't been able to get my hands on the second book, The World Beneath. The dinotopia.com webshop does not ship overseas and I have difficulty finding a copy atm. So I skipped and jumped to this one. So far so good. I always found Dinotopia fascinating, as a kid and even more so as an adult. Utopias, dinosaurs, paintings.. intriguing!

And the paintings are gorgeous as ever.