What Are You Reading? vX.x

[Draft Dodger]

I've been reading Dan Brown's Deception Point. it kind of sucks.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

I've been reading Dan Brown's Deception Point. it kind of sucks.

I would not recommend Digital Fortress either. Horribly cliche and predictable.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by DataKing

I would not recommend Digital Fortress either. Horribly cliche and predictable.

actually I've read that one. I agree with your assessment, although I thought it was better than this one.

[RainMaker]

I am looking forward to Brown's next book although there is no way it can possibly live up to the hype.

I have A-Rod getting shipped today I believe and will start that this weekend. A little wary of Selena Roberts and her "anonymous sources" but I'm a sucker for any of the behind the scenes baseball exposes.

[Kodos]

I just finished Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. It was alright, but really, too much Pride and Prejudice, too few zombies. The zombies are more of an afterthought and a chance to inject some humor. Might be better as a movie. And the whole Lydia subplot made me want to shoot myself. I've read probably a dozen zombie books over the last year, and this one would go right near the bottom.

Now I'm trying to get into Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. The first third of the book didn't do it for me, but the middle seems a bit better. It'll have to get a lot better if he wants me to try the next book in the series.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Now I'm trying to get into Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. The first third of the book didn't do it for me, but the middle seems a bit better. It'll have to get a lot better if he wants me to try the next book in the series.

Honestly, if you have the patience, try reading both the Gunslinger and the Drawing of the Three before you decide whether or not you want to continue. The second book seems much more akin to the rest of the series than the first one does, at least to me (full disclosure, I'm only into book four myself, so I can't speak for the last 3 books).

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Now I'm trying to get into Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. The first third of the book didn't do it for me, but the middle seems a bit better. It'll have to get a lot better if he wants me to try the next book in the series.

It took me three or four tries to get past that first third. I'm glad I did - it definitely got better. Still wasn't overly wowed and I have yet to read the next book, but I probably will get around to it someday.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

It took me three or four tries to get past that first third. I'm glad I did - it definitely got better. Still wasn't overly wowed and I have yet to read the next book, but I probably will get around to it someday.

The Gunslinger was one of the first books I bought on Audible (actually I think it was the first but I'm not positive). At the time, I couldn't get into it. However, seeing all of this kind of sentiment here, I think that once I'm done my WoT re-read, I'll give The Gunslinger (and the rest of the seris) another go.

/tk

[Kodos]

I actually had put it aside to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because, for whatever reason, my taste for zombies has been insatiable for the past year. I have run through pretty much all of them that have better than a 3-star review average at Amazon in that time. The only reason I re-started The Gunslinger today was I had an hour to kill while my son was at speech therapy, and I had nothing else to read. But it did seem better, so I will at least finish this one and re-evaluate from there. Although it must not have grabbed me too much the first time I read it years ago, because it is the only one in the series that I own, and I was a big King fan in the 80s.

[Tiphnie]

I just finished reading Breathers: a zombies lament a funny story about being a zombie and falling in love. Its billed as a rom-zom-com or romantic zombie comedy. Also just finished All together Dead from the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) series.

Next Up: Odd Hours (the third book in the Odd Thomas saga) or Your Heart Belongs to me by Dean Koontz

[Tasan]

Just finished re-reading the last 2 Harry Potter books, Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows. Half-Blood Prince is a really good book, and I'd forgotten how emotionally charged Deathly Hallows was. DH still loses me some in the middle, but the last 4 or so chapters are just great.

I'm planning on reading the Enders books at some point, I'm just not sure when.

[Calis]

Started up Clockers by Richard Price today. Great read so far. You can very much tell he was involved in The Wire by reading this book as it shares a fair amount of similarities.

Great dialog, flows very nicely.

[the_meanstrosity]

Just finished Shadow of the Hegemon (part of the Ender series) and thought it was a good read. It basically follows Bean after the war with the Buggers. Bean has been a good character, but nowhere near as entertaining as Ender was in the first book, Ender's Game.

I was talking to a friend of mine and he had brought up the similarites of Harry Potter and Ender's Game. Both are stories of young people attending school (battle school vs wizarding school) where the students are separated into groups (Dragon team vs Gryffindor) and the main child character is an integral part of defeating the incredibly strong enemy (Buggers vs Voldemort). It makes you wonder if Rowling had ever read Ender's Game.

I also just started reading Anne Bishop's Daughter of the Blood. I picked it up based on the recommendation of a science fiction/fantasy forums. So far it's a solid read, but I'm not far enough into the book yet to have a good grasp on the stories and main characters. If it ends up being a quality book then I'll grab the other books in the series or else I'll move on to Karen Miller's Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series (The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage).

[the_meanstrosity]

Alright, so this weekend I was able to finish off Anne Bishop's Daughter of the Blood. Interesting story, but I don't know that I'd recommend the series just yet. I'm going to attempt to get a used copy of the second book before making a recommendation. The first book definitely didn't meet the expectations based on user reviews, but I'm hoping that things pick up in the second book. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't as good as some of the other authors I normally read.

The next two books in my queue are Karen Miller's Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series. This is another series that was recommended from a couple of SF/Fantasy forums I've come across. Hopefully this series will meet expectations.

[rowech]

Dan Simmons --- never having read him would you recommend The Terror or Drood?

[tarcone]

I am reading 1984. Very interesting book and a great read. I keep looking at our society today and seeing if I can catch any similarities.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by rowech

Dan Simmons --- never having read him would you recommend The Terror or Drood?

Personally I thought The Terror was exponentially better. Not much of a fan of Drood.

[terpkristin]

Hmm when last we met I think I was working through the 3rd Connor Grey book (Unfallen Dead). I finished that up. I also finished Daemon, which I don't recall if I wrote about finishing.

Just yesterday, I finished listening to the 5th book in the Wheel of Time series, The Fires of Heaven, and am onto book 6, Lord of Chaos.

On my Kindle, I'm currently reading Stormfront, the first in the Dresden series.

I have a few other audiobooks I want to get into, but I'm finding lately I don't have as much time as I'd like.

/tk

[path12]

Originally Posted by rowech

Dan Simmons --- never having read him would you recommend The Terror or Drood?

I haven't read Drood, but I thought The Terror was just a fantastic book.

[path12]

Just finished Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. Recommend it to anyone who gets a kick out of conspiracy stories. Tons of twists and turns and just plain fun.

Am starting two new books, the first Discworld book The Color of Magic and the Pratchett/Gaiman collaboration Good Omens. Enjoying them both so far.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Calis

Personally I thought The Terror was exponentially better. Not much of a fan of Drood.

I concur. A shame, really. Drood should have been right in my wheelhouse...I was even really looking forward to it...but completely lost interest about halfway through.

The Terror was absolutely fantastic, though.

[rowech]

Thanks to those who answered about The Terror versus Drood.

[Peregrine]

I just finished the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks - it wasn't the kind of thing I thought I would like, but in the end I really got into it and enjoyed all three books - there's definitely a lot of twists and turns.

[dolfin]

Recently started up The Witching Hour, the first of three about Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches. Lasher and Taltos to follow.

[rowech]

Finished "Child 44" which is a fantastic book. Also just finished "The Screwtape Letters" by CS Lewis which is extremely unique.

[Fidatelo]

Read a trio of books over the last month:

W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose - Mick Wall: This was an interesting read, but its hard to get past the horribly slanted writing (the author has admitted bias against Rose and simply cannot contain it at all). I probably should have just read the Slash autobiography that came out recently. That said, it kept me turning pages, so its not all bad.

Downtown Owl - Chuck Klosterman: I'm a big fan of Klosterman, but this book just misses the mark somehow. Like above it kept me turning pages, and there certainly are some funny and interesting moments, but overall the book seems kind of... pointless? I don't know, maybe I just missed it.

The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland: Another author I generally like. This isn't his best work, but its decent, and the best of the three books I'm listing here. There was an interesting point when I realised I was reading a book inside of a book inside of a journal inside of a book... kind of crazy. Probably be a good book for people in a book club, I think you could have some interesting discussions afterward in regards to the various characters.

[Scoobz0202]

Reading Cutting for Stone right now by Abraham Verghese. About 200 pages in and I'm really frustrated that I haven't had time to sit down and just ready 200 pages in one sitting. Everytime I have picked it up to start reading I can only get 20 pages in before being ripped away and I want to just keep on going!

hxxp://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-novel-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375414495

[dolfin]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Everytime I have picked it up to start reading I can only get 20 pages in before being ripped away and I want to just keep on going!

Having the same problem with The Witching Hour! Only 800 pages to go!

[CamEdwards]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I am reading 1984. Very interesting book and a great read. I keep looking at our society today and seeing if I can catch any similarities.

After you read 1984, if you're still in the mood for dystopian fiction, you should check out Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I think you'd probably find more similarities to today's society there.

If, however, you're looking for a non-fiction book with similarities to 1984, check out The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

I've been reading like mad lately... finished "Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert a few weeks ago. It was good, but a very sanitized biography of Churchill. The I picked up Niall Ferguson's "War of the World", which is an absolutely incredible look at the violence of the first 50 years of the 20th century. It's perhaps the most depressing book I've ever read, yet at the same time I couldn't put it down.

Now I'm reading Tom Holland's "The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West", which is a pretty decent history of Europe and the Middle East from about 900-1100 AD. It's good, but at the halfway point I'd say I like his book "Rubicon" (about the fall of the Roman republic) better.

[OldGiants]

>>The I picked up Niall Ferguson's "War of the World", which is an absolutely incredible look at the violence of the first 50 years of the 20th century. It's perhaps the most depressing book I've ever read, yet at the same time I couldn't put it down.<<

I completely agree. Very thought provoking comparisons of the reasons various nations fought in the 20th century. Essentially he finds every war is an attempt at genocide. Americans don't get enough of the anti-Chinese racism of Japan to understand what really happened in the mid-30's in Asia.

Another great book is the Rape of Nanking which not only quantifies Japanese atrocities, but documents that the real heros were the Nazi diplomats who did everything they could to be a haven to ordinary Chinese while the Japanese tried very hard to exterminate the population.

Very hard to do, be more blood thirsty and criminally insane than the Nazis, but the Japanese lowered themselves well under that bar. And put up a religious memorial to the murderers which stands today in downtown Tokyo.

"Westerners don't understand," is the official Japanese excuse.

[terpkristin]

I ran into a bit of a "reading problem" over the last couple of weeks. I usually have 1-2 books going on audio and another 1 usually in print that I'm reading, but lately, I've felt very...unfocused, I guess is the word, at least with my reading. Decided that for now, I can only read 2 at a time, one in audio (which is for the car and the gym) and one in print (for everywhere else).

I finished up Stormfront and I've put down WoT 6 for now. I'm currently listening to The Expected One, by Kathleen McGowan. It's a book that's quite often lumped into the same category as Angels & Demons or The DaVinci Code, the "genre" of religious thriller. It's about a woman who is Mary Magdalene's direct descendent, finding the gospel of Mary and such. It's alright. It's a bit more religion-heavy than I was expecting. It's the first in a series and I doubt I'll continue the series (I'm about halfway through the book now). It's good, but there's only so much of this genre I can take at once.

In print, I'm reading Infinite Jest as a part of Infinite Summer. I'm reading a lot more slowly than I'd like, in part owing to a rather hectic personal-life schedule that's reduced my "at home" reading time. This book is really making me want to get an iPhone or an iPod Touch, to use the Kindle app and be able to read while I'm killing time in doctor's offices, while waiting for meetings, etc. eReader is selling it for $12.95, so I could put it on my old PDA, but it's hard to justify buying another copy of it on something I'm less likely to carry around. This is a book I've felt like I "should" read but I've come in with no real expectations. I haven't read any other DFW works and am doing my best to stay away from commenatary and such on the book. I want to take it as it comes.

After I finish The Expected One, I think I'm going to re-listen to A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin), as my online book club is reading that this month (2 months?) and it'll be a nice diversion before going back to WoT.
/tk

[RainMaker]

Finished reading A-Rod. I'm not a fan of the guy or anything and think he's a slimy egotistical guy, but this book actually makes me feel bad for him. Roberts literally trashes every aspect of his life and plays amateur psychologist throughout the entire book. She had a lot of interesting facts about the guy, but I hate when authors assume the mindset of the people they are writing about. He did this or that because he was jealous of this person or wanted to impress a writer. Without speaking to him directly, you can't justify any of those assumptions as to why he's doing stuff. I thought Book of Shadows was well researched and written with some journalistic integrity, this is the complete opposite.

Reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy right now.

[CamEdwards]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

>>The I picked up Niall Ferguson's "War of the World", which is an absolutely incredible look at the violence of the first 50 years of the 20th century. It's perhaps the most depressing book I've ever read, yet at the same time I couldn't put it down.<<

I completely agree. Very thought provoking comparisons of the reasons various nations fought in the 20th century. Essentially he finds every war is an attempt at genocide. Americans don't get enough of the anti-Chinese racism of Japan to understand what really happened in the mid-30's in Asia.

Another great book is the Rape of Nanking which not only quantifies Japanese atrocities, but documents that the real heros were the Nazi diplomats who did everything they could to be a haven to ordinary Chinese while the Japanese tried very hard to exterminate the population.

Very hard to do, be more blood thirsty and criminally insane than the Nazis, but the Japanese lowered themselves well under that bar. And put up a religious memorial to the murderers which stands today in downtown Tokyo.

"Westerners don't understand," is the official Japanese excuse.

Thanks OG. Once I've managed to cheer myself up, I might try to read that.

[RainMaker]

The Road - It was a real good book but I have to say a tad overated by people. I remember reading a Rolling Stone piece (I think it was them) that said it was the best book written in the past 25 years. Nonetheless a good book that covers a ton of life themes. A survival story of the bond between a Father and Son in a post-apocalyptic environment.

[the_meanstrosity]

I was able to finish Bishop's Black Jewel's trilogy (Daughter of the Blood, etc). It starts out a little slow in book one (not to mention creepy with the pedophiles), but was a solid read by the end of the series. I don't know that I would suggest it as a must read, but it's certainly a solid read.

I also completed Karen Miller's Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series(Innocent Mage and Awakened Mage). It's the usual story of small town boy made good (similar to Pug in Feist's novels). I can't really suggest it as it doesn't really add anything that you can't get from Feist's novels and Feist has a much better series IMHO.

I'm currently re-reading Goodkind's Sword of Truth series and just recently started book three. My goal is to finally finish the series in order now that Goodkind has completed it.

Originally Posted by the_meanstrosity

Alright, so this weekend I was able to finish off Anne Bishop's Daughter of the Blood. Interesting story, but I don't know that I'd recommend the series just yet. I'm going to attempt to get a used copy of the second book before making a recommendation. The first book definitely didn't meet the expectations based on user reviews, but I'm hoping that things pick up in the second book. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't as good as some of the other authors I normally read.

The next two books in my queue are Karen Miller's Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series. This is another series that was recommended from a couple of SF/Fantasy forums I've come across. Hopefully this series will meet expectations.

[path12]

Reading my first James Michener book, Centennial. Took a long time to get moving but it's pretty interesting now.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by path12

Reading my first James Michener book, Centennial. Took a long time to get moving but it's pretty interesting now.

I've only read one Michener book, Poland, a number of years ago but it was quite good.

[terpkristin]

Has anybody ever read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman? My online sci-fi and fantasy book club, The Sword and Laser, is going to read it this month and I'm very much on the fence about joining in on this book. I haven't found myself really able to get into the "space opera" genre yet, but I was wondering if anybody else had read it and could offer any yays or nays.

What I'm currently reading:
Infinite Jest as a part of Infinite Summer. I'm not "on schedule" because of real life/work getting in the way, but I'm still trucking along. Reading this on my Kindle.
Northanger Abbey. I'm trying to listen to this. I've heard it's easier to read than Emma, which I couldn't get through. This all started because of the movie The Jane Austen Book Club. Listening to it from audible.com
Wheel of Time 6: Lord of Chaos. Stopped listening to this for awhile, as I re-read GRRM's A Game of Thrones. Re-started, and now I'm about halfway through. I listen mostly at the gym. This is all in anticipation of getting book 12 released this fall.

/tk

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Has anybody ever read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman? My online sci-fi and fantasy book club, The Sword and Laser, is going to read it this month and I'm very much on the fence about joining in on this book. I haven't found myself really able to get into the "space opera" genre yet, but I was wondering if anybody else had read it and could offer any yays or nays.

I read it a few years ago. It's a pretty well known book and certainly an interesting premise. I think you could do far worse as far as sci-fi goes.

[Groundhog]

Kublai Khan's Lost Fleet - James P. Delgado

I'm only 50 pages in, but this is an excellent read so far. It's about Kublai Khan's (grandson of Genghis) failed invasions of Japan in the 13th century, billed as history's greatest naval disaster. Certainly it's history's greatest unknown naval disaster, as far as western knowledge goes, and they are the origin of the phrase "kamikaze" that would become relevant again in more modern times for a rather unfortunate reason.

I'm really digging the Chinese history in the book in particular, though so far there has been very little Japanese or Mongol history that I'm not already familiar with. The section on ancient Chinese ships in particular is fascinating.

[Sublime 2]

Heading to Maine for 10 days, plan to get through The Wheel of Time, and hopefully The Great Hunt. Started tWoT last night, and almost couldn't put it down, I only made it through the first three chapters but had to make myself stop.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

After you read 1984, if you're still in the mood for dystopian fiction, you should check out Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I think you'd probably find more similarities to today's society there.

If, however, you're looking for a non-fiction book with similarities to 1984, check out The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

I've been reading like mad lately... finished "Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert a few weeks ago. It was good, but a very sanitized biography of Churchill. The I picked up Niall Ferguson's "War of the World", which is an absolutely incredible look at the violence of the first 50 years of the 20th century. It's perhaps the most depressing book I've ever read, yet at the same time I couldn't put it down.

Now I'm reading Tom Holland's "The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West", which is a pretty decent history of Europe and the Middle East from about 900-1100 AD. It's good, but at the halfway point I'd say I like his book "Rubicon" (about the fall of the Roman republic) better.

Thanks for the suggestions. Im about ready to start something new again. Finished a couple books. One was bleh, the other was outstanding. Will do a blurb soon. I need to read it again 1st though.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by DataKing

For the past year or so, I've been rotating between six different series/collections that I've always wanted to read. Some are more ambitious than others.

1. Dune Series: Currently reading House Atreides, the first of the books written by Frank Herbert's son, Brian. While I enjoyed the six Dune books by Frank, his narrative style can get a big bogged down in stream-of-consciousness at times. His son is a much easier read.
2. The Dark Tower: I've finished The Wasteland, and Wizard and Glass is next up in my queue. I've never been a big fan of King's horror stuff, but I'm a big fan of his other work (loved The Stand).
3. Star Wars Canon: Probably the most ambitious of the six, just due to sheer volume. I'm trying to read them in story-chronological order, so I'm currently in the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan phase of the story. Needless to say, there's a long way to go here.
4. The Vampire Chronicles: Next up here is Memnoch the Devil. While I very much enjoy Rice's writing style and descriptive talents, there are times I wish I could reach through the pages and strangle Lestat for being an idiot.
5. Tom Clancy (Jack Ryan Series): My "spy novel" fix. I read The Hunt for Red October many moons ago, and found it much better than the movie (which I enjoyed). The Cardinal of the Kremlin is next up.
6. Harry Potter: Really entertaining, relatively light reading. I've always liked the movies, and so far have enjoyed the books a great deal as well. The Order of the Phoenix is next up here.

My absolute favorite Tom Clancy book is Red Storm Rising. It is a great read and I highly recommend it.

[Peregrine]

I'm reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - fantastic book so far, I love fantasy books that involve crime and thieves and the seedy underbelly of society.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by tarcone

My absolute favorite Tom Clancy book is Red Storm Rising. It is a great read and I highly recommend it.

Red Storm Rising was a good one. No Remorse and Rainbow Six are my favorites. I think he actually writes non-Ryan novels.

My spy fix comes from Vince Flynn now.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by rowech

Red Storm Rising was a good one. No Remorse and Rainbow Six are my favorites. I think he actually writes non-Ryan novels.

My spy fix comes from Vince Flynn now.

Is their a Vince Flynn novel you reccomend for me?

[rowech]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Is their a Vince Flynn novel you reccomend for me?

Amazon.com: The Mitch Rapp Series by Vince Flynn (in order)

The last one especially was kind of blah but all of the others are fantastic in my opinion.

[k0ruptr]

I've read OJ's book "If I did it" and Lance Armstrong's "It's not about the bike" recently, both are excellent reads if your into those sort of books. I recommend them both!

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by path12

Reading my first James Michener book, Centennial. Took a long time to get moving but it's pretty interesting now.

I read several Michener novels just after graduating from college. Centennial was fine, but I would recommend Hawaii, The Source or Space ahead of that one. By statute, I believe I am obligated to also recommend Chesapeake.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by rowech

Red Storm Rising was a good one. No Remorse and Rainbow Six are my favorites. I think he actually writes non-Ryan novels.

My spy fix comes from Vince Flynn now.

Red Storm Rising was quite good (read that one a number of years ago as well). And Rainbow Six qualifies as one of my favorite story endings ever. Talk about people getting what they deserve!