"What are you reading?" thread.

Kovac

Kovac

I just finished Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer and I was happily surprised by how much I liked it. I watched a few episodes of the television series and didn't enjoy them much but fortunately the book doesn't have much in common with the TV show.

I found it to be a fascinating time travel story with a lot of interesting ideas in it and characters that I enjoyed following. It was one of those books that I had a hard time putting down as I just had to know where it was going.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
"I Wear the Black Hat" by Chuck Klosterman. It's got some very interesting views on villainry, real and imaginary. Some chapters drag a little but others are real page turners.
 
linglingface

linglingface

I barely read anything last year (well, I read a few comic books), so this year I have committed myself to read at least 2 books per month! I'm already off to a good start and feeling good! Oh books, how I've missed you. <3

The Fault In Our Stars Heartbreaking and amazing. A super quick read about a 16 year old girl with cancer. It's actually a lot of fun, and the conversations reminded me of that of "The Gilmore Girls." Humorous, quick, witty, charming...

Life Of Pi This was an adventure! The first third of the book was tough to get through (I've always had trouble with straight back story before the story really begins) but all very interesting and important details pertaining to the rest of the story. It reminded me of "Island of the Blue Dolphins."
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Just finished Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, which I enjoyed enough to want to pursue the sequels.

That will have to wait, however, as I clear the backlog of unread Kindle treasures, starting today with Stardust.
 
linglingface

linglingface

Picked up Mary Poppins after finishing Life Of Pi last night, and just finished it this morning! Super quick read since it's a children's book (with pictures!) and it was alright. Mary Poppins is pretty mean... stern but also strangely likeable. I don't know that I'd read the other books in the series. In any case, it was pretty fun. Each chapter was a different adventure/outing.
 
linglingface

linglingface

Now I'm giving Catch-22 another go! I started it a few years ago and got more than halfway through, and then quit reading for whatever reason. This time I'm going to finish it!!
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Recently finished: Existence by David Brin - I didn't enjoy this one as much as Kiln People or Glory Season, but it was still a damn good read. Brin has some really great thoughts on what technology might be like in the future, especially when it comes to how the handling of information will impact society.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link - I might have mentioned this one before. It's a collection of short stories, and it is trippy. The stories are more mood and flow than plot and character. Some of the stories are really disturbing, while others are merely unnerving. There's a real sense of wonder for all of them, though. I highly recommend it.

Reading:
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle - I'm not very far in, but I'm really enjoying the writing style, and I'm eager to see how different this is than the movie.

The Buried Pyramid by Jane Lindskold - I really love the way that Lindskold writes urban/modern fantasy, and while this is more of a historic setting (I think it's Victorian era), it still has a lot in common with her other works where the real world doesn't simply play a the role of a boring comparison to magical elements. Which have yet to actually show up, 7 chapters in.
 
Kovac

Kovac

I'm on two books at the moment.

Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer.
The guy really knows how to throw together a fascinating science fiction story.

And The Martian by Andy Weir which I have also been finding to be good. At first the tone of the book seemed a little too casual in the way it was written as a log book, however it rapidly grew on me and it suits the main character really well.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Still busy with "Stand on Zanzibar". It's still a great book, and in many ways an interesting read - 2010 as seen from 1968, but not too SF-ey as they tend to be. Surprisingly realistic, unfortunately.
Looking forward to starting S. Anyone else read it/been reading it?
 
linglingface

linglingface

Oh yeah, so I finished Catch-22. It took me a few weeks, but I finally finished it! The dialogue was repetitive, but I don't mean that in a negative way by any means. It was creative and hilarious in its repetitiveness and had me LOL-ing on multiple occasions! I love how Yossarian fell in love with every lady and thought everyone was out to kill him, which wasn't too far from the truth!

I also read The Glass Castle which was full of feels. It's a memoir about an extremely poor family who is always moving around. The parents have 4 children, the author being the 2nd oldest kid. I loved how the tone of the story changes between when they're young kids to teenagers. A very fun read, and at times it also was breaking my heart.

Now I'm reading The Help. I watched this movie when my roommate picked it up, and now I'm finally reading the book! This one had me from the first few sentences. I adore the dialogue in this one and there's definitely a southern accent in my head as I'm reading through Aibileen's chapters, and that's just because of how it's written, and that's brilliantly.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Glass Castle was fascinating. I loved the perspective changes of crazy dad from a kids point of view to an adults.

I'm currently reading Infinite Jest. It's funny, because people bitch about the footnotes, but being a huge House of Leaves fan, these footnotes seem perfectly reasonable by comparison.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

heatherling said:
Oh yeah, so I finished Catch-22. It took me a few weeks, but I finally finished it! The dialogue was repetitive, but I don't mean that in a negative way by any means. It was creative and hilarious in its repetitiveness and had me LOL-ing on multiple occasions! I love how Yossarian fell in love with every lady and thought everyone was out to kill him, which wasn't too far from the truth!
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"When someone asks me why I have crabapples in my cheeks, I point out that they are rubber balls, and they are in my hands. I don't know if it ever worked, though, because it's hard to make people understand you when you have crabapples in your cheeks."
 
linglingface

linglingface

Chad Sexington said:
"When someone asks me why I have crabapples in my cheeks, I point out that they are rubber balls, and they are in my hands. I don't know if it ever worked, though, because it's hard to make people understand you when you have crabapples in your cheeks."
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I loved how he would describe people constantly, and those descriptions would get progressively longer as stories about them would finish up.
In reality, it was a short story to tell, but with a lot of time jumps and so many stories to tell you about so many prominent characters.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

heatherling said:
I loved how he would describe people constantly, and those descriptions would get progressively longer as stories about them would finish up.
In reality, it was a short story to tell, but with a lot of time jumps and so many stories to tell you about so many prominent characters.
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Mm, one of my favourite things about it. It was probably my first exposure to that technique in writing, and it riveted me. I can go back and reread it again and again and discover something new. Even the unlikable characters, like Milo Minderbinder are phenomenal portraits.

Actually I can't go back and read it now, because I loaned it to someone.

Who isn't even reading it. Some people's children's friends, I tell ya.
 
linglingface

linglingface

Chad Sexington said:
Mm, one of my favourite things about it. It was probably my first exposure to that technique in writing, and it riveted me. I can go back and reread it again and again and discover something new. Even the unlikable characters, like Milo Minderbinder are phenomenal portraits.

Actually I can't go back and read it now, because I loaned it to someone.

Who isn't even reading it. Some people's children's friends, I tell ya.
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That was like me the first time I "read" it. I got about half-way through but really took my time with it. At some point, Twiggy took it away from me and started reading it, himself.
I think this is a book that I'll definitely have to read again, as I was constantly forgetting which character was which. That's where the super long descriptions were super helpful! :D
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I really, really want to buy Brandon Sanderson's "Words of Radiance" and the reviews are stellar so far. I've been able to stay away from spoilers, but I fear not being able to keep it that way.

Seriously, I think Brandon may very well be my favorite author right now, along with Butcher and George R. R. Martin.
 
Gryfter

Gryfter

Dave said:
I really, really want to buy Brandon Sanderson's "Words of Radiance" and the reviews are stellar so far. I've been able to stay away from spoilers, but I fear not being able to keep it that way.

Seriously, I think Brandon may very well be my favorite author right now, along with Butcher and George R. R. Martin.
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I am re-reading the Way of Kings to prepare for eventually getting Words of Radiance, can't wait. I dig Sanderson, have you read the Mistborn books yet?
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Gryfter said:
I am re-reading the Way of Kings to prepare for eventually getting Words of Radiance, can't wait. I dig Sanderson, have you read the Mistborn books yet?
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All of 'em. Very interesting series, but I didn't like them as well as the Wheel of Time books he wrote, nor the Way of Kings, which is a great book.

Only fear I have is how large they are and the scope of the series and if he's going to pull a "Jordan". He's already writing them faster than George R. R. Martin has cranked out the GoT books, so if anyone can pull it off, it's Sanderson.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

The Myth of Self-Esteem by Albert Ellis. Non-fiction, self-help type of book based on his REBT cognitive therapy theory. Because even on spring break I am a total nerd.
 
Dei

Dei

Dave said:
All of 'em. Very interesting series, but I didn't like them as well as the Wheel of Time books he wrote, nor the Way of Kings, which is a great book. Only fear I have is how large they are and the scope of the series and if he's going to pull a "Jordan". He's already writing them faster than George R. R. Martin has cranked out the GoT books, so if anyone can pull it off, it's Sanderson.
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Brandon cranks out several books a year, I am so not worried about his ability to get out books and get shit done.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I've been obsessively playing Don't Starve as of late. It's a strangely engrossing, but stupidly difficult game. Anyway, it's got me in the mood for other survival-related media. So I started reading Jack London's White Fang. For years (maybe over a decade), I've had this boxed set of novels with an adventure theme. It includes White Fang (together with Call of the Wild), Count of Monte Crisco, Treasure Island, Gulliver's Travels, Around the World in 80 Days, and Ivanhoe. But the blasted set has done more dust collecting than anything else on my shelf or boxes. Many of you probably know this feeling all too well, with probably shelves or boxes filled with unread books that you've picked up over the years.

Now that I'm starting to read White Fang, I may finally change that because it's a really great read. I remember always wanting to read it ever since I was a kid. I'm only a few chapters in so far, but it reminds me a lot of a Liam Neeson movie that came out a few years ago: The Grey. Somewhat similar premise, with a couple of guys and a dog sled team trying to survive a hungry pack of wolves. I've started a bit on the next chapter, which apparently is from the point of view of White Fang, one of the wolves in said pack. But yeah, really enjoying this.

After this, I might continue onto stuff that inspired the Don't Starve team. There's a heavy amount of HP Lovecraft influence, so I may finally break out my short story collection of his work. For those that are familiar with his work, any particular recommendations? The collection I have doesn't likely have all of his work, but probably most of the best.

Oh, and you have no idea how happy it was to revisit this thread and see you reading several works of Robert J Sawyer, @Kovac. He's one of my favourite authors and the Hominids trilogy is one of my favourite series of books. I haven't read all his stuff, but definitely a large chunk of it.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
When the next thing that I want to read comes out... it's going to feel really strange (and sad) to sit and read it quietly instead of out loud, with different voices for all the characters.
 
Jay

Jay

Reading "The Heroes" from Joe Abercrombie.

SOOOOOOO many people dying.

It's a solid book though I preferred the 4th book more. I'm only halfway though so who knows.

Everyone should read "The First Law" trilogy.
 
Terrik

Terrik

Read the Path of the Eldar trilogy on my ipad. Not bad at all. Was good enough that I want to read on to the Dark Eldar trilogy.
 
Dei

Dei

Shawnacy said:
Just got my copy! JOY! I knew absolutely nothing about the plot until I read the cover today. I can't wait for this. F- that Mab. F her right to hell.
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I dunno, I'm pretty fond of Mab so far.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Horns by Joe Hill.

A guy wakes up to find horns growing out of his head. When anyone sees him, they begin confessing their worst sins and asking if they can act on their secret desires.

The book jumps right into this premise without any build-up, and I was excited to see where it might go from there ... well, apparently into the past. Way too much of it is flashback. I'm interested in seeing the end (almost there), but I feel like not much of the story has taken place since the beginning. Kind of disappointed.
 
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