Book: What Book Are You Reading?

[Stoopider]

Eh, I'm bored. And in need of a good book. Any books you recommend? Any Genre.

[Knives122]

Read lord of the rings

[stos289]

If you like computers and encryption, I suggest you go with Angels and Demons, The Da Vinchi Code, and Digital Fortress all by Dan Brown. All very good books about hacking and encrypting (their fictional stories, their not like guides or anything). Hope I could help.

[SK]

DragonLance, start with Chronicles or The Legend of Huma.

[PSJ]

Originally posted by: Knives122
Read lord of the rings

those books are the shit, no one should die before reading them.

[Masamune]

if ur into fantasy adventure

Try the "drizzt books"
bij R.A. Salvatore. they're quite well written.
it's about an dark elf ( drow) which lives underground ( the underdark ), escaping his evil family and society. trying to find a home and place in the surface world.


you could start with the icewind dale trilogy.
or the with the dark elf trilogy ( the prequel )

[r3n]

if you're into sci-fi in ANYWAY i insist you get alastair reynolds revelation space series (revelation space, chasm city, redemption ark, absolution gap), its superb. its hard sci-fi as its written by a physicist so all the stuff in it is like, plausible but still v futuristic, and he explains a lot of how the stuff works, its v interesting even if ur not a physics geek like me. the characters and storyline are jst mindboggling how they all fit together when you finish the books. seriously, ive not read a book with a better plot yet. its jst too cool! im saving his newest book (absolution gap) for my holiday i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif then i can read it uninterrupted on my long plane and train journeys. so yeah, make sure if uve got a spare bit of cash you buy this book. it should be on amazon.co.uk so its available to all amazon sites!!!

[Mae]

Here are some books I've enjoyed, in no particular order:

1. William Gibson: Neuromancer (a classic); Pattern Recognition (his newest, centered around a group of people who post in an online forum i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif )

2. Sean Stewart: Ressurection Man; Night Watch

3. Jen Banbury: Like a Hole in the Head

4. Karen Joy Fowler: Sarah Canary

5. Milorad Pavic: Dictionary of the Khazars (odd)

6. Jonathan Lethem: Gun, with Occasional Music

7. Isaac Asimov: I, Robot (enjoying renewed popularity with the movie coming out, too bad the movie looks like it sucks)

8. Terry Pratchett: Small Gods, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (both funny, satire)

9. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (funny)

10. The Tale of the Heike (classic Japanese samurai tale, lots of wars, betrayals, last minute rescues, acts of the gods, etc)

11. Only Companion, edited by Sam Hamill (poetry I like)

[Uchiha Barles]

Couldn't agree more with the people who said Dragonlance and RA Salvatore. There was an earlier thread about the strongest wizard ever, Raistlin from the Chronicles and Legends would own them all. My favorite book of all time though has to be Dune. Man, that book has everything including the most intricate plot I've ever had the pleasure of reading, a vididly detailed world, and all the trappings of action and drama you could hope for, all wrapped up in a wonderous science fiction setting.

[dragon]

wow really? imma start reading that book

[Stoopider]

Hmm. Didn't like Dune. But I'll give DragonLance a try. I heard their as good or better than Merlin series. But newer.

I just finished reading the Hannibal Lector Trilogy.

LOTR, urgh.. too descriptive. Wasn't as enjoyable as the movie. i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

[Hakeem_21]

Douglas Adams was a genius the hicthikers Guide to the Galaxy is so funny,i have never laugh so much at a book.

I gonna start mission Adams meaning reading all of Douglas Adams booksi/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif

Anyway i recomend Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas if you havent read it.

Any Tom Clancy book is good if you like spy books.

[Krbadass]

If you've read the Lord of the Rings or seen the movies already, read The Hobbit which is the prelude to the lord of the rings.

[r3n]

yeah the hobbit is good

[NM]

I agree with Krbadass and r3n, The Hobbit is a great book. Also, I really liked these: (1) The Catcher in the Rye and (2) Seabiscuit

[InnerSakuraChan]

Horray! a thread about books!!!

anyway, some of my favorites:

the Tales of the Otori series -Lian Hearn
an excellent fantasy/samurai trilogy, that takes place in feudal japan.

Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
or anything by Tom Robbins, really. I love reading his books - the plots are always outlandish, and hilarious, and his language is incredibly descriptive. One particular metaphor sticks out in my mind: "her panties were so wet, children could of sailed boats in them". but don't get the wrong idea - sex is only a small part of his books.

The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russel
scifi book abut a Jesuit mission to the alien planet rakhat. the scifi aspect of the novel itself is not all that impressive -The story, though is pretty enthralling. it reminded me a lot of the later books of the Ender's Game series - i.e. Speaker for the Dead.

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
I can't believe no one has mentioned this one yet! I read first when I was 11 - and iIstill love it. a scifi novel about ender, a boy sent to a children's military school for geniuses.

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
as mentioned by mae in some other thread -
About data encryption, spanning from WWII to the present. funny too. one of my favorite scenes is of a uber-geeky family trying to distribute their dead grandmothers things equally - and set up a giant cartesian plane in a parking lot, x being monetary value of an item, y being the sentimental value.

and of course, LOTR and Hitchikers's guide to the galaxy.

has anyone read the Silmarillion? i couldn't get into it.

[hinatacretu]

everything by mario puzo

[Lefty]

Anything by Chuck Paulnick is good. If you like Fight Club movie the book is a hundred times better.

[Uzumaki Naruto]

well i read a book called a child called it forgot who the author was, but the book was about the authors life and how he had to sttruggle thru child abuse as he grew up, its a really really good book, there are three parts to it tho, the first one is a child called it, the 2nd is called the lost boy i think, and the 3rd one is called a man named dave

[Darkflare]

what's a book?

[Himura_san]

I am currently reading Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers guide and
I would recommend it for a fun read.

If you want a more epic novel try Shogun by James Clavell, its fiction but covers
alot of Japanese history which is cool!

[ANTicz]

I would go for the Ender's game series by Orson Scott Card, especially if you're an anime fan (since so many anime's have young geniuses/gifted people going through moral dillemas, love crisises, family problems, ect. and Ender's game/Ender's shadow series goes through all those)... Some of the books I like:
The Fountainhead by Any Rand (if you're a philosophy type person)...
LOTR, Hitchhicker's Guide series (duh!),
Terry Pratchet books (Discworld),
The Bible (I'm sorry, but I have to mention the #1 best seller of all time, and it has everyone's all time favoritie stories in it too, don't have to be religious to enjoy this book),
Siddartha by Herman Hesse,
Shogun by James Clavell,
London and Sarum by Edward Rutherford
Most Michael Crichton books
The adventues of Huckleberry Finn (if you don't know the author to this one, you should go shoot yourself)
The Art of War (this book has almost 0 entertainment value, but it's a MUST read, Sun Tsu is considered the author but he only recorded most of the wooden tabs that cosist the main body of the content of the books, it's vital you find a good translation/explanatory book, Sun Tsu didn't write the book(s) the translators/commentators did)
The Republic by Plato

I'm getting too carried away so I'll stop there...

[sakura]

I like fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury and 1984 by Orwell very cool books indeed i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif

[Himura_san]

Originally posted by: ANTicz
I would go for the Ender's game series by Orson Scott Card, especially if you're an anime fan (since so many anime's have young geniuses/gifted people going through moral dillemas, love crisises, family problems, ect. and Ender's game/Ender's shadow series goes through all those)... Some of the books I like:
The Fountainhead by Any Rand (if you're a philosophy type person)...
LOTR, Hitchhicker's Guide series (duh!),
Terry Pratchet books (Discworld),
The Bible (I'm sorry, but I have to mention the #1 best seller of all time, and it has everyone's all time favoritie stories in it too, don't have to be religious to enjoy this book),
Siddartha by Herman Hesse,
Shogun by James Clavell,
London and Sarum by Edward Rutherford
Most Michael Crichton books
The adventues of Huckleberry Finn (if you don't know the author to this one, you should go shoot yourself)
The Art of War (this book has almost 0 entertainment value, but it's a MUST read, Sun Tsu is considered the author but he only recorded most of the wooden tabs that cosist the main body of the content of the books, it's vital you find a good translation/explanatory book, Sun Tsu didn't write the book(s) the translators/commentators did)
The Republic by Plato

I'm getting too carried away so I'll stop there...

The Fountainhead and the Bible???

1 book was written by an ultra-atheist bitch the other is a religious book! which should he read first? lol

The Republic by Plato?!? What you want to put to guy to sleep!

[ANTicz]

heh, I like to read to expand my view on the world, so I'll read materials that take opposing views and still enjoy both...

As for sleeping, yeah, I guess Plato could be boring for some, but ANY book could be boring for some people... Personally, I think Art of War will put you to sleep faster than The Republic... philosophy books, I mean what can I say, some people can barely read a Dr. Seuss book without falling asleep...

[r3n]

friends online have been ranting at me to get neuromancer, its a futuristic hacking novel, created the word cyberspace, its a classic and a lot computer geeks i know got deep into computers and the net because of it.

[Himura_san]

Originally posted by: r3n
friends online have been ranting at me to get neuromancer, its a futuristic hacking novel, created the word cyberspace, its a classic and a lot computer geeks i know got deep into computers and the net because of it.

From what I have heard Neuromancer is a cyberpunk novel that helped inspire the Matrix movie.

[Hakeem_21]

Im gonna start reading Assimovs The Foundation, i saw the crappy I,Robot film so im gonna wait till it out of my mind before i start reading i.robot book.

[Strike Freedom]

I am currently reading "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is a masterpiece of work in my opinion. I prefer the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

Here's a quck synopsis of the book:

"The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the 'wicked and sentimental' Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons -- the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Aloysha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole Russian life, its social and spiritual strivings, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture."
--taken from R.P. and L.V.'s translation of his story.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It touches on several themes, especially focusing on that of Religion and God. It gave me one interesting new aspect that I failed to take notice of in Jesus' life. I know not everyone is Christian, but it goes beyond Christianity and appeals on all levels of religion in my opinion when it touches on the theme of the existence of an omnipotent being.

My next book is The "DaVinci Code." I know I'm a little back tracked on that book i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif

[aznimperialx]

i think i want to read the gundam seed novel but i don't want to pay for it...

[Zhan]

I'm currrently reading Da Vinci Code. Its seems kind of boring...maybe thats because I'm only up to page 6.....but yeah I heard it was the greatest book ever so yeah. cool. Go read it.

[ES]

Rereading The Vampire Lestat and just finished Angels and Demons a few weeks ago...Perhaps If the lazybug gets off'a me I'll also read Da Vinci Code.

[masamuneehs]

Strike Freedom you are reading one of my favorite authors of all time! Dostoevesky was a true literary genius and his stories always were excellent. Have you read "The Idiot" yet? That one is my favorite from him...

I am currently reading "The Coming Generational Crisis" a non-fiction book by Lawrence Kotlikoff (professor of economics at BU, fairly well-known) about how when all the Baby Boomers (Americans born after 1945) retire MY generation is going to get assraped with increased taxes to provide for the elderly's games of golf and nursing homes. He calls it "fiscal child abuse", and that made me laugh, until I realized I'm probably going to get whooped hardcore by it....

[Honoko]

DaVinci Code is overhyped and completely misinformed. I read it in about 8 hours only to realize afterwards that the author used those 8 hours to deliberately try to manipulate me into thinking only a certain way. And his wording to present his conspiracy theories are totally misleading. Wording like "All art historians know..." or "Everyone in the art community recognizes..." are complete bullshit. In real life, not every professional art aficionado takes those theories seriously anyway. Any fictional book that tries to come off as fact pisses me off. And Dan Brown is a horrible writer. There are better thriller writers out there if you're looking for suspense and intrigue. Robert Ludlum comes to mind, for example.

At any rate, I'm currently slooooowly inching my way through Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson....pretty fun book, if you like those geeky moments where the conversation turns into an excerpt from a science textbook =]

[ES]

Ive seen A documentary about The Da Vinci Code with an interview with DB himself. It was based upon another book and the documentary said that even named book was a fake itself. I am going to find a link or something pertaining to this documentary..if I can find it.

EDIT: Found the site. Also, one must have the channel caled "History Channel" to see it.

http://www.historychannel.com/...de&networkCode=THC (http://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_search.do?keywords=da+vinci+code&networkCode=T HC)

Now back on topic i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif

[Strike Freedom]

Originally posted by: masamuneehs
Strike Freedom you are reading one of my favorite authors of all time! Dostoevesky was a true literary genius and his stories always were excellent. Have you read "The Idiot" yet? That one is my favorite from him...

I am currently reading "The Coming Generational Crisis" a non-fiction book by Lawrence Kotlikoff (professor of economics at BU, fairly well-known) about how when all the Baby Boomers (Americans born after 1945) retire MY generation is going to get assraped with increased taxes to provide for the elderly's games of golf and nursing homes. He calls it "fiscal child abuse", and that made me laugh, until I realized I'm probably going to get whooped hardcore by it....


Wow, I need to read that book. I like that term, "fiscal child abuse." I realize that it is a viciuos process, but it appears to me that the next generation is going to get hit hard by it since the Baby Boomers are a fairly large population. Not only that, they will suck money out of us but leave us with nothing once we head towards retirment. God bless America!

Regarding Dostoevesky, I have never read the "Idiot" but it was recommended to me by a Brother of the Holy Cross that I know, he introduced me into Dostoevesky since I was looking for a good read. I will pick that one up next after the DaVinci Code. I read a synopsis of the "Idiot" and it sounds like an excellent book. Dostoevesky is a genius. If you look at his life, you will realize that it was what he went through that made him such an amazing literary author.

Lastly, I recommend Alexandre Dumas for any of those who want a good novel to read, he has several of them. My favorite of all time is the "Count of Monte Cristo." Although the book is a fiction, it was based on someone's life, who had something very similar happen to him as it did to Edmond Dantes (lead character in the "Count of Monte Cristo")

EDIT:

@ Honoko: I like your observation on the book, although I have yet to read it. But you point out a very big mistake the author made by using words such as "All" and "Everyone." Seems to me that he forcefully wants you to see it his way. Nonetheless, I must read it since I've heard so many good reviews. But since you pointed that out, I will be a bit more critical on the choice of his words, great observation.

[Honoko]

@SF: yeah, as long as you don't take all the "facts" he presents very seriously, it's one of those books that you'd read just to procrastinate.... and the same goes for all the other books he's written. and yes, i have read all of them. as you can tell, i'm a big fan of procrastination.

@ES: i just looked through those links... and the brief synopsis of the tv program and you can't expect me to take seriously a tv program that actually considers a *fictional* book as a source of reference and debate. Now, if Dan Brown had made symbology as his life's work and presented his findings in an academic paper published by some respected academia group for everyone to duke over, then I wouldn't have much to complain about. Unfortunately, the man has spent most of his time as an English teacher and any art background came from his wife who's labeled as 'art historian and painter.' It's ridiculous how so many people seem to forget that what they're reading is fiction. The public gets hoodwinked and tricked so easily these days.

Think about it: Robert Landon is a FICTIONAL symbologist professor supposedly teaching at Harvard and whatever comes from his mouth, all the readers are taking seriously! What the hell. If Dan Brown's findings were really all that great, I should be seeing pundits all over the place stepping up and praising him for his fine academia. Instead, all I'm seeing is a media circus act, feeding off of the public's interest and spitting it back at them.

[milfhunter]

Honoko's on the ball, she's basically right about everything. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is a piece of shit.

For anyone else who has read it, I think that the only thing Dan Brown hopes to accomplish with this book is to promote sex and orgies so that he may be invited to one and/or finally lose his virginity. I've seriously met a christian girl (definitely not a saint though) who took Dan Brown's fictional novel as fact and believes that an orgasm is the core of enlightenment and brings you the closest to God. What a dumb bitch. So now she and all her little sorority cunts are huge college sluts (sluttier than they used to be, anyway) who practice orgies as one of their Dan Brown-inspired sorority rituals.

But I'm not complaining. Sluts are awesome. And there should be more books that cultivate sluts.

[XanBcoo]

Originally posted by: milfhunter
I've seriously met a christian girl (definitely not a saint though) who took Dan Brown's fictional novel as fact and believes that an orgasm is the core of enlightenment and brings you the closest to God...there should be more books that cultivate sluts.

LMAO.

My only problem with Dan Brown is that I've heard he's a crappy writer (never read anything by him myself) and that any intelligent person I know wholeheartedly agrees. It's also true how annoying it is that SO many people take "The Davinci Code" to be fact. I got into an argument with some dumb kids in my Art History class because they kept quoting The DC as if it contained all the secret conspiracies of art and religion.

On topic, I'm not reading anything now (that is, except my text books). But I'm looking to reread one of my favorite novels, "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian. Awesome book about the Vietnam War.

[GhostKaGe]

the last book i read was quit disturbing A Child Called It

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."

Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.


<u>An exerpt form the book</u>
Mother had another favorite game for me while Father was away. She sent me to clean the bathroom with her usual time limits. But this time, she put a bucket, filled with a mixture of ammonia and Clorox, in the room with me and closed the door. The first time she did this, Mother informed me she had read about it in a newspaper and wanted to try it. Even though I acted as if I were frightened, I really wasn"t. I was ignorant about what was going to happen. Only when Mother closed the door and ordered me not to open it, did I begin to worry. With the room sealed, the air began to quickly change. In the corner of the bathroom I dropped to my hands and knees and stared at the bucket. A fine gray mist swirled towards the ceiling. As I breathed in the fumes, I collapsed and began spitting up. My throat felt like it was on fire. Within minutes it was raw. The gas from the reaction of the ammonia and Clorox mixture made my eyes water. I was frantic about not being able to meet Mother"s time limits for cleaning the bathroom.

After a few more minutes, I thought I would cough up my insides. I knew that Mother wasn't going to give in and open the door. To survive her new game, I had to use my head. Laying on the tiled floor I stretched my body, and using my foot, I slide the bucket to the door. I did this for two reasons: I wanted the bucket as far away from me as possible, and in case Mother opened the door, I wanted her to get a snoot full of her own medicine. I curled up in the opposite corner of the bathroom, with my cleaning rag over my mouth, nose and eyes. Before covering my face, I wet the rag in the toilet. I didn't dare turn on the water in the sink for fear of Mother hearing it. Breathing through the cloth, I watched the mist inch its way closer and closer to the floor. I felt as if I were locked in a gas chamber. Then I thought about the small heating vent on the floor by my feet. I knew it turned on and off every few minutes. I put my face next to the vent and sucked in all the air my lungs would hold. In about half an hour, Mother opened the door and told me to empty the bucket into the drain in the garage before I smelled up her house. Downstairs I coughed up blood for over an hour. Of all Mother's punishments, I hated the gas chamber game the most.

[ChaosK]

T-Sawyer!
H-Finn!
lol, i decided to revisit these books for fun now that i can fully comprehend them (last time i read one of these, i was in 6th grade)

[Strike Freedom]

T-Sawyer and H-Finn are great books, God it's been so long since I read those. I should reread them again as I too didn't understand jack crap at that age....

one of the best books I read was in 8th grade, The Giver.

Another one in that time was "The Hatchet"....

[Cal_kashi]

I'm curently reading for fun Infinite Jest, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Farewell to Arms and The Dharma Bums. I pick up whatever feels interesting when I go to bed, good times.

[EpyonNext]

Pooh and the Philosophers. In which it is shown that all of Western Philosophy is merely a preamble to Winnie-The-Pooh
By John Tyerman Williams

It's an extremely humerous and fun read.

[Paulyboy]

Orson Scott Card

Really good author of Sci-fi and other genres. He created the Ender series, like Enders game, which started it all, he also was the author of that video game (forgot the game name). He also had a deal with Steven Speilberg to create the Ender movie i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif. In Enders Game, its about Genius's being used by the government to fight an alien species called the Buggers (yah I know) but Ender is chosen to join the IF (which is like a military thingy), so he joins, and he becomes like the top best. But through out the book, it shows alot of human emotions and how the kids are being used like tools and how ender tries to defeat the system, and through out the whole book you will realize why its called Enders Game. His brother is a jealous evil man, while his sister loves him the most, and his brother (Peter Wiggin) thinks that his parents including his sister (Valentine) love ender more than him, so he creates like an evil murder side of himself. I really recommend this author to you guys, really good series, he also created different other series, like the Tales of Alvin Maker, and The Earth Series. GET THE ENDER BOOK!

[Mae]

Originally posted by: EpyonNext
Pooh and the Philosophers. In which it is shown that all of Western Philosophy is merely a preamble to Winnie-The-Pooh
By John Tyerman Williams

It's an extremely humerous and fun read.

Lol, if you liked that one you should really read The Tao of Pooh. It's a really short but actually pretty good book and how Winnie the Pooh is the perfect example of Taoist philosophy. I learned a lot about Tao when I read it too.

@ Paulyboy: Yeah, the Ender series was good, I enjoyed those books best out of all that Card has written.

I just reread The Truth, by Terry Pratchett, and it was good.

[TruthofMistake]

Right now im reading Hannibal which didnt live up to the hype for me. Sure its good but its not great. I agree that Ludlum is a good author whoever mentioned it. Everyone who hasnt go grab Fahrenheit 451its an awsome book. Hmm yeah The Da'Vinci Code wasnt that great but i reccomend it to those who are just getting into reading as its a really easy read. Hmm for those who like fantasy go for The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It takes a lot of heat from some readers because he "focuses on the wrong thing" i.e. he'll write a page about a dress and a paragraph about a sword fight. The joke is this doesnt happen often if ever in the series and even if it did theres a lot more to describe about a dress then a real swordfight. Those dont last long. Anyways,.... i dont know what im replying to at this point.

[2:25]

Originally posted by: TruthofMistake
Hmm yeah The Da'Vinci Code wasnt that great but i reccomend it to those who are just getting into reading as its a really easy read.

I really don't recommend reading this book just cause it's really shitty and a waste of time. What's sad is that I actually bought this book at an airport. Yes, I regretted paying for it after I finished reading.



Originally posted by: ES
Rereading The Vampire Lestat and just finished Angels and Demons a few weeks ago...

I used to love Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. The last one I read was Blackwood Farm (I think). It was okay.

Anyway, my fav. book of all time is The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif

[ES]

Blackwood Farm is a good book and the one ofthe last ones I believe. Of all the chronicles, perhaps my fave was Lestat and Memnoch the Devil due to the mythos between God and the devil.

[el_boss]

"The game" by Neil Strauss a.k.a. Style. On the cover it says "penetrating the secret society of pickup artist" this sums up the content of the book pretty well. Basically the book is about the authors journey from being a guy that has no skills with women what so ever to becoming one of the best and most respected pickup artists in the world. You don't really need to belive anything that is written in the book to be able to enjoy it. It's still an awesome piece of litterature that can be read as fiction and it is extremely funny as well. But if you do belive what it says though, it will totally blow your mind.

A friend lent this to me and was all like, "dude your life won't be the same after you read this" and I was like "Pffft what ever". I coudn't have been more wrong. Seriously this book has altered my view of the world and relations between people, and I'm only half way through it.

In my opinion all men should read this book. I don't think women will be able to enjoy it on the same level, since alot of things you have to be man to comprehend.

[Sapphire]

Making out in Japanese. Revised Edition.

[FrogKing]

The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov. Editorial review:
Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than The Master and Margarita. Written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov's works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil. Or would that be the other way around? The book's chief character is Satan, who appears in the guise of a foreigner and self-proclaimed black magician named Woland. Accompanied by a talking black tomcat and a "translator" wearing a jockey's cap and cracked pince-nez, Woland wreaks havoc throughout literary Moscow. First he predicts that the head of noted editor Berlioz will be cut off; when it is, he appropriates Berlioz's apartment. (A puzzled relative receives the following telegram: "Have just been run over by streetcar at Patriarch's Ponds funeral Friday three afternoon come Berlioz.") Woland and his minions transport one bureaucrat to Yalta, make another one disappear entirely except for his suit, and frighten several others so badly that they end up in a psychiatric hospital. In fact, it seems half of Moscow shows up in the bin, demanding to be placed in a locked cell for protection.

Meanwhile, a few doors down in the hospital lives the true object of Woland's visit: the author of an unpublished novel about Pontius Pilate. This Master--as he calls himself--has been driven mad by rejection, broken not only by editors' harsh criticism of his novel but, Bulgakov suggests, by political persecution as well. Yet Pilate's story becomes a kind of parallel narrative, appearing in different forms throughout Bulgakov's novel: as a manuscript read by the Master's indefatigable love, Margarita, as a scene dreamed by the poet--and fellow lunatic--Ivan Homeless, and even as a story told by Woland himself. Since we see this narrative from so many different points of view, who is truly its author? Given that the Master's novel and this one end the same way, are they in fact the same book? These are only a few of the many questions Bulgakov provokes, in a novel that reads like a set of infinitely nested Russian dolls: inside one narrative there is another, and then another, and yet another. His devil is not only entertaining, he is necessary: "What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?"

[Assassin]

someone suggest a few good ww2 spy novels....I've recently been reading alot of Allistar Maclean (author of The Guns of Navarone), and i absolutely love the characters he creates, although all his protagonists are quite similar.

Still, anyhthing resembling his work, or any other ww2/spy novel would be great.

[darkmetal505]

I just finished Eldest again and started reading the Ender's series. Im done with Ender's Game, and waiting to get Speaker for the Dead.

[woofcat]

I am reading Snow Crash.

Its about a Ninja, Pizza Delevery man, Hacker. Yes its that good.

[Zidarri the Exile]

I am reading the series by Carol Berg called The Bridge of D'Arnath. I have to read book 3 and 4 still.

I am aslo reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King, and Shadow of The Giant, by Orson Scott Card.

[drims]

I am going to read the new book thats coming out for diablo 2 LOD. Also it seems "a child called it" is good from the review ghostkage gave. I also finished reading the cantebury tales for engish 12

[Paulyboy]

Right now im reading Farewell to Arms in my English Pre AP class and its an alright book by Earnest Hemmingway. Like everyone reads that in High School. Its about a soldier who is like a loner but then changes for a nurse and becomes more passionate.

@Darkmetal505: Enders series is kickass, you should also read the Tales of Alvin, its the same author Orson Scott Card and the Earth Series.

[gr3atfull]

the alchemist, 11 minutes, The Devil and Miss Prym , Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chretien - Volume Two --> a biography about Jean Chrétien by Martin, Laurence

and unfortunatly a school book: Summer of my German Soldier <---- horrbile book

[dragonrage]

i am reading The Odyssey, greek mythology has peaked my interests.

[masamuneehs]

Hedley Bull's:

The Anarchical Society (translated from English into Italian, being read by an American:confused:)

yay for political science texts:(

[gr3atfull]

Finished reading those books I posted before. Any suggestions ?

[masamuneehs]

you read ALL those already? :eek:

damn you're something...

If you haven't I recommend Joseph Heller's "Catch-22". It's my favorite of all time...
I also know lots of people say "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" is a book that can have an impact on how you live life.

My sister also recommended a book called 'Blindness'. unfortunately I'm still stuck in political science readings... (which, if you're ever interested in the first part of Hobbes' "Leviathan" has some very interesting thoughts on humanity and philosophy kinda stuff. I believe that part of the book is titled 'Of Man')

[gr3atfull]

Thanks for the recommendation (sp?).

I have already read Blindness in french (l'aveuglement), it was good.

I will go to the library tomorrow if they have Catch-22. They better have it.

[Rakuen]

Reading The Odyssey for English. I don't really like it.

On my own, I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or, Notre Dame of Paris, if you wanna be accurate). Some parts are really interesting and I get absorbed in reading it, but other parts (coughBookIIIcough) nearly bore me to tears. Oh well. I like it overall, anyhow.

After Notre-Dame, I'm probably going to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Crime and Punishment. Cuckoo's Nest was on my teacher's list of recommended reading and he said it was a good book. Besides, the title's pretty interesting. :D My sister had to read Crime and Punishment for her English class, and she said she liked it.

Of course, I might also relapse and go back to reading books by Diana Wynne Jones for a while, instead of reading classics like I should be. XD

[Xollence]

I just finished reading Heart of Darkness and a book about Thomas Edison's inventions. I started reading Heart of a Dog, a very funny Russian book. I have to finish reading that and Man of the People by next week.

[drims]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown... You just get glued to the pages of this book and want to find out what is going to happen next. And no, Brown definitely did not copy this from another author :)

[gr3atfull]

@masamuneehs:
Damn library didnt have that book. Only have olds books, so I had to borrow another book called Life of Pi.

[masamuneehs]

gr3atfull that makes 0 sense. Catch-22 was published in 1961
Life of Pi was like 2001...

stupid idiots are probably just discriminating because Heller is an American author and for the longest time no European would admit that 'modern' American authors (like Hemingway and after) were worth reading... how wrong they were! :p

i don't care what it takes, you need to find that book! (life of pi was pretty good, way too preachy in the way that it presented some of its philosophy about how to live life though)

[XanBcoo]

This comment probably doesn't belong here, but I've seen the movie adaptation of Catch-22. I didn't like it all that much mostly because it did in fact seem quite preachy. It's method of getting its message across was to use a lot of pretty unplausible events (unless military life is really like that), and that just didn't win me over. For anyone who's seen the movie and read the book, are the two very different? I'd consider reading the book anyway though, as it probably deals with the issues much more deeply than a ~2 hour film.

[Augury]

Jumping in a bit late here, and from another thread. In "The Bitching Thread" four days ago:
my present commanders are all assholes who aren't qualified to go back home with the weapon, and they still think that they can patronize me by saying that if I don't clean my rifle better than it won't shoot if I happen to meet a terrorist on my home.

not to mention thier dusting obsession, I slept a few nights inside a tank, a bit of dust on the floor won't kill me.I thought this was pretty interesting, having recently read the book Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright. Wright is a reporter who sits down in a hummer with the First Recon Marines when they spearhead the United State's ground attack in Iraq in March 2003. Basically the First Recon's job is to ride through towns ahead of the main force and spring ambushes. Kinda sucks when they have to travel in hummers, and only one is armored. The book is a non-fiction about Wright's experiences. The subtitle of Iceman and Captain America actually are aliases for two of the subcommanders of this unit since Wright pokes fun at some characters, and a couple of them seemed extremely unqualified.

This was actually required reading for a history course, but it turned out to be an entertaining read for me. I wouldn't recommend it for people not interested in the subject, although if you think seeing a perspective from the point of view of the "grunts" of this invasion force is cool, then you'd like the book. As a warning, there is some graphic dialogue and violence.

[xDarkMaster]

Right now I'm rereading all the Michael Crichton books. Currently reading Sphere.


Creepy...:(

[gr3atfull]

gr3atfull that makes 0 sense. Catch-22 was published in 1961
Life of Pi was like 2001...

stupid idiots are probably just discriminating because Heller is an American author and for the longest time no European would admit that 'modern' American authors (like Hemingway and after) were worth reading... how wrong they were! :p

i don't care what it takes, you need to find that book! (life of pi was pretty good, way too preachy in the way that it presented some of its philosophy about how to live life though)

Still didnt find it :mad: . Im gonna buy it in 3 weeks when Im gonna more money :rolleyes:

[masamuneehs]

Catch-22 the movie has about half of the characters in it, resulting in the director making some other characters say lines and experience events attributed to other characters.

The book's timeline is totally out of order, so they mess around with it a good bit in the movie also (sometimes failing. Where oh where is Nately's Whore???).

What I really like is the style of writing Heller had that just can't come across in a movie. You felt like you weren't just reading some war novel, but an absolutely insane satire/black comedy set in a war.

Movie is OK, but the book is infinitely better.

[gr3atfull]

I will try to find it at my public library (the towns or municipal library) when I am going to get some books on communism and fascist (history project). I am sure they have catch-22.....

[darkmetal505]

I started reading Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Its actually pretty good.

[drims]

The Dirty Joke Book. By Mr."K"

This is literally the funniest joke book ever. I recommend it completely. Its so hilarious, and offensive that it banned in many countries. He recieved so many death threats he could not continue to allow his name to be seen, hence Mr."K". Buy this book and you will have hours of laughing, "my abs hurt from laughing so much". Warning though this book is very offensive. It insults blacks, whites, jews, hispanics, women, men, politics, society, poor, rich, and all types of people. But hey if you can take a joke then buy the book.

Some reviews of it.
"Shocking, simply shocking! Even the cover of this book offended me!"
- Miss Henrietta Primm of Oatmeal, Nebraska.

"Here's the book that was banned in Bosnia, Upper Volta, Lower Slobovia, and six other countries whose names we can't pronounce."

As the cover says "Guaranteed Highly Offensive"...and rolling on the floor laughing!!!

[gr3atfull]

A stranger is watching you by Mary Higgins Clark

[Honoko]

I think this thread's worth reviving... only because I finally found this title at my local BN ever since it was published last year (yeah, not ordering online is the epitome of laziness) and I'm super excited about the fact that it's finally in my hands!

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

But honestly, I think *everyone* should first read The Eyre Affair, his first book of a (so-far) 4-part series. I'm hoping a fifth book continuing the adventures of Thursday Next will come out soon. In general, I think it's more enjoyable than Harry Potter. One critic described these books as Harry Potter and Monty Python rolled into one and I sort of agree with him. It's smart, funny, with great characters-- both heroes and villains alike. Heck, even the side characters are worth reading-- and the wacko world (alternate world in the 1980s, all based in the UK area...mostly) is really engaging and fun.

With that said, The Big Over Easy is actually a kind of side story based on what was "created" in the Thursday Next novels. Can't tell you how it is because I haven't read it yet but all I know is that it's a mystery crime novel using nursery rhyme characters and since it's Fforde, there's gonna be a lot of underhanded literary jokes and satire littered all over the place. So any literature and English majors, I can guarantee that you'll get a kick out of them. As for me, I didn't read all the books Fforde satires and references but I still enjoyed them a LOT.

So if you're looking for an idle read that's not your usual cheap-thriller-airplane-ride fare, I strongly recommend Fforde. STRONGLY recommend him. Okay? :p

[xDarkMaster]

Seize the Night by Dean Koontz

Christopher Snow, the protagonist of Fear Nothing, returns and is on the trail of missing children. The police cannot be trusted to solve the mystery, because in Moonlight Bay the purpose of the police is often to conceal the crime. The disappearances have something to do with clandestine scientific experiments at a nearby abandoned military base, Fort Wyvern.

Superb book, like most of Koontz's. It has a little bit of everything; suspense, action, romance, horror, and humor. If you like to read but have never heard if Dean Koontz (which I find hard to believe), definitely look into his books. He is one of my favorite authors along with Michael Crichton and Clive Cussler.

[Mizuchi]

I'm reading Brad Gilbert's Winning Ugly

A book about a tennis player who although had some of the ugliest strokes in the world, came to get ranked into the top 10 tennis players in the world because of his mental game. All serious tennis players should read this, although I doubt there are any others in this forum...

[DO]

Stop posting Mizuchi you worthless scum of the earth.

[Mizuchi]

Stop posting Mizuchi you worthless scum of the earth.

I didn't do anything?

[Yukimura]

@Mizuchi: We're at the point now where it doesn't matter what you say. You simply fail.

Anyway, I'm currently reading Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara. This book is vaguely interesting but had a terrible editor, if any at all. The number of grammatical, punctuation and dropped word errors is so large I'm never picking up another by this publisher (Luna) if I can manage it.

[DO]

I didn't do anything?

Your existence states otherwise. Take the hint and get lost simpleton. (btw I think its funny you even bothered to neg rep me!)

[joker-kun]

There was a yahoo article on Mizuchi a few days ago. Apparently he was one of the ugliest babies ever born. picture of him as a newborn;

KitKat edit: Ugh, ok, that's so eye-searingly ugly that I'm changing it to a link.
Ugly ugliness (http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2761/giantpandacubyj0.jpg)

[KitKat]

*Puts on moderator hat*
Listen, I know you guys really dislike Mizuchi, but don't derail a good thread to sling insults around. If he does enough stupid stuff, he'll just get banned the regular way. Meanwhile, he's not causing trouble in this thread, so don't try to pick a fight. Have some respect for the forum rules. The next person to go off topic here will be warned and/or given a vacation. Got that?
*Takes off moderator hat*

Right now, I'm reading this book right now called 'Raphael' which is the third in a trilogy by R.A. MacAvoy. It's kindof a dark fantasy, but set in France/Italy in the past. It follows the story of a young witch trying to save a village and things ending up quite differently than expected.

[Kraco]

I'm only now reading The Da Vinci Code. I doubt this really needs an introduction...

[samsonlonghair]

I'm re-reading Teitam Brown. It's a really twisted book wherein a young man finds that his father is an even worse bastard than anyone thought.

[el_boss]

Light ger fire, Phoenix edition by David Snyder.

[sairane]

currently re-reading the dark tower series by stephen king, on wizard and glass atm.

Stephen king = ftw imo :cool:

[Kraco]

currently re-reading the dark tower series by stephen king, on wizard and glass atm.

I was reading that series a long time ago, but after the third part, I already thought it was discontinued, and it vanished from my mind. I happened to see the later books somewhere, by accident, but I only remember bits and pieces of the story now.

It has pretty crazy release dates:

Book I: 1982
Book II: 1987
Book III: 1991
Book IV: 1997
Book V: 2003
Book VI: 2004
Book VII: 2004

Now that I've been following fansubbed anime series and got used to the extended periods of time between episode releases every now and then, maybe I'd be mentally ready to start to read Dark Tower once again...

[gr3atfull]

Currently reading The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

[samsonlonghair]

I've looked, but I've never been able to find a complete english translation of that book. Most of the stories are censored even in the arabic world, so it's hard to find a complete english translation anywhere.

[gr3atfull]

Actually, I am currently reading it in french.

I have found some english books about it at a bookstore near my place. Here is one of them.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/item/books-978284323725/2843237254/The+Thousand+and+One+Nights?ref=Search+Books%3a+'T he+Book+of+One+Thousand+and+One+Nights'

Also, I have found one on ebay, much cheaper from the ones at my bookstore.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Book-of-The-Thousand-Nights-and-One-Night-4-vols_W0QQitemZ320015676543QQihZ011QQcategoryZ29225 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I think both of the books that I mentionned are complete, but I am not sure.

[Thi3f]

....................

[sairane]

@krako
Yeah it took a looong time for him to write it.. but its actually finished now. And i would reccomend for anyone to pick it up, as ive re-read it many times and still love it ^_^

[Winged Dancer]

Yay books!

Right now I'm finishing a Japanese novel from the Edo period (1670 or so) by one of Edo's greatest poets, Saikaku Ihara. This book however is prose, called "Loves of a Gentleman", but that's a very misleading title...

The story follows the life of a man called Yonosuke from his eight years to his sixty-eight, there's a chapter for each year but they're pretty short.
He's basically a Japanese Don Juan and sleeps with different women (and mean) in each chapter.

It's entretaining but also rater repetitive, since each new chapter only brings new women/men for the protagonist to sleep with, and his conquests are usually not that impressive, since 60% of them are prostitutes.

However, it's still a very Japanese book ("...ah the flowing of this ethereal world..."), si I guess it's worth it if you're interested.

As soon as I'm done with that one I'll start with Diana Wyne Jonee' Deep Secret, which is basicallyl fantasy. I'm a fan of her books, so I'm looking forward to having something light to read before starting on my school books, with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (which fills me with fear) first of all.

[Yukimura]

Lol, you people that read these heady books in differnet languages are making my inferiority compleex act up!

I finished the Michelle Sagara book, whose last three chapters were much more entertaining then the first 19 were. Now I'm reading Wizard by John Varley. 2nd book in the Gaea Trilogy. Varley is apparently a highly lauded Sci-Fi writer, who I'd never heard of until I saw his books on display at Boarders on my my through to the movie theater. A+ for cover design, I immediately grabbed Titan the first of the Gaea books based only on the cover art and the blurbs, it turned out to be quite a good read, and now i'm reading book two.

The trilogy is about a near future space expidition to Saturn to study the moons. While investigatig the moon Themis they discover it is in fact a 1300 km diameter hollow Torus (doughnut) and is not a moon at all, but a life form, Gaea. Within Gaea is an entire world into which the charachters are brought. The first book was very interesting, chronicleing the experiances of the crew of the ship as they explore Gaea's interior and attempt to met the 'Goddess' herself. Wizard takes place 60 years later, where Gaea has become a frequent tourist attraction, in addition to a soverign nation and voting member of the UN.

[eat_toast]

I just finished reading A Scanner Darkly, a novel by Phillip K. Dick. It's a very good book, if you happened to see the movie and enjoyed it I encourage you strongly to read it, as it, like most other novels that are adapted into movies, is far more detailed and interesting.

For those of you who havent heard of it, a quick synopsis from Amazon:
Mind- and reality-bending drugs factor again and again in Philip K. Dick's hugely influential SF stories. A Scanner Darkly cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died from drug abuse. Nevertheless, it's blackly farcical, full of comic-surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred," face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

[fahoumh]

I'm going through Lone Wolf & Cub for the 9th or 10th time....wait, does manga count?

[TruthofMistake]

Hmm, I just finished up an awful book my dad gave me about a lawn guy whose wife is kidnapped. It was called The Husband by Dean Koontz and it is probably the worst book I have read in years. Right now I'm just rereading a few books because buying new ones isn't in my budget right now, and my local library is a 20 minute drive and has an awful selection. If anyone has any suggestions though I'll be looking to pick some up in the near future. I read mostly Sci-fi, and fantasy although good mystery novels are always worth a read. I'v covered most of the staples for fantasy, and the mainstream books for sci-fi; WoT,SoT, Ender's series, Timeline, Crichton, etc. Catch-22 looks good but it wasnt at the last store i went to =\

[Honoko]

The early stuff by David Eddings might pique your interest if you haven't read his stuff yet. The Belgariad and Mallorean series might be worth your time (5 books per series). Anything after that may be questionable due to an obvious lack of effort in the storytelling process.

[mage]

Threads Merged.

mage you're warned, more so than normal because this is essentially breaking the profanity rule as well as contributing absolutely nothing.

The fact that you're not even reading this book, just decided to grab random obscene quotes from it and post it here also is unacceptable.

And as useles of post as this is it certainly belongs in the book thread, not even close to warranting its own thread.

Tread lightly.
-masa

http://classkc.org/review.php?book=song_of_solomon


I've removed the quotes. They have no purpose here. It might have been different if you'd actually given a topic of discussion relating to them, but just posting them it looks like you're just trying to see how offensive you can be. If anyone is still interested in the quotes, they're found at that link mage gave.
-Kit

[dragonrage]

Isn't there a what are you reading now thread. Was this really nmandatory?

It might just be my laziness but, what is the title of this book? I don't see it stated anywhere.

[mage]

I'm not reading this book, so why would I post in that thread? The title of the book is at the very top of the page - Song of Solomon

[Genma]

- discussions of sex with various animals and plants

Sounds like a incredibly fun book to read for a 5th grader. :rolleyes:

[Xollence]

I'm reading Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose. If you liked the TV miniseries then you'll love this book even more.

[Death BOO Z]

I've finished in the past two weeks:"the perfume" (really good), "the sniper" (childish writing style, but intersting) and "the CEO" (good twist, but doesn't stand up to "Paranoia").

Next up is whatever book I can gather from the basement until sunday, or whatever book the other guys in the army are reading...

yep, I'm not really selective.

[Terracosmo]

I'm going to confess something; I've never finished a book. That's right, never. Except, of course, for books related to school which I have been forced to read.

I just can't. I keep losing my focus and my mind just wanders away elsewhere. I demand too much artistry to be content with mere words, as silly as it sounds, and I have tried over and over but I just lose interest and drop it altogether. My last try was Lian Hearn's "Tales of the Otori" (I think that's the english title), which I read a few chapters of and found semi-interesting but then WHOOSH interest gone.

Books are not for Terra.

[mage]

I've always wanted to make a huge library in my future mansion and fill it with hundreds of thousands of books and then tell people that I've read all of them so I can look really cool. Maybe I'll just do that with anime instead.

[woofcat]

the last book i read was quit disturbing A Child Called It


I got and read this book today. Truely great. Thanks for tipping me off to this one.

[samsonlonghair]

I just finished reading Good Omens by Neil Gaimon (famous comic book writer: Sandman, 1602, etc) and Terry Pratcher (the guy who wrote the diskworld books). Damn, those two bastards made a stroy about the Apocalypse hilarious. It's a pretty funny book in which the Anti-Christ was accidentally switched at birth. His Hell Hound becomes a little mongrel dog; the Four Horsemen ride motorcycles instead of horses; the Serpent from Genesis drives around and listens to tapes of Queen all day. It's damn funny stuff.

Amazon links in case anyone's interested: paperback (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Omens-Accurate-Prophecies-Nutter/dp/0060853980/sr=8-4/qid=1157111636/ref=pd_bbs_4/102-6730152-9552950?ie=UTF8&s=books) hard cover. (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Omens-Accurate-Prophecies-Nutter/dp/0060853964/sr=8-1/qid=1157111636/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6730152-9552950?ie=UTF8&s=books)

[Winged Dancer]

Hah, I just bought Good Omens the other day! Perfectly new hardcover edition at only 19 dollars, which is OMGWTF cheap here. I'm looking forward to read it as soon as I have the chance.... which might not be soon, since I'm graduating in literature and all - I read for a living.

Last week I read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which was tiring but a pretty interesting read. You know, the whole struggle for life and the conclusion about just how empty human life is... my favorite bit is the description of human kind's battle against death: the most uninteresting battle ever. I'll check it later and write it here.

I also read Chr&#233;tien de Troyes The Lion Knight, a roman written in the 12th Century in the court of Marie of Champagne. I've always, always loves Arthuric novels - you know, the ones that have to do with King Arthur and his court? - and The Lion Knight is just as good as any of the L'Morte de Arthur ballads. It's basically the story of Yvain, a minor knight in Arthur's court, and his rise to fortune and marriage to a fe&#233;ric woman... although she's never called that.

In between, I've been reading a lot of William Blake's poetry (Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night...) and a lot of Wordsworth too, which is specially funny when compared to Joseph Conrad. While Conrad goes "The horror, the horror!", Wordsworth sings about flowers :p

I'm now reading Joyce Carol Oates' The Falls but dunno when I'll finish it, with all the homework I have :(

[GhostKaGe]

I got and read this book today. Truely great. Thanks for tipping me off to this one.

Link to previous post (http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread.php?p=258979#post258979)
It is a great book very disturbing that someone could actually do something like that.

Well worth reading i'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

[samsonlonghair]

WD, have you read Good Omens yet? If so did you enjoy it?

I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury. Somehow I have managed not to read that book until recently. It really is every bit as great as it's always called. For those who haven't read this book, it's about a future wherein cencorship is so enforced that all books with any controversy whatsoever are burned along with the houses where they are hidden.


“Someday we’ll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. But even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn’t use what we got out of them.”

The version I read included Bradbury's Coda in the back that he uses to talk a about publisher's efforts to try to censor that very book for "good intentions".

If anyone's interested, here's the paperback (http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0345342968/sr=8-1/qid=1159526341/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5341693-7896027?ie=UTF8&s=books)and here's the hardcover (http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Novel-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0743247221/sr=8-2/qid=1159526341/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-5341693-7896027?ie=UTF8&s=books).

[Bucket]

I just picked up a book called Demystifying Visual Studio 2005. Hopefully it won't be one of those cases of "hey, I know my way around the software now but my websites still don't DO STUFF".

[Xollence]

I'm almost done reading Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose. If you liked the miniseries then you'll love this book. It's exactly like the miniseries but a lot more detailed.

[Paulyboy]

I finished reading "The Eyes of God" a really good book by John Marco. Its about a king (named Akeela) and his Championed Knight(named Lukien) that he knew all of his life. Akeela met Lukien in the bad streets of Koth, when Lukien helped him from bandits, then thats when it started from there. King Akeela became Akeela the good because well he was kind until Lukien bangs his queen because they both fell in love. The story just dosen't deal with magic and war, but love and betrayal. Good book I recommend to you guys.

[XanBcoo]

OK, so it's not a book, but "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov is a great short story I just read. It deals with humanity's evolution and eventual transcendence through their expansion and use of technology.

It's a great read (and not too long), I encourage you all to look at it. Anyone who's seen Evangelion should appreciate it as well.

The Last Question (http://infohost.nmt.edu/~mlindsey/asimov/question.htm).

[Genma]

I finished reading "The Eyes of God" a really good book by John Marco. Its about a king (named Akeela) and his Championed Knight(named Lukien) that he knew all of his life. Akeela met Lukien in the bad streets of Koth, when Lukien helped him from bandits, then thats when it started from there. King Akeela became Akeela the good because well he was kind until Lukien bangs his queen because they both fell in love. The story just dosen't deal with magic and war, but love and betrayal. Good book I recommend to you guys.

Sounds like a total rip-off of the King Arthur stories.

As for me, I'm reading a book called D-Day by Stephen Ambrose. It's actually for a book report but it's sort of like a nonfiction book written in a way that makes it seem like fiction. His writing style isn't too great from what I've seen so far, and the book is pretty long. Other than that it isn't half bad.

[SK]

The Republic by Plato.

[rockmanj]

the 48 laws of power by robert greene, rabble: they dont know... by noam chomsky, and the old man and the sea by hemingway...(whew!)

[samsonlonghair]

@XanBcoo I love "The Last Question"; It's my favorite Asimov story.

Let there be light!

[Winged Dancer]

I finished reading Pride & Prejudice about three weeks ago. Damn, if all soap operas were as good as this book, I'd be glued to the TV.

I'm now reading some books by Kazuo Ishiguro, since I have to turn an essay for him on May. I'm really enjoying his style - so flowing and elegant.

Also re-reading {I]Frankenstein[/I], since once more I have to write an essay on it...

Oh yeah, anyone here ever read The Count of Monte Cristo? God, that's one amazing book. It's just superb. Every character is built perfectly, all the interactions are flawless, the sub-plots somehow always fit into the main one.... I want to write like Dumas, he's just too great.

[gr3atfull]

I also read The Count of Monte Cristo. It was about 5 years ago. I loved it!!! (I like the part when the guy is in prison.) Dumas is a great writer. You should read his other book, the Three Musketeers. I also liked it but prefered this one more.

[SK]

Yeah Pride and Prejudice is pretty good actually. Right now I've added Phenomonology of the Spirit by Hegel, The Genealogy of Morals by Neitzsche, and Black Skin White Masks by Fanon. I'm supposed to be read all this shit by December :/.

[XanBcoo]

Oh yeah, anyone here ever read The Count of Monte Cristo? God, that's one amazing book. It's just superb. Every character is built perfectly, all the interactions are flawless, the sub-plots somehow always fit into the main one.... I want to write like Dumas, he's just too great.
Everytime I hear someone mention that book I think about The Shawshank Redemption.


"The Count of Monty...Crisco. By Alexandree...Dum...ass. Heh, 'Dumbass'."

[Honoko]

Oh yeah, anyone here ever read The Count of Monte Cristo? God, that's one amazing book. It's just superb. Every character is built perfectly, all the interactions are flawless, the sub-plots somehow always fit into the main one.... I want to write like Dumas, he's just too great.
I will also join the bandwagon on this one. I was obsessed with Dumas back in high school. I read a whole bunch of his works... 3 Musketeers, Man in the Iron Mask, some other titles that escape me at the moment. But Count of Monte Cristo was the best out of all of them. And that's the reason why I enjoyed the anime Gankutsuo so much. It's the only on-screen adaptation (on tv or movie) that I have encountered that perfectly matched the spirit of Dumas' writing, even if it wasn't word-for-word accurate.

[rockmanj]

Yeah Pride and Prejudice is pretty good actually. Right now I've added Phenomonology of the Spirit by Hegel, The Genealogy of Morals by Neitzsche, and Black Skin White Masks by Fanon. I'm supposed to be read all this shit by December :/.

Ahh...i read that Fanon book, and it was...interesting, to say the least.

[SK]

Ahh...i read that Fanon book, and it was...interesting, to say the least.

Easy to read?

[Winged Dancer]

(...) And that's the reason why I enjoyed the anime Gankutsuo so much. It's the only on-screen adaptation (on tv or movie) that I have encountered that perfectly matched the spirit of Dumas' writing, even if it wasn't word-for-word accurate.

I actually watched Gankutsuou before reading Monte Cristo, so I was expecting eh, you-know-who to die. I'm very sentimental, so I cried for hours on that episode... I was glad that death in particular was written by the anime people.

I want to read The Three Musketeers but I need a good translation. The one I have (in Spanish) isn't too good (meaning "boring as hell") and I can't read the original french... if anyone here knows of a good English or Spanish translation for the Musketeers and Man in the Iron Mask, I'll be thankful.

Latest read: The Lady of the Fountain, Celtic interpretation of the quest of Owen, one of the knights of Arthur. I'ma big fan of Arthuric literature, but my problem with the celtic e-writings is the names.... how the hell is "Glewlwyt" pronounced? Or "Gwenwyvar"? (well, that one is actually not that weird, but some others....)

[samsonlonghair]

Damn, you read a lot WD. Did you ever get time to read Good Omens?

If you're looking for a good English translation of The Three Musketeers I strongly advise you to not read the translation by Cooper or the translation by Le Clercq. I read both, and they were awful. It was like reading a set of blueprints instead of a novel.

I reccomend this (http://www.amazon.com/Three-Musketeers-Alexandre-Dumas/dp/0670037796)one translated by Richard Pevear and his wife, Larissa Volokhonsky. They mostly translate from Russian (which is considerably farther from English than French is). Their translations of Dostoevsky's The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov were excellent. They put more life into Dostoevsky than any of the older college translations. Trust me, I'm picky about Dostoevsky.

I think they both teach linguistics at the University of Paris now.

If you can't wait, or can't afford to buy it right now, the 1846 edition translated by William Barrow has fallen out of copywright and is available onlive via project gutneburg (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1257). But, in ninteenth century England such depictions of sex were considered improper. Barrow edited his translation to conform to standards. This makes one very important scene with a fleur-de-lis very confusing (and the rest of the book less fun).

Happy reading.

Edit: 600th post. Woot!

[Lucifus]

Hurray for readers of DragonLance! Read about 10 DL books so far, all owned. Waiting for some to be realeased, too busy to read others.

However my favorite series of all time would have to be The Incarnations of Immortality. Total pwnage. Everything you ever want!

[Ryllharu]

I read a psychotic amount of books when I'm not at college, enough that I have to re-read books 3-4 times to save money.

Definitely pick up both "Ender's" series by Orson Scott Card. The 4 book Ender saga really delves into metaphysics in the later two books and gets pretty interesting. The Bean series, starting with Ender's Shadow is another great series, focusing more on international politics and war. Good strategy stuff and covers things like genetic manipulation.

Also on the sci-fi stint is Starship Troopers. If you've seen the movie, don't even think to associate it with this book. It's got tons of great military philosophy and is more about responsibility than anything else. It actually changed my political views completely.

Prey and State of Fear by Michael Crichton are also great books. State of Fear has gotten a lot of flak lately for it's stance on global warming, but that's really not the point of the book. The great moral of the story is summarized by a professor in one of the later chapters. Read it for yourself if you're curious. (A part of it is checking the facts yourself and making your own opinions.)

If you want more fantasy stuff, try some of the novels by Kelley Armstrong. The first book is about werewolves and is entitled Bitten. I really like her writing style and her books are among some of my favorites.

Along that same vein are the books by Kim Harrison. They're a little flakier than Kelley Armstrong's, but I liked them just the same.

If you want a really weird book, read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. The story starts with a family who notices their house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. It just goes crazy from there. The pages are written insanely (upside down, sideways, in strange margins and patterns). It's like reading nothing else.

Also, you might as well try some collected works of Nietzsche. Personally, I like the ones laid out in aphorisms and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

[Paulyboy]

YAY another Orson Scott Card fan, I recommend you to read his Homecoming series believe me its a kick ass book. His other Tales of Alvin maker another good series of his, but I suggest you start out with The Ender series.

Plus he is the only author to win both Hugo and Nebula awards in his consecutive years as a writer.

[masamuneehs]

... merged.

And I'm currently reading a delictable little treat called Fluctuating Fortunes. The Political Power of Business in America. Obviously non-fiction, and Dave Vogel does a pretty good job pulling the history of big business, lobbying and US politics into a bearable reading.

...but yeah, would much rather be reading a novel or playing video games, but this last year of college is abusing me. guess i shouldn't complain that I can actually enjoy some of the books they make me read in pursuit of the ghost of higher learning.

[saman]

on the subject of orson scott card, i fell in love with ender's game when i read it in grade 10, and have read it countless times since. ender's shadow is awesome too, and the only reason i haven't read it as many times as ender's game is because it came out later. actually, i love most of what orson scott card has written. for series, i also recommend the homecoming saga, and for standalones, enchantment.

anyway, i just finished reading patrick o'leary's "the gift" not too long ago, which is a wonderfully written piece of literature. i highly recommend it. right now i'm reading harry potter and the chamber of secrets. i'll soon be starting ender's game again, since we're starting that in my english class in a while.

[gr3atfull]

I finally had the time to read good books this past few weeks.

1984 by George Orwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four):
Good book, open your eyes. I really enjoyed it even though it is not very joyful.

Dark Material’s series by Phillip Pullman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials) :
Reread them. The first book, The Golden Compass, will be coming out as a movie in December.

The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl #5) by Eoin Colfer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_Fowl_and_the_Lost_Colony):
Like all the other Artemis Fowl books, it is amazing. Just enjoyed it and as always, it is full of surprises. The ending is like the 3rd Artemis Fowl book, you can’t wait until the next book to know what will happen.

Now a more serious book :

Palestine Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine:_Peace_Not_Apartheid) :
Great political science book and it is a must read by every one.

[Dark Dragon]

I suggest trying Tales of the Otori trilogy by Lian Hearn, pretty interesting fantasy story that take place in a fictional feudal japan.

book 1: Across the Nightingale Floor.
book 2: Grass for his Pillow
book 3: Brilliance of the Moon

The Harsh Cry of the Heron is a sequel for the series that took place 16 year after the 3rd book just got published recently.Heaven's Net is Wide is a prequel that is schedule to be published in 2007.

[masamuneehs]

just finished reading All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ea/All_the_King's_Men.jpg/180px-All_the_King's_Men.jpg

It's a novel about politics in the South in the early 1900's. The main character is a 'dog' of an aspiring (and once high-minded) politician named Willie Stark, who does a load of dirty work and is, for the start at least, not unwelcome to this work.

The novel is about 700 pages and goes over the life of the main character and the politician and their family, friends and lovers. It's a rather dark and cynical book with a fair share of violence, racism and contempt for all that defines American politics.

It won the 1947 Pulitzer and is considered to be "perhaps the most important" American political novel of the modern period. Highly recommended to all, but make sure to read at least the first two chapters. I hated chapter one, had to get adjusted to the writing style, but was in love with the book by the end of the second.

[Danad_corps]

Horray! a thread about books!!!

has anyone read the Silmarillion? i couldn't get into it.

I read it :) Since it was never completed, its quite different in its presentation from the Lord of the Rings (The Hobbit is part of the Lord of the Rings). The Silmarillion is quite amazing if you like reading about different types of mythos. This is Tolkien's version of the creation of his world. There is a lot of name-dropping and if you read it, you get to know some of the characters from The Lord of the Rings and how they have interacted with the world. If you have prior knowledge of other creation stories (The ancient Greek's and the Enuma Elish just to name a few) its great to compare and contrast. Its cool seeing how creative genius' of an age relate to that of another.
By the way, if you are to read this book, then you might as well read the rest of the Series made by Tolkien. History of Middle-Earth. The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion is included in this series.

As for the Ender Series: it was one of my favourites growing up (in fact its one of the books that made me into the avid reader that I am). I don't remember much from them though (it has been quite a while) so i'll probably end up re-reading them.

If you read 1984, you have to read Brave New World. Those two books almost always go hand in hand in a conversation. (DO NOT SEE THE MOVIES)

@ samsonlonghair Fahrenheit-451 was awesome :) My best Lit professor had us read that along with a whole slew of other amazingly good books (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was the best out of those)

@ masamuneehs Catch-22 is a hit or miss book. I know quite a few people who've read that book and they've either hated it or found it to be one of their favs (its def. one of my favs). The book is definitely funny as hell IMO (i love hupples cat). If you've ever seen Meerkat Manor, they name one of the Meerkats Yosarian after the main character in this book :)

Pride and Prejudice was a good Classic book.

the Satanic Verses : Only read this is you are willing to dissect the hell out of the book. It is interpreted by A LOT of people and is known primarily for that.

Life According to Garp One of my favourite books of all time. It was hilarious :)

Breakfast for Champions A really funny book. Written by the same guy who wrote Slaughterhouse-Five which was also very funny

Song of Solomon had a really funny quote in it "smells like the ocean, tastes like the sea" (it should be obvious what its about). Other than that, it wasn't very humorous. It was a required read and it was...well something for me to read at the time.

The Wheel of Time Series is what i'm currently into. I hate ending books, so i get myself into series so that i wont have to end anytime soon. Each book is around 1000 pages (paperback) (there are 11 books in circulation. The author is terminally ill but will release the last one (if he doesn't die) by 2010 i think) and its great for entertainment. Its universe sort of parallels Tolkiens (very loosely). If you like fantasy, check it out.

umm... all the other books that come to mind are from my classes last year(Greek and Romany Mythology and 2 lit classes) so if you really want to know some of the authors i can tell you but from what i see, this doesn't seem to interest you. If i am mistaken just pm me and i'll be more than happy to give you some names :) I didn't like some of the books from one of my Lit class because the prof. only had us reading depressing books about African women's struggles. She was, by far, the ugliest looking person i've ever seen...<shudders> just thinking about the class makes me queasy.

btw people, please bold-face your titles. It makes looking for a book THAT much easier and its grammatically correct.

[KitKat]

Since we were talking about this thread in the introductions section, I thought I'd bring it back.

I'm currently reading Harrowing the Dragon, a collection of short stories by Patricia McKillip. She's one of my favourite authors, and this book doesn't disappoint. As much as I love long epic sagas, I'm a compulsive reader, and tend to read for hours (I will read through a book in a day or too, so I'm careful about when I start books), so short stories are nice mid-week reading for me. I can read one or two without missing a night of sleep. Short stories are also more difficult to write I think, because everything that the author wants to convey must be fit within a limited number of pages, and they must also use these meager pages to create an absorbing and detailed world that will draw the reader in. When a short story is done right though, it's so worthwhile.

[saman]

i read a couple of her novels some years ago. she's a pretty good writer, but i found that the endings of some of her stories got really...odd sometimes. maybe not so much in her short stories, though.

currently, i'm reading harry potter and the order of the phoenix. for the gajillion-and-one'th time. anyone want to suggest something new to a sci-fi and fantasy reader?

[KitKat]

i read a couple of her novels some years ago. she's a pretty good writer, but i found that the endings of some of her stories got really...odd sometimes. maybe not so much in her short stories, though.

currently, i'm reading harry potter and the order of the phoenix. for the gajillion-and-one'th time. anyone want to suggest something new to a sci-fi and fantasy reader?

Yeah, some of her novels are a bit strange, but the short stories are wonderful.

In terms of fantasy and sci fi, have you ever read anything by Robin McKinley? Her two books The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword are probably the only two books that I read again and again and again. I even have two copies of both in case I ever want to lend out a copy to someone and still have a copy for myself to read :p

She also has a really sweet new book called Sunshine that's a psuedo-modern vampire story. Edgier than the other two books, with more attitude, but totally awesome.

[Winged Dancer]

I'm at the middle of the semester, so you can guess that most of my stuff is school sent...

But anyway!

Erec and Enid - I'm a big, BIG fan of King Arthur and his knights (Sir Gawain FTW!), and of the many writers that have touched the topic Chretien de Troyes is among the best.
Erec and Enid was written around the 12th Century, so the prose isn't exactly fluid and easy, but it's beautiful and full of detail. It tells the story of a knight (Erec) and his lady (Enid) and basically makes clear that a man must not be loved just because - he must be loved because he is worthy of being loved.

'Till We Have Faces - This one I'm reading on my own, and kinda dissapointed. It was written by C.S. Lewis, of Narnia fame, but this one is for adults - no talking animals here. The narrator/main character, however, is boring and completely emo... always talking about how everybody left her behind and how much everyone hates her, blah blah blah. Wouldn't reccommend it unless you can stand that kind of thing.

Great Expectations - Well, I have yet to start it but probably should, since I have a class on it coming soon. What can I say? You probably know it or have read it. The story of an orphan and how much orphans suffer... as if Dickens wrote anything different!

Galahad: Enough of His Life to Explain His Reputation - I bought this hardback beauty for 4 dollars, which is close to nothing here in my country. By John Erskine, wonderful American essay writer, so I'm expecting good stuff here... besides, it's Britannic Matter. King Arthur. Knights. What more can you ask for?

Finally, assorted poems - anyone heard of The Lady of Shalott, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson? Beautiful poem, and (guess what!) it deals with Arthurian literature!
Also, everything by Browning is great, particularly The Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, which had me actually LOLing - a feat no poem since Don Juan had achieved...

Have I ever mentioned how much I love studying English Literature? I guess my lists do look more academic, but God, books are nice.

[SK]

I'm currently reading Candide by Voltaire and also the ongoing study of The Republic by Plato (Bloom translation).

[Sasori]

Has anyone here heard of Stephenie Meyer? She's written and writing a few books. My favourite out of all of them being Twilight. They're really for young adults such as myself. It's a love story about a girl named bella, and a vampire named Edward. I know it seems generic, but it's really worth it!

Also, Life of Pi I don't know if it has been posted yet, but for now I don't have the time to read through fifteen pages. I'll read through them when I get home and edit my post if it's already been posted.

[saman]

Yeah, some of her novels are a bit strange, but the short stories are wonderful.

In terms of fantasy and sci fi, have you ever read anything by Robin McKinley? Her two books The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword are probably the only two books that I read again and again and again. I even have two copies of both in case I ever want to lend out a copy to someone and still have a copy for myself to read :p

She also has a really sweet new book called Sunshine that's a psuedo-modern vampire story. Edgier than the other two books, with more attitude, but totally awesome.

i have, in fact, not. i've taken tomorrow off for house cleaning, actually, so if i get a break from that, i think i'm going to head down to the library and see if they have the titles you mentioned. thanks! :)

[gr3atfull]

WD, did you ever read The Mist of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley ? It's really good book. In fact, its the only Arthurian literature that I enjoyed.

For my english class called Genocide in Short Fiction and Film, I read :
1- Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian.
It is based on the Armenian genocide during WW1. Good book.

and

2- Night by Elie Wiesel
It's based on the Jewish Genocide. Excellent book except that I found its a bit too short and time passes really fast.

Finally, I am currently reading A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali by Gil Courtemanche. Its about the Genocide in Rwanda. Until now, its pretty good.

[eat_toast]

2- Night by Elie Wiesel
It's based on the Jewish Genocide. Excellent book except that I found its a bit too short and time passes really fast.

If you think Night is short, read Dawn. Story of the same guy when he is grown. Very good, but the entire story takes place in a few hours. About a forty-five minute read.

I just finished reading a play, actually. It's fairly short, but good. Called Arcadia, and it's by Tom Stoppard. It's a fairly recent play, published and acted first in 1993. It parallels two time periods (the early 1800's and today) in the same house setting. I recommend it, as some parts are hilarious, and others more thought provoking.

[Winged Dancer]

Also, Life of Pi I don't know if it has been posted yet, but for now I don't have the time to read through fifteen pages. I'll read through them when I get home and edit my post if it's already been posted.

Oh, oh, oh, I haven't read it, but the author visited my university last semester, and he was so young and handsome and dreamy and everything a young male author should look like!!!! </fangirl rant>

I guess I should get around to reading his book, though :P

And gr3atfull, nope, truth to be told, the only modern Arthurian literature I've read is "The Once and Future King", by T.S. White, and I stopped reading when Lancelot appeared (Gods I hate Lancelot)... but I'll search for it next time I order something from amazon.com...

..which I should do today. Oh God, I don't have three of the books I need and they're due soon.....! *runs to amazon*

[masamuneehs]

WD, did you ever read The Mist of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley ? It's really good book. In fact, its the only Arthurian literature that I enjoyed.

2- Night by Elie Wiesel
It's based on the Jewish Genocide. Excellent book except that I found its a bit too short and time passes really fast.


Mist of Avalon is the best Arthur book I've ever seen. The idea of telling the story of medieval knights from a mostly female perspective was very well executed.

god, Night is depressing...

As for me, I'm currently reading Hunter S. Thomspon's The Rum Diary. It's sorta like Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" but with more drugs, funnier characters and less social commentary.

[Mae]

I recently read World War Z by Max Brooks. Surprisingly well thought out book about what would happen in today's world if there was a sudden massive outbreak of zombies. Told as a series of interviews with various survivors of the war it's a quick and fun read.

For more classic sci-fi/fantasy stuff, I recently went on a Lois Bujold kick. She has some nice space adventure stuff with her Vorkosigan series. Looked cheesy as hell, but when I got into the books I really enjoyed them. Some nice newer fantasy stuff too, particularly The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. P. C. Hodgell also recently came out with her latest book. Not a prolific author to say the least, but I like her protagonist Jame and the series is worth a look (Kitkat you might like it).

[SK]

Symposium, Phaedrus, and other Dialogues by Plato.

[Winged Dancer]

If I remember correctly, the Phaedrus is simply lovely. But it's been a while since I read Plato...


I recently read World War Z by Max Brooks. Surprisingly well thought out book about what would happen in today's world if there was a sudden massive outbreak of zombies. Told as a series of interviews with various survivors of the war it's a quick and fun read.


I've been wanting to read that book, since "The Zombie Survival Guide" was pretty entretaining and worked for those hours in which the brain is dead. But the only version amazon.com carries is the hard-cover one, and I'm not buying a hardcover zombie novel, so I'll have to wait until september, I think, when the mass paperback comes out.

Right now (literally) I'm reading Look Back In Anger, a play by John Osborne. What can I say? I'm really enjoying it. It's mainly about working-class British youth after the second World War, and the shifting of political classes... very interesting, very well written and due for Monday =P

*reads*

[saman]

Yeah, some of her novels are a bit strange, but the short stories are wonderful.

In terms of fantasy and sci fi, have you ever read anything by Robin McKinley? Her two books The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword are probably the only two books that I read again and again and again. I even have two copies of both in case I ever want to lend out a copy to someone and still have a copy for myself to read :p

She also has a really sweet new book called Sunshine that's a psuedo-modern vampire story. Edgier than the other two books, with more attitude, but totally awesome.

i just thought you might like to know, kitkat, that i finished reading the blue sword day before yesterday, and i really liked it; i'm a sucker for romantic happy endings :D i'll check out the hero and the crown next. thanks again for your suggestions!

in a similar vein, has anyone ever read anything by guy gavriel kay? i've read tigana, and i liked it enough to want to check out some of his other stuff, but i don't really know which other books of his to read.

[gr3atfull]

in a similar vein, has anyone ever read anything by guy gavriel kay? i've read tigana, and i liked it enough to want to check out some of his other stuff, but i don't really know which other books of his to read.

The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. One of the best trilogy I ever read!!!! A must read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SK]

Dialogues on Natural Religion by David Hume.

[Danad_corps]

Harry potter series. Doin about a book a week but ima stop at the fourth one. I enjoyed the movies and i'd like to continue enjoying them so i'll read the novels after the movies come out.

Like always book>>movie

[Winged Dancer]

So a friend convinced me to participate in a colloquy on modern not-very-known English literature.

I accepted and now I regret it a lot. Sure, I look cool speaking in front of people, but it's too much work....

So now I'm re-reading Small Gods, Hogfather, and probably one more of the Discworld series. I'm sure Terry Pratchett doesn't qualify as unkwnown in the USA or England, but in Mexico I'm probably one of the few who has read (almost) everything the guy has...

Discworl is a great series, at least for me. It's the kind of book you can laugh out loud while reading, and (from my point of view) it offers, sometimes, a very harsh social critic - one you can always ignore, but that I like to think about.

My theme in the colloquy is "Life and Death of Gods and Church in Terry Pratchett's Discworld." Bibliography will be those two books along with The Art of Discworld and The Gay Science by Nietzsche, since that's like the book to read about the death of God and all...

Book I'm reading for personal liking: Gallahad by John Erskine. Liking it, but Arthuric novels aren't the same without fantastic elements.

Books the school is making me read: Great Expectations, which sorely needs a musical, The Beautiful Unknown, yay for the 12th century, and assorted stories by Raymond Carver - those I highly recommend.

[Sasori]

Currently: The Foreshadowing - By Marcus Sedgwick

I'm only a few pages in, so I can't say if it's good or not.

[Testarossa Autodrive]

I'm not reading it at the moment, but if you're up for a good comedy by Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, I'd suggest Wigfield; The Can-Do Town That Just May Not.

Hi-larious.

[Mr. Roboto]

The Smartest Guys in the Room
-it was about the Enron scandal, Skilling, Lay, Fastow, how they pulled everything off and how they got caught. The writing style wasn't very good, but the amount of information and back story that they have on the main characters is amazing. The only downfall of the book was that it was written so fast after the scandal broke that it didn't include much of an aftermath to the situation. But if you want to know what happened to everyone you can just look them up on wikipedia.


The Republic by Plato
-didn't care too much for this. I thought it was rather boring listening to Socrates go on about how just and unjust and Glaucon acting like the original 'yes man'. The first part of the book was interesting when there was an actual dialogue and debate.

[Death BOO Z]

well, I've been a diffrent base this weak, so we raided thier library over the weekend. the loot.

Street Lawyer - Grishem
Ahh, lacking the usual punch of the Grishem stories (yep, i can't spell for my life).
L for Lies - Hebrew book by Varda Raziel J'kconet.
crap by the radio lady who solves realtion problems (like Terra, only much less pretty), more like L for Lazy ass writing.
Plant Shampoo - can't remeber the name.
useless story, about some half hippy/ half yanky guy and his family.
Spearhead - Hebrew book by some journalist.
a semi biographical book about an isreali army officer who got involved in some arms deals in africa, boring.
Memories of Nickaragoua - can't remember the name.
story about a visit in the south amercian nation during the nixon days, nice, though pointless.
Memories of the floating world - some Japanese guy.
a nice book, about Japan after WWII and the ramblings of an old painter who feels semi-responsible for encourging the country into attacking the west, alot of bla and bla, but good, in the over all.
Dust - Hebrew book.
A good book, describing an isreali miltiary major from the viewpoint of his perssonal driver, I really liked it, since it's about the 500th division, before it was closed down two years ago.

yes. I'm a serious bookworm, 7 books in 8 days, can't stop reading.

[XanBcoo]

I'm in the middle of Coming of Age in Mississippi, a book, going by the font cover, about "growing up poor and black in the rural south". So far it's an extremely interesting look at the author's childhood. This is the only book I've read in a while that hasn't bored me past 100 pages (I get bored easily when reading).

It's pretty rad.

[SK]

The Smartest Guys in the Room
The Republic by Plato
-didn't care too much for this. I thought it was rather boring listening to Socrates go on about how just and unjust and Glaucon acting like the original 'yes man'. The first part of the book was interesting when there was an actual dialogue and debate.

You must be a moron.

I'm reading Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill right now.

[TruthofMistake]

I'm out of books, so i'm currently rereading the 5th harry potter book -(. I just finished White Night from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher though and it was fantastic. Can't wait for the next two books, Small Favours, and Winter Knight =S

[Assertn]

Rich Dad's "Who took my money?"

Well....actually i got the audio-book version =x

[fahoumh]

Management Accounting....

[SK]

I just ordered the new JRR Tolkien book Children of Hurin supposed to come in tommorow.

[Danad_corps]

Just thought this would be a good place to pay some respect to Kurt Vonnegut. I've read Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast for Champions, and Player Piano. They were all superb and I think this summer I will read all his books just out of respect for him. Has anyone read any of his other books? Any suggestions on which to start with?

[Apraxhren]

Just thought this would be a good place to pay some respect to Kurt Vonnegut. I've read Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast for Champions, and Player Piano. They were all superb and I think this summer I will read all his books just out of respect for him. Has anyone read any of his other books? Any suggestions on which to start with?

From the ones that I've read and then ones I plan to read next I would say something like this:


Galapagos (Personal favorite)
Cat's Cradle
The Sirens of Titan (Haven't read but looks good)
God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater
Welcome to the Monkey House
Mother Night (Haven't read)
Slapstick
Jail Bird (Haven't read)


Then others like Timequake, Blue Beard, Deadeye Dick, Palm Sunday, Hocus Pocus, Fates worse then Death, and the other short stories and essays that I've forgotten. Of course your best option is too always go to the store/library and read the summaries see which one jumps out to you.

[gr3atfull]

WD, did you ever read The Mist of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley ? It's really good book. In fact, its the only Arthurian literature that I enjoyed.

For my english class called Genocide in Short Fiction and Film, I read :
1- Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian.
It is based on the Armenian genocide during WW1. Good book.

and

2- Night by Elie Wiesel
It's based on the Jewish Genocide. Excellent book except that I found its a bit too short and time passes really fast.

Finally, I am currently reading A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali by Gil Courtemanche. Its about the Genocide in Rwanda. Until now, its pretty good.

I finally finished that novel. The reason why it took so long is that its a pretty hard book to digest. it describes all the horrible acts done in the Rwanda genocide without any "sugar coating".

I don't regret reading this book even though it's really sad and depressing. I liked it much more than Night by Elie Wiesel. In Night, time passed fast and there was few "sugar coating". But in Sunday At The Pool in Kigali, there is a story (all real, no fiction) and time passes slowly.

[masamuneehs]

for the first time in a long time, I have finished a reasonably long book that I picked up completely on my own, without any recommendations or assignments attached.

Lucretius - On the Nature of Things
An ancient philosophy text translated from the Latin, I'm shocked how incredibly ahead of his time this guy was. Living in the 1st century B.C., this guy discerns causes of everything from religion (fear of death) to the senses to natural phenomenon. Obviously he falls short on some scientific issues, but it's eerie how close he comes... It's also a wonderfully written piece, eloquent and thought-inspiring.

I'll share with you some of my more favorite passages:



(On the nature of 'gods')
“for by necessity the gods above enjoy eternity in highest peace, withdrawn and far removed from our affairs. Free of all sorrow, free of peril, the gods thrive in their own works and need nothing from us, not won with virtuous deeds nor touched by rage.”


(On the false belief in gods)
“Nothing comes supernaturally from nothing. Fear grips all mortal men precisely because they see so many events on the earth, in the sky, whose rational causes they cannot discern- So They suppose it's all the will of the gods. But once we've seen that nothing is made from nothing we'll find our path and see straight through to what we search for: we shall know that things can come to be -and in what manner- without gods.”


(On potential)
“everything can't just spring from anything; inner capacities make things what they are.”


(On human satisfaction)
“How sweet , to watch from the shore the wind-whipped ocean toss someone else's ship in a mighty struggle; not that the man's distress is cause for mirth- Your freedom from those troubles is what's sweet; And sweet, to see great lines of soldiers marshaled in the plains of war, when you are free from peril; But nothing is sweeter than to dwell in the calm temples of truth, the strongholds of the wise. You can, from there, look down upon others wandering randomly, straying, seeking the path of life, warring with all their talent, wrestling for rank, night and day straining with the utmost toil to fight their way to the heights of wealth and power.
O heart of man, how pitiful and blind! In what benightedness with all its perils our time, so short, is squandered! And not to see that our nature yelps after this alone: that the body be free of pain, the mind enjoy the sense of pleasure, far removed from care or fear!”


(On the nature of 'void' and outer space)
“Yet the emptiness of space cannot ever stand firm against anything from any direction – In fact, its nature calls on it to yield.”


(On sound, hearing and echoes)
“Then too, a single word sent from the mouth of the public crier will sting the ears of the people. That shows that a single voice will suddenly disperse into many, dividing with every breeze, stamping ints shape and clarion call with words. But the part of the voice that doesn't find the ears floats past in the wind and perishes in vain; part dashes against a hard place and hurls back its sound, the empty mockery of a word.”


(On monogamy – This one made me think of Terra...)
“Your love's not around, for a change? But still her image is, and her sweet name echoes in your ears. But we ought to flee these shadows and scare off the food of love, and turn our thoughts to another-- Shooting the juice into any available body, not holding it all in for a single lover.”


(On Sex and Love)
“The man who shuns love can enjoy sex still- more!, for the goods come with no penalty.”


(On overly strong love, and orgasm)
“When the massed-up longing at last spurts out of the muscle, there's a lull in the violent blaze (of love) – the briefest lull. But the same madness returns, and the fury too, they long to attain they don't know what, and can't find any trick to master this disease: they waver, and pine away from the hidden wound.”


(On judgment blinded by love)
“And you overlook all of the blemishes of body and mind in her you crave so much. For men are blinded by their appetites and grant their loved ones graces they don't have.”


(On the mortality of the world)
“Since the stuff of earth and water, and the soft breath of the air and the brilliant fire, the four that make this universe, are all composed of bodies that are born and die, we must conclude the world is born, and dies.”

[BioAlien]

Does Fate/Stay night, the Visual Novel, count as a book?
If so, then that is what i am reading. Just finished the part where berserker get defeated, took over 30hours to get there.
Longest "book" i have ever read.

[Lefty]

The oral History of Rant Casey by Chuck Palahniuk

I'm up to chapter 31, this is really twisted but interesting book about technology replacing actual experience, people being split into a day and night cast, and a strange young man becoming bigger then typhoid Marry. This is a good lazy day read.

[Winged Dancer]

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro. Stiffling. Good, but not exactly recommended.
The Saga of Hervor by some dude from Iceland. LOL Sagas and their unpronounceable names. NIce!
The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carrol. I realize this isn't a book, but there's so much to be understood that it should count.
Thory on Gothic Feminism by some woman. I cry at reading boring bibliography ;_;
The Lord of the RIngs by guesswho? I thought taking a course on LotR was a good idea. And it has been - my professor rules and knows more about the middle-ages than most specialists, but having to read LotR while in finals is death.

All that's for school. Needless to say, I don't feel like reading when I finish my homework.

Children of Hurin by Christopher Tolkien I would guess. I shall yet be mine! Soon, soon...

*runs away to read*

[Animeniax]

I just got "The Children of Hurin" in the mail, hope it's better than the trilogy, which wasn't the be-all-end-all fantasy series that everyone claims.

Oh, also just got KareKano 21. Hope they end the series well, it got kind of murky and uninteresting in the latter half.

[Nyberg]

I'm reading "Don't kill myself books"
Also, I'm going to read the last J.R.R Tolkien that i haven't read yet.
"The lost tales 2"

[Yukimura]

Rereading LotR and this time I'll actually read everything instead of filling in with movie knowledge. So far I've noticed that having read the Silmarillion (movies plz) makes a lot of things make more sense.

I might pick up Children of Hurin, but if it's just the same thing as was in the Unfinished Tales I'm not sure it's worth it.

[TruthofMistake]

The Alienist, its about a serial killer and pretty interesting so far.

[hiddenpookie]

Angels & Demons I finished it last month and it was the best book I have ever read

[saman]

The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. One of the best trilogy I ever read!!!! A must read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is a horribly late reply, but i just finished reading the fionavar tapestry two days ago, and enjoyed it very much. the language was so powerful, but almost too powerful sometimes. i think i'm going to have to read the books again.

...cried like a baby at the end :'(

[masamuneehs]

The last of 'the Mad Russian's literary works.

I am greatly enjoying, The Brothers Karamazov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov). One of the first long books I've read for pleasure in a while. I'd forgotten how eloquent, yet pointed, Dostoevsky's prose is. It's truly a delightful, but somehow also sad, work.

[Board of Command]

The Anarchist Cookbook

I read that whenever I feel like it...if you know what I mean.

[Animeniax]

this is a horribly late reply, but i just finished reading the fionavar tapestry two days ago, and enjoyed it very much. the language was so powerful, but almost too powerful sometimes. i think i'm going to have to read the books again.

...cried like a baby at the end :'(A French-Canadian buddy of mine suggested this series to me. I was greatly disappointed, until the last bit where they go their separate ways, which was heart-warming, but hardly made up for the rest of the series.

[BioAlien]

Reading Harry Potter and the ... whatever.. Book 1.

I thought it would have sucked badly since I didn't really enjoyed the movie, but it is not half bad.

[dragonrage]

I am currently reading

Lemony Snickets; a series of unfortunate events. A bit childish but I like it as well as the style of writing. 13 books it should keep me busy for a while.

George Orwell; 1984: from the writer of animal farm, it is a pretty interesting book and it is interesting to see how it relates to modern day society.

Hamlet: Give it another go, not a fan of shakespeare but I am trying to really get a feel for the language, it is rather hard considering the level of my grammar. It is a nice reminder of poetry in itself and well it is food for thought as well.

[Animeniax]

Reading Harry Potter and the ... whatever.. Book 1.

I thought it would have sucked badly since I didn't really enjoyed the movie, but it is not half bad.You must be joking. The books rock so much. The movies did them no justice. Kind of like LotR, except those books weren't that good either. But the Harry Potter books are so much more detailed and interesting than the movie adaptations. You should almost never see a movie before reading the book. One glaring exception is "Forrest Gump"; the movie is much better than the book.

[BioAlien]

You must be joking. The books rock so much. The movies did them no justice. Kind of like LotR, except those books weren't that good either. But the Harry Potter books are so much more detailed and interesting than the movie adaptations.
Why am I joking?
I finished it yesterday, the book is really good compared to the shitty movie, I started reading the second book now, currently at the start of chapter 5.

[Shinda]

I've just started reading Paradise Lost by John Milton.
Haven't read a book in month before that... but since school's out, I've got all the time in the world now.

[itadakimasu]

CCNA 3: Switching Basics and intermediate routing...

Yeah, im loads of fun.

[complich8]

around my rigorous anime schedule, I've finally gotten around to starting up on Catcher in the Rye.

I feel as though it may have been a mistake to buy the book on my credit card, though.. probably would have been wiser to pay in cash. But I was buying like 8 books and didn't have that much cash on me. *shrug*

[itadakimasu]

around my rigorous anime schedule, I've finally gotten around to starting up on Catcher in the Rye.

I feel as though it may have been a mistake to buy the book on my credit card, though.. probably would have been wiser to pay in cash. But I was buying like 8 books and didn't have that much cash on me. *shrug*

because only serial killers and nut jobs read that book... mel gibson actually owns 12 copies.

[complich8]

don't forget the terrorists...

Despite the fact that it's one of the most assigned books, there's rumors that it can you onto certain watch lists...

[Honoko]

don't forget the terrorists...

Despite the fact that it's one of the most assigned books, there's rumors that it can you onto certain watch lists...
Ugh, I totally hated Catcher in the Rye. It's the only book I can think of where I'd be forced to put it down due to anger because I HATED the whiny, main character. Couldn't stand him for the life of me. Can't understand why some people enjoy it so much. That guy was a complete douche.

[Assassin]

Ok ladies and gents, i have a request for you all. There is a certain book, or rather series of books, that im looking for and can't seem to find. Possibly cuz i dont remember the title or author of said books. But im hoping that since you're all such avid readers, perhaps one of you will have come across these books and could help me out.

The books are childrens fiction, the genre is horror. Ofcourse by horror, i mean 'goosebumps' not stephen king. Anyway, i think the name mite have been "something-ville"....like "______ville". But i can't be 100% sure of that. The series was very much like the Goosebumps/Fear street series. It was about a group of kids (who were all friends) that lived in a rather freaky little town. The stories always involved something wierd happening in the town. I recall one such story about an evil clone of one of the kids that came from an alternate 'evil' version of the town in another dimension or something. That same kid (a girl) always carried a Bic lighter with her, and it was kind or a running gag through out the series. There was also this one kid who was kind of like a teen version of the cliche 'crazy mystic old man that lives in a hut by himself on the outskirts of town". He wasnt part of the group, but they went to him for help/advice every now and then.

If any of this rings a bell, please let me know. I used to love these books as a kid, and i've been trying for years to remember the name of the books with no luck. Im sure someone here must have read these books as well.

Edit: never mind, the alien known as Y has solved the dilemma. He is indeed Teh Awesome

[Y]

Ok ladies and gents, i have a request for you all. There is a certain book, or rather series of books, that im looking for and can't seem to find. Possibly cuz i dont remember the title or author of said books. But im hoping that since you're all such avid readers, perhaps one of you will have come across these books and could help me out.

The books are childrens fiction, the genre is horror. Ofcourse by horror, i mean 'goosebumps' not stephen king. Anyway, i think the name mite have been "something-ville"....like "______ville". But i can't be 100% sure of that. The series was very much like the Goosebumps/Fear street series. It was about a group of kids (who were all friends) that lived in a rather freaky little town. The stories always involved something wierd happening in the town. I recall one such story about an evil clone of one of the kids that came from an alternate 'evil' version of the town in another dimension or something. That same kid (a girl) always carried a Bic lighter with her, and it was kind or a running gag through out the series. There was also this one kid who was kind of like a teen version of the cliche 'crazy mystic old man that lives in a hut by himself on the outskirts of town". He wasnt part of the group, but they went to him for help/advice every now and then.

If any of this rings a bell, please let me know. I used to love these books as a kid, and i've been trying for years to remember the name of the books with no luck. Im sure someone here must have read these books as well.

I already answered this on IRC but I'll post it here in case anyone else is wondering about this for some reason - it's the Spooksville series by Christopher Pike.

[Animeniax]

Why am I joking?
I finished it yesterday, the book is really good compared to the shitty movie, I started reading the second book now, currently at the start of chapter 5.
I thought you were joking because the books rule and are an international best seller, even if they were originally meant for kids. Also, movies almost always suck compared to the books, so I thought you were kidding when you said you thought the books would suck because the movies sucked.

[SK]

Just read Persepolis, really, really good book. Now I'm reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, its very insightful so far.

[masamuneehs]

So now I'm re-reading Small Gods, Hogfather, and probably one more of the Discworld series. I'm sure Terry Pratchett doesn't qualify as unkwnown in the USA or England, but in Mexico I'm probably one of the few who has read (almost) everything the guy has...

Discworl is a great series, at least for me. It's the kind of book you can laugh out loud while reading, and (from my point of view) it offers, sometimes, a very harsh social critic - one you can always ignore, but that I like to think about.

Just finished the first book from the Discworld set, "The Color of Magic", and I enjoyed it greatly. Funny, action-packed and a great blend of mysticism with funk weird medieval sci-fi staples. An excellent book and very that last part of Winged's post I found to be very true.

(thanks to comp for the recommendation).

It was surely a great change of pace after finishing Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov which was quite good (if you can stand the way it's presented, which I just happen to love for some reason) but has a rather weak ending portion, which is a real shame.... The Idiot is still my fave Dostoevsky at this point... But, yes, I'll be sure to read my Discworld stuff in the future when I want a light sci-fi.

[infidel]

I'm currently reading the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Never read the book before, and my preconception of the book was completely off compared to what it actually is.

[Iridani]

I will admit... I've read HP 7 :P

[SK]

I will admit... I've read HP 7 :P

You along with 10,000,000 other people.

[BioAlien]

I will admit... I've read HP 7 :P
I am currently reading that too, I'm at chapter 28 now.
I'm a slow reader, so I read between 5 and 10 chapters a day.

[Iridani]

I am currently reading that too, I'm at chapter 28 now.
I'm a slow reader, so I read between 5 and 10 chapters a day.

Understandable... takes time to be able to read it quick. I did in 4-5 hours or something around distractions but will again.

And yes... with millions of others. Still a book :P

[masamuneehs]

reading Terry Pratchett's (and another co-author's) Good Omens. It's about the end of the world, but all comical and zany. Sorta reminds me of Dogma, in a way... I enjoyed the Discworld books more than this one, however, as this has too many characters that aren't really all that exciting to read about and, well, it's just not apocalyptical enough until the Saturday chapter...

[SK]

About to pick up Slaughterhouse Five and A Clockwork Orange, both supposed to be good reads.

[masamuneehs]

Finished Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary". It's his first novel, started when he was just 22, but it really carries all the seeds and style that made him famous with his later works. It's a dark and depraved comedy about reporters in Puerto Rico during the late 1950's, and it makes you want to laugh and also give the next passerby in the street a mean punch in the kidney, cuz people are mostly scum, but somehow entertaining... It's a tale of listlessness, jealousy, exploitation and the dark refuge of alcohol.

At under 150 pages and devoid of big words or over-flowery details, it's a very quick read. It reminded me alot of 'The Sun Also Rises' but I could actually relate to the characters and, well, just more enjoyable in my eyes.

[infidel]

I just started reading Tapestry of Dark Souls by Elaine Bergstrom this morning, I am already on the last few chapters. It has been amazing so far, now all I have to hope is that the last few chapters won't ruin a good book.

[Y]

Rereading Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

He really needed to get a decent editor on board after book 3.

[complich8]

Finishing up Terry Pratchett's Mort. It's pretty funny. I didn't really expect Rinsewind to make an appearance...

I'm up to about denouement now ... usually Terry ends them pretty happily, but Death seems pretty pissed... so I dunno.

[Iridani]

Rereading Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

He really needed to get a decent editor on board after book 3.

Good series.

[Ketsu]

I'm currently readin " for a few demons more" by kim Harrison.

[Mae]

Just read Persepolis, really, really good book. Now I'm reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, its very insightful so far.

I thought Guns, Germs, and Steel was a decent attempt to explain why some societies modernized quicker than others and why Europeans came into dominance. I particularly liked the chapter on how and why certain animals were domesticated and others were impossible to tame. I thought the author was sometimes repetitive, banging the reader over and over on the head with certain facts, but he did do a fairly good job of explaining his reasoning. I didn't agree with all of his theories, but they were at least interesting and mostly plausible. I think he did a good job with a complex topic where the "science" is sketchy at best and impossible to really prove at worst.

And it's cool to see people reading Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite authors. I think my favorites of his books are the city guards stories (starting with Guards! Guards!), but more recently I really liked Going Postal and The Truth. Satire with decent comedy, not too heavy handed, and also just damn good stories.

And for Danad_corps: I really like Vonnegut too, although it's been a while since I read his stuff. Try Mother Night, it's my favorite, about a guy who pretends to be a Nazi propagandist while secretly sending out spy messages in his radio broadcasts, but the thing is he was a really good propagandist... Raises interesting questions about how little difference there is between pretending to be someone and actually being that person.

For myself I've been plowing through the Malazan Books of the Fallen. LONG books, but set in a well-defined fantasy world with colorful characters (Whiskeyjack, Quick Ben, Icarium... Tehol Beddict is one my favorites, he and Bugg have some GREAT dialogue) and epic tales of war, betrayal, rebellion, the death of gods, etc.

[Spiegel]

Well, I just finished Speaker for the Dead, and I am looking for another good book to read, I know I need to go pick up Xenocide, but I have not been able to go get it yet. Are there any recommendations from anyone for a good book that can follow along the same lines as Speaker for the Dead and that series.

Speaking of Speaker, I was captivated by it for hours on end. It is the first book in a while where I have sat there and re-read pages not because I didn't understand it, but because I wanted to make sure I understood any implications and Foreshadowing that it brought. I would defiantly recommend it with Enders Game before it.

[saman]

read the shadow series, starting with ender's shadow. i like that series better than the ender series, not because ender's shadow is better than ender's game, which it's not, but because the rest of the shadow series is so much better than the rest of the ender series. i'd also recommend the homecoming saga, if you want to read something that's more fantasy-ish by Card.

[infidel]

Right now I am reading Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, it is the first time that I read a novel in the form of an oral biography. Definitely interesting, and definitely good.

[Animeniax]

Anyone read the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin? Books 1-3 were excellent, 4 not so much.

[fahoumh]

I just finished reading the "Watchmen" series the other day and finished reading the "Preacher" series a couple of weeks ago. Both greatly written comic books. I just wish I got around to reading them sooner.

[Sarahchan]

I just finished Lotr for the 2nd time and I think I might try harry potter. Is it worth reading or just movie viewing?

[Spiegel]

I just finished Lotr for the 2nd time and I think I might try harry potter. Is it worth reading or just movie viewing?

There is a lot of information left out in the movies, though on most of them they did a good job I would still recommend reading the books also. Not like you got much to read, it is only 7 books.

I would also recommend the Enders Game series of books, or maybe even the Wheel of Time series.

[Yukimura]

Currently reading Taste of the Night by some lady who's name isn't that important.

I think I'm finally tired of reading sci-fi/fantasy books with female lead characters who get empowered and decide to go kick butt with nothing but their anger at the asshole males who raped, abused, or oppressed them and the guy who runs around behind them at their beck and call indulging their impulsiveness. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these stories but after the 40th or 50th time it's started to get annoying.

I'm looking for something new, preferably a series, that's sci-fi and/or fantasy with either a tough male lead without women troubles or, even better, no single main character and an interesting and intircate plot that has little to no romantic relationship exposition. High magic or technology level is a plus. Note: Harry Potter will not be considered for personal reasons.

Some stuff I've already read and liked a lot: Dune (All books ), Ender (All books), LotR (most of the prequels), Halo (all books).

[Sarahchan]

I would also recommend the Enders Game series of books, or maybe even the Wheel of Time series.

Oh? why is this? What are they about?

[Spiegel]

They are series I really enjoyed reading and wouldn't mind reading again. Enders Game, Enders Shadow, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide were all great books. It is a more space series and deals with the interaction between two races that know very little about the other and what happened accordingly. A good read in my opinion.

I say the wheel of time series because I figured you were into the medieval type book and that is another good series to read.

[Sarahchan]

They are series I really enjoyed reading and wouldn't mind reading again. Enders Game, Enders Shadow, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide were all great books. It is a more space series and deals with the interaction between two races that know very little about the other and what happened accordingly. A good read in my opinion.

I say the wheel of time series because I figured you were into the medieval type book and that is another good series to read.


Thanks Ill look into it!

[darkmetal505]

You shouldn't forget Bean's story with Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant.

[Spiegel]

You shouldn't forget Bean's story with Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant.

I just mentioned the ones I remembered on the second post, I said the series in the first. Though personally I didn't like Ender's Shadow, but that may have just been me. I don't know what it was about the book but I just couldn't get into it.

[fahoumh]

Today I started and finished "The Alphabet of Manliness" by Maddox. Short read but absolutely hilarious. :D

[TheBladeChild]

Wow I didnt realize these forums had ender's fans :). Hope Ender's game the movie will do well, its going to be Directed by Wolfgang Peterson. Unfortunately the script is still being written by the Man himself Orson Scott Card.

[saman]

i would rather orson scott card take his time to write a good script than do it in a hurry and have the movie be crappy. although it's probably going to be difficult to please the hardcore fans no matter what.

speaking of OSC, the book i'm currently reading is also written by him. it's called empire, and as far as i can tell, it's about terrorists and the u.s. government. i'm not sure if i like it yet or not.

[TheBladeChild]

i would rather orson scott card take his time to write a good script than do it in a hurry and have the movie be crappy. although it's probably going to be difficult to please the hardcore fans no matter what.

speaking of OSC, the book i'm currently reading is also written by him. it's called empire, and as far as i can tell, it's about terrorists and the u.s. government. i'm not sure if i like it yet or not.

I agree with you that I want him to do a good job on the script, however he is on at least his 3rd or 4th version of it, and still it hasnt gone though. I really hope the whole project wont get cancelled, because I have been waiting for this move for like 4 years and still they havent even began shooting it.

Those who have read this book series should know a few the difficulties associated with filming this particular book.

On a side note, OSC announced a few months ago I believe that he is writting 2 more Ender's books:

*Ender in Exile: Ganges*(taken from wikipedia)
-(working title) is a yet-to-be-published science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card, which will be a prequel to Speaker for the Dead.

Very little about the book is known at this time; Card announced it, along with Shadows in Flight, but it is not known how much work he has done on either novel or even whether he has started them.

*Shadows in Flight*(taken from wikipedia)
-Shadows in Flight is a yet-to-be-published science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card, which will link the Bean quartet back to the Ender novels.

Very little about the book is known at this time; Card has announced it, along with a prequel to Speaker for the Dead tentatively titled Ender in Exile: Ganges, but it is not known how much work he has done on either novel or even whether he has started them.

Card has stated explicitly that Shadows in Flight will wrap up some of the plot threads left dangling in Shadow of the Giant. However, in an interview with SciFi.com, he established that Flight would pick up where Children of the Mind (the final book in the Ender quartet) left off, as opposed to starting with the ending of Giant.

[Ryllharu]

Wow, so [spoiler omitted] continued that long. I'll be looking forward to Shadows in Flight.

As for Empire, I read most of it. But for some reason I never finished it, something that never happens to me, regardless of author. I did enjoy it, but I must have gotten distracted by something...

I've been forced to read quite a bit of novels for my Lit classes, and though I usually don't like when I'm forced to read (one should be reading for pleasure really), I was surprised how much I enjoyed some of the books.

Perhaps my favorite of them was The Professor's House by Willa Cather. Not too much happens in it overall, but the interactions with the family get pretty interesting about halfway into the first part. It's an older one, but worth a try.

[saman]

so i know gr3atfull doesn't come here anymore, but if she ever does again and sees this, i'd like to tell her again that i'm grateful she recommended the fionavar tapestry to me. i just finished reading the series again a week or two ago, and enjoyed it even more the second time. i also bought the lions of al-rassan today by guy kay. i've heard really good things about it, so i hope i like it.

also, following the older topic, i never did finish empire. first one of OSC's books that i started but didn't complete :*)***

[Munsu]

All you idiots that read books and novels, please make your opinions heard:
http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=15833

[KrayZ33]

All you idiots that read books and novels, please make your opinions heard:
http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=15833

a nice request....

:(

[masamuneehs]

P.G. O'Neill's Essential Kanji
and Japanese for Busy People vol. 2

[Munsu]

I've been reading The Ranger's Apprentice, Odd Thomas, and The Sword of Truth series... just started with Wizard's First Rule.

[Ryllharu]

Recently finished The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison and Star Wars Revelation by Karen Traviss.

The latter is another great title of that genre, particularly if you like how badass Madalorians (Boba Fett, etc) can be.


I would like to pick up Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong, but I'd rather wait for the paperback. Not so much because they are cheaper, but because they are easier to read around the house.

[EinReB23]

I'm currently reading Angels and Demon by Dan Brown, actually i'm reading it the 2nd time while i'm waiting for Digital Fortress to be available in our local bookstore. I also finished Deception Point and Da Vinci's Code also by the same author. Basically I like the history and art and other facts that was thrown in novel.

[Junior]

I'm going to start reading Dexter in the Dark by..Jeff Lindsay(I think) ^^;; And I'm going to finish reading J.D Salinger's Nine Stories.

Nine Stories has been really great so far. My favourite stories so far are A Perfect day for banana fish and Teddy.

[Archangel]

I'm currently reading "Rosas de Atacama" by Luis Sepulveda. It's a compilation of small stories that the author either experienced ot was told about by ppl who did, most of these relating to WW2 .

[saman]

And I'm going to finish reading J.D Salinger's Nine Stories.


J.D. Salinger wrote something other than the Catcher in the Rye? i thought that was the only book he had written.

Bud, let me know what you think of the sword of truth series. i've heard it's like an adult version of harry potter, so i'm curious about how it is.

[Munsu]

I don't know of it being an adult version of Harry Potter, but it's quite good so far... 260 pages into Wizard's First Rule. There's magic, violence, and all those goodies... but aside from that I don't see the resemblance to Harry Potter at this moment. If anything so far, it seems more like a Lord of the Rings type of thing, probably more adult oriented in itself than LoTR. Regardless, it's quite good so far.

Also, now that there's is this whole forum to discuss book/novels... you guys shouldn't hesitate to start threads about the different titles you're interested in and are reading. On that note, I moved a couple of threads about books that were in GD to here... if you guys find more pm me so I can move them.

At KitKat's suggestion, I might also start a "Book of the Month" type of thing, and try to get some of us to read the same book because I figure with the abundance of novels, etc. that it be quite hard to find common books that many of us are reading.

I do something similar with the manga people, which is quite successful at first, but as the time passes it dies out. With that being said, I need to do it once again as I left the last manga reading round on limbo a couple of months back.

[Junior]

J.D. Salinger wrote something other than the Catcher in the Rye? i thought that was the only book he had written.

Yes. D: Check him on wikipedia. he has some interesting work.

I thought he'd be more famous because of Ghost in the shell. o.o Laughing Man and whatnot.

[Assassin]

i just got The Great Tree of Avalon yesterday, gonna start reading that. Has anyone here read it, or other books by T.A Barron?

[Rikudo]

Four blind mice by James Patterson

[KitKat]

I'm almost done my school semester and plan to start 'Hood' by Stephen R. Lawhead. I really liked his rendition of the King Arthur story, so I'm looking forward to his retelling of Robin Hood.



At KitKat's suggestion, I might also start a "Book of the Month" type of thing, and try to get some of us to read the same book because I figure with the abundance of novels, etc. that it be quite hard to find common books that many of us are reading.

I think anything sci-fi or fantasy is a good bet, since those seem to be quite common genres in this thread. If we choose books that were published relatively recently, it shouldn't be hard to find them, with a good chance that most of us haven't read them yet. We could also do it where we try out new authors that are just starting to establish themselves in the literary scene.

[Dark Dragon]

House of the Scorpion is an excellent science fiction novel with an interesting and somewhat original setting.

@Assassin I haven't read that particular book but I've read the Lost years of Merlin epics by T.A Barron and that was a great series that i would recommend to anyone who is a fan of anything King Author related.