Book: What Book Are You Reading?

[KitKat]

I've been wanting to read The Lies of Locke Lamora. My brother read it and raves about how good it is.

I haven't read much except for a book entitled Water by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. It's a series of short stories about water, and made for great holiday reading while travelling on the bus and waiting at airports. But then, I absolutely adore anything written by Robin McKinley to begin with.

I just put down a deposit on a room, so I'm moving into the heart of Vancouver next month and my new house will be a block away from a brand new library branch. Woot! I'm looking forward to getting a library card and seeing what treasures I can find there. I should probably get around to finishing up the Sword of Truth series since I put that on hold almost 10 years ago, saying that I'd finish it when all the books were written.

And, from looking at glyphes' post, I thought I'd mention that I actually met Tanya Huff in person. She lives really close to where I grew up, so for my grade 12 English project, I wrote my paper on her, and the gracious lady that she is, she agreed to come meet me for an interview. We actually spent half the time talking about our respective cats (this is the dangers of conversations between two cat people). I'm pretty sure I messed up a lot of my interview questions because I was all shy, and it was my first time meeting a Famous Person. She was great though, and the humour and mischeif that you see in her writing style is definitely there when you talk to her in person.

[Munsu]

I've been wanting to read The Lies of Locke Lamora. My brother read it and raves about how good it is.

Well I highly recommend it for you guys that like the fantasy genre and are looking for something a bit different within the genre. It's quite refreshing in that regard, and worth it just for that. The author has 7 planned novels in this series, two are out.

I am currently reading Brave New World. It's quite interesting to see a world where everyone was at the same level, no smaller nor bigger and had the same capacity as every other people. Also, famous people are used as figures of speech: "For our Ford" for example.

Seems like the movie Equilibrium with Christian Bale was inspired quite a bit from this book, seeing as society tries to supress feelings, etc.


Anyways, finished reading Eye of the World, the first book from the Wheel of Time series, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I see some similarities with the Sword of Truth series, but better written. Right now I'm in the middle of the second book, The Great Hunt, and I'm liking it more.

I just bought myself the Night Angel Trilogy (The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge, Beyond the Shadows), from Brent Weeks, and this are his first three novels written. Seen quite a bit of praise for it, so I might get into it soon.

The other novel I just bought is The Name of the Wind, first book of The Kingkiller Chronicle, which is also a first for the author Patrick Rothfuss, and from what I see it's considered by many the best fantasy novel of 2008.

Any of you read or heard anything of these novels?

[masamuneehs]

i'm reading Haruki Murakami's "Norweign Wood". bit depressing, and there's almost too much description of seemingly random things, but it's an interesting read and hits pretty close to home for me with the characters.... despite being set in 1970s Japan...

one thing I can't get over is every time I find a spelling / grammar error. I understand that it had to be translated, reprinted, etc, but, seriously, this guy is a fairly famous Japanese author, even abroad. It makes me want to claw my eyes out to know that some shmuck got paid to do this half-ass job...

[Nadouku]

I am currently reading Brave New World. It's quite interesting to see a world where everyone was at the same level, no smaller nor bigger and had the same capacity as every other people. Also, famous people are used as figures of speech: "For our Ford" for example.

[Xelbair]

I'm mostly reading lately a polish fantasy(Narrenturm, God's Warriors, Lux Perpetua and Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski and Ragnarok 1940 by Marcin Mortka, Mordimmer Madderin Saga(aka. Inquisitor Saga) by Jacek Piekara).

Ragnarok 1940 is alternative version of history - imagine that vikings survived to the XX century - communistic rebellion in Russia was pacified thanks to them and western Europe, Germany is torn with civil war between Nazi, communists and rest. 1st world war was started by the Norseman, and they are now beginning an operation Ragnarok(it starts with assault on Iceland, supporting rebels in Saudi Arabia, and finally assault on Great Britain(part with Berserkir troops was very good - they were psychopaths used as one-time paratroopers armed with best rifle Stutr, some grenades and axe and dropped onto the Edinburgh ). Now i need to buy second tome. Oh and i forgot to mention that each Jarl of Norse alliance is descendant of one of gods, Norway's Konnung is descendant of Odin, henceforth he has some paranormal abilities(not d&dish but rather weak ones).

Inquisitor Saga might offend some people. It is also an alternative history, this time, Jesus, when he was crucified, broken the cross and with apostles killed half of Jerusalem. It is set in XIV century, now inquisition is hunting heresy, but its not so simple - church and inquisition are 2 separate organizations - corrupted one the church and not-so-good one but not corrupted Inquisition... of course they hate each other. Add to this fantasy elements, demons, angels, political plots, and put it into dark fantasy setting. I really enjoyed this series, and i can't wait for next book.
"..and give us strength
to don't forgive those who trespass against us..."
(i've got no idea how original prayer Our Father goes in English - but this is the version translated from the book by me, it shows the rules of that word best)

I would really like to read Wheels of Time, but thanks to f***ed up copyright laws there are chances near 0% to get it in normal store(and used ones are really rare - and they are mostly for 100-200PLN(25 - 50 USD) for one book. Company that bought copyright law for this has ended up bankrupt, but the copyright was for their director and its impossible here to have 2 people/companies have copyright for same thing... and the funniest thing is that nobody can reach that guy.

[Munsu]

Wow, that sucks.

If you want, then torrent this PDF which has all the books inside. Just 16mb and it includes some of the prequel novels, which you should ignore at the moment. Just scroll down to Eye of the World and begin from there.
http://www.torrentz.com/a92ef7b98e5d...5ceb0a3b1a0f16

Anyways, updateting a bit. Read the 3rd book of WoT, Dragon Reborn, and really liked it... cool series so far.

Also read The Name of the Wind and I thought it was really good, waiting for the 2nd book to come out. Some of you that enjoy fantasy should like this one.

Also read the Ways of Shadows, the first of the Night Angel trilogy and although its writing wasn't strong, it was enjoyable. I would equate it to going to the movies to watch an action flick.

[Ryllharu]

Again, not really novels, but I just finished the ten trade paperbacks of Y: the last man. Written by Brian K. Vaughan (some Marvel, some DC, best known for Runaways), it's about a plague that kills every living creature on Earth with a Y chromosome, except for one man, and one monkey. Lots of time skips, a very healthy dose of post-apocalyptia, and covers some tougher issues about humanity...regardless of gender. A good mix of humor and drama, plenty of violence, and some really great characters.

Before reading those, I also read Undone, the first of the spinoff books to the Weather Warden series (mentioned before in this post).

So now I'm back to murder mystery novels, Kisscut by Karen Slaughter. Her novels go pretty far down the graphic road, but they're well written for the most part and usually tough to guess the murderer until you get considerably far into each book (a big plus in that genre).

[Nadouku]

Have you guys read Flipped? Very compelling story about a boy and a girl whose feelings are switched as the years go by. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes romance.

[Death BOO Z]

Finished reading: Superman, last son of Krypton


it's a great book, especially after watching smallville for a few years.

The storytelling itself reminded me of 'hitchikers' guide' - small points of interest (like an alien race of bureaucrats and their 23 plants big archive of the diary of each one of them who lived in last 8 million years) get fully explained, while the plot itself gets a scarce line or two, so figuring out what happened is rewarding by itself.

and seriously, Superman never looked so badass, he saves hundreds of people in less than a paragraph, and then goes to track Luthor by following electrons on the phone line.

oh, a premise of the plot: When Einstein died (not after delivering Kal-El to the Kents, mind you), he left a single invention in his will, and said it should be opened 25 years after his death. when the time of unraveling comes, it gets stolen by luthor. then someone else steals it from luthor, and Superman must co-operate with Luthor to find the intergalactic thief and foil an awesome plan (or two) that involves destroying the time space continuum.

it just gets better. it's a 30 years old book, and it still hits the exact spot for anyone who has the slightest interest in Superman.

[Munsu]

Interesting that you decided to post in this thread now, just when I was about to do the same.

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is a series that I just finished, and it really is a must read of the fantasy genre. The first book, The Blade Itself, was Joe's debut novel in 2006. The whole series is great. Awesome characters, great plot, good twists, top notch dark comedy, very good action, lots of violence... it really has everything.

So put this series in you to read list, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Here's a review for the first book:
http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/293.html

I got the next novel set in the same world as the trilogy already ordered (Best Served Cold).

[NarutoAngel221]

I usually read books but romance pocketbooks but after it I shift to reading Harry Potter novels and now I am hooked again in reading romance pocketbooks again

[Death BOO Z]

Finally finished reading 'the fountain' by Ann Rand.

it was horrible the 400 first pages, and got somewhat better the next 200 pages. still a pile of crap.

at some times, it felt like I was reading twilight again.

I'll try looking for some more superman fiction in the library again.

[Kraco]

I have been reading slowly Cathedral of the sea by Ildefonso Falcones. Although all fantasy readers know the depictions of Middle Ages are extremely romanticized in sword and sorcery, it's still quite interesting to read a realistic description of just how shitty life was back then in a non-fantasy historical novel. I still have about a fourth or fifth of the book unread and while things have occasionally taken a turn to better for the main character, it's still a hellish place. An interesting novel in any case, but not one you would necessarily read in a few evenings like your standard fantasy book.

Looking at an earlier pages of this thread and noticing Sword of Truth I have to mention it was the first fantasy book series where I started skipping pages towards the end. Terry Goodkind's editor must have really given in to the pressure of how high selling a series it was; 33% of the last books could have been cut away and it would have made them a lot better and nobody would have thought it's missing anything. Seriously, the Soviet Union is 20 years dead and the guy is still spending a third of his books repeating the same preachings against communism...

[Munsu]

Speaking of Sword of Truth... Terry Goodkind is releasing a novel this month called The Law of Nines, and it's rumored to be somewhat related to the Sword of Truth series. I really enjoyed the Sword of Truth, but I have to say that some of those preaching monologues that were abundant in the series sucked major ass, and 1/3 of most novels were repetitions of things we already knew. But if I focus on the plot and characters solely, I enjoyed the series... Goodkind just failed in many regards.


I'm still reading The Wheel of Time, I'm in book 8 at the moment. I also bought myself the Shadows of the Apt trilogy, which looks like it's going to be a ton of fun.

[Munsu]

Well finished reading Empire in Black & Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the first book of the Shadows of the Apt series, and I thought it was a really good read. Fun characters with interesting characteristics and abilities. I hear the next two books are even better. So at the moment I'm highly recommending it because in all it's an easy read and it has some interesting elements.

It has some elements of steampunk, but it's mostly fantasy in nature. The characters are human, but each "race" is depicted by insect characteristics, and it's interesting how each race is characterized by which insect it is.

Next book in the series is Dragonfly Falling followed by Blood of the Mantis.

[Ryllharu]

I started reading The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. It definitely has a stronger start than Snow Crash, and the postcyberpunk or almost steampunk-reaction-to-cyberpunk setting is very interesting. It's hard not to like most of the characters, and even in the first hundred or so pages, I've laughed out loud a few times.

As with all of Stephenson's works, the language of the text has a lot uncommonly used words and even more fabricated words with the occasionally hint of pretensiousness, but in this book, it fits the theme a bunch of neo-Victorians using nanotechnology for everything. It certainly gives my vocabularly a workout though.

[Munsu]

I started reading The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. It definitely has a stronger start than Snow Crash, and the postcyberpunk or almost steampunk-reaction-to-cyberpunk setting is very interesting. It's hard not to like most of the characters, and even in the first hundred or so pages, I've laughed out loud a few times.

As with all of Stephenson's works, the language of the text has a lot uncommonly used words and even more fabricated words with the occasionally hint of pretensiousness, but in this book, it fits the theme a bunch of neo-Victorians using nanotechnology for everything. It certainly gives my vocabularly a workout though.

I need to try my hand on sci-fi, but there are so many fantasy books out there that I don't know when I'll try some sci-fi novels. One of the things that makes me hesitate in trying some sci-fi novels.

@Masa, those are some Discwolrd novels right? I keep seeing people recommending those, but when I see that there are about 30 Discworld novels, it turns me off a bit in trying the series.

[masamuneehs]

after going for almost two years just reading textbooks and language books, i finally got on a reading streak during the time i was away from gotwoot. while nothing like what i used to do as a kid, it sure felt like a lot. here, in no particular order

Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns
Never read 'The Kite Runner', and this was just sorta sitting on my shelf at my new apartment. I picked it up one weekend night and finished it 36 hours later, staying up almost all the second night to read it. Has the 'historical drama' market cornered. There's a reason this guy is talked about. For those who don't know, he writes about Afghanis, and this one focuses on the lives of two women from about 1965-2003. Some pretty gripping stuff.

Nelson DeMille's By the Rivers of Babylon
I love thrillers, and although I really have some staunch views on the whole Israel-Palestine issue, I still enjoyed this book. The characters were awfully human and the action was enamored in those gritty, realistic details that I just live for. Lots of action and not as much politics as I'd feared there would be.

Terry Pratchett's Pyramids
It's Pratchett. He's fucking awesomely funny. I honestly thought the first part of the book was best, and although there were a few scenes towards the end that were great, I sort of lost interest. Some of the story events you could see coming miles away and only a few of the characters were memorable.

Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man
Read it after Pyramids, so I was a little Pratchett'd out. I love Death as a character, but I found the other story in this book to be absolutely mediocre, nothing good, nothing awful. The plot-line with Death is quite good though.

Joseph Heller's Catch-22
A re-read for me. Every time I discuss this book with someone, it really strikes me how much this is a polarizing novel. You either love it or hate it. I absolutely love it. Insanely confusing and the sheer amount of characters is off-putting at first, but it's totally worth it if you just don't worry about catching everything the first time. Even on my second re-read I caught more stuff.

Haruki Murakami's Norweigan Wood
If you ever get into any kind of discussion about Japanese authors, this guy's name will drop. I got this book as a recommendation from a work colleague, so I was sorta railroaded into reading it. I found it unnecessarily depressing and, overall, disappointing. A few good scenes and a fistful of interesting characters get lost in the otherwise run-of-the-mill "I had a sad life" autobiographical novel type.

[Death BOO Z]

try it, You won't regret it.

having read around six or seven of the discworld books (not nearly enough to understand what's going on in the series), I can still say that the books range from all over the specterum, so as long as you don't pick a sequeling book (I think there are a few of those, but I can't name them right), you should be fine.
it's funny as hell, and after reading them a few times, you can also look past the jokes and understand whatever crazy plot was going on.

catch22 is an amazing book. it's the kind of shit that school should teach you, instead of of Shakespeare.

[dragonrage]

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman : Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her--and the life he knows vanishes like smoke.

Sex Sells, by Roger Paul Mosconi : An inside look at life of the advertising world through the eyes of a man that lived and is living it.

Thank You for Arguing, by Jay Heinrichs: The art and Rhetoric.