what are you reading?

[Dylan Thomas]

I've been reading mostly biographies and autobiographies.  I like how they bring the people I respect and admire to "life."

Finished two this week.  I read Andre Agassi's autobiography, "Open", which is most excellent.  It's very honest, human, and moving.

I also read "Crooked Cucumber", Shinryu Suzuki's biography.  That was REALLY moving, I cried uncontrollably four times during the course of my reading: once from laughter, once from sadness, once from joy, and once from the sheer depth and breadth of emotional response I experienced during a particularly moving section.  It lends an inside perspective on the history of both Japanese and American Buddhism....

[alfie]

Just finished "Sarah Canary" by Karen Joy Fowler, what a brilliant, funny and clever book, would recommend it to anyone.

[agent of change]

Read "The Martian" which a few folks recommended here. It was pretty good. Skipped some of the never-ending challenges that he always figured out.

Just finished all 7 books of the Death Gate Cycle by Weis & Hickman, old Dungeons & Dragons series. I'd read the first few when I was a kid but didn't follow up as they finished book after book. It was underwhelming but I just wanted to see what happened. Anybody else read any of the old Dragonlance stuff? It doesn't seem to hold up so well now that I'm an adult. 

[irratebass]

I couldn't get into 11/22/63 (I liked it, but if it's not Autobiographies, biographies or true crime I lose interest quick) so I started this one:



So far i'm digging it

[agent of change]

Love this kind of book. Except for the plug from Nickelback, it looks pretty cool.

[giantchris]

Read "The Martian" which a few folks recommended here. It was pretty good. Skipped some of the never-ending challenges that he always figured out.

Just finished all 7 books of the Death Gate Cycle by Weis & Hickman, old Dungeons & Dragons series. I'd read the first few when I was a kid but didn't follow up as they finished book after book. It was underwhelming but I just wanted to see what happened. Anybody else read any of the old Dragonlance stuff? It doesn't seem to hold up so well now that I'm an adult. 

I haven't re-read the Death Gate Cycle since I was a little kid but I remember the first two books were just OK.  Actually the second book was pretty terrible if I recall nothing happens until the end when the titan guys finally do something.  Into the Labyrinth was the best book in the series by far.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight through Winter's Heart still hold up.  Any of the later stuff in the main series is terrible though.  I really liked some of the Dragonlance Villains series as well the book Lorde Toede is ridiculous and kinda stupid but great fun.  I always thought the Legends series was by far the highlight of all of Dragonlance books though, it stays pretty intense throughout it's length and has a lot of good plot twists.  It also seems to have a darker overtone then some of the other work.  I also always liked the Darksword trilogy for Weis/Hickman's work but the ending is a bit of a letdown (I ignore the crappy book they wrote in 97 for Darksword).

The best fantasy books of that era are either the first couple Raymond Feist books or the Eddings' Elenium trilogy I always felt.  Or maybe the Deed of Paksenarrion but that's all highly debatable.  I haven't re-read any of those in awhile I also decline to include Terry Goodkind because his series is terrible after Darken Rahl dies and it just keeps plodding along.  He's still publishing new books in that same god-awful series. 

[agent of change]

I remember some Feist books I really dug, Magician: Apprentice, etc. His "Faerie Tale" was pretty good too. Reading them now though (at least the first few pages) they don't hold up. Maybe I'll revisit the Darksword Trilogy and some of the Dragonlance spinoffs - I too remember them being kinda dark.

Right now I'm reading "50 Mice" which has some pretty poetic language for a mystery/thriller. Dude is abducted by Feds and put in a witness protection program but he's pretty sure they've got the wrong guy. Somewhat Kafkaesque and pretty good so far.

Just finished "The Heart Does Not Grow Back" which was labeled Sci-Fi but wasn't really. It was a teenage growing up Catcher in the Rye kinda book, pretty well-written, and the main character (spoiler alert) discovers that his body will regenerate organs and fingers and such. It was pretty good.

[Dunedin]

Can you believe I'm just getting round to reading Dune for the first time? 200 pages in and I'm wondering what took me so long.

[socket]

I am too lazy to read books. I love them but am too stupid to make time... Now reading No Friends Zine.

[alfie]

Can you believe I'm just getting round to reading Dune for the first time? 200 pages in and I'm wondering what took me so long.

Only read it myself for the first time about six months ago, don't know what had put me off before, probably the image of Sting from promotion for the film, which I had also avoided.

[Dunedin]

Finished Dune a while back and just gone through Hugh Howey's "Shift" in record time. Is it weird that I'd quite like to live in a silo?

[giantchris]

Right now I'm reading "50 Mice" which has some pretty poetic language for a mystery/thriller. Dude is abducted by Feds and put in a witness protection program but he's pretty sure they've got the wrong guy. Somewhat Kafkaesque and pretty good so far.

That actually is a pretty awesome premise.  Normally I don't read mystery/thrillers but I'm intrigued.  I'm always a fan of government incompetence stories after working at TSA years ago when I saw 6 FBI agents get into a fistfight with 5 ATF agents over who was going to arrest a gun smuggler and by the time they broke it up and their management agreed to jointly arrest the guy the suspect had already made his flight and was gone.

Right now I'm reading a book called Mort(e) it's about a race of hyper intelligent ants who've lived underground on Earth and unleashed their revenge on humanity by making wildlife and house pets sentient.  Humanity's response was to unleash a deadly super-virus called emSAH and the main character is a cat who is a former war hero who is in charge of investigating a deadly emSAH outbreak. 

[agent of change]

Finished Dune a while back and just gone through Hugh Howey's "Shift" in record time. Is it weird that I'd quite like to live in a silo?

Totally dug that silo series. Not so well-written, but really interesting ideas, and nicely expanded book to book.

Just finished "Bone Clocks" by the guy who wrote "Cloud Atlas" (which I haven't read) and it was all right. Kept switching to different characters' perspectives as time went on, which got kind of annoying, but worth a read. Got into some mystical multi-dimensional secret society shit which was pretty good.

Right now reading an autobiography supposedly written by a diagnosed sociopath. "Confessions of a Sociopath." Man it's good to be out of grad school and reading for pleasure. Probably getting through several books a week. Perhaps I'll blog them here more often.

[agent of change]

Well, if you enjoy bloated sword & sorcery series, that originally were supposed to be a trilogy but keep expanding, with more characters added each book so you have a hard time keeping track of who is who, you may enjoy...

The Warded Man series by Peter V. Brett. The premise is actually pretty cool, a world where demons come up from the ground at night and slay humans, who have a very basic knowledge of warding sigils which, when drawn properly, protect spaces from the demons. One of the main characters eventually realizes that if he tattoos the wards upon himself, it gives him greater power and he can actually fight the demons.

Lots of cool ideas, mediocre writing. I just finished the fourth book The Skull Throne, which actually got pretty fucking brutal at the end. If you're looking to get lost in a series of epic tomes, check it out. The next book is still being written though, so prepare to not know what the fuck happens next.

[MadJohnShaft]

I read at lunch everyday now but I find it hard to read any serious books like I used to so I'm reading lots of lighter faire these days, instead of tackling those NYT literature novels. Somehow they are all too academic and focused on making us feel bad. I'm eyeing those My Struggle novels or that French pervert Michel Houellebecq - this shit is really negative




I'm reading my way through the Jack Reacher thriller books and am on number 6.

I might keep reading the spy series set in the contemporary Middle East - John Wells series.

This has been pretty cool so far, this guy is incredibly brave doing this journey.

[agent of change]

In between other books, reading a graphic novel called Promethea. It's by Alan Moore of Watchmen and Swamp Thing and From Hell fame, and is pretty good. He obviously knows a lot about ritual magic, as it contains lots of occult elements and teachings. Promethea is a goddess who manifests through (mostly) women over time, as the connection to imagination and creativity, but a secret cult of other magicians are bent on destroying her out of the fear that if she is allowed to live she will destroy the stability of the material world. Lots of female nudity for all your pervs as well.

[giantchris]

Well, if you enjoy bloated sword & sorcery series, that originally were supposed to be a trilogy but keep expanding, with more characters added each book so you have a hard time keeping track of who is who, you may enjoy...

The Warded Man series by Peter V. Brett. The premise is actually pretty cool, a world where demons come up from the ground at night and slay humans, who have a very basic knowledge of warding sigils which, when drawn properly, protect spaces from the demons. One of the main characters eventually realizes that if he tattoos the wards upon himself, it gives him greater power and he can actually fight the demons.

Lots of cool ideas, mediocre writing. I just finished the fourth book The Skull Throne, which actually got pretty fucking brutal at the end. If you're looking to get lost in a series of epic tomes, check it out. The next book is still being written though, so prepare to not know what the fuck happens next.

Yeah I like that series kinda weird.  A little too preachy on the we must all work together stuff thats obviously mirroring the Muslim world + everyone not a Muslim. 

If you want to read a really, really, odd series try Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex.  The finale God of Clocks is really weird.  Exceptionally weird.  Which is funny because the series starts relatively normal for a fantasy series then keeps taking odd left turns until it gets pretty out there.

[agent of change]

Hostage to the Devil by Malachi Martin. It's about contemporary cases of demonic possession. The author is a Jesuit so there's a lot of interesting theology going on in there too, and discussion regarding modern pathways to becoming possessed. Christ- heavy, but thought provoking.

LOVED that book. Saw a more recent edition with a modern foreword, but didn't drop the $ to buy it again.

Yeah I like that series kinda weird.  A little too preachy on the we must all work together stuff thats obviously mirroring the Muslim world + everyone not a Muslim. 

If you want to read a really, really, odd series try Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex.  The finale God of Clocks is really weird.  Exceptionally weird.  Which is funny because the series starts relatively normal for a fantasy series then keeps taking odd left turns until it gets pretty out there.

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[agent of change]

I was more interested in the demonic possession subject matter than him as an author. Books on the nature of evil are intriguing to me. Another one (though again you gotta wade through some religion, which I guess is almost inevitable given the topic of "evil") is People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck.

[Danny G]

Speaking of the nature of evil, just finished "Fortunate Son" the John Fogerty autobio.

Talk about getting screwed by a record label. Fuck. Good read tho


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[Danny G]

Now on to Elvis Costello "Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink"

Don't know much about him other than MTV.

Very conversationally written, less straight forward narrative and more like he's just telling stories. Jumps around a lot. But like his writing style and the subtle miss-if-you-weren't-paying-attention jokes.

Digging so far. 


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[Danny G]

Both of the aforementioned books are signed copies as well, which is cool. Gifts from my lady.


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[socket]

Currently reading a drug rock message board.

[Danny G]

How does it end?


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[agent of change]

If you want to read a really, really, odd series try Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex.  The finale God of Clocks is really weird.  Exceptionally weird.  Which is funny because the series starts relatively normal for a fantasy series then keeps taking odd left turns until it gets pretty out there.

Dude, just finishing Scar Night and it is indeed a strange tale. It's unusual to feel confused about what's happening, but I like it. No obvious plot recipe in this book. I haven't full on identified with the main characters yet but have been intrigued enough to finish the book, and will be getting the next one. Our library system has them all, excellent.