What are you reading? (March 2010)

KingGondo said:
You're surprised that a ghostwritten 'Tom Clancy's' book based on a video game is bad? Aim higher.
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Who said I was surprised? I've tried PLENTY of videogame based books and the range of quality is quite incredible. The Mass Effect books are the best example with the first one being pretty entertaining and the second... not so much. My expectations are tuned accordingly so there's no need to "aim higher" when I'm just clearing out a backlog of books on a shelf. :)

I think I'll skip Left Behind for now based on what's been said here. I'm not really a fan of preachy books.

Going to try this instead:

25447893.jpg
 
My girlfriend bought me this book, it's one of her favorites of all time. Currently about 1/3 of the way through, it's pretty interesting so far:

shadow-of-the-wind.jpg
 
I started reading this via. Classics on my iPhone by total chance. It's fantastic, and despite just picking it up with the intent of flipping through a few pages, I ended up reading several chapters. I grabbed the text from Project Glutenburg and borrowed an eReader so I could finish the book on a more suitable device.

20-000-Leagues-.jpg
 
Mifune said:
921569.jpg


READ THIS BOOK.
Vikar has Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor from A Place in the Sun tattooed on his head. While getting lunch, some dude mistakes the two for James Dean and Natalie Wood and Vikar slams his lunch tray upside the guy's head. THIS IS ON PAGE TWO.

It's an incredible book about dreams, movies, and the place where the two intersect. READ IT.
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well i dont know about you guys, but im sold
 
Holy Jeebus is this good:

31PCHiP6BuL._SL500_AA266_PIkin2,BottomRight,-14,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


I knew that le Carre's son wrote a book, but I didn't remember that this is the book. Monty Python meets Neal Stephenson. Yeah, awesome, right?
 
djtiesto said:
My girlfriend bought me this book, it's one of her favorites of all time. Currently about 1/3 of the way through, it's pretty interesting so far:

shadow-of-the-wind.jpg
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Your girlfriend has good taste.
 
Finally pretty much done with The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Just have the Appendices to go through.

Starting this next -

25j8i2u.jpg
 
Finished The Devil In The White City last night. Fascinating story.

Ryu said:
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/52970000/52972159.jpg

Was going to start this next on a friend's recommendation. Anyone here read this before? Have an opinion on it? I'm a bit hesitant and I have tons of other things to read right now. Wondering if this is worth my time or not...
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God no. Stay away.
 
djtiesto said:
My girlfriend bought me this book, it's one of her favorites of all time. Currently about 1/3 of the way through, it's pretty interesting so far:

shadow-of-the-wind.jpg
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My dad and I read that in December and we both loved it. What other books are among your girlfriend's favorites? :lol
 
thewardedman.jpg


Pretty good so far, although I wish we would have gotten the cool cover that the UK did for the hardcover outing.
 
eznark said:
Just finished it, I really really enjoyed it. Excellent pacing and not terrible "dark." Good stuff.
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I'm about 22 pages into is so far and it feels like it's going to be a great read. Definitely agree on the pacing, the early robbery chapter was really well done for just 3 or 4 pages.
 
sparky2112 said:
Holy Jeebus is this good:

31PCHiP6BuL._SL500_AA266_PIkin2,BottomRight,-14,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


I knew that le Carre's son wrote a book, but I didn't remember that this is the book. Monty Python meets Neal Stephenson. Yeah, awesome, right?
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Sold. A million times sold.
 
movie_club said:
well i dont know about you guys, but im sold
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Yeah, I kind of did a piss-poor job of describing it.

It's a hallucinatory journey through 1970s Los Angeles where we hang out in a beach house with Margot Kidder and John Milius, chase the ghost of D.W. Griffith through the Roosevelt Hotel, and even take a trip to Cannes to receive some awards. It's about the movies -- not Hollywood, mind you -- but those things we spend so many hours of our lives watching in darkened theaters and then discussing afterward: The Passion of Joan of Arc and Red River and A Place in the Sun and Vertigo and Touch of Evil. And it's about the secret movie that lies embedded in every frame of every movie ever made. And the journey to uncover that movie.

I'm something of an Erickson evangelist, and this is by far the most approachable of his novels. An editor friend of mine described it as "literary catnip," and he's pretty much dead on.
 
Recently finished Treasure Island.

After quickly browsing the science-fiction section in the library, I randomly picked up -

rjeemg.jpg


I was pessimistic to begin with but I'm finding it quite enjoyable now.
 
906-1.jpg


Couple of chapters into this, written in first person narative, lots of talking and scheming already..... and the guy has a pet dragon (small dragon) that he can communicate with.

Feels like it could be win!
 
Finally getting around to reading Money Ball by Michael Lewis.

Cant believe its taken me this long to pick it up, but im defiantely looking forward to it.
 
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-sci-fi-fantasy-2006/906-1.jpg

Couple of chapters into this, written in first person narative, lots of talking and scheming already..... and the guy has a pet dragon (small dragon) that he can communicate with.

Feels like it could be win!
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The Vlad Taltos series is great fun. Brust's style is sharp, wry and just as much or more so indicative of the effortless cool that can sometimes permeate the crime genre than any predilection toward fantastical tomfoolery - which, of course, must exist in a world that holds dragons and a ruling race of humanoids called Dragaerans and a human minority. Oh, and like many doyens of that former genre (see: Roberts B. Parker and Crais), the guy is obsessed with food.
 
Magicked said:
Thanks for the comparison. Sometimes half the battle of buying a book is finding the right translation. :lol
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It's so true! :lol

I find the process of selecting a translation to be much more stressful than I probably should. I figure that if I'm going to invest my time into reading a translated work, it would be a shame to squander it on a subpar version. The trouble is, translations often defy clear-cut value judgments. It's often a matter of taste.
 
A couple of questions out of curiosity:

How many of you like to read multiple books concurrently and how many at a time? I'll occasionally start a couple of books together but one always engrosses me more and I put the other one down until I'm finished.

Also, how ling do your reading 'sessions' last? I usually read on my commute which is about 45 minutes each way. I don't get as much of a chance as I'd like to read on the weekends.

Like I say, just curious.

Edit: Also, buy or borrow?
 
Still reading through The Long Emergency.

It's the first book to ever truly depress me. Paints a rather bleak picture of our not-too-distant future, to put it lightly, and does so rather convincingly.
 
benita said:
A couple of questions out of curiosity:

How many of you like to read multiple books concurrently and how many at a time? I'll occasionally start a couple of books together but one always engrosses me more and I put the other one down until I'm finished.

Also, how ling do your reading 'sessions' last? I usually read on my commute which is about 45 minutes each way. I don't get as much of a chance as I'd like to read on the weekends.

Like I say, just curious.

Edit: Also, buy or borrow?
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I'm reading 3 books right now. My mood determines which one I read. I have one history, one philosophy, and one fiction. :)

My reading sessions last from hours to just a few minutes. Usually the latter occurs at night and I just fall asleep. :lol

Buy. I like them on my shelf.
 
benita said:
A couple of questions out of curiosity:

How many of you like to read multiple books concurrently and how many at a time? I'll occasionally start a couple of books together but one always engrosses me more and I put the other one down until I'm finished.

Also, how ling do your reading 'sessions' last? I usually read on my commute which is about 45 minutes each way. I don't get as much of a chance as I'd like to read on the weekends.

Like I say, just curious.

Edit: Also, buy or borrow?
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I cannot read more than one book at a time. I like to invest myself fully into what I'm reading and will continue until done.

I read whenever I have the time. I would love to give a standard time estimate, but can't. I do find that I have been reading more than gaming so far this year.

Oh, and borrow. I make good use of the library. :)
 
benita said:
A couple of questions out of curiosity:

How many of you like to read multiple books concurrently and how many at a time? I'll occasionally start a couple of books together but one always engrosses me more and I put the other one down until I'm finished.

Also, how ling do your reading 'sessions' last? I usually read on my commute which is about 45 minutes each way. I don't get as much of a chance as I'd like to read on the weekends.

Like I say, just curious.

Edit: Also, buy or borrow?
Click to expand...

One at a time until it's done. I try not to stop reading a book unless it's incredibly bad.

I also read during my commute and sometimes during my lunch hour. If, on my ride home, I'm midway through a good chapter, I'll come home and finish it off so I have a good place to start the next day. If I'm close to the end, I'll read whenever I get a chance until it's done.

I buy my books so I can keep the good ones. The ones I don't ever see myself reading again I donate to the library.
 
benita said:
A couple of questions out of curiosity:

How many of you like to read multiple books concurrently and how many at a time? I'll occasionally start a couple of books together but one always engrosses me more and I put the other one down until I'm finished.

Also, how ling do your reading 'sessions' last? I usually read on my commute which is about 45 minutes each way. I don't get as much of a chance as I'd like to read on the weekends.

Like I say, just curious.

Edit: Also, buy or borrow?
Click to expand...
I can't help but read multiple books at a time, except when I find one so compelling that I can't focus on anything else. Stephen King's On Writing, which I posted about earlier, is only the title I most recently picked up. I'm also reading a thriller, a critical thinking manual, a compilation of light verse, and a Stephen Hawking book. Then there are the half dozen odd volumes I have lying close to hand that I start and stop every so often. I try hard to limit myself to no more than three at once so I can give each proper attention. It's less rewarding to digest books in fragments.

My reading sessions typically last between 30 minutes and 2 hours, not counting daily interludes like in line or before an appointment.

I don't often borrow from the library (not for leisure, anyway) because it makes me feel that I'm reading with a timer over my head. Besides, I like to keep my books. Except for the kind of novel I read once and never touch again. Cell, anything by Dan Brown, etc.
 
benita said:
A couple of questions out of curiosity:

How many of you like to read multiple books concurrently and how many at a time? I'll occasionally start a couple of books together but one always engrosses me more and I put the other one down until I'm finished.

Also, how ling do your reading 'sessions' last? I usually read on my commute which is about 45 minutes each way. I don't get as much of a chance as I'd like to read on the weekends.

Like I say, just curious.

Edit: Also, buy or borrow?
Click to expand...
Much like with video games, I can only focus on one at a time. My reading sessions tend to be as long as my bus ride (about 50 minutes at a time). And I buy because I live in a rural area and there are no libraries near me.
 
I used to only read one book at a time, but the Kindle has actually made it very enjoyable to have 2-3 going at once. If I'm reading something that's non-fiction and want to take a break, I'll start something different and it's there at my fingertips.

Short stories are also vastly underrated, I love to read a couple Lovecraft tales between sessions reading longer novels.

Re: buy/library: I usually buy books for my Kindle, but I only pay full price ($9.99) if it's something that I REALLY want to read. I try to stick to $6.99 or below.
 
I generally read roughly three books at a time. Fiction, nonfiction and (auto)biography. I have dozens of books in my Calibre library (thus on my nook via wireless) and I read twenty or so pages of a few until one catches my eye then I stick with it to the end.

Sessions vary. A few minutes to a few hours. The beauty of the nook is that I can always have it on me and don't have to fumble with pages if I'm waiting in line or something. It's dope.
 
Ryu said:
Going to try this instead:

25447893.jpg
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Just finished it. Great book. Now, have to wait for the sequels.

Just started -

boneshaker.jpg


Pretty good so far.


Set in Seattle circa 19th century, but in an alternative history where the civil war is on going and the gold rush made it to Seattle a little earlier. Boneshaker refers to a machine that wrecked the downtown of Seattle about 15 years prior, which released a gas that turned people to zombies. The ruined portion of the city has been walled-up since and most people live in what is called "The Outskirts." Zeke is looking to redeem the Father and Grand Father he never knew for their involvement surrounding the events of the boneshaker so he travels into the walled-off city looking for proof. His mother predictably goes in after him, but what ensues is a rollicking look into a vivid world. The point of view switches between mother and son as they stumble through the city and meet allies and enemies.
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Well I just finished up The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy. Pretty good, but her books left me wanting a bit more closure. I'll miss FitzChivalry and The Fool. Here's hoping she'll continue their story one day (probably not).

Now I'm finally starting The Dark Tower, already halfway done with The Gunslinger (short book jeez).
 
Finished His dark materials - Northern Lights / The Golden compass, yesterday. That was really good. The ending was :o
Now reading -
51-FmwdPGpL._SS500_.jpg

140 pages read, and i think i'm already liking it more then the first one.
 
Undeux said:
How's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? I've been hearing about it and am kind of interested. It's one of those books that's just been so popular that I guess I've kind of ignored it. :lol
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It happened every year, was almost a ritual.

That's the first line of the book.
 
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