What are you reading? (March 2015)

Just finished

Code Zero - Jonathan Maberry

Moving on next to Ian Esslemont's Malazan books

After that i'm planning on reading everything Hemingway I haven't got to yet ...

A Moveable Feast, Garden Of Eden, Green Hills of Africa, and Men Without Women.
 
Started reading The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History after doing some searching around. Felt like reading something to put me back in reality. It's an easy read so far but I'm not sure where it's going yet - only two chapters in.
 
Going into this month I'm reading The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Coming up is: Rue des Boutiques obscures & Les boulevards de ceinture by Patrick Modiano and À la recherche du temps perdu (the first of seven) by Marcel Proust. Should be able to squeeze some more books into the mix just to not delve too deep into French territory.
 
Meteorain said:
The Fall of Hyperion

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Damn, this Shrike mofo is OP as hell. Nerf him!
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the cruziform story was seriously awesome. Read that late at night.
 
I'm finishing up the Farseer Trilogy with Assassin's Quest, and still reading 1984. These snow days aren't helping my class get through the book very quickly, either.

I've never been that big on high fantasy, but I liked the Song of Ice and Fire series and now the Farseer Trilogy. Maybe my tastes are changing.
 
allegate said:
Reading both of these at the same time. Both are interesting views into the world of movies, one broad and one specific.

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From what I can gather, Wallace Shawn hated working on that movie and even being interviewed for the book. He's the only one who sounds 'salty' about the whole experience, from the casting to the acting to the directing. For example, he says that before he did any scene he made Rob go through it in it's entirety, acting it out, and then used that as his basis for what he did and even then thinking, "How would Danny Devito do this?". He also said that the only reason he fell over when he 'died' is because Rob Reiner said it would be funny. wtf. Makes me look at that performance in a whole different light, you know.
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Finished both of these over the weekend. My thoughts remain on As You Wish in that it seems like everyone had a grand time making the film except for Wallace Shawn. He seems to be so far up his own butt that he can't figure out why the film was any good.

As for Ron Perlman's book, it was a good read on the life of a person on the fringe of success. I actually thought he was pretty successful before I read this so I was surprised to see how wrong I was. And I don't mean that in a smarmy way, or that he misjudged what he was in, I was just looking at it from a "Hellboy = good" kind of way, not that he had as many misfires. I also liked how it seemed like you could hear him telling you these stories because they sounded like his voice. He had someone help him write and sometimes you lose the voice of the main author when that happens but in this book it's all Ron. And it's fitting because considering how much he enjoys telling stories, it would be weird for it to not sound like him.
 
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Finished: Man in the High Castle
Nice book, nice world building. Ending was a bit... different. Don't really know what to make of it.
There are multiple universes or something and they kind of find that out but not really?
Doesn't really matter that much, still a nice read.

On to:

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City of Stairs
See if the hype here is warranted.
 
Ryuelli said:
Just started this:

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It's ridiculously good so far.
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My friend is pushing that book on me, so that's in my shortlist.

Just completed Manning's Biography of Malcolm X. Ignoring the dry writing style, it's a phenomenal look at one of America's most misunderstood icons. If someone wants a clear understanding of Malcolm X, I recommend this novel enough. 5/5

Now I must focus on Time Traveler's Wife.

PS, should I read the Hyperion series? Does it all hold up or do later books slowly fall apart?
 
OCDChewie said:
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Just finished this the other day, thanks to lootcrate, really enjoyed it despite all the people on gaf who hate it haha.

Looking for some new stuff, but not sure what to read. I really want to start reading some Aldous Huxley style stuff?


ClosingADoor said:
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Finished: Man in the High Castle
Nice book, nice world building. Ending was a bit... different. Don't really know what to make of it.
There are multiple universes or something and they kind of find that out but not really?
Doesn't really matter that much, still a nice read.
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Ohhhh I really wanted to read this, or some of his other stuff. Is it worth it?
 
Mr.Swag said:
I read The Sun Also Rises last year and I can't wait for the inevitable rereads throughout my life. Book was great
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Awesome, I'm excited to start it, although I'm hoping to get through the other two books I mentioned first. The only other Hemingway novel I've read is the Old Man and the Sea so I have a lot of work to do...
 
I'm currently reading way too many books right now. Stoner, Nausea, The Warrior's Apprentice, Wool, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Probably some others too.

squarerootofpie said:
Ohhhh I really wanted to read this, or some of his other stuff. Is it worth it?
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Absolutely. PKD's books are fantastic and I really enjoyed Man in the High Castle.
 
squarerootofpie said:
Ohhhh I really wanted to read this, or some of his other stuff. Is it worth it?
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i remember liking it, but it has been years since ive read it. and i think i also get parts of it confused with the plot against america.

i asked earlier and no one responded so ill try one more time. who is writing really good crime fiction? i like dashiell hammet and raymond chandler but would love to read something similar but more modern.
 
Atlantis Plague right now and What the Dog Saw on the side. Atlantis Gene was good and Atlantis Plague is pretty much more of the same. If you can handle a disjointed book (hops around characters more than any other book I've seen) it is hard to put down. Getting a little far out there so I hope it gets reined back in a little.
 
Just finished Knife of Dreams and now on to this:

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I've heard good things about the Sanderson WoT and am looking forward to finally completing the journey!
 
Finished up City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett the other day. I absolutely loved it. Really hoping there will be more written as I feel there's still a bunch more that can be done with the universe.

I'm trying to incorporate some non-fiction into my library so I'm going to read 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction concurrently. As a result, next up is:

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

and

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Shadows Beneath: The Writing Anthology by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler

I still have to finish up The Southern Reach Trilogy, The World of Ice and Fire and Mass Effect Library Edition (graphic novels)...oops. I'll get to them eventually.
 
Cut my way through a few fiction titles recently like Cherie Priest's Maplecroft and Myke Cole's Gemini Cell, so I'm back on a math kick now.

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Getting close to finishing Station Eleven. I quite like it, it conjures a lot of beautiful imagery and really human moments in a story that could have otherwise turned really cheesy and contrived.
 
What are some good books, fiction and nonfiction, that focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in South Africa? Figure I should move some of my reading in that direction.
 
Ratrat said:
Anyone read the new Kazuo Ishiguro book? I had no idea he even was releasing one.
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Yep. It wasn't his best work. It deals with memory and identity like his other books, but the execution is poor. In attempting to convey the Arthurian times, the language is stilted and I had a hard time relating to the characters, which was surprising since Ishiguro's books are full of The Feels.
 
Finished A Scanner Darkly which I enjoyed quite a bit. What is Dick's dedication about after the ending? What drug is he referencing? LSD? Cocaine? Heroin? According to the list a few of his friends suffered from permanent mental damage?

Anywho, I'm now fiending for something set in Los Angeles (since I'm oddly fascinated by the city and want to go there) and have decided to go with Less Than Zero next:


Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
 
Mumei said:
How are you liking The People in the Trees~
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Stellar so far. As in really, really good. I just haven't had much time to read this past week, so I'm only about a third of the way into it.

Maklershed said:
Finished A Scanner Darkly which I enjoyed quite a bit. What is Dick's dedication about after the ending? What drug is he referencing? LSD? Cocaine? Heroin? According to the list a few of his friends suffered from permanent mental damage?
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That was a fairly heavy hitting afterward. I assume the same stuff he used "opened" his creative flow a great deal, but he didn't shy away from the negative side effects. That's one of my favorite reads ever. It's very obvious that PKD was intimately familiar with hallucinogenic drugs and had more than his fair share of bad acid trips.

Mr.Swag said:
Robert Galbraith is a pen name for Mrs. Rowling, aka the goddess.
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Everyone knows the pen name. You missed the part where she's not a good writer. Many credit her with getting young kids to read. Too bad that she introduced them to mediocre storytelling with Mary Sue characters, cringe worthy dialogue, and an embarrassing Deus Ex Machina magic system. She's slightly better than the Twilight lady in terms of writing skill.

Good on her for making umpteen million pounds, though. I can't hate her for cashing in like mad. It's merely unfortunate that the same can't be said for science fiction and fantasy writers who can actually, you know, write. Bujold and Le Guin deserve some of that bank. Gene Wolfe should be a billionaire by Rowling standards. It's that Britney Spears effect where popularity and talent become inversely proportionate.
 
Finished the Devil in the White City. Great book, I want to travel to 1893 and see this fair for myself. I knew the book was greta vracause I have been dying to google all the info I could on its events but waited till I finished.

Gonna read "Stoner" next.


Tragicomedy, you have every right to have an opinion, but god you are so wrong. Harry Potter series is a masterpiece. And it wasn't seven flukes in a row, Cuckoos calling was very entertaining as well. Haven't read the silkworm yet. The comparison to Twilight is disgusting.
 
Tragicomedy said:
Everyone knows the pen name. You missed the part where she's not a good writer. Many credit her with getting young kids to read. Too bad that she introduced them to mediocre storytelling with Mary Sue characters, cringe worthy dialogue, and an embarrassing Deus Ex Machina magic system. She's slightly better than the Twilight lady in terms of writing skill.

Good on her for making umpteen million pounds, though. I can't hate her for cashing in like mad. It's merely unfortunate that the same can't be said for science fiction and fantasy writers who can actually, you know, write. Bujold and Le Guin deserve some of that bank. Gene Wolfe should be a billionaire by Rowling standards. It's that Britney Spears effect where popularity and talent become inversely proportionate.
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Since you like City of Stairs Ill forgive you just this once.
 
The last 100 pages of Foucault's Pendulum are before me. The light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't know why I picked such a dense book. It's hard to read at work with kids talking, so I can't make much progress on it.
 
Gave up on House of Leaves after 300 pages, I couldn't go on. Personally the book felt like a great short story blown up to over 500 pages and honestly screw Johnny Truant, his stories all come back to how something haunts him and then he bangs a chick. That is just my opinion though, if love the book good, just not my deal.

Started reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater, a sequel to The Raven Boys, which I enjoyed.
 
Mr.Swag said:
Tragicomedy, you have every right to have an opinion, but god you are so wrong. Harry Potter series is a masterpiece. And it wasn't seven flukes in a row, Cuckoos calling was very entertaining as well. Haven't read the silkworm yet. The comparison to Twilight is disgusting.
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I'm guessing you fit into the age group I described above, and I cannot fault you for falling in love with your Fisher-Price My First Fantasy book series.

Piecake said:
Since you like City of Stairs Ill forgive you just this once.
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Don't blame me! Blame JK Rowling™!
 
The Buried Giant is typical Ishiguro so far, really enjoying it though I wish it was even more stilted and strange... I fucking love the Unconsoled though this is more in line with Never Let Me Go-style strangeness... more allegorical, which is fine but a little disappointing given all the talk about how "risky" the book was
 
Osorio said:
Nobody answered my question about Cesar Aira so I decided to go with this:

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I know nothing about him except that he wrote a really charming story in the New Yorker a year (?) ago that I loved. Called "Picasso" iirc.

edit: fiction, I should add
 
I'm about 100 pages into Hyperion and am really struggling. It's not bad, but just hasn't really engaged me to the point where I can't stop reading like many other books have done. Does it get better? Should I keep on keeping?
 
Osorio said:
Nobody answered my question about Cesar Aira so I decided to go with this:

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I remember liking Ghosts, and a few others. Very short reads. Meant to get through the stack at the library, but then got caught up in other things and now I'm morally compromised and unable to read physical books.
 
Bobby_Sullivan said:
I just finished reading The Book Thief, it's great.

I'm gonna start In Cold Blood soon
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Two books in my possession that I still haven't read. Saving the book thief for next winter (looks like a winter book) and Capote is third in line for my next reads.*

* line order subject to daily change
 
Finished Stoner yesterday. This is one of the best books I've ever read. I was actually ready to skim through it when I was reading the foreword and ended up skipping it because it seemed to explain the whole book before I even started it proper. After that, I did not expect to like this as much as I did, especially with how straight forward the book is. But despite everything I found Stoner to actually be a fascinating character. Spoilers:
The only time he really disappointed me was with his daughter. He should've known what would happen if Edith got to get in charge of her and I wish he'd stood up to her. I ended up really liking Gordon Finch. I thought he'd be some kind of douche after he got back from the war and he seemed to be when he got back, but he ended up being a real friend to Stoner. Stoner's affair with Katherine I found to be really well done. The moment when Stoner opened Katherine's book and read the dedication was really touching. It's such a short moment but it's probably the part of the book that'll stay with me the longest.

Don't know what to start next. Probably the Goblin Emperor.
 
nakedsushi said:
Yep. It wasn't his best work. It deals with memory and identity like his other books, but the execution is poor. In attempting to convey the Arthurian times, the language is stilted and I had a hard time relating to the characters, which was surprising since Ishiguro's books are full of The Feels.
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That is disappointing, but its a definite read for me regardless.


reading:
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Some of the worst fantasy writing I've ever read. Words like 'wannabe' and 'wanking' etc should not be appearing in high fantasy. :/
 
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