I just finished "The Taking" by Dean Koontz and it was awesome!
I guess now I can finish another book I started by him... I was half-way through it when I started The Taking lol
How about y'all?
Printable View
I just finished "The Taking" by Dean Koontz and it was awesome!
I guess now I can finish another book I started by him... I was half-way through it when I started The Taking lol
How about y'all?
"Freakonomics." It reads like a Malcom Gladwell book ("Blink," "The Tipping Point," "Outliers"). If you're into non-fiction I recommend it.
An enquiry concerning human understanding- David Hume
Only Revolutions-Mark Z. Danielewski
fuck year
I'm reading "Doing Nothing" It's a history on loungers, slackers etc. and what their role in society is.
Last read: The City and the Stars ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Currently reading: Bravo Two Zero ~ Andy McNab.
I'm really enjoying Bravo Two Zero. The mentality of the SAS is fascinating. They seem to really enjoy being at war. It's also got some awesome moments of gallows humour and sheer badassed-ness.
"Attachment, Evolution, and Psychology of Religion" by Lee A. Kirkpatrick.
"Rise of Modern Philosophy" by Anthony Kenny
Carôusoul - you better enjoy Hume. He is one of my heroes! :D
~
"The Power Of Creative Dreams"
By Pamala Ball
Wuthering Heights.
I like old movies...this one was really good so I got the book =D
Wow.. lots of serious books out there. I may try a couple. I've heard others recommend Freakonomics.
Ya, it's a really good book. I definitely recommend.
just finished reading Stoner and Spaz by Ron Koertge and Prep by Jake Coburn.
i looooooved Prep.
i am now reading Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol
The 33 Strategies of War
It draws from history and discusses how the strategies can be used in your everyday social life. An interesting read, at the least.
Four books that I would say I was in the process of reading.
Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Enjoying immensely. Very little to go now.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Compulsary reading, but very, very good. Similarly coming to the end with this.
Turn of the Screw - Henry James
About ten pages to go. Haven't picked it up in a month. Above two interrupted me. Intend to tidy up after above two, so not long. Didn't find it compelling, but interesting as fuck. Unreliable narrator makes ghost story fun.
The Outsider - Albert Camus
Borrowed it very recently, read 41 pages on bus journey home. Promising so far.
Next books along the line ought to be American Gods, House of Leaves, On the Road and a collection of Kafka.
Actually happy with my reading right now. Feel I have good stuff in progress and more good stuff to come. And if all else fails I fall back to Dorian Grey. Which I will finish. Some day.
My avatar is of Dorian Gray, check it:
http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/pro...698.1020.A.jpg
Furthermore, great usage of the ol' facepalm.
In The Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
And then intermittently,
Critique of Pure Reason, Kant
Buddhist Mahayana Texts, edited by E.B. Cowell
I haven't started a new fiction after re-reading Steven King's IT. I think I'm going to go for a Frank Herbert or a Carl Sagan. I have Contact in my bookshelf and I've read about a quarter of it already. I might just finish it up.
A Spy In The House of Love - Anais Nin
The Road and The Car in American Life - John B. Rae
Poets Against The War - edited by Sam Hamill
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut [a re-read]
Just finished:
The Will To Doubt - Bertrand Russell [a very short read]
The Constant Companion: Inspirations for Daily Living from "The Thousand Names Of The Lord" - Eknath Easwaran, which I only managed to put down once. This book, and the Vedic poem it is based on is amazing.
I have the annoying habit of starting many books at once, and choosing to read whichever current one best suits my mood.
currently reading statistics for dummies.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
I went to Borders to try to find another book by Michael (sp) and Kathleen Gear, but they only had some hardbacks and I couldn't afford those... Which is just as well. I can now finish "The Darkest Evening of the Year". It's a good book. I don't know why it's taking me so long to get through it and why it's failing to keep me interested.
While at Borders, I bought 2 "box" calendars and 3 wall calendars for $1.00 each. I'm going to use the wall calendars for posters. SO the trip was still a good one... but that's beside the point I guess :lol:
Learning Python - Mark Lutz
the color purple by alice walker
I'm reading "Crime and punishment". Last reads where Hamlet and Outsider.
Still.. Only Revolutions
How is it so far?
It took me over 5 weeks to read that book. One of my three major assignments that semester was three months late. Good thing my professor didn't turn sour until the next year. :P
Right now I'm in the middle of the third book in a trilogy by Francine Rivers. The first two I couldn't put down. This one goes back and revisits a character that sort of dropped off and I became distracted and haven't been reading it. I should finish it so I can return it to its owner.
I'm also working on "Beyond the Wall, and Other Tales of the Abhorsen" by Garth Nix. I love Garth Nix. They should make a movie out of "Sabriel" but they'd just as likely butcher it (and send it through the 9th gate...)
Next on my list is either another Rivers book or another Ted Dekker book, probably "Saint." I still need to read Master and Margarita and Fathers and Children. Meh.
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The beginning was so far the most enjoyable.
- Just started Marshall McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy. I get the feeling this one will have scribbles all over the place before I'm through with it.
- Also recently started on The Complete Works, Selected Letters of Arthur Rimbaud--I had no idea the man had two middle names. Thank you public library! I really like that the poems are in both French and English. I'm anxious to get a ways into this one so I can start in onThe Time Of the Assassins by Henry Miller, a study on Rimbaud.
- And, intermittently, some random little book called Meditations on the Earth, compiled by Holly Hughes.
Slawter by Darren Shan
The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman
still waiting (with great anticipation) for Lunatic and Elyon by Ted Dekker to come out in summer
I'm still trying to finish the Darkest Evening of the Year... but, I listened to the entire Chronicles of Narnia, as well as Eldest: The Inheritance, and now Brisingr. It's very good so far, but I don't know if it's $35.00 good lol
Also reading Showdown and Chaos (both by Ted Dekker)
Lord of the Flies for school :P
Not really my kind of book.
Red (yet another Ted Dekker)
The Time Machine.
It's pretty good so far, kind of fast paced though..
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Most childish book I've read in awhile. Umimpressive so far.
Enjoyed Camus' The Outsider far more.
I always have more than one book I read at a time, though sometimes I put it aside for quite some time.
His Dark Materials - The Amber Spyglass
The Chronicles of Narnia (yes yes, more than one book :p)
Shardik (it's been some times since I last picked it up)
Silmarillion (same as Shardik)
I also have several online comics that I read.
Phoenix Requiem
Altermeta
BlackBlood Alliance
unnamed comic by ShadowUmbre
Lackadaisy Cats
LFG Comic
Purgatory Tower
Dreamless
Shivae
TwoKinds
Twelve Dragons
Ethos
Naruto
Deadman Wonderland
Black Tapestries
Sinfest
Other than that I also read stories from time to time that I find on various forums etc.
Seems I have plenty of stuff to read.
I bought this from Border's a few days ago.
Makes me happy in the pants (and everywhere else).
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...JL._SL500_.jpg
When men become gods(mormon polygamist warren jeffs..and his cult of fear)101 people you wont meet in heaven and the great Artie Langs,Too fat to fish
The stand by Stephen King :)
Wizard and Glass (Dark Tower 4)_S.King
and The Power of Silence_C.Castaneda
Morrigan
EVE The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales
only read a little over 200 pages of it so far, but its good.
Erich Fromm's Escape From Freedom...good but the going is slow so far.
Robert Lowell's Notebook 1967-68..for relaxation.
the web :P
thoughts
I'm nearing the end of Frank Herbert's last Dune book, Chapterhouse Dune. I'll miss the Atreides and the Bene Gesserit when it's over, but not enough to read his son's drek.
I also recently finished the comic book adaptation of Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show, which was a damned impressive translation of a long, complex novel full of bizarre and abstract entities and settings into twelve issues of graphical goodness.
Why men have no clue, and women need more shoes.
It's pretty accurate too, and funny as hell :)
-patience
I'm also reading a ton of books (as always). A few that I either have with me or I can name off of the top of my head are:
-ETWOLD- Stephen LaBerge :)
-Re-reading the Lord of the Rings by Tolkein
-Re-reading Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series
-"The September Society" (the author escapes me at the moment, Charles... Something
-Starting the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (again ? on the author)
-Starting "iPod and Philosophy: iCon of an ePoch"
-Starting Bram Stoker's "Dracula"
I also have a whole myriad of other books that I need to read (my stack just keeps growing larger and larger).
i guess im reading the bible... well trying to. havent even got half way yet :P
Im reading Danse Macabre by Laurell K Hamilton and Fickel <a novel of suspense> by Peter Manus. Both greatbooks so far :D
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card.
And what I'm reading after (in no particular order):
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Darkness That Comes Before - R. Scott Bakker.
Dune - Frank Herbert
So, yeah. I totally and spontaneously abandoned my reading of other books to focus exclusively on "At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life" by Francine du Plessex Gray...for some reason.
Oddly enough, even at 398 pages I didn't really want it to end.
And I've been since been noticing a crapload of correlations that are now beginning to make sense.
I'm reading:
"The I Hate to Housekeep Book" by Peg Bracken.
It was published in 1962 but it's very applicable and I LOVE the writers style. I'm going to have to check it out again. I have run into the problem of not knowing what certain things are because of language changes with the times (like what the heck is Sal Soda lol and what does this sentence mean: "Omelets: Your omelets will stand up long enough for you to sit down if you add a teaspoon of flour per egg."
And now that I'm living in the Country again, I checked out and have been reading "Animal Tracks" by Olaus J. Murie.
I'm also trying to read a religious book called "Keep Youselves In God's Love", published by Jehovah's Witnesses... as well as reading my Bible.
I just finished reading "The Giver" (finished it in 1 day) and it was AWESOME!!! It's now one of my favorite books of all times. I have to do a google search to find out who wrote it though, because my daughter's copy is missing it's cover.
I was reading "The Shadow Man", by one of my favorite authors Stephen Gresham, but it's full of witchcraft, so I'll probably not read it any more and donate it to the Library.
Well, I started on Brisingr from the Inheritance cycle when It came out a year or two ago but due to gaming, school and other stuff I ended up putting down the book. I want to pick it back up soon though cause that series is just epic. :D
Talk Talk, by T. C. Boyle at the moment. Very much a chick book. Haven't read anything this long in a while~
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Very good book
I am almost done reading it, and i would reccomend it to anyone.
Hardly necessary to recommend a classic, but I'll second that ;)
I'm probably going to pick up Time's Eye by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke next and read through that series, but I just finished Neal Stephenson's Anathem, which was a the best thing I've read published in the 21st century. If you have zero interest in math, geometry and astronomy, you probably won't make it through the first 200 pages, but if you like all of the above, you'll be hooked in the first 20 :D
Im reading the first book in "the chronicles of thomas covenant, the unbeliever" by stephen donaldson. It is quite a different experience from other fantasy I have delved in to, but I can see why it is considered a great fantasy work. I think I will finish at least this first trilogy and see if I want to read the others
Finished Brave New World
It got pretty intense at the end :\
Even though I hardly ever read (with the exception of heavy programming books:D), I've decided that I wanna give "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins a go, people I know that's interested in that kinda stuff says it's a quite interesting read.
Lord of the Rings. Just about to start on the Return of the King.
Best in the universe.
The last story in "4 Past Midnight" - Stephen King.
Also "Organic Chemistry for Dummies"
nothing, I hate reading. I only do when I have to for school or something.
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
Glorious postapocalypse. That's all I'll say.
~
^
Ah yes, I've been meaning to pick that book up aswell :) Should be an interesting read.
Hot water music by Bukowski. Also three Finnish books underway. Haven't had lot of time to read for a while :/
A Kings Captain by Dewey Lambdin. I just finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
Right now i'm in and out of "This book does not exist: Adventures in the Paradoxical"...it's good fun for people like me who overanalyze everything.
Hot Water Music... :upsidedown:
...one of those love/hate sort of books. The best kind, in my humble opinion.
The Wheel of Time series. For the second time.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. It's mind-bendy.
Interview with the Vampire, it is superb so far.
The move was so great that I had to read the book.
Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time Book 6), series = ultra-epic
I'm currently reading "Black House" by Stephen King and Peter Straub. My gracious it is SUPERBLY BORING so far and I'm 77 pages into it.
I'm also reading various crochet books. I'm trying to teach myself more stitches and how to read patterns.
I switch between different books, depending on what I feel like reading.
Currently I'm switching between:
- a math book (if that counts).
- a book on molecular biology.
- a fantasy book, New Spring (prequel to The Wheel of Time), by Robert Jordan.
When I'm done with math I will read physics, and in a few days I will buy a book on economics.
Recently read Myst: The Book of Ti'ana and Myst: The Book of Atrus. It looks like the former may soon become a major motion picture.*finger's crossed*
Currently, I'm reading Wuthering Heights. I started reading it years ago but never finished.
Just finished "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming".. Thinking about re-attempting neuromancer, or maybe trying some prattchet
I just finished "Black House" and after the first 80 pages *sigh* it became an awesome book.
I'm pretty sure I've already the "Talisman" (the prequel to the Black House) but I don't really remember it, so I'll look for a copy and read it soon. I just REALLY hope it doesn't have such a slow beginning.
The Hobbit
And it's actually my first time reading it, too. I don't know how I went through life without ever picking up this book before, especially since it's right up my alley, but there you go.
I just finished re-reading Fahrenheit 451. I first read it in high school though I did not have the mental capacity to fully process it. Now that I have read it again years later, I fully understand the value of this book.
I can safely say that it is one of the best books I have ever read.
Just wrapped up the complete run of Y: The Last Man (DC Vertigo comics)--very entertaining, great dialogue, fairly thought provoking. I'll probably hit another comic series next, maybe Scott Pilgrim. I'm also craving some well crafted magical realism, maybe a Murakami or a Calvino.
Current books on the list
Current: The Giver
Next(these could swap in order):
Fahrenheit 451
1984
Penis of steel. The only book I'll ever need.
Just finished Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden... Excellent book
I finished reading Ender's Game again not too long ago. I read through it quicker than I remember, but it was just as good! :D
Currently working on The Bourne Identity. I'm going to need to buy the other books.
Recently finished The Chronicles of The Imaginarium Geographica series. I very much recommend this series to any who reads alot, you'll very much enjoy it. I skim threw The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda but i've already read it twice so it's more or less a guide for my Lucid's now
Currently looking for an inspirational book, as to I'm writing a book and need some pick me up, I'm getting into a writer's slouch....
Just finished The Book Thief which was absolutely INCREDIBLE.
Starting Wake today, which should be a short, trashy, and easy read.
EDIT: I want to read that! Huxley fascinates me, I really want to read The Doors of Perception but the nearest library that has it is an hour away :(
College takes up so much spare time (it's all spare time). Of course, I can't really blame it on that, seeing as when I do have spare time, I end up using it on the internet. . . Winter break's a good time to get caught up, though.
Done with Riddley Walker. It ended alright. The first few chapters were best, and the rest was a fate-heavy ramble. Alright.
Ate up the latter half of The God Delusion just in time for Christmas (although I started it way back at the start of the semester). It's pretty much what I expected it to be: full of good arguments and examples to keep in my back pocket.
Just got done with A Clockwork Orange, which I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. Hm, word choice.
Moving on now to Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (by Edwin A. Abbott, narrated by A. Square), recommended to me by a math major. And nerdy mathy fun shall be had by all. ~
Just thought I'd mention I finished Wake the same day I started it and it was pretty awful, though I thought it was interesting that it mentioned lucid dreams, which I hadn't heard of until the forum. A little coincidence here, no? :)
Flatland was pretty cool. The first half was a description of Flatland, of its physical as well as societal mechanics (it's a mix of oppressive dharmic caste and Lamarkish evolution), and felt like the kind of story you'd find fragmented, written in margins during lectures on non-Euclidean geometry (and by that, I mean well-structured, with every detail taken into account). The second half was good thought exercise and parody (I like how he handled life on the 0th and 1st dimension, and laughed at the moral they namedropped in the 3rd).
I remembered I had an unopened Beat the Reaper, and it read like a good action movie. Sorta like House meets The Godfather. The tone (and circumstance) of the book reminded me very much of the person who lent me it.
I overcame my aversion to online texts, clicked my way through Salughterhouse V. This is good writing, here. The story doesn't center on Billy, but around him, shifting through bursting backdrops, all out-of-order and laden with both subtle and obvious meanings. And now I'm done with it. So it goes.
Time for dystopian futures which my high school lit. class never had us read. Huxley's Brave New World (another and the last of my eye-soring pdf collection), followed by whatever else.
I'm a really avid reader.
Current
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
FlashForward by -can't remember-
Sunrise by Erin Hunter
Upcoming
Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Recently read just for fun?
A Voice in the Wind, An Echo in the Darkness, and As Sure as the Dawn by Francine Rivers
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
I've just finished 1984 by George Orwell. I've got to think about a few things now...
I really want to read the Dan Brown books (read DaVinci Code when it first came out, but I wanna read Angels and Demons and his new one). I've heard some really great things about The Lovely Bones. Thinking of starting that soon, since I don't have much else to read aside from school books right now.
EDIT: @Odd_Nonposter: 1984 was incredible. I read that over the summer, definitely an amazing read, don't you think?
I WAS reading neuromancer, but I've kind of drifted away.
I'm mainly reading "Energy Work" by Robert Bruce which is interesting.
I can imagine! My mom went on a recent tirade about lawyers (she had to give a deposition the other day) and the case she was testifying on was very small, so it's no wonder a trial like that would have tested her sanity. I'll definitely have to check that out.
Right now I'm planning on reading Doors of Perception by Huxley (courtesy of Speesh for sending me a PDF file of it!) and The Lovely Bones, if I can find my mom's copy.
I have down bellow station sitting on my lap right now. I'm contemplating reading it... Anyone else read it?
If online pages count, Iczelion's Win32 Assembly tutorial.
I'm in the process of reading the Aeneid and Illiad, and also "Soft Machines nanotechnology and life."
Just finished Twilight Eyes, The Face Of Fear, and Shattered. All by Dean Koontz. Right now I'm on the fourth book in the House Of Night series and I'm probably going to start The Host some time soon.
Oh, yeah. I 'm planning on reading the latest of the House of Night Series. 'Tempted' I believe it's called correct?
The Great Gatsby.
The Blue Book
Battle Royale (Koushun Takami) and A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burge). The latter is proving stuborn. I'm tempted to just watch the film as it's said to be better anyway. And just finishing up Life of Pi.
Books on hold that I really ought to pick up:
Brave New World
The Cider House Rules
Lord of the Flies (again)
Naked lunch (what?)
Just finished: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick.
Now: Hmm, probably On the Road by Kerouac, started it a while ago but dropped it like halfway through for some reason.
I just started "Plato, Not Prozac!" by Lou Marinoff.
This book has been collecting dust on my shelf for at least 4 years, so I figured I should get around to it.
One quote so far that made my heart happy:
"The idea that every personal problem is a mental illness is practically a mental illness itself. It is caused primarily by thoughtlessness, and cured primarily by thoughtfulness. And that's where philosophy comes in."
Wittgenstein on Meaning by uh Colin McGinn
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradburry.
I'm thinking about restarting Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter next.
I'm almost through Brian Greene's 'The elegant universe'.
I am in the middle of Lewis Carrol's 'Alice in Wonderland'.
I am at the appendix of Carlos Castenada's 'The teachings of Don Juan'.
Re-reading Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, after which I plan to follow through with the trilogy. It's a great read for anyone who loves fucking with history and time. Alternate title: A 21st Century UN Peacekeeper in Genghis Khan's court.
Finished the Giver
Now on to Farhenheit 451
then to 1984
All great classics; I particularly liked 1984.
Supposed to be reading Wuthering Heights but somehow that didn't end up on my agenda of things to do, so I'll say I'm currently making my way through the Sparknotes of Wuthering Heights :D
Still on The Lovely Bones and Doors of Perception.
Novel wise would be The Shimmer by David Morrell.
Lately, I've been interested in ghost hunting books, tarot cards, psychic stuff - mediums etc. Also books on both spirits and energy. I'm always interested in dream books though there are not that many, most of them aren't that useful. I find information online to be more helpful.
-Chase
assassin's apprentice (first book of the farseer trilogy) by Robin Hobb. Not that far in yet, but my brother told me the series is amazing.
Let me know if it's any good, tkdyo. I keep almost picking it up, then getting distracted by the next book in The Sword of Truth or A Song of Ice And Fire.
Right now, though, I'm reading A Princess of Landover, by Terry Brooks. I saw he had a new Magic Kingdom book out and just couldn't help myself. I'm also reading The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie on my computer, and was in the middle of Inca Gold by Clive Cussler, but had to return it to the library without finishing it.
I'm reading Tuesdays with Morrie for my class. It seems like an ok book so far.
I LOVE Robin Hobb. The Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders, and Tawny Man trilogies are all gold! Read them in that order, though, because some of the references in the Tawny Man are from the Liveship Traders. I'd love to read those books again. Definitely enough pages to keep one occupied for quite some time. :D The Soldier Son trilogy did disappoint me, though. I stopped in the middle of the 2nd book, though not because of a bad story line, but her rapid increase in smut which I just don't find appealing. Nevare needed to keep his pants on.
I just finished The Bourne Identity and am moving on to The Bourne Supremacy and T.B. Ultimatum. I mostly read on the metro, so I don't read all that quickly, but I enjoy it. I've read more in the last four months than I have in the last two years or so. I really enjoyed TBI. Part of me wants to watch the movie again (as I remember very little of it), but a larger part of me is preferring to preserve the image in my head.
EDIT: Just looked at Hobb's Wikipedia page. The Rain Wild Chronicles?! Back to the original story?! Do want! I'll wait until they're all out, though.
"CHERUB: The Recruit" by Robert Muchamore. My favourite book ever. It's about my 7th time reading it. Also "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The merchant of Venice" for English. They're Okay.
Last read: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. Very interesting book.
Currently Reading: Gulliver's Travels
Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg.
And the Ass Saw The Angel- Nick Cave
The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Nearly finished both, will move on to Huckleberry Finn and a big-ass book o' Robert Browning poetry.
Sindred wins the competition for reading the most worthy books.
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
My new landlord's brother wrote it. :B
The Secret History of the American Empire - The Truth About Economic Hitmen, Jackals, and How to Change the World by John Perkins (a former "economic hitman").
also a book written by my favourite comedian, George Carlin, called Napalm and Sillyputty.
I read one book for kicks and one for the lit degree. Twain and Hardy are degree reading, Chandler and Browning are for kicks.
Also need to get round to reading Pynchon's V or Palahniuk's Choke for kicks.
Degree reading is actually a good list right now. Medieval lit has things like The Wanderer, Chaucer, Beowulf. Decent.
the dead zone by stephen king. I'm almost done with it, its a lot better than the last book I read by him.
Currently going through Myst: The Book of D'ni, the final one in the trilogy. I read Wuthering Heights before that for a change. Not sure what I'll read next. A the library I started reading Batman: The Killing Joke. Maybe I should finish that :cheeky:
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (GREAT!)
Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut
Otherland by Tad Williams
Just finished House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. Read it in three days and it was okay. Not quite as good as I was hoping, but oh well. It gave me something to do on the metro.
I'm on to The Ragwitch by Garth Nix. I haven't read Nix for a while, so I'm looking forward to it. Should be another quick read, though.
After that, I have.... Next by Michael Crichton. Need something a little more challenging after young adult books (though YA doesn't mean they're bad by any stretch of the imagination).
"The Hellbound Heart", better known as the book that the movie Hellraiser is based off of.
http://www.monstersagogo.com/blog/up...ead-786014.jpg
Let's see... I've read "Wolfman" (the one about to be in theaters); "Shutter Island (a little slow at first but boy the ending got me!); 'The Battle of the Labyrinth (?)' (A Percy Jackson "Lightning Thief" novel; People of the Thunder (loved it!!); Religious material (Watchtower, Awake, Bible); and I'm reading "Clan of the Cave Bear" to my kids.
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Just random manga. :P
I'm reading multiple ones at once. Some I read solely on the bus, while others I read at home.
I think I may have posted here before, so rather than repeat myself, I'll say the book I've started reading at home, which is The Nightmare Chronicles by Douglas Clegg. It's about a group of people who kidnap a boy in the hopes of getting a few million dollars from the rich parents, but the boy is actually a creature in human form that induces nightmares and slowly drives the kidnappers insane.
I've got so much reading to do, I actually buy them faster than I read them, they're just so cheap and efficient, it's crazy (I lurk the bargain bins). They're so much more flexible than films, as well. You won't get a story of a cannibal necrophiliac in a movie, no way, good sir.
The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton
Its really good, but really boring in parts.
Also its epic size can get a little annoying, especially in the first half where characters are always being introduced. This is not a bad thing, but theres a tendency to jump to the other side of the galaxy, just when things are getting good :P
Cool things:
Satanists in Space
Space politics, confederations, kingdoms ect.
Two factions of humans, Edenists - Science ftw Adamists- Religion ftw. Its much much more complicated than that but hohoho im lazy.
The Masks of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson
Pretty fucking awesome so far. James Joyce and Albert Einstien vs the Illuminati.
It, by Stephen King. The beginning was good, then it got SOOOO boring that I had to skip quite a bit (that book's so long, though, it doesn't really matter) and now it's back to being good. I'm wondering when I'll have a dream about that stupid clown. :lol:
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Sleepless night means one well-read Choke, by Chuck Palahnuik.
The Man in the High Castle, Phillip K. Dick
Not halfway through yet, just reached the first reference to the High Castle and its occupant, who I'm taking for Dick's metatextual avatar. I'm expecting things to get a bit trippier from here on in, but even if it stays plain old alt-universe fare, I'll be a happy camper :D
Right now I'm reading Confessor (last book in the Sword of Truth series)by Terry Goodkind and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. On pages 287 and 50, respectively. Getting a bit sick of Terry Goodkind's habit of writing all his characters with the same personality and giving them 5-10 page solid ranting monologues about recycled and redundant values. I got the point six books ago. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really like the series, but the last few books have just been monotonous and retarded. I'm only reading this one because it's—now somewhat thankfully—the last. Neil Gaiman is, as always, awesome.
I'm going to have to look up that Robert Anton Wilson book; that's the second time I've seen it recommended.
Really good so far.
http://gilwilson.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/eragon.jpg
thats a great book eragon. it really is. i rate it 10/10. i was reading eldest but i cant find it. wierd huh?
well im reading the Runaways comic books. They are top notch for any comic junkie. i dont wanna go off topic but any comic heads here? any recommendations?
Just finished Secret Identity - Superman. Was actually alright.
Better though was Kirkman's 12-issue run of The Irredeemable Ant-Man. It was as grossly enjoyable as his work on Invincible.
But. Comics aside. Flicking through Hardboiled Hollywood, by Max Decharne. Cheap background notes about various hardboiled films as well as about the authors that inspired them. Is nice to hear more about Chandler.
Also, Ayn Rand's Anthem.
I've read a ton of great comics in the past year. Scott Pilgrim is a really fun, random comedy-adventure in the Bone vein; DMZ is some satisfying post-apocalyptia with echoes of Transmetropolitan; this one surprised me as I'm not much into mainstream titles, but Planet Hulk was quite good, very Edgar Rice Burroughs; and Kick-Ass, though you might want to see the movie first so that it's not a let-down compared to the book. There have been others, but that's a pretty good spread :D
Best comic I've ever read would be Wanted. I can't believe how much they warped and twisted the movie into another piece of Hollywood garbage. It makes the Hitman movie look Oscar-worthy.
Red Sun was a really good comic. Superman lands in Soviet Russia instead of the US.
Some of the Final Crisis storylines feature a universe controlled by the Nazis.
Including a Nazi-fied Superman.
Or so I heard.
But mostly read this.
Well, the novel I just finished, The Man in the High Castle, is set in a North America divided between the Nazis and the Japanese after WWII. It was a great read, though it's less about geeking out on the what-ifs than it is an actual piece of, you know, literature.
everyone's MINDS
supposed to read Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness but
attention span
everything looks like this!
so,
not happening.
Well, I've been looking into those Tosev timeline books that Sindred linked me too in that Axis Victory article. Aliens that interrupted WW2 and forced pretty much everybody into slavery, sounds bloody awesome. So I'm pretty keen to check those ones out.
Thanks, Sindred ;)
House of Leaves
I read them all years ago and liked them quite a bit. The sequels get into more hard sci-fi and aren't as tightly focused and symbol-driven as the original, but good sci-fi. Clarke and Stephen Baxter did what they called an "orthoquel" to the Odyssey books in the '00s, the Time Odyssey trilogy, which was quite good. Rather than geometrically impossible monoliths, impossible spheres (pi=3.00) appear and carve out chunks of hominid history, reassembling an earth on which, for instance, Rudyard Kipling, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan are all contemporaries, along with some mastodons, australopithecenes, nineteenth century Chicago and Babylon.
Just finished Balzac's A Murky Business. Now hunting down his Choans book for more Corentin-fix.
My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erikson, M.D.
Much more interesting than it sounds. (Milton Erikson is a famous pyschoanalyst.)
Reading some thick suspense horror called Where Serpents Lie.
Written in mid 90's. I think the best parts of the novel are when they talk about technology and the internet. Oh 1990's, you so outdated.
Four Past Midnight - The Langoliers - Stephen King
Dreams and How to Guide Them - Hervey Saint Denys
I highly recommend this book, especially if your going through a rough patch and haven't had a LD in a while. I've had 2 since I started reading it. His approach is very methodical and I feel a bit too logical. But because of this he gains a great understanding of what make up our dreams.
I had this on hold at the library, but it never came in. I would go find it again, but I just hit up a used book-sale at my old grade-school and got a bag of about 20 books(plus Memento and the Big Lebowski) for $5. Used book-sales are the shit. Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance is next on my list.
"The Forest of Hands and Teeth"
I love it so far
I started Asimov's Foundation series yesterday. I picked up one of the books out of order as a teenager and couldn't really get into it, but I'm really enjoying what I've read so far--a lot of parallels with Dune, with the mathematics of psychohistory in place of spice-induced prescience.
The anachronisms, or you might say dischronisms, are pretty entertaining--officials of a far-future galactic empire exchanging information by means of slips of paper in little tubes, for instance xD There aren't so many that it's distracting, but I do like those things as little reminders of our blind spots.
Finished And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks by Kerouac and Burroughs.
Now randomly selecting another Balzac novel to read. Turns out they're in pretty much every market book stall going.
Also have my endless array of public domain pdf shorts and essays to be going through. Averaging at about 6 a day.
Finally finished the Myst trilogy, and now I've begun Casino Royale. It's an interesting read so far. The only problem is all the French, which I do not speak.
Really enjoyed that Dick.
Novel :paranoid:
I should pick up some more Murakami. I was far from blown away by Kafka on the Shore--light fare for that whole meme-mashup brand of magical realism, but it certainly stands up to a lot of the stuff I've been reading lately. I think I was underwhelmed partly because I was reading some really quality stuff around the same time.
Finished yesterday
http://www.iimcal.ac.in/imz/archive/images/eldest.jpg
Started today
http://artzine.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/brisingr.jpg
I'm sorry, but I have to speak up:
The Inheritance trilogy is mindless violence with no plot or character development and is probably the worst thing to happen to literature since Harry Potter.
In other news, I'm reading The World Set Free by H.G Wells.
Im reading a series called A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
You ever read his very short stories? They float around the internet as public domain texts so if you haven't they aren't too hard to come by.
Empire of the Ants and Lord of the Dynamos are two good examples. The Ants one especially.
Also. This. Always this.
Anyway. This book is my next conquest:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/is...0141187417.jpg