The Literary Thread

[Snarky]

Some people like to read. Some people like to write. This is a thread for people who want to write about what they're reading.

Over the last couple of weeks or so I've read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Snuff by Terry Pratchett, and The Plague Court Murders by Carter Dickson. (Yikes! It does add up, doesn't it?)

I used to think Austen was just chick-lit, but as I've come to understand more about the society the books take place in (where getting married to the right guy was not just a matter of romance, but quite possibly of survival) I've become more appreciative of the real stakes in her books. The only thing I don't quite like about her is that she's so snobby and judgmental of her characters (except for the hero and heroine, for the most part). I've recently been reading a lot of P.G. Wodehouse, who plays similar situations in similar settings for a laugh, but he has a much more generous attitude to and apparent affection for his characters, even when they are idiots, frauds or pompous hypocrites.

Snuff felt to me like standard late-period Pratchett. A bit unfocused, a bit preachy, most of the jokes didn't really connect, but strangely readable nevertheless. The only Pratchett book I've really loved in the last few years was Nation.

I love a good locked-room mystery, and John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson was the master of them. I've read a lot of his stories, though, and I think I'm getting a bit jaded. Even if I usually can't tell whodunnit or exactly how it was done (his methods of murder often being highly baroque), I have a pretty good idea of where to expect humbug. The Plague Court Murders was an alright entry, even if the supernatural atmosphere fell slightly flat and the eventual solution was a disappointment.

I've just started on Röde Orm (The Long Ships) by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, having come across Michael Chabon's recommendation of it earlier this year. Oh, and I got the first volume of the Complete Carl Barks' Donald Duck from Fantagraphics, so I'm dipping into that in between. Please buy a copy so Fantagraphics continues to put them out!

[Igor Hardy]

How did you like Jonathan Strange? That's the only one I read from the bunch you mentioned.

I'm currently reading (and really enjoying) the classic The Good Soldier Å vejk - 4 hefty tomes of episodic dark yet humorous misadventures from World War I. Would make an excellent adventure game - even the old illustration look like wonderful material for character sprites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk

Overall, I can't say I read fast or that much though, so I'll be on Svejk at least until the New Year probably.

[Anian]

Uff, I used to read a lot more, but lately I've been a tad preoccupied with other things. Latest stuff I read was 4 parts of the Autodesk Official Training Guide Essentials for 3ds Max and I passed the test but still have the certificate exam next week.

I'm going through Discworld right now though, I've read Guards, guards and now I'm in the middle of Moving pictures. Then I'll take a pause with Prachett and since I got Kindle, there's a lot more to read, next is at least the first book of Game of thrones (need to get ready for next season in April), Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse five and maybe a few shorts of either Conan or Sherlock Holmes novels.

Btw so far the best software for Kindle I found is Calibre, it's great for organizing digital books, downloads various feeds you might want (has a list that you can choose and there's a LOT of it) like National Geo, io9 etc.

[Stupot]

I also want to start reading Game of Thrones.  But at the moment I'm on The Girl Who Played With Fire, part II of Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy.  Part one (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) was brilliant, but I'm not enjoying book II so much.  I'm about 5/6ths of the way through, nothing has really happened and there're far too many characters.

Takes me ages to read books though so don't expect much more input from me for a while on this thread.

[Ali]

I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell!  I've been going through a long-title period:

As part of an attempt to read books written by female women, I also read my first Jane Austen (Mansfield Park) relatively recently. I also read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and the amazingly titled Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead which was bizarre and excellent.

Most recently I finished C. S. Lewis's preachy Jesus-lovin' sci-fi trilogy with That Hideous Strength, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. To help me sleep, I tried to read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason but it worked and I didn't.

But the biggest recent revelation has been Watchmen and V for Vendetta. I've never read comic books (except Maus) and I was always put off by the idea of superheroes and the notion of saving the world. Moore makes (anti-)heroes work in such interesting and dramatic ways. I am converted (sorry C. S. Lewis).

[Anian]

But the biggest recent revelation has been Watchmen and V for Vendetta. I've never read comic books (except Maus) and I was always put off by the idea of superheroes and the notion of saving the world. Moore makes (anti-)heroes work in such interesting and dramatic ways. I am converted (sorry C. S. Lewis).

The next step is Sandman series then. A mix of everything...well not that much superheroes but it has everything from drama, Shakespeare, several mythologies and lots of smart dialog courtesy of mr. Gaiman at his finest.

[LUniqueDan]

Good thread Snarky!

I'm late on my casual reading pattern : One Sherlock Holmes non-canonical rip-off and one Cyperpunk/post-cyberpunk novel every Summer, but I still need to finish reading more serious stuff for my works.

[Snarky]

How did you like Jonathan Strange? That's the only one I read from the bunch you mentioned.

I liked it OK. I enjoyed the female POV on a male-dominated society, with the guys portrayed as oblivious to women, more interested in going off on adventures that eventually start to seem pretty childish. I think I would have liked it more if the characters weren't quite so outré; like with Austen (who's obviously a model), I felt like Clarke didn't have a lot of sympathy or affection for most of them.

I'm going through Discworld right now though, I've read Guards, guards and now I'm in the middle of Moving pictures. Then I'll take a pause with Prachett

It's probably best to do no more than a couple at a time, or you risk burnout. Same thing with P.G. Wodehouse: very funny stuff, but if you read five in a row you'll start to feel you've read the same book five times.

As part of an attempt to read books written by female women, I also read my first Jane Austen (Mansfield Park) relatively recently. I also read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and the amazingly titled Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead which was bizarre and excellent.

Edit: I missed this at first. Yeah, I'm the same. My parents were visiting recently, and my mother pointed out that I have quite few books by female authors; and most of those are mysteries (Daphne du Maurier, Ngaio Marsh, Donna Tartt, Tana French, ...). I thought I might give Marilynne Robinson a try.

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead sounds like something J.G. Ballard might have written, from the Amazon summary. Thanks for the tip!

Most recently I finished C. S. Lewis's preachy Jesus-lovin' sci-fi trilogy with That Hideous Strength

Man, I'm not sure I could even finish Out of the Silent Planet (last thing I remember, the main character was walking over a Martian mountain range or something). Really did not like that one.

But the biggest recent revelation has been Watchmen and V for Vendetta. I've never read comic books (except Maus) and I was always put off by the idea of superheroes and the notion of saving the world. Moore makes (anti-)heroes work in such interesting and dramatic ways. I am converted (sorry C. S. Lewis).

There's a lot more to comics than superheroes, though you seem to have started with the ultimate superhero deconstruction. If you enjoy Moore, you should also try his Miracleman, Swamp Thing, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though the first two are (atypical!) superheroes. And yes, Neil Gaiman, who continued and further developed Moore's ambitious style. (Did anyone see him on The Simpsons last week? I thought the way they used him was very funny.) I would particularly recommend Mr. Punch (The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of...), which has some of that Maus-like sense of retelling a family tragedy (though on a much smaller scale), and really shows off Gaiman's skill at telling adult stories from children's perspectives.

For further non-superhero comics, I would particularly recommend the books by Jacques Tardi currently being published by Fantagraphics. He's probably most famous for The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, a series of ironically over-the-top pulp stories (mummies! reawakened dinosaurs! monsters! demonic cults! psychic powers! mad scientists!) set in belle époque Paris.

Ed Brubaker is probably the best currently active writer of the noir genre, and his Criminal series tells self-contained stories in each volume (though with overlapping casts). If you enjoy stories of low-lives and other desperate or sad people making bad decisions for love, lust, greed or naiveté, it's an absolute must.

Jason is a Norwegian cartoonist (living in France), who draws droll, understated stories focusing on characters and relationships, even when they involve time machines, space travel or werewolves, and even though all characters are drawn as (very angular and blank-faced) Disney-style "funny animals." All his books are published in English by Fantagraphics, and I would start with Hey, Wait! and The Last Musketeer, or maybe Tell Me Something.

For modern American indie-comics, Blankets by Craig Thompson might be a good entry point, as a very personal coming-of-age, coming-to-terms-with-religious-upbringing, and falling-in-love story, told simply and well. (His new book Habibi is recently out, too; has anyone read it?)

And as a final recommendation, the Cities of the Fantastic by François Schuiten and Benoït Peeters (in English from NBM; maybe start with Brüsel) are like strange dreams from Jules Verne's subconscious, a world where respectable Victorian science and progress are set against inexplicable phenomena and human sensuality. The drawings in particular are superb.

[gaarias]

I am currently reading a book with novels and theater pieces of Anton Chéjov. To be more concrete, I am reading for the second time the whole book (+- 1,300 pages). Chejov novels are sad and tender at the same time. 'Tis one of my favourite authors.

[straydogstrut]

What a really good idea for a thread!

Sadly i'm between books at the moment although I can chomp through a whole series at a time when I do get going. I tend to read sci-fi/fantasy stuff - too many to list but i'm partway through Peter F Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy after thoroughly enjoying his Commonwealth Saga books - and i'm partial to a bit of Pratchett myself. I think I read as far as Wyrd Sisters but we have a few of the other books i've yet to get to.

The last book I read was the first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet which I bought as part of The Complete Sherlock Holmes on my new Kindle just recently. It was my first experience of Holmes/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and I really enjoyed it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC mini-series Sherlock which is what prompted me to try the books (that and a bit of Kindle-fever which has subsided since I lent it to my Dad), and it was interesting to see the differences. The writing still felt quite modern and relevant. It did go off on a strange tangent in the middle with the back story but it was satisfying to see it all tied back together at the end, even if it did end a bit quickly. Looking forward to reading the rest when I get my Kindle back.

I recently picked up another book in a series I enjoy which is Lost City by Clive Cussler from his Numa Files adventures with Kurt Austin as the main character. They're silly adventure stories really, quite cliché, but I quite enjoy them as a bit of light reading. I've read almost all the Numa files - just 4 to go after this one - so will probably try his Dirk Pitt novels after this.

I'm bookmarking this to come back to when i'm actually reading something decent!

[LimpingFish]

I've been reading a lot of classic horror (Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, etc), Harlan Ellison's The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, and Alex Cox's 10,000 Ways to Die, a retrospective of the Spaghetti Western.

[Snarky]

I am currently reading a book with novels and theater pieces of Anton Chéjov. To be more concrete, I am reading for the second time the whole book (+- 1,300 pages). Chejov novels are sad and tender at the same time. 'Tis one of my favourite authors.

I've only read one collection by Chekhov, and I don't remember a single story from it, so I guess it didn't make much of an impression. I've never been much for the Russian authors; I've given Tolstoy a try a couple of times, and had a go at Dostoevsky once, but I don't think it's for me. I found The Gulag Archipelago fascinating, though.

If you were to pick one favorite Chekhov story, which one would you recommend?

(BTW, are you Spanish or Portuguese? The spelling of Chekhov appears to be Spanish, but "novel" for what the English call a short story or novella seems like something a Portuguese person might write.)

[Ali]

Thanks for the graphic novel suggestions Snarky. Regarding Russian literature, have you tried any of Gogol's short stories?

The Nose and The Diary of a Madman are both quite funny stories of madness and bureaucracy. The Overcoat is a tragi-comic satire.

He has a very different style and tone to Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy (also, I just remembered that I also read Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata last week).

[Igor Hardy]

(also, I just remembered that I also read Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata last week).

You accidentally just picked up and read a book by Tolstoy last week and wouldn't even remember about it, if not this thread? :o

[Ali]

Yes, but it's very short and I've been quite busy!

[gaarias]

I am currently reading a book with novels and theater pieces of Anton Chéjov. To be more concrete, I am reading for the second time the whole book (+- 1,300 pages). Chejov novels are sad and tender at the same time. 'Tis one of my favourite authors.

I've only read one collection by Chekhov, and I don't remember a single story from it, so I guess it didn't make much of an impression. I've never been much for the Russian authors; I've given Tolstoy a try a couple of times, and had a go at Dostoevsky once, but I don't think it's for me. I found The Gulag Archipelago fascinating, though.

If you were to pick one favorite Chekhov story, which one would you recommend?

(BTW, are you Spanish or Portuguese? The spelling of Chekhov appears to be Spanish, but "novel" for what the English call a short story or novella seems like something a Portuguese person might write.)

I am a spanish speaker so forgive my mistakes.

Yes, here short stories are called nouvelles, but I wasn't sure how it is translated into english. I would sugest you Ward No. 6, which I believe is one of the most known novellas of his. I mean, I was locked up in a mental ward about three times so I can relate to it.

:o

Anyways, I can't take my eyes off the book by now. After it, I am about to pick up Martin Amis or Julian Barnes.

[Andail]

Recently read The secret history by Donna Tartt, which was very good but a bit long - not really tedious, but unnecessarily long, simply.

Then read some old English classics, including several Lovecraft stories. I think they're generally amusing, if a bit repetitious.

Recently started on Norwegian Wood, and found it entertaining in the beginning, but then it started to feel unrefined, and the dialogues would sometimes just go on forever without any substance. I look forward reading his other works, like 1q84 and the wind-up bird chronicles.

[miguel]

Thanks for the graphic novel suggestions Snarky. Regarding Russian literature, have you tried any of Gogol's short stories?

The Nose and The Diary of a Madman are both quite funny stories of madness and bureaucracy. The Overcoat is a tragi-comic satire.

He has a very different style and tone to Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy (also, I just remembered that I also read Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata last week).

I read Gogol's The Nose some years ago, it came on a small collection of short stories written by Chamisso, Hoffman, Andersen and Gogol himself. I remember it being a bit unsettling, with the main characters not able to fit in their societies, misfits like.
On a similar note, if one wants to feel quite uncomfortable and even "dazed", he should try Heartsnatcher by Boris Vian, I still remember many passages of the book and never quite forgotten how its words were so morbid.

But that was when I was looking to be surprised by literature, even if it hurt. Right now I prefer "soft" reading as I am tired of all the atrocities that real life delivers. So, I'm trying to finish Book 5 from The Wheel of Time (fantastic work!) and ready to star the first from Game of Thrones.
That's it, great thread!

[Stupot]

@Andail.  I read the Secret History a couple or so years ago.  It's up there among my favourite books.  It's true Tartt does waffle on about irrelevent details, but somehow I wouldn't have it any other way. The story was fantastic.  Have you read The Little Friend as well?  That's good too (although I still need to finish it).

[gaarias]

Thanks for the graphic novel suggestions Snarky. Regarding Russian literature, have you tried any of Gogol's short stories?

The Nose and The Diary of a Madman are both quite funny stories of madness and bureaucracy. The Overcoat is a tragi-comic satire.

He has a very different style and tone to Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy (also, I just remembered that I also read Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata last week).

I read Gogol's The Nose some years ago, it came on a small collection of short stories written by Chamisso, Hoffman, Andersen and Gogol himself. I remember it being a bit unsettling, with the main characters not able to fit in their societies, misfits like.
On a similar note, if one wants to feel quite uncomfortable and even "dazed", he should try Heartsnatcher by Boris Vian, I still remember many passages of the book and never quite forgotten how its words were so morbid.

But that was when I was looking to be surprised by literature, even if it hurt. Right now I prefer "soft" reading as I am tired of all the atrocities that real life delivers. So, I'm trying to finish Book 5 from The Wheel of Time (fantastic work!) and ready to star the first from Game of Thrones.
That's it, great thread!

I remember a while back I read a volume of nouvelles, novels and theater pieces of Gógol. I liked VI, which also has two movies, an old one and a recent one. Gógol is generally playful in his style but he also has some spooky sides, like the cited VI.

I finished re-reading my Chekhov book. I am now reading Yellow Dog, of Martin Amis. I only read "Night Train" of his and I liked it. Yellow Dog is a fun, and quite disturbing, black humor novel.

[Snarky]

As part of an attempt to read books written by female women, I also read my first Jane Austen (Mansfield Park) relatively recently. I also read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and the amazingly titled Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead which was bizarre and excellent.

I recently read Who was changed and who was dead off your recommendation, Ali. I thought it was pretty good, but (as mentioned above) I don't like it when the author doesn't seem to have any sympathy for many of the characters, and subtly or not-so-subtly ridicule them for their self-delusions and hypocrisy. It feels cheap to me. You made them up, so of course you can make them seem foolish!

[ThreeOhFour]

I recently finished Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell and really enjoyed it. It was the most interesting use of magic in a book I've seen, I think, and I like how all the elements came together towards the end. It also had some beautifully imaginative and vivid scenarios.

I've also been catching up on the Discworld books - in the last month I've read I Shall Wear Midnight, Carpe Jugulum, Unseen Academicals, Soul Music and re-read Men at Arms. Really enjoyed I Shall Wear Midnight and Soul Music, the other were fairly standard Pratchett fare to me (that is, I enjoyed them but they weren't really outstanding to me).

On Dave Gilbert's reccomendation I've also been reading through The Dresden Files books - fairly standard gumshoe PI novels except the main character is a wizard. It started out kinda cheesy but I'm up to the 4th book and the series gets more compelling. One thing I find kills the immersion is the amount of trouble Harry Dresden gets in. He absolutely has the worst luck of any character I've read, and the way he goes from mishap to mishap makes me wonder why the author felt so compelled to beat him up so much.

On my "books to read list" at the moment is Snuff, A Canticle for Leibowitz and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

[Hudders]

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a bit tedious at the beginning, but it's worth sticking with.

I've also been reading through The Dresden Files books - fairly standard gumshoe PI novels except the main character is a wizard.

This sounds amazing.

I just finished Motherless Brooklyn, which is about a PI who has tourettes and Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test which now just has me going around trying to figure out which of my colleagues would score more on the Hare checklist for psychopaths...

[kaputtnik]

Oh, books! I also read them!

There are so many interesting suggestions in here! I haven't read a single, really, not one single book of the ones you mentioned. I did read The Gambler by Dostoevsky many years ago, and some Haruki Murakami books I found at the local dump (they weren't that bad), and I know Terry Pratchett exists. And I think I must have read I Spit On Your Graves by Boris Vian, only my copy was in French and my French is not very good. I did get and like the notion of a fake America, built from collective media memory like films and music, though.

I got an ebook reader about a year ago, and ever since then I've been reading a lot of badly formatted and sloppily OCR-scanned pdf copies of the great works of fiction. I just finished Italo Calvino's Castle of Crossed Destinies, which is an amazing collection of metafiction about the act of narrating. Before that, I read the second part of John Updike's Rabbit Tetralogy, a really, really intense book. I had read the first part some years ago and just discovered that Updike wrote one book at each turn of the decade, starting in 1960, and let his characters age in real time, which seems absolutely fascinating to me. It's as much an exercise in writing as it is a part of (fictional) cultural memory, totally embedded in the history of the US.

At the moment I'm reading Post Office by Charles Bukowski, which is great if you like Charles Bukowski, and not really great if you're sitting on a crowded bus with a headache. I have it in pdf form on my ebook reader, which is probably the lousiest way ever to read Charles Bukowski. In case of sudden battery death (which happens all the time and makes me want to break the reader in half, bring it back to the store and say "I only wanted to turn the page!"), I carry The Voices of Marrakesh by Elias Canetti in paper form. It oscillates between beautifully described literary snapshots of the city and moments of unbearable postcolonial gaze upon the "totally foreign and uncomprehensible" people. Like, a black coal vendor standing in front of his coal and you can only make out the eyes. Geez, and that guy was awarded the literary nobel prize?

[ThreeOhFour]

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a bit tedious at the beginning, but it's worth sticking with.

I got through a fair bit of it on audiobook before I realized that I prefer to do the reading myself, and I found the story really interesting, so I want to start again, this time reading myself

[Eric]

I went to a used book store and dropped $100 this week, mostly on trying to fill out my PG Wodehouse collection (Wodehouse is the literary equivalent to comfort food for me), and some kids books for my son.

I also picked up At Swim-Two-Birds by Brian O'Nolan, which I've been dying to read since reading a synopsis of it last year, a nicer copy of Jerome K. Jerome's classic Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), and a new lending copy of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, which is my favorite book.

Unfortunately for me, reading for pleasure is something I don't do much currently. I also bought some books by Barthes, Baudrillard, Foucault, Bakhtin and Raymond Williams that might figure into my dissertation, which takes up most of my time (which explains why I haven't made any progress on game making lately, but also why I've been posting so much as a method of procrastination).

Alex Cox's 10,000 Ways to Die, a retrospective of the Spaghetti Western.

I'm dying to read this one myself. I have a collection of hundreds of spaghettis, and often disagree with Cox on his overall opinions of film, but appreciate his analysis of the finer details.

[Tuomas]

When was I last here? What happened to the place?

Anyway, it seems you're doing something I do fancy, so yeah, I shall list the last few books I've read.

Been in Berlin lately studying German literature, so I've basically went through a collection of Short stories + Amerika from Franz Kafka. At the moment I'm doing two courses of Thomas Mann, essays, short stories and novels, having read Der Zauberberg and Buddenbrooks. And umm, well there's Nathan der Weise from Lessing, which is basically a drama, but I read it so meh. And I've been through Goethes and Heinrich Heines poems. Oh 2 books for my bachelors from Yade Kara, one being Selam Berlin and the other one Cafe Cyprus.

That with the transaltion work I do with R.A. Salvatore, I guess it's not such a wonder I haven't been around for a while, is it?

[Dave Gilbert]

On Dave Gilbert's reccomendation I've also been reading through The Dresden Files books - fairly standard gumshoe PI novels except the main character is a wizard. It started out kinda cheesy but I'm up to the 4th book and the series gets more compelling. One thing I find kills the immersion is the amount of trouble Harry Dresden gets in. He absolutely has the worst luck of any character I've read, and the way he goes from mishap to mishap makes me wonder why the author felt so compelled to beat him up so much.

You're only on book #4? Oh, Harry goes through much worse... 

[Snarky]

Thread necromancy!

Thought I'd revive this thread on account of having read The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero this weekend. For one thing it's a fun book; loosely a ghost story, but mostly about cracking clues to a mystery hidden in an old house, with a cute couple of misfits as the investigators. Some people have said it's House of Leaves' funnier cousin; it reminds me most of Locke and Key (but again, more light-hearted).

But it's also a very adventure gamer-y book. Like I said, it's about trying so solve a mystery hidden in an old house, with puzzles, cryptic codes, hidden clues, "NPCs" they have to get information from, old journals to read, creative repurposing of objects, etc. The leading duo also make for a good adventure game team, with different abilities and limitations (kind of like Rosa and Joey). And the story is classic adventure game pulp stuff, with ghosts, a secret society, murders, preposterous pseudoscience and discoveries that might change the world. Think Gabriel Knight + Broken Sword + Indiana Jones. (Yet it's specific enough that it doesn't just feel like a mishmash of ideas stolen from other things.)

And oh yeah, at one point they get tired of their investigation and take a break to play... Monkey Island. 

So if you're looking for a light read, I can recommend The Supernatural Enhancements.

[Stupot]

Sounds good, Snarky. I'll keep an eye out for it.

I'm currently reading All You Need Is Kill, the book Edge Of Tomorrow is based on. It's really fun. Totally different to the film but just as playful and exciting. If you haven't seen the film or read the book, it's about a man who keeps dying in a battle against these aliens called Mimics, but every time he died he wakes up at the exact same time the day before and is able to take his memories and skills ( though not muscle strength) with him into each loop so that eventually he can help win the battle. Very fun.

The book I read before this was Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, which I had been meaning to catch ever since our Gone Girl book club last year (both books have been/are being made into movies, and I father Gone Girl opened just the other night to rave reviews).

The book I'll be reading next is Slaughterhouse Five, which I found in a 100 yen bin the other day :-)

[miguel]

I'm reading and nearly finishing Dan Brown's Inferno, and before you start: Somebody has to read best-selling authors!
It's been a nice and smooth experience through Florence and Istanbul famous places. Dante's Inferno is omnipresent and so are many artists and authors that made work based on his master piece. A nice and sometimes interesting adventure, although I don't get why Langdon, the main character, does not show any sexual drive towards the hot women he meets on his adventures. It's no big deal and art doesn't need to be sexualized to be good but sometimes it feels like I'm reading some juvenile book and it gets hard to give Brown a serious review.

[SilverSpook]

Been grazing on the biographical pastures of Wikipedia and assorted historical material on anything relating to monarchy, neoreactionism, and generally the civilizational questions posed during the Enlightenment Era.  Drinking deep of the Bourbon Kings, Thomas Hobbes and Carlyle, the great doubters in the human species to be self-governing.  Mostly, this entertainment of the usual Devil's Advocate position is research for my upcoming AGS title, Neofeud.  Though I daily find the Jeffersonian, essentially universal precepts of Western representative democracy, the "Egalite, Liberte, Fraternite" that permeates modern civilization as questionable, even fundamentally flawed.

[yamipanda]

I love reading, but I don't read as much as I'd like to because of depression and ADHD.
Anyway, I'm almost done with Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. It's a good book, but not among my favorites.
Next on my reading list is Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena. I've been really into japanese horror novels the past couple of months. (tip: the Ringu books by Koji Suzuki are way better and more bizarre than the movies)

[Snarky]

I just finished Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, which I've been reading off and on for a while.

I have very mixed feelings. I hated the second-person narration at first, where it seems like the author addresses the reader directly (it opens with "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler." *puke*), but after a couple of chapters it becomes clear that the "you" described is a distinct character within the book, and the device is just mildly annoying.

The story is basically that a guy ("you," or "the reader") sits down to read Italo Calvino's newest book, but after a few pages he realizes that there's been a mistake at the printer: not only are the same pages repeated over and over (and out of order), but they aren't even from the right book. He meets another reader, a woman, who is in the same situation, and together they try to track down the rest of the story they had begun reading, but the next book they find turns out to be yet a different one. So the book alternates between chapters where the reader follows the trail of various books, none of which he ever manages to finish, and chapters which are supposedly the beginnings of each of those books. (It's sort of like Cloud Atlas, if you only had the first half of the book and a separate frame story.)

I found the individual openings, each in different styles, to be very much a matter of diminishing returns. On the other hand, as the reader's story starts going off the rails it becomes more entertaining, which compensates. And there's a certain episode towards the end (based on the Arabian Nights) that managed a particularly neat trick I've never seen before.

In between I'm rereading various books by Alistair MacLean. Sort of the Lee Child or Clive Cussler of his day (1950s-70s), MacLean wrote dozens of action novels where manly men overcome impossible odds fighting the forces of the Third Reich (e.g. The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare), communist agents (e.g. Ice Station Zebra, The Secret Ways), or terrorists/divers evildoers (e.g. The Satan Bug, The Golden Rendezvous). As you may have noticed from that list, many of his books were filmed. My grandparents had a bunch of his books (from my dad and uncles) that I ate up as a kid, but I hadn't read any of them for years, and they've been mostly out of print for decades. Now they're being reprinted in a new nice, cheap paperback edition, so I picked up a bunch of them.

No, they don't entirely hold up: the characters are paper-thin stereotypes (the good guys in Where Eagles Dare are so sickeningly noble that they risk their critical mission to save or avoid killing German soldiers, for example), the books are almost ridiculously sexist, and after a while you start recognize a certain formula to them. But MacLean has a great facility for high-concept premises, and a way with plot twists that keeps things interesting. While there's plenty of action, the heroes are more often playing a game of trying to outwit rather than outfight their opponents, which is always fun. Recommended for Ian Fleming fans.

[Athabel]

I recently picked up The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah, which is the continuance of Agatha Christie's works. Since I've read all of her novels, I figured I'd give the 'new Christie' a shot. I actually ended up loving it. Lots of respect to the author who really must have studied and analyzed Christie's work. I highly recommend it if you're a mystery kind of person.

I'm totally finding this thread when I need a new read

[Snarky]

Oh yeah? I'm a big Christie fan, so I might give that a go.

Most recently I read The Martian by Andy Weir. You may have heard of it, it's been getting a lot of hype and is supposed to be filmed next year by Ridley Scott and about half the cast of Interstellar. Basically, following an accident on a Mars mission, astronaut Mark Watney is believed dead and gets left behind. While the equipment on the base can recycle air and water, he has no means of communication and only enough food for a few months. The situation looks hopeless, but with ingenuity and a strong will to survive, he tries to hold on for as long as he can. It's been called "Robinson Crusoe on Mars," which is a pretty good description (or maybe Robinson Crusoe crossed with Apollo 13): it has a lot of that same appeal of seeing someone solve life-and-death problems by jury-rigging technology and working out how to produce basic necessities. And it's very much a "hard sci-fi" novel: it doesn't play too fast-and-loose with the science, which is important for the whole thing to be credible, even if some lucky breaks seem a bit too convenient. Overall, ridiculously good fun, and strongly recommended.

[Stupot]

I've just completed the Gillian Flynn Hat-trick and read her first novel Sharp Objects. As debuts go it's a great book, although you can clearly see how she has improved since writing this book. There was a 'twist' at the end but I had guessed it. I thought I was going to be proved wrong, right up until the final few pages and then it was revealed, And it was a rare case where I was upset to be proven right. Nevertheless, cracking read. If Flynn teaches us anything it is that women are all lunatics.

[Snarky]

Thread returns!

I've been pretty stressed out the last few months, so my reading has been mental comfort-food: I reread Treasure Island (yup, still good!) and Red Harvest (OK).

Most recently I thought I'd give The Dresden Files a try, since Dave Gilbert is such a big fan. I read the first two, and... I'm not sold. The plotting is OK (though the villains are obvious very early on in both books), but the characters are paper thin, and the writing is, well, awful. Two examples:

-The first book has Harry Dresden making a metaphor where he refers to himself as "the home team" during a fight that takes place in his enemy's house and "place of power". If you're in an away match, you're not the home team!
-In the second book (which involves no less than five different types of werewolves/wolf creatures, in what must surely be some kind of joke), Harry observes in one chapter that another character is not a werewolf, because a werewolf is human and this character doesn't have a human soul. Yet in the very next chapter, he constantly refers to this character as a werewolf. (In fact, on the first few occasions he doesn't even use the person's name or any other kind of identifier, so it's immensely confusing who he's even talking about when he refers to "the werewolf".)

[CaptainD]

Finally got round to reading Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle".  Unfortunately, one of my children has hidden it.  So far it seems a very interesting idea but it's a rather difficult read in that most of the writing is done in a very clipped, abrupt manner with little to no flow.  This has clearly been done deliberately but I need to get further in to know how much it works for me as a reader.

Did eventually finish Clive Cussler's "Sahara", quite an absorbing read (and nothing at all like the film!).  Have also started an indie author Michael Blackburn's sci-fi story "Roko's Labyrinth", all about a post-apocalyptic world with what's left of humanity battling AI, seems really good so far.

[selmiak]

I did read Do androids dream of electric sheep (the novel blade runner (not wierd science)) is based on by pkd recently. It is a lot different from the movie, mercer doesn't appear in the movie once. And the human android sex part is too short, or rather just hinted at Still a good read! I'm considering getting an electric sheep rather than a natural one, they are really hard to find and quite expensive. *takes out the Sidney to look 'em up*

Atm I'm almost done with the first book of the The Hyperion Cantos. Really well written interesting scifi stories weaved together to one giant space epic. Go read it if you like scifi. Now I see why WHAM! would call some of the spaceships in his (forum?)games Shrike


The books I did read before that were Moby Dick, which is just cool and a great read even today and A Floating City by Jules Verne. The latter is also well written but not that great and yet another (but more boring) travel story by JV.

[Stupot]

Most recently I thought I'd give The Dresden Files a try, since Dave Gilbert is such a big fan. I read the first two, and... I'm not sold. The plotting is OK (though the villains are obvious very early on in both books), but the characters are paper thin, and the writing is, well, awful.

I also recently tried reading The Dresden Files based off of Dave's recommendations. I thought book one was okay and a nice intro to the series, but I only made it halfway through the second book. I reeeally wanted to like it but it was really bad. I have been told that they get much better after book two, but I decided there are other books I'd rather be reading.

The best book I've read this year is Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Higashino Keigo. This tells the story of an ensemble of characters connected to the murder of a pawnbroker and the detective still trying to solve the case well after the statute of limitations has passed. It's one of those books where you pretty much know whodunnit fron very early on but the fun is in learning the hows and the whys and watching the detectives and other characters gradually work it out for themselves. A great book, and I'd basically recommend Higashino in general.

I also read Gillian Flynn's recent short story (which cost me the price of a full book), The Grown-Up. To be honest it was very weak compared to her novels. It played into her delicious theme of women being capable of outright evil. But in the end it felt like a cynical cash-in and I was a bit cross with myself for buying it.

Currently I'm reading Magic by William Goldman. I haven't really read enough to judge but I'm liking it so far. Very playfully written.

I'm also reading Captain Disater Collection by Dave Seaman. It's funny. You should all buy the e-book right now!

[Adeel]

I've been reading War and Peace for quite some time now, and savouring each and every page I get to read.

[CaptainD]

I'm also reading Captain Disater Collection by Dave Seaman. It's funny. You should all buy the e-book right now!

Best quote EVER!

[WHAM]

I've got two books going on right now.

A while back I felt like reading some horror, so I got my hands on a copy of Clive Barker's Books of Blood.
I'm a bit over halfway through it and so far it's been hit and miss with its short stories. There was one in particular that did get under my skin and actually robbed me of a night of sleep, but otherwise it's been a bit too over-the-top, a bit too full of sex for no real reason but to shock the reader and a bit too many silly plotlines for my taste.

The other book I'm reading is Ardennes 1944: Hitler's Last Gamble by Antony Beevor, a brutally direct and detailed description of the Third Reich's final offensive in the west. After all the war-hero stories of great American heroes saving the day and winning the war in games, books and movies, it's refreshing to see descriptions of the harsh reality where even the Americans are actually affected by the horrors of war. A particularly memorable bit was an officer's account on how he watched an unwilling American soldier pick up a grenade, walk up to a large tree, pull the pin and hug said tree so he could blow up his hand and get sent away from the front. Likewise it shows how the German's nationalist fervor and insane level of fanaticism comes to bite them in the ass as, after an American unit mows down an attacking SS platoon, they discover all the men reeking of alcohol and all of thei water canteens filled with booze rather than water, with letters on the dead soldiers detailing how they've pre-emptively celebrated their victory "for the Fatherland" over the previous night.

A good read for history buffs, I'd say.

[Mandle]

I'm currently reading "If Chins Could Kill" by Bruce Campbell (the only God I would ever consider worshipping)...

Or I should probably say: rereading for the 7th time (or so)...

Whether you know of Bruce Campbell, or love him or hate him, or are somewhere in the middle, if that is possible:

For people like us here on AGS and what with our love for indie projects just for the sheer fun of creating something from nothing that at least a few people will get some enjoyment from:

This is a book that could speak to you... It speaks volumes to me way beyond its actual page count every time I read it...

[monkey424]

Hi folks. I lost interest in that half-baked conspiracy thread I started earlier, but it looks like that's all wrapped up now. Good riddance! But if you're interested, here's a good read by English professor Eric Larsen that suggests why that thread and the one that preceded it probably went nowhere:

Dr Judy Wood and the Future of the Earth

Otherwise, my reading typically consists of Peppa Pig, Winnie the Pooh, and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy.

[Mandle]

Dr Judy Wood and the Future of the Earth

I tried to read this, man... I seriously tried...

But it is such a rambling and overwritten mess that I could not bring myself to drag my millimeter-tall scroll bar further down past the 15th paragraph or so...

Perhaps the real reason that these guys are in disbelief over how little impact their findings have upon us sheep is the simple fact that they are not good writers.

Who on earth is ever going to read something so badly overwritten with purple prose in every sentence, except for the people who already are invested in it???

The guy might have amazing, world changing things to say for all I know, but nobody is ever going to hear them unless he either gets better at self-editing (unlikely) or hires a professional editor to sort through his ramblings and go at them with a chainsaw...

[Danvzare]

Who on earth is ever going to read something so badly overwritten with purple prose in every sentence, except for the people who already are invested in it???

You've just described 90% of all books I've ever attempted to read.

Thankfully that remaining 10% makes it all worthwhile, I'm looking to you Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

[monkey424]

Danvzare

I have to say Hitchhiker's Guide is my favourite book of all time.
Another book I love (although we had to read it for school) is Lord of the Flies.

Mandle

Thanks for making an effort to read Eric Larsen's article. I think you make a valid point. The article is somewhat long-winded, perhaps to the detriment of the message, and it probably helps if you are invested in the subject. Note this is the fifth article in a series of five in which Larsen is primarily addressing the intellectuals of the literary / journalistic world. But he is also addressing intellectuals of the general public - people not unlike those who post in these forums. I know there are some smart people on these forums - smarter than me - but we all have our blind spots. I think there are qualities people should value other than being smart - humility is one of them; a quality not valued highly enough in society in my opinion.

I don't wish to ramble (and I'm sorry for gate-crashing your thread, Snarky) but here's an extract from Larsen's article that I really do think sums up the communication problems we've encountered on these forums:

“Here's what I think: I think that the fault that the great propaganda machine is still working is our fault. I think that the fault lies with you, me, with us. It lies with us thanks to our impotence-thinking and our impotence-writing, where sounding good passes itself off as doing good. The fault lies with us thanks to our intellectual laziness and to our obscenely bad educations. It lies with us becauseâ€"Searle was rightâ€"we are so logic-challenged that we behave like children and think we're wizards. It lies with us because we're really, really bad at science: We don't understand it, don't know what it is, don't know how it works. The fault lies with us because we're unsophisticated, unobservant, illogical, and unscientific enough to have been played for suckersâ€"first by one side, then by another side, then by a thirdâ€"for more than a decade, quarreling and fussing among ourselves while our wealth is stolen, our nation dismantled, and our culture turned ever more surely to swill.”

[Snarky]

That stuff really doesn't belong in this thread, monkey, and we won't have any more of it.

I also really like Hitchhiker's and Lord of the Flies. Undisputed classics.

The last book I read was The Unburied by Charles Palliser, which I got for Christmas. (I read his most famous novel, The Quincunx, a few years back and loved it.)

This one I didn't like much, unfortunately, though it has a very seasonally appropriate Victorian Christmas setting. It's a nested mystery where a scholar visiting a town famous for its cathedral tries to work out what happened with two mysterious deaths back in the 1600s, while also getting entangled in a murder in his own time and searching for the truth behind an even older manuscript. Oh, and at the same time he's working through some stuff he's long tried to forget from his university days. So there's a lot of stuff going on, many small puzzles to figure out. In principle it should be a good book for adventure gamers, then, who enjoy stories told through interlocking puzzles.

My biggest issue is that the author tips his hand too much: he gives away some details in the introduction that makes it pretty easy to work out who the murderer is and more or less how it is done long before the murder even happens, and it just becomes a long slog to wait for the story to catch up. Other things are also hinted a little too heavily (e.g. one character being gay); the most annoying part about that is that the main character doesn't catch on at all, about anything, but keeps coming up with asinine explanations and theories. That refusal to see what's right in front of his eyes while playing detective reminded me of nothing so much as Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans, another "mystery" story with deluded/dimwitted narrator and main character that I found equally unsatisfying.

"Unreliable" narrators who understand much less of what's going on than readers are always a risky literary device. Didn't really work for me this time. Shame.

[Stupot]

Yesterday I finished Malice by Higashino Keigo. Not as good as Journey..., which I mentioned above, but still a very intricate and thoughtful mystery with a great cast of characters and a very very dark ending. It's called Malice for a reason, and if you are sensitive to the subject of bullying, this story will break your heart.

[Ponch]

I spent my holiday reading Hammer and Anvil by James Swallow. It was a fun, light read. I don't normally read most of the stuff from Black Library, but the Sisters of Battle are such an overlooked army that I'll take any fluff I can get.

[Andail]

The last few novels I've read:
Picture of Dorian Gray, by Wilde, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, was great.
All the light we cannot see, by Anthony Doerr. I think this was on Snarky's recommendation, or at least initiative. It wasn't all that good, unfortunately. It was very elegantly written, certainly the kind of writing that wins awards, but ultimately didn't really go into depth on any specific thought or idea.
The Slave (Singer). Very good. I like everything I've ever read by Singer.
Not that kind of girl by Lena Dunham. I'm a bit split here, because Dunham writes really cleverly and funny, and is no doubt very talented, however this book - auto-biographical, by the way - is slightly too unfocused and has long passages that lack both purpose and structure. 

[Snarky]

All the light we cannot see, by Anthony Doerr. I think this was on Snarky's recommendation, or at least initiative.

I doubt it, since I've never heard of it.

[MAGS Host]

[ignore]

[Stupot]

(It finally happened. I accidentally posted under the MAGS account. Whoops)

I never did follow up on Magic, the William Goldman book I mentioned before Christmas. That book was amazing. It's a psychological thriller about a struggling magician, with a lot of issues, who basically spirals into madness with the help of his ventriloquist's dummy. It's hilarious as well as horrific. I genuinely laughed out loud on the train reading this. I loved it so much that I watched the movie, Magic, with a younger Anthony Hopkins in the main role. Goldman also wrote the screenplay for the movie so it's very faithful to the book, but it misses out a lot of details about the main character's childhood.

[RickJ]

I'm currently reading "Murder Never Dies" a true story about crime and corruption in Wheeling WV, nicknamed Little Chicago, in the early and mid 20th century.  It's very interesting and many parts are told from the author's first and second hand experiences. A very easy and enjoyable read.

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Never-Dies-Corruption-Friendly/dp/1882658639

[Stupot]

I'm currently reading "Murder Never Dies" a true story about crime and corruption in Wheeling WV, nicknamed Little Chicago, in the early and mid 20th century.  It's very interesting and many parts are told from the author's first and second hand experiences. A very easy and enjoyable read.

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Never-Dies-Corruption-Friendly/dp/1882658639

Sounds good. I keep meaning to do more in the way of true crime.

[Mandle]

Sounds good. I keep meaning to do more in the way of true crime.

Then have you read "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote? It's awesome!

[Stupot]

Sounds good. I keep meaning to do more in the way of true crime.

Then have you read "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote? It's awesome!

You know, I have actually read that, but I barely remember it for some reason. Maybe I didn't finish it :-/

[KyriakosCH]

You can find a flash fiction story of mine in English, in the following ebook/magazine. Page 26

https://en.calameo.com/read/00473905971ac8ff20c7e

[Cogliostro]

Every year I have less and less time, so my "reading" has been limited to what I can listen to in the car, and this has a subtle but real impact on my enjoyment of certain books.  Honestly, some books have parts that should just be skimmed.  Also, I'm pretty sure everyone is already familiar with J R R Tolkien, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett.  So skipping over some of the greats to give book recommendations on things I've been reading....

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher = The first two novels are okay - a remarkable accomplishment in the literary wasteland that is urban fantasy - but honestly, if you're having trouble, just skip 'em. From book 3 onward the series is just AWESOME! 

The Laundry series by Charles Stross = I strongly recommend the first three books.  It answers that burning question on everyone's mind, what would happen if Monty Python performed the works of HP Lovecraft?  If you think that sounds deranged, then you'll like the series.

Poor Man's Fight series by Elliot Kay = This is impressive military sci-fi series with a believable and likeable protagonist, a plot that progresses in a realistic fashion despite its futuristic setting, and lastly, the combat and hand-to-hand violence is riveting.  It's intense, real and most importantly, authentic.

Good Intentions series by Elliot Kay = The main character has a succubus and an angel bound to him, so very much NSFW nor for the easily offended.  Of course, in a world where the magic is real, there are consequences for meddling, and once you've attracted the attention of the supernatural monsters, you had better be prepared to defend yourself.

Just a few recommendations,
- Cogliostro

[Andail]

You can find a flash fiction story of mine in English, in the following ebook/magazine. Page 26

https://en.calameo.com/read/00473905971ac8ff20c7e

That was all right but it's no Bob Dylan!

[KyriakosCH]

Oh come on

[Stupot]

I just finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman in time for the new TV adaptation coming soon. Anyone else read it? I liked it a lot and there were some great set pieces. But there were also some parts that really dragged. I also didn't buy that this guy just seemed to be going along with everything without completely freaking out.

Spoiler

Although, it is explained later that he is related to one of the gods and it's even suggested that he has some powers of his own, so maybe that explains his lack of a mental breakdown.

[close]

Unless the whole story is actually about one man's mental breakdown.

Anyway, I liked it enough that I'm going to read some more Gaiman when I get my hands on some.

[Mandle]

I just finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman in time for the new TV adaptation coming soon. Anyone else read it?

I read it and absolutely loved it!

If you liked it I would recommend "Bad Omens" which he co-wrote with the late, great Terry Pratchett. Quite similar to American Gods in theme but a little whackier and faster paced, but still with some shocks and thrills...

"Stardust" is also very good!

[dactylopus]

Over the last 6 months or so, I've been delving into classic science fiction stories.  I have read the following:

Arthur C. Clarke
- Rendezvous With Rama
- Childhood's End
- The Hammer of God

Robert A. Heinlein
- Stranger In A Strange Land
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Ray Bradbury
- The Martian Chronicles
- The October Country
- The Illustrated Man
- Something Wicked This Way Comes

Isaac Asimov
- Foundation
- Foundation and Empire
- Second Foundation
- Foundation's Edge

Orson Scott Card
- Ender's Game
- Speaker For The Dead

Edward E. "Doc" Smith
- Triplanetary
- First Lensman

William Gibson
- Neuromancer

I'm currently about a third of the way through reading Larry Niven's Ringworld, but it hasn't quite captured me like the above did.  It's just starting to take off.  Also, I've been trying to pace myself with Asimov's Foundation series, because I'm really enjoying it.  I don't want to go through it too quickly.  I have the rest of the novels in the series, but I'm taking it slowly.  It's interesting getting to know each author's style and characteristics.  Asimov is an engaging storyteller, Clarke is very technical and authentic, Heinlein writes so beautifully it's almost like poetry, and Bradbury is so rooted in the human experience that it is easy to connect emotionally.

Here are a few more in my box of "to read" books:

Salman Rushdie
- The Satanic Verses
(At the suggestion of a co-worker.)

Philip K. Dick
- A Scanner Darkly
(I've seen the movie, and I've read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (and seen Blade Runner, which was based on that novel), which was wonderful.)

Frank Herbert
- Dune
(Again, seen the movie and miniseries.  Looking forward to reading the book, but at nearly 900 pages it's daunting.)

Arthur C. Clarke
- Islands In The Sky
(I want to read everything he's done.)

Robert A. Heinlein
- The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
(Again, I want to read everything,  his writing is so beautiful.)

Jules Verne
- 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
(Filling out my "Classic" classics, like all of the H. G. Wells I've read.)

Antoine de Saint Exupery
- The Little Prince
(I've been a huge fan since the old animated series I watched in my youth, but I'v never actually read the book.  I got the old Woods translation from the 1940's, which is supposedly superior to the newest Howard translation from the 2000's.)

I'm a huge fan of science fiction, fantasy, and other related genres.  Some of the stories above were read because of their influence on Star Wars.  My favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut and George Orwell, and I have read just about everything I could find by both authors many years ago.  In the same 6 month period as the above books, I've also consumed the Luke Cage and Iron Fist Netflix series and Game of Thrones, among others.  Maybe I'll have to add A Song of Ice and Fire to my "to read" list.

Thanks for the many suggestions in this thread.  I'll have to consider adding these to my Amazon cart.  I've heard good things about American Gods, that one might reach the top of the list in short order.  It's also very interesting to see the diversity in the tastes of people here.  There's such a variety listed here, it's inspiring me to get into different genres.  Maybe I'll have to get into the Dresden Files as well.

[CaptainD]

@dactylopus wow your post really takes me back... I was seriously into sci-fi, particularly Asimov and ACC, in my younger years.  My favourite Asimov novel is actually not part of a series, although I loved the Foundation novels (particularly Second Foundation and Foundation & Empire) - it's one called Nemesis, for some reason that one really stuck with me.  Also Nightfall which he co-wrote with Robert Silverberg was good.

Childhood's End is one of my favourite ACC books though I think The City and the Stars just about pips it. 

Haven't read much Orson Scott Card (yet) but I recently read Songmaster which was phenomenal.

Okay enough reminiscing for now! 

[dactylopus]

@dactylopus wow your post really takes me back... I was seriously into sci-fi, particularly Asimov and ACC, in my younger years.  My favourite Asimov novel is actually not part of a series, although I loved the Foundation novels (particularly Second Foundation and Foundation & Empire) - it's one called Nemesis, for some reason that one really stuck with me.  Also Nightfall which he co-wrote with Robert Silverberg was good.

Childhood's End is one of my favourite ACC books though I think The City and the Stars just about pips it. 

Haven't read much Orson Scott Card (yet) but I recently read Songmaster which was phenomenal.

Okay enough reminiscing for now! 

Thanks for the recommendations!  I already had The City and the Stars in my cart, but I have added the other books you suggested.  And I'm not surprised at all that you're a huge sci-fi fan, considering your productions here.

I feel like I got all I wanted out of the 2 Orson Scott Card novels in that series, so maybe this unrelated story will make for a good read.  I found his novels to be very easy to digest, and they held my attention with good stories.  If you like his writing, I'd suggest at least reading Ender's Game.  I thought it was going to be simple fluff entertainment reading, but it was actually a deeper story than I imagined.  The recent movie does not do it justice.  I kept feeling like they were covering hundreds of pages in a matter of minutes.  That said, my girlfriend who has not read the book enjoyed the movie.  Then again, the Shining was my favorite movie until I read the book, which was vastly superior.  Now my favorite movie is the Usual Suspects.

[CaptainD]

I definitely want to read Ender's Game.  I did try one other of his books but when I got it I didn't realise it was part way through a book series, and I just don't do well with those if I don't start at the beginning.

I'm on a bit of a Clive Cussler run at the moment (fairly light reading but good characters and a bit of escapism, although saying that Sahara was actually pretty epic), via Philip K Dick's "The Man in the High Castle" (pretty warped and surreal, can't honestly work out if I enjoyed it or not!).  But I really should get back into some good sci-fi.  I must get round to reading a novel or two by Kurt Vonnegut Jr - I've read quite a few of his short stories, but never a novel.  (If anyone has a recommendation for a good Vonegut novel let me know!)

[CaesarCub]

Over the last 6 months or so, I've been delving into classic science fiction stories.  I have read the following:

Arthur C. Clarke
- Rendezvous With Rama

I loved Rendezvous With Rama, but be warned that the sequels are not as good. I personally hate them with fervour.
Dune is a really nice read, despite the intimidating thickness.

[dactylopus]

I must get round to reading a novel or two by Kurt Vonnegut Jr - I've read quite a few of his short stories, but never a novel.  (If anyone has a recommendation for a good Vonegut novel let me know!)

My favorite Vonnegut short story is Harrison Bergeron from Welcome to the Monkey House.  Most people will suggest that you start with Slaughterhouse Five.  It's a great read, but I find that Breakfast of Champions makes for a better introduction to his novels.  It's a fantastic story, a great example of his style, and it's so easy to read.  It flies by.  If you like that, move on to either Cat's Cradle, the Sirens of Titan, Galapagos (*), or the aforementioned Slaughterhouse, but I find his sci-fi works to be more fun than his historical works.  I put an asterisk next to Galapagos because it's quite possibly my favorite of his novels.

I loved Rendezvous With Rama, but be warned that the sequels are not as good. I personally hate them with fervour.
Dune is a really nice read, despite the intimidating thickness.

I've heard both of those opinions before.  I'm reluctant to check out the Rama sequels, but the intrigue of more to that story has me interested.  And I just need to work up the nerve for Dune, I'm sure I'm going to love it but it's easily 2 or 3 times as thick as any other book I've read recently.

After looking back over my list, I realized it was closer to a year's worth of reading, and it started with A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.  That's a fantastic book.  I finished it just before visiting my brother in New Orleans (where the novel takes place), and it gave me a different angle through which to view that city.

[Snarky]

I don't think I've ever seen an edition of Dune that is 900 pages, and I'm something of a collector. About 600 is usual.

If you find it daunting, maybe it will help to learn that it is split into three parts, and the first part was originally published by itself as "Dune World". So you could always just start with that, an average-length (for the time) SF novel. For the upcoming movie adaptation, there's been some talk that they might split it into two or three films.

I haven't been reading many books lately. Actually, I think the only ones are two in a John Brunner omnibus: The Shockwave Rider and The Traveller in Black. The first is a dystopian science fiction novel, notable for being one of the first to come up with the idea of hacking (his hackers type in computer programs using phone keypads). It's OK, but feels a bit dated, and inferior to his Stand on Zanzibar. The Traveller in Black is a series of fantasy stories in the Fritz Leiber vein, about a powerful, immortal wizard trying to tame the forces of chaos. Good fun, though I think they work better as individual stories than as "fix-up" novel, since the structure is a bit repetitive.

[CaptainD]

@dactylopus - thanks for the recommendations.  I read Harrison Bergeron many (well you know, probably about 20) years ago in an anthology and... well, it's definitely one of those stories that you never forget!  (The film was Sean Astin was very good too, though obviously they had to stray considerably from the source material - it had a tragic yet hopeful ending, rather than simply tragic as per the short story.)  I think I like the look of Breakfast of Champions more than Slaughterhouse Five, so I'll try to get that.  Thanks again!

[dactylopus]

I don't think I've ever seen an edition of Dune that is 900 pages, and I'm something of a collector. About 600 is usual.

If you find it daunting, maybe it will help to learn that it is split into three parts, and the first part was originally published by itself as "Dune World". So you could always just start with that, an average-length (for the time) SF novel. For the upcoming movie adaptation, there's been some talk that they might split it into two or three films.

It's this edition.

It's not a full 900 pages, just a bit shy.  It includes appendices, glossaries, maps, and an afterword, all of which takes up the last 100 pages or so.  Still, I'm likely to read them one way or another, so I included them in the page count.  And yes, it is heartening to know that it is split into 3 books, but I'm probably going to read all 3 straight through.  At least the split will provide me with breaks, though.

And, having seen the Lynch film adaptation and the Syfy miniseries, I'm very excited to see this story coming to the big screen again.  I have yet to watch the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, but I intend to.  I'm a huge fan of Moebius and others that worked on the planning for that film version of the story, it looks like it would have made for a fantastic experience.

[CaptainD]

Got a terrific haul from The Book Farm in Nuneaton yesterday.  Sadly no Vonnegut available, but Timelike Infinity by Stephen Baxter which I've always been curious about, Black Diamonds - a Jules Verne novel I've never heard of (that has also been published under the name The Child of the Cavern), Minority Report by PKD which I've always wanted to read, plus others by Isaac Asimov, Greg Egan and Orson Scott Card.  Plus a couple of standalone Star Wars novels out of curiosity. Now just got to find time to actually read them!

[Mandle]

There's been mention in here of Ender's Game...

Now, I've only seen the film, but the beginning plot goes like:

A child gets chosen to be sent to a special school because of his unique abilities. The school is split into 4 houses which all compete in a sport where you fly around scoring points, but there is an end-game rule that can win the match regardless of the score so far. He is confronted by bullies, but manages to best them. There is a conspiracy amongst the "teachers" that he is unaware of until later...And there are several other points I might have missed but:

Spoiler

Did anyone else ever get the feeling that J.K.Rowling might have read this book at some point?

[close]

[milkanannan]

I read The Deptford Trilogy, which is considered a Canadian classic by most even though it is not that old (completed between 1970 and 1975). It follows...I guess it's two generations of families that have connection to a spectrum of Canadian society as well as loose connections to the UK and US. A very interesting read and very good in addressing Canadian identity and it's relationship with its colonial ancestors and rebel neighbours.

For anyone that has read it, I find the specific story of Magnus Eisengrim very tragic, despite his success. The description of how a specific moment in youth can define the entire trajectory of a person's life is so raw. Boy and the snowball is another example of how seconds can completely propel a person --with or without their consent-- on a path they cannot get out of.

Very highly recommended.

[WHAM]

I recently had a nice vacation and some time to read, so I read two books.

The first one was a bit of history:
http://themilitaryreviewer.blogspot.com/2014/12/barbarossa-through-soviet-eyes-first-24.html

A collection of first hand accounts and reports and diary entries that help clarify the first day of operation Barbarossa and why the Germans had such extensive military success in the early stages of the war.

The second book was some classic horror:
https://www.amazon.com/King-Yellow-Robert-William-Chambers-ebook/dp/B00847UYWA

The collection of short stories within were a bit hit and miss to be honest. Only two of them really hit the mark with me, while the rest felt a tad too awkward and outdated to spark much emotion. It was, however, interesting to see these old takes on certain horror tropes, and seeing where the roots of some modern horror element lie.