What books are you reading right now?

Re-reading Stephen King's The Stand right now. Looking for something interesting in my spare time...

 

Going back and rereading Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, due to @cynthetiq's reminder of how much I enjoyed it....

 

Buying it now for the Kindle. Better be good (or else) ( else it won't, I guess)

Sounds good anyway

 

Science Ink.

 

Inside Inside by James Lipton
Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

 

Steve Jobs

 

Neal Stephenson's Reamde.

It landed on my bedside table between books 3 and 4 of George R. R. Martin's, Song of Fire and Ice.

 

Just finished Zone One by Colson Whitehead. His first foray into the zombie genre was most involving due to the author's dexterity with words. Whitehead is as promised, a great young writer; he did justice to the genre by doing what the best zombie writers do: Make us care about the living.

Delved straight into Vols. 13-15 of The Walking Dead. They are good but writer Kirkman seems to be taking a break from the extremism of the violence of earlier The Walking Dead comics. The shock-value, especially in a defining incident/accident didn't really do it for me...perhaps as the consequences play out its meaning will deepen.

Patricia Cornwell's latest, 'Red Mist,' just landed in my book-pile. It's the 19th volume featuring her character, lawyer/forensic pathologist/epicure Kay Scarpetta. I never read this type of stuff except when Cornwell writes it.

 

I've read quite a few of his books - I like his writing. The first one of his I owned was "A song for Arbonne". I like how his books have a pretty clear historical 'setting' (e.g. Arbonne is France), though with a name change he doesn't have to worry about insulting anyone, or being tied to charatcers/places like other Historical Fiction.
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I have just started reading the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. I gave this to my brother for his birthday - I like having siblings with similar reading tastes to me

 

BG- I think it's worth it. I admit, I like epic fantasy of all kinds-- I love Jordan's books, including those Sanderson has finished-- but I always am looking for fantasy which is unique in some way, a novel kind of world, something with interesting details I haven't seen before. And the "Mistborn" trilogy was definitely that.

 

I think I might be the anti-Baraka. I just like a good story. I can recognise what I think is poor writing, but could hardly tell you *why* I like the books I do. My bookshelf is full of Fantasy/Sci-Fi books and some of my favourites are the aforementioned D&D/TSR books (RA Salvatore and the Dragonlance books). These probably don't have any huge literary merit, but are easy to read, have likeable characters and evil villians.
Yes, I have all of the Wheel of Time books.
I have a lot of the writing of David Gemmell (an English fantasy author, sadly deceased).
I have some Asimov and Heinlein
and some George RR Martin (not just SOIAF).
Some Guy Gavriel Kay.
Plus the Dragonbone Chair series by Tad Williams.
Seven volumes of Harry Potter? check!
Piers Anthony? Yep - the Incarnations of Immortality series is excellent.
Stephen Donaldson, Tolkien etc.
I even have a Gary Gygax novel (though for such a giant of the D&D world, he really isn't much of an author).

Anyway, I think I'm more interested in reading stories as escapism and this genre works well for me.

 

I think it's about setting your expectations. Sure, Robert Jordan's no JRR Tolkien, but then, he's not trying to be. I mean, Raymond Chandler was no James Joyce, and for good reason-- they're not trying to do the same things. Granted, the latter example's a bit further apart in direction of endeavor than the former, but still....

I get where you're coming from. I guess, for me, it's just about feeling able to like very different things as themselves. Will George RR Martin, Robert Jordan, Brian Sanderson, Jim Butcher, or their confreres go down in literary history as giants of the English language? No, almost certainly not. But they tell good stories. They have good characters. They create enjoyable worlds of broad scope. I wouldn't stoop to calling it literary junk food, but let's say they are literary burgers of substantial quality-- they're just not meant to be literary Chateaubriand, and will inevitably fall short if judged so.