What are you reading right now? - Page 21 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Uncle Pony · 10-19-2005, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guthmund

I just finished Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan.

Much, much better than the last two books, though this one felt a bit rushed. From what I understand (and I could be wrong, wrong wrong) the next book is the last book, which means all this has to be tied up in one final push of 600+ pages, which seems a bit hurried compared to all the other books.

It is supposed to be finished in one more book. I'll wait until Jordan gets the series done before I buy them though. Then I'll pick them up on Amazon for $2 apiece. He's probably going to die before he ever finishes that fuckin' series.

Right now I'm still thinking about finishing Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson. It's book two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Book one was OK, but I'm having a tough time getting into book two. I'm a couple of chapters in already. I just have to get around to finishing it.

Telluride · 10-19-2005, 10:43 PM

I've just started reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.

m0rpheus · 10-20-2005, 03:59 PM

Thud! the newest of Terry Prachett's Discworld series. A buddy of mine picked it up for me for my b-day.

cj2112 · 10-20-2005, 04:54 PM

AutoCAD and its applications 2006 by Terence M. Shumaker and David A. Madsen....biggest.book.ever.

Atropos4 · 10-24-2005, 08:36 PM

Chronicles of Narnia...again Preparing myself for the release of the movie.

Kadath · 10-28-2005, 04:25 PM

I've got about six in the fire right now, but the main one is China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. He's a very, very evocative and clever writer. his books are very good, but some of the imagery is extremely disturbing. Also I've got Lewis' Pelelandra, second in the Space Trilogy, Democracy in America and some crappy NJO book.

Atropos, my gf is reading Narnia for the first time in prep for the movie(s) -- she commented "They're very childish."

fresnelly · 10-28-2005, 04:43 PM

Just finished the original The Adventures of Pinoccio by C. Collodi (pen name of Carlo Lorenzini). Now I'm reading The Rule of Four, bu Ian Caldwell and Justin Thomason.

Pinoccio was fun and a little suprising. For example, he kills the talking cricket with a hammer in the third chapter.

The Rule of Four is a DaVinci Codesque thriller, but much more reserved. So far so good.

noodle · 10-29-2005, 06:32 AM

A Sack Full of Teeth, Grant Buday. Just picked it up. Finished and returned War Trash to the library, finally. Ha Ming, I think? Usually hate war books but I was strangely drawn to that one. Really like his writing style.

nukeu666 · 10-30-2005, 07:13 AM

wheel of time book 8

Ishmal · 10-30-2005, 11:33 PM

i'm reading Harry Potter & the Goblet Of Fire for the hundreth time...

i started reading the series again so that i can read all six in a row.

Spoiler: i'm almost finished it,

i'm at the part where Harry & Cedric have grabbed the cup and Cedric is about to get killed.

i can't wait to finish it, cause i'm alot less familiar with the last two books!

Derwood · 10-31-2005, 10:25 AM

Just finished "Brave New World' and now moving on to "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Hat · 11-08-2005, 09:09 AM

I finished A Feast For Crows (fourth in the Song of Ice & Fire saga and the only contemporary fantasy worth reading imo) by George R. R. Martin a few weeks ago, and just finished The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing.

I found the former to be a bit of a let down to be honest. As it's essentially half a book, it was missing half the characters, and I didn't enjoy the new POVs. Still fantastic, but it's the first in the series which seems to contain padding (not in the Wheel of Time sense though, at least this padding was still enjoyable

). I say seems, because we only really got half a book, and until we get the other half, and the next book after that, it's impossible to really discount any of the apparent padding as, well, padding. Anyway, slightly less than genius is still very good.

As for The Fifth Child, well, I was pretty disappointed. I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I think one really needs to be a parent to relate. The basic premise is this - David and Harriet are determined to achieve domestic bliss through a traditional blueprint of family life. So, they purchase a large house and have a multitude of children. By the fourth child everything's still going swell, and they appear to be living their dream. Enter the fifth child, a cold, violent, large and ugly child who only seems vaguely human. Sounds like an interesting premise, yeah? Unfortunately I found the writing style to be very dull. I thought the ideas presented were somewhat interesting, but ultimately drawn rather poorly. At the same time, I think I'd have found it more interesting if I was female, a parent, or married and wanted to have kids. Still, it's a short read so I can't complain.

RickB · 11-08-2005, 09:20 AM

Finally getting around to reading a book by Dan Brown. I'd thought I'd start with Angels and Demons and then move on to The DaVinci Code.

sailor · 11-08-2005, 11:11 AM

The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman. It's a history of the events leading up to, and the first month of, the first world war. It's supposed to be one of the best histories of this war ever written; I'll soon find out

avernus · 11-08-2005, 11:13 AM

Thinks.... by David Lodge.

Honestly couldn't finish Human Stain by Philip Roth, and I hate leaving books unfinished.

Kadath, I loved Perdido Street Station! His next book The Scar is set in the same world just after the events in PSS but I thought it was even better! His most recent book Iron Council is a bit disappointing though. King Rat, his first book, ain't a bad read if you like him as a author.

CBlend · 11-10-2005, 11:19 AM

Excel Data Analysis for Dummies by Stephen L. Nelson. Isn't my life thrilling?

sentimental_arm · 11-22-2005, 07:56 AM

Just read Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, pretty good. Am now starting Jean-Paul Sartre 'Being and Nothingness", the most technical philosophy book I've read so far in my life, has taken me 3 attempts to read the introduction. Hopefully all the long-windedness will have some value when chatting up existentialist women. cantona

Kostya · 11-22-2005, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Am now starting Jean-Paul Sartre 'Being and Nothingness", the most technical philosophy book I've read so far in my life, has taken me 3 attempts to read the introduction. Hopefully all the long-windedness will have some value when chatting up existentialist women.

Well, the use of the word technical here is a little misleading. Obtuse might be a little more accurate I think. Indeed quoting from Being and Nothingness is a good way to get to the heart of the smouldering 'indy' types.

Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte... meh, not fantastic, not bad though.

meembo · 11-23-2005, 04:56 AM

I saw Walk the Line on Monday, and I got Cash's autobiography, which is an awfully rambling kind of book of remembrances

Derwood · 11-24-2005, 08:22 AM

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Mantus · 11-24-2005, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derwood

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I've been trying to finish that book for a year now...it gets so tedious...

At the moment.

Half a Life by V. S. Naipaul

Charlatan · 11-24-2005, 08:32 AM

I am reading Elanor Rigby by Douglas Copeland... and I swear that the main character, Liz, is based on Maleficent.

snowy · 11-24-2005, 02:49 PM

Just finished the saga "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullogh. Pretty good read...entertaining if nothing else, though I did learn a lot about sheep stations in Australia.

Toaster126 · 11-24-2005, 04:16 PM

I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 again right now. Before that I read Brave New World for the billionth time.

I need to read something not about a future messed up society next, I think.

Sho Nuff · 11-25-2005, 12:00 AM

Imperial Hubris: Why the West is losing the War on Terror. Probably one of the most sober albiet one sided assesments of the war on terror Ive read.

Kadath · 11-25-2005, 06:14 PM

Palahniuk's Choke. I'm about halfway through and I'm already having to take breaks as the torment grows thicker.

rthmchgs · 12-01-2005, 07:13 AM

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. So far so good, only about 1/4 done with it. To me it is not written to be complete fiction like other books with magic, this seems like it could almost be possible....maybe I am completely wrong....

DHS · 12-12-2005, 07:26 AM

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Derwood · 12-12-2005, 08:09 AM

The Green Mile. Stephen King could make a career writing non-horror prison novels...

Coppertop · 12-12-2005, 09:45 AM

maleficent · 12-12-2005, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

I am reading Elanor Rigby by Douglas Copeland... and I swear that the main character, Liz, is based on Maleficent.

how truly frightening.. Do I need to pick up a copy of this book?

Gee after reading the reviews on Amazon.. I'm thinking no, and i'm thinking i shoudl be really insulted... If only I had more energy..

pixelbend · 12-12-2005, 09:57 AM

Reading "The Mediterranian Caper" by Clive Cussler. I just now found the Dirk Pitt series. Pretty interesting, for downtime books.

Locke · 12-14-2005, 11:51 PM

The Gunslinger by Stephen King. Time to start on this set.

SecretMethod70 · 12-15-2005, 12:11 AM

Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby, Jr.

So far, the book is quite excellent, though it takes a bit of getting used to the writing style. Paragraph breaks are not very common and there are no quotation marks or indications as to who is saying what when something is being said other than picking up on each character's speaking style.

SecretMethod70 · 12-17-2005, 03:44 AM

Update:
I'm further into the book and if you've seen the movie, the book is just as crazy from a literary perspective. I swear to god, I recently read an 8 page long "paragraph" in which one "sentence" went on for at least 2.5 pages (I didn't bother to look and see exactly how long the sentence is). It's really quite effective at creating a certain "feel" though, I'm enjoying it a lot.

snowy · 12-17-2005, 09:58 PM

Just finished rereading some of my favorites out of the "Anne" series of books by LM Montgomery: Anne of Avonlea and Rilla of Ingleside. I'd tkae up reading Anne of the Island if I could find it, but it's gone missing...

Instead I'm going to start reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. I think it will be interesting.

Coppertop · 12-18-2005, 08:57 AM

Schrödinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson

snowy, I've been wanting to read Guns, Germs & Steel for a while now. Can you give us (okay - me) a review when you're done?

aKula · 12-18-2005, 10:07 AM

Tolstoy's war and peace. I'm really enjoying it as I like reading books set in that era. Needless to say it is well written.

Sgoilear · 12-19-2005, 05:31 AM

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.

highthief · 12-19-2005, 06:22 AM

"Scotland: From Prehistory to Present" - by Fiona Watson.

10-19-2005, 10:43 PM	#802 (permalink)
Telluride Browncoat Location: California	I've just started reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. __________________ "I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." - Friedrich Hayek

10-20-2005, 03:59 PM	#803 (permalink)
m0rpheus bad craziness Location: Guelph, Ontario	Thud! the newest of Terry Prachett's Discworld series. A buddy of mine picked it up for me for my b-day. __________________ "it never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

10-24-2005, 08:36 PM	#805 (permalink)
Atropos4 Think about it Location: North Carolina	Chronicles of Narnia...again Preparing myself for the release of the movie. __________________ Minds are like parachutes. They work better open. "If I were Hermione, I would have licked his pantleg."

10-28-2005, 04:25 PM	#806 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	I've got about six in the fire right now, but the main one is China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. He's a very, very evocative and clever writer. his books are very good, but some of the imagery is extremely disturbing. Also I've got Lewis' Pelelandra, second in the Space Trilogy, Democracy in America and some crappy NJO book. Atropos, my gf is reading Narnia for the first time in prep for the movie(s) -- she commented "They're very childish." __________________ it's quiet in here

10-28-2005, 04:43 PM	#807 (permalink)
fresnelly Functionally Appropriate Location: Toronto	Just finished the original The Adventures of Pinoccio by C. Collodi (pen name of Carlo Lorenzini). Now I'm reading The Rule of Four, bu Ian Caldwell and Justin Thomason. Pinoccio was fun and a little suprising. For example, he kills the talking cricket with a hammer in the third chapter. The Rule of Four is a DaVinci Codesque thriller, but much more reserved. So far so good. __________________ Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

10-20-2005, 04:54 PM	#804 (permalink)
cj2112 Unbelievable Location: Grants Pass OR	AutoCAD and its applications 2006 by Terence M. Shumaker and David A. Madsen....biggest.book.ever.

10-30-2005, 07:13 AM	#809 (permalink)
nukeu666 Junkie Location: India	wheel of time book 8 __________________ Why did the Comp. Engineer get X-mas and Halloween mixed up? Because Oct(31) == Dec(25)

10-30-2005, 11:33 PM	#810 (permalink)
Ishmal Wicked Clown Location: House Of Horrors	i'm reading Harry Potter & the Goblet Of Fire for the hundreth time... i started reading the series again so that i can read all six in a row. Spoiler: i'm almost finished it, i'm at the part where Harry & Cedric have grabbed the cup and Cedric is about to get killed. i can't wait to finish it, cause i'm alot less familiar with the last two books! __________________ "Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular."

10-31-2005, 10:25 AM	#811 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	Just finished "Brave New World' and now moving on to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

11-08-2005, 09:09 AM	#812 (permalink)
Hat Tilted Location: Adelaide, Australia	I finished A Feast For Crows (fourth in the Song of Ice & Fire saga and the only contemporary fantasy worth reading imo) by George R. R. Martin a few weeks ago, and just finished The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. I found the former to be a bit of a let down to be honest. As it's essentially half a book, it was missing half the characters, and I didn't enjoy the new POVs. Still fantastic, but it's the first in the series which seems to contain padding (not in the Wheel of Time sense though, at least this padding was still enjoyable ). I say seems, because we only really got half a book, and until we get the other half, and the next book after that, it's impossible to really discount any of the apparent padding as, well, padding. Anyway, slightly less than genius is still very good. As for The Fifth Child, well, I was pretty disappointed. I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I think one really needs to be a parent to relate. The basic premise is this - David and Harriet are determined to achieve domestic bliss through a traditional blueprint of family life. So, they purchase a large house and have a multitude of children. By the fourth child everything's still going swell, and they appear to be living their dream. Enter the fifth child, a cold, violent, large and ugly child who only seems vaguely human. Sounds like an interesting premise, yeah? Unfortunately I found the writing style to be very dull. I thought the ideas presented were somewhat interesting, but ultimately drawn rather poorly. At the same time, I think I'd have found it more interesting if I was female, a parent, or married and wanted to have kids. Still, it's a short read so I can't complain.

11-08-2005, 09:20 AM	#813 (permalink)
RickB Tired Location: Beverly Hills	Finally getting around to reading a book by Dan Brown. I'd thought I'd start with Angels and Demons and then move on to The DaVinci Code.

11-08-2005, 11:11 AM	#814 (permalink)
sailor beauty in the breakdown Location: Chapel Hill, NC	The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman. It's a history of the events leading up to, and the first month of, the first world war. It's supposed to be one of the best histories of this war ever written; I'll soon find out __________________ "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." --Plato

11-08-2005, 11:13 AM	#815 (permalink)
avernus Crazy Location: Bath, UK	Thinks.... by David Lodge. Honestly couldn't finish Human Stain by Philip Roth, and I hate leaving books unfinished. Kadath, I loved Perdido Street Station! His next book The Scar is set in the same world just after the events in PSS but I thought it was even better! His most recent book Iron Council is a bit disappointing though. King Rat, his first book, ain't a bad read if you like him as a author. __________________ I like to browse in occult bookshops if for no other reason than to refresh my commitment to science. -- Heinz Pagels, "The Dreams of Reason"

11-10-2005, 11:19 AM	#816 (permalink)
CBlend Junkie Location: Classified	Excel Data Analysis for Dummies by Stephen L. Nelson. Isn't my life thrilling?

11-22-2005, 07:56 AM	#817 (permalink)
sentimental_arm Upright	Just read Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, pretty good. Am now starting Jean-Paul Sartre 'Being and Nothingness", the most technical philosophy book I've read so far in my life, has taken me 3 attempts to read the introduction. Hopefully all the long-windedness will have some value when chatting up existentialist women. cantona

11-23-2005, 04:56 AM	#819 (permalink)
meembo Junkie Location: Connecticut	I saw Walk the Line on Monday, and I got Cash's autobiography, which is an awfully rambling kind of book of remembrances __________________ less I say, smarter I am

11-24-2005, 08:22 AM	#820 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	Catch-22 by Joseph Heller __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

11-24-2005, 08:32 AM	#822 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	I am reading Elanor Rigby by Douglas Copeland... and I swear that the main character, Liz, is based on Maleficent. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

11-24-2005, 02:49 PM	#823 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	Just finished the saga "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullogh. Pretty good read...entertaining if nothing else, though I did learn a lot about sheep stations in Australia. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

11-24-2005, 04:16 PM	#824 (permalink)
Toaster126 Extreme moderation Location: Kansas City, yo.	I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 again right now. Before that I read Brave New World for the billionth time. I need to read something not about a future messed up society next, I think. __________________ "The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand) "The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

11-25-2005, 12:00 AM	#825 (permalink)
Sho Nuff Addict Location: Harlem	Imperial Hubris: Why the West is losing the War on Terror. Probably one of the most sober albiet one sided assesments of the war on terror Ive read. __________________ I know Nietzsche doesnt rhyme with peachy, but you sound like a pretentious prick when you correct me.

11-25-2005, 06:14 PM	#826 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	Palahniuk's Choke. I'm about halfway through and I'm already having to take breaks as the torment grows thicker. __________________ it's quiet in here

12-01-2005, 07:13 AM	#827 (permalink)
rthmchgs Upright Location: Norfolk, VA	Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. So far so good, only about 1/4 done with it. To me it is not written to be complete fiction like other books with magic, this seems like it could almost be possible....maybe I am completely wrong....

12-12-2005, 07:26 AM	#828 (permalink)
DHS Tilted Location: Pennsylvania	Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. __________________ "keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

12-12-2005, 08:09 AM	#829 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	The Green Mile. Stephen King could make a career writing non-horror prison novels... __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

12-12-2005, 09:45 AM	#830 (permalink)
Coppertop Getting Medieval on your ass Location: 13th century Europe

12-12-2005, 09:57 AM	#832 (permalink)
pixelbend Too hot in the hot tub!	Reading "The Mediterranian Caper" by Clive Cussler. I just now found the Dirk Pitt series. Pretty interesting, for downtime books. __________________ But I don't want ANY Spam!

12-14-2005, 11:51 PM	#833 (permalink)
Locke Insane Location: The reddest state ever. :(	The Gunslinger by Stephen King. Time to start on this set. __________________ CUBS WIN, CUBS WIN!!!! - Pat Hughes "Don't surround yourself with yourself." Yes

12-15-2005, 12:11 AM	#834 (permalink)
SecretMethod70 Human Administrator Location: Chicago	Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby, Jr. So far, the book is quite excellent, though it takes a bit of getting used to the writing style. Paragraph breaks are not very common and there are no quotation marks or indications as to who is saying what when something is being said other than picking up on each character's speaking style. __________________ Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

12-17-2005, 03:44 AM	#835 (permalink)
SecretMethod70 Human Administrator Location: Chicago	Update: I'm further into the book and if you've seen the movie, the book is just as crazy from a literary perspective. I swear to god, I recently read an 8 page long "paragraph" in which one "sentence" went on for at least 2.5 pages (I didn't bother to look and see exactly how long the sentence is). It's really quite effective at creating a certain "feel" though, I'm enjoying it a lot. __________________ Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

12-17-2005, 09:58 PM	#836 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	Just finished rereading some of my favorites out of the "Anne" series of books by LM Montgomery: Anne of Avonlea and Rilla of Ingleside. I'd tkae up reading Anne of the Island if I could find it, but it's gone missing... Instead I'm going to start reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. I think it will be interesting. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

12-18-2005, 08:57 AM	#837 (permalink)
Coppertop Getting Medieval on your ass Location: 13th century Europe	Schrödinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson snowy, I've been wanting to read Guns, Germs & Steel for a while now. Can you give us (okay - me) a review when you're done?

12-18-2005, 10:07 AM	#838 (permalink)
aKula Psycho	Tolstoy's war and peace. I'm really enjoying it as I like reading books set in that era. Needless to say it is well written. __________________ "I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble." -Klaus Kinski as Don Lope de Aguirre

12-19-2005, 05:31 AM	#839 (permalink)
Sgoilear Tilted Location: Colorado	Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. __________________ "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." -George Bernard Shaw

12-19-2005, 06:22 AM	#840 (permalink)
highthief Junkie Location: Ontario, Canada	"Scotland: From Prehistory to Present" - by Fiona Watson. __________________ Si vis pacem parabellum.