Currently Reading

[Ajax]

List what your reading, what you've read (if you liked it, recommend it, or whatever), or what you are waiting for to come out (I'm looking at you George R.R. Martin). Please stick to novels.

Not reading anything atm, but I recently finished reading Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. I don't recommend this, it was a bit flat from start to finish. Though I highly recommend his other books, Fool on the Hill and The Public Works Trilogy.

I'm putting off reading the Confusion by Neal Stepheson mostly because it is huge and I don't have the endurance to read it yet. Getting through the first volume of this series took alot out of me so I've been reading lighter books ever since.

My motive for this thread is to get an idea of other books to read.

[JeyNyce]

Please stick to novels.

I just finish reading some graphic novels, does that count? :P

Prelude to Planet Hulk
Planet Hulk
World War Hulk

All are great books and I recommend them.  I'm going back to re-read Watchmen, because of the movie.  I am looking for some fantasy novels to read (LOTR type fantasy) so if anybody have any recommendations I'm all ears.

[Uncle Yuan]

I'm putting off reading the Confusion by Neal Stepheson mostly because it is huge and I don't have the endurance to read it yet. Getting through the first volume of this series took alot out of me so I've been reading lighter books ever since.

My expereience with Stephenson precisely.  I'm about 1/3 through Confusion and it's going nowhere.  At some point the mood will strike and I'll finish it.

I really need to get to the library and pick up the most recent Dresden Files.  I'm always happy for the author when their books make the transition to hard cover, but it does put a hicough in the schedule when it first happens.

The only other book I've been reading lately is "Primary Gynecology and Obstetrics."  I woudn't recommend it for the casual reader . . .

[Xorn]

Well, I just finished reading the Seven book series "Saga of the Seven Suns" by Kevin J. Anderson... And it was as epic a story as can be imagined. It was wonderful in so many ways, that I became so attached to the characters that now that it's over I miss reading about their adventures.... It's really a great series...

[ow_tiobe_sb]

I'm currently taking a healthy dose of rereading (because all rereading is reading with a difference, whereas all first readings are rather limited readings of oneself in the process of reading) (in no particular order--I tend to read two or more related texts simultaneously):

Orientalism, the quintessentially classic post-colonial opus by Edward Said.
How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev (a fascinating analysis of a slice of American racial history).
If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (just for pleasure rereading).
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by the inimitable and ever lucid Fredric Jameson.
Inventing Ireland: The Literature of The Modern Nation by the equally inimitable and equally lucid Declan Kiberd

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Fop o' th' Morning

[bredon7777]

I second Uncle Yuan's 'Dresden Files' reference, Small Favor is the best book in the series in some time.

I just finished The Devil You know by Mike Carey, which was decent, and have the paperback version of Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis on order.

[Ajax]

I highly recommend Crooked Little Vein, it was a quick and enjoyable read. Though reading it will make you question the sanity of the human race.

[spoiler]According to Ellis, all the fetishes he talks about in that book are apparently very real. That fact scared me a little when I read that book. [/spoiler]

Thinking of picking up another Hunter S Thompson book. I recently finished his Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 book and enjoyed it greatly.

[kkhohoho]

I just finished up Watchmen.  I thought the plot was fairly slow paced, but there was a lot of detail, and a history that spanned more then 40 years.  The characters were good too.

As for "real" novels, I used to read "Sword of Shannara", but I felt the pacing was too slow.  When it felt like 10-20 minutes had passed, 30-40 minutes had actually passed.  It's been more then 4 weeks since I last picked it up, and and I haven't so much as opened a book since.

[Frodo58]

I just picked up he Scarlet Pimpernel from the library today.

[BentonGrey]

If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (just for pleasure rereading).

You WOULD read Calvino just for pleasure.....although very clever, he is exactly what is wrong with modern literature. ;)

[lugaru]

I just finished William Gibsons "sequel" to Neuromancer called Count Zero and somewhat enjoyed it but not as much as the bridge series or his new books.

Right now I'm like around the middle of "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palniuk and I'm loving it, if anything because him in a female voice is a big departure from his characters in Fight Club, Choke and Survivor. Also I highly recomend "Haunted" by him, check out the review on my website.

http://www.theconnoisseurs.com/haunted.html

A few more goodies:

Soon I will be invincible: cool and funny superhero fiction

http://www.theconnoisseurs.com/sooniwillbeinvincible.html

Blasphemy: Scientists accidentally discover god using an atom smasher.

http://www.theconnoisseurs.com/blasphemy.html

Also: "A thousand splendid suns" if you want to learn about Afghanistan through a beautiful but bleak drama.

Btw the way I get through so many books is that I moved on to audio books and they have rocked my world.

[zuludelta]

I haven't really read any new novels (outside of graphic novels) in the past couple of years, although I tend to re-read my favourite fiction books every now and then... I'm more of a non-fiction guy when it comes to my non-comics reading, though.

Currently reading or just recently finished reading:

Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet by Sara Baase (an excellent read on how the information age has changed the the legal and ethical fabric of modern society) 

Aesthetics: Classic Readings From The Western Tradition by Dabney Townsend (an anthology collecting selected readings concerning the development of major art movements and artistic/aesthetic philosophies, from the ancient Greeks to the 1950s.)

Life After God by Douglas Coupland (a poignant, semi-biographical, illustrated collection of short stories by renowned Vancouver author Douglas Coupland)