What are you reading?

[laughing paradox]

I know we have a community of literate individuals who post on this site, so I am curious to know what you are reading, attempting to read or what you've finished recently?

I've been on a substantial horror kick lately, reading books by Richard Laymon and Bentley Little. However, the latest book I've read was The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. It is such a fantastic piece of literature. I was not aware that it was the first in a trilogy, so I'm going to check the rest out.

Also, is anyone a member of GoodReads? It's a great site that allows people to review books, suggest and gain recommendations and has some very active reading groups. Definitely a site for bibliophiles.

[JeyNyce]

This is my stack of reading so far:

Ready Player One

The Hunger Games - The forums here told me about this book

Critical Path: How to Review Videogames for a Living

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Recently Read:

Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco

Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal by Jeff Wagner

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank

The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation by Thomas Frank

Currently (Re)Reading:

The Dune series by Frank Herbert

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[Tawodi Osdi]

Recently Read:

The Complete adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Currently Reading:
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton
Why Good Arguments Often Fail by James W. Sire

[UnfluffyBunny]

my recent "finished" pile stands as follows:
the last four things - Paul Hoffman
the desert spear - Peter V Brett
star wars: TOR: Decieved - Paul Kemp
star wars: TOR: Fatal Alliance - Sean Williams
star wars: TOR: Revan - Drew Karpyshyn
the rogue - Trudi Canavan
theft of swords and rise of empire - micheal J Sullivan

with that said i'm currently out of books and re-reading the way of kings by Brandon Sanderson (thoroughly reccomend)

[Randomdays]

(Re)reading Anne Mccaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and Daniel Hood's Familiar Dragon Series. Also re-reading Marvel's Conan series - up to issue 90 so far. Just got done done re-reading the classic 12 book Conan books by Lancer/Ace with the Frazetta covers.

Thinking about reading John Flanagan's Ranger Apprentice series - anyone read these and liked them?

[Deaths Jester]

These are what I can remember that I'm currently reading or re-reading (noted in places):

Most of HP Lovecraft's short stories (re-reading)
How To Make War by James Dunnigan
Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons by Serita Deborah Stevens  and Anne Klarner ((re-reading)


There are other's but I can't remember them right this minute...will post later.

[lugaru]

This is going to sound ridiculous but I've actually been on a reading break... that said recently I plowed through all of the Books of Blood by Clive Barker and I cannot recomend them enough. For me Clive spits out more realized, complete short stories than Stephen King does and he is one of the only authors who does interesting things with sex. He also really handles the voices well for dozens of characters, it feels like his writing is too good for short horror stories.

[laughing paradox]

I love the Books of Blood. Barker's imagination just explodes off the pages. I have so many favorites from those books.. The Midnight Meat Train, From The Cities, The Hills, Dread.. he really is a fantastic author.

[bevo]

A Conflict of visions by Thomas Sowell.

Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell

Come out tonight by Richard Laymon.

I just finished the Traveling vampire show by Richard Laymon. I liked it.

I read Origin recently by J.A. Konrath. I thought it was pretty good. I look forward to the sequel. The main character looks like my avatar pic.

I finished the Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz not long ago. I enjoyed it.

[juancho]

I read a lot of crappy fantasy/love novels. I'm no expert and I just love me some teenage drama

Recently finished:

The hugner games series Suzanne Collins
The Mortal Instruments (book 1 to 4) Cassandra Claire
Sookie StackHouse (all the saga so far) Charlaine Harris - oh yes I love true blood, book style

Currently reading
A song of Ice and Fire book 1 - A game of thrones by George RR Martin

[Xenolith]

I am finally...FINALLY...reading Moby Dick.  It is the last one on my "must read the classics" list.

Bevo, how do yo like the Sowell books? 

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Currently reading
A song of Ice and Fire book 1 - A game of thrones by George RR Martin

Let me know whether or not you fancy that series, juancho.  I had been long awaiting the publication of the latest installment, A Dance with Dragons, last summer, which I read immediately upon its release into the wild.   At the time, I had given some thought to starting up a forum-based RPG campaign based on the A Song of Ice and Fire rules developed by Green Ronin Publishing, but, alas!, I become swamped with RL once again and doubted whether or not I could devote the time to maintaining such an endeavour as a game narrator.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[Deaths Jester]

More of what I'm reading:

Books of Blood by Cliver Barker (re-reading, and not becuase it was mentioned here)
A Clockwork Orange by Burgess (rereading)
Some random collections of Ray Bradbury's short stories (re-reading)
The Definitive Collection of Robert Bloch: Volumes 1-3 Short stories by of course Robert Bloch (re-reading)


There's still others but I'm not posting htem here right now becuase their mostly re-reads anyways!

[bevo]

            Xenolith I am a Sowell groupie and generally think he can do no wrong. The Conflict of visions is a bit dry. Conquests and cultures looks more interesting. I have only skimmed that so far.

I read the Books of blood when I was like 12. I remember the one about Marylin Monroe the most and of course Rawhead Rex.

[UnfluffyBunny]

Currently reading
A song of Ice and Fire book 1 - A game of thrones by George RR Martin

I read this earlier in the year and never got round to picking up any of the sequals, but I keep meaning to (got flogged down with star wars releases >.>) Tyrion is by far my favourite character

[Randomdays]

Couldn't finish the first book with all the viewpoint changes. But I watched the HBO series and loved it. Everyone well cast, but Tyrion (character and actor) my favorite as well.

[lugaru]

Btw there is a podcast I cannot recomend enough, if you are a non fiction junky like I am.

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/the_afterword.html

[Deaths Jester]

The final listing of what I'm currently reading:

The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber (re-reading)
Can Such Things Be by Ambrose Bierce
Vincent Price: The Art of Fear by Denis Meikle (re-reading)
Red Mafiya: How The Russian Mob Has Invaded America by Robert I. Friedman (re-reading)
Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr by Rudolph Grey (re-reading)
US Army Field Manual 21-76: US Army Survival Manual by the United States Department of the Army
US War Department Technical Manual 30-451: Handbook on German Military Forces (1945) by the US War Department (re-reading)
Hell House by Richard Matheson (re-reading)
Gulag Archipelago: Volume 1 by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
The Essential Harlan Ellison by Harlan Ellison, edited by Terry Dowling


Anybody see a trend with all these books?

[BentonGrey]

Ha...the things some of y'all read...very interesting.  Some of these things sound interesting though.  RD, I've heard good things about the Dragon Rider series.  You're a fan?

DJ, that one about the occult roots of Nazism sounds pretty neat.  I assume it deals with the Thule Society, would that be correct?

For my part, I'm finally feeling intellectually rested enough to tackle some classics that I've been meaning to read/re-read forever, and I'm beginning something of a research program on epics.  I was worn out by my work and by my thesis to the point that pretty much the only things I was reading were comics.  I'm now feeling sharp enough to do some deeper reading, which is nice.  My list since Christmas is as follows:

Recently finished:
The Mighty Thor Omnibus Vol. 1 by various
Classic G.I. JOE Vol. 13
G.I. JOE Special Missions Vol. 1 by Larry Hama
The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell A.K.A. John G. Henry
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Aeneid by Virgil
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Currently Reading:
Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Dracula by Bram Stoker

In the Pile:
Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso
The Prose Edda
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Beowulf (Rereading)
The Sonnets of Petrarch by Petrach
The Works of Cicero by Cicero

[UnfluffyBunny]

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

this one any good? I almost picked it up when I was out friday >.>

[Randomdays]

Benton, yes a fan of the Pern books. Basic premise (no spoilers) An Earth colony is set up on the planet PErn. Things go well for a while, but every 200 years, a rogue planet passes close enough to the sun and Pern to activate the life there - primitive spore life that spins off and appears as silver thread in the atmosphere. When it lands, it reproduces rapidly, eating everything living and could wipe out all life on Pern. The colonists take a local life form and work on it to create the dragons, to fly and burn the thread out of the sky before it lands.

When the books start, most of the history is forgotten and the colonists are living in a middleages sort of society. The spore planet hasn't been by for 400 years due to the unstable orbit, but its about due to come back.

First novel to read - Dragonflight (the first part of this was printed seperately and was good enough to win a Hugo award when it came out. The dragons are intelligent, friendly and have good personalities.

Highly recommended.

[BentonGrey]

Cool RD, I'll have to try those.  I'm adding the first one to my Amazon list.

Syn, I was impressed; they're very good.  That first book is quite good, the second is also very good, and the third, though not as strong as the others, is still very entertaining. It doesn't really say anything new, just the classic distopyian, self-focused future, but the blending of that with the survival narrative and the focus on life in harsh conditions...it's really interesting. I like the reversal of the focus, though, where the reality TV isn't really to sate or indocrtinate the oppressed, it's to reinforce their inferiority. That's somewhat clever. There are a couple of really nice moments in these books that build on that classic theme in interesting ways. It's no Fahrenheit 451, but it's still good. There's one moment in particular where the main character is being attended by a flock of folks from the ruling class, and while she just survived the horrors of the Games, they are all discussing its highlights. However, their conversation is not about the Games, it's about THEM and their reactions to it. That's clever. Also...I must say, while the teen romance drama is tiring, at times, being the old softy that I am, I pulled for the main character to end up with the baker. I like that fellow.

[Randomdays]

Benton, you might want to try the collected trilogies

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dragonriders-Pern-Anne-McCaffrey/dp/0345340248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330831858&sr=1-1

Books 1, 2 and 6 (timewise)

http://www.amazon.com/Harper-Hall-Pern-Anne-McCaffrey/dp/1568650175/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330832099&sr=1-13

Books 3-5 (timewise)

This is the basic order to read them and I think the order they were written. There's quite a few after these, but these make a good start and not all of the later ones were winners.

[Talavar]

I've been reading Iain M. Banks 'Culture' series.  Great literary science fiction, with some heady ideas on display.  Good stuff!

[Deaths Jester]

DJ, that one about the occult roots of Nazism sounds pretty neat.  I assume it deals with the Thule Society, would that be correct?

It does deal with the Thule Society, but also expands on the smaller groups as well, including the Edda Society and the major power Karl Maria Wiligut possessed as Himmler's and Hitler's "private magus".  Is a very interesting read for sure!

[BWPS]

John Dies at the End.
I'm just over halfway through (audiobook) and it is really nuts. I'm trying to decide how I feel about it and so I look at things that make it so unique but they all seem to add to its charm. It's funny and creative, and if you really analyze it, it is absolutely brilliant. I think it was originally something he posted in pieces online which explains the episodic books. I recommend it, not just because it is good but because it is probably the only chance you'll get to read a novel about

Spoiler

lovable losers who take a drug from a fake Jamaican and get the ability to see the horrible disgusting demons everywhere with side effects that give them borderline-psychic powers.

(CHAPTER 1 SPOILERS)

[BentonGrey]

Thanks RD, duly noted and added.  DJ, neat, I'm going to have to track that down eventually.

[thalaw2]

Very recently Finished:
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Woman
- Breaking the Sound Barrier - Amy Goodman


Reading:
- Frank Zappa
- What the US can learn from China

[Tawodi Osdi]

Just started reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.