This week, I are mostly reading....

Dades

adonis wrote:

a lot of the stuff a lot of people are mentioning.

Such as?!

Jay Tomio

Reading an advanced copy of Tim Lebbon's Dusk. Lebbon is a well reputed horror author (some really nice short fiction). I'm only 200 some odd pages into it, and nothiing has really occured as of yet for me to make any conslusion. It's a Fantasy effort, byt Lebbon's tone translates over real well, giving the prose a really weighty feel - just seems each page is more substantial than the norm. Thus far the story is a bit too typical fantasy, but I do like the tone/atmosphere thus far and haven't read enough of what I think is a planned duology to make a value judgment on the book yet. He is an author whose pasts work I admire however, so I am optimsitic.

I also started making my way through a new Tolkien related work, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (a planned late December release). In reads like a annotated edition of the trilogy, and was proving t obe very informative, even if inconsequential. As I get further into it however, I am enjoying it more. I really loved The History of Middle Earth editions, and been waiting for similar, although this is from a more historical perspective of the author and his thoughts during the writing of each individual passages. Something only a true fan of Tolkien could appreciate it I think, and even more so a fan of the mythology behind the Middle Earth and its creation.

I like Katherine Kurtz's work, but I'm not as big of a fan as some I know, and I just got her latest (again late December releases) Deryni Checkmate which I plan on giving a chance later today.

lacuna

I'm reading two books at the moment.

"Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe and "Tom Jones" by Henry Fielding.

I'll not pass judgement just yet, but rather wait till I've delved into the books a little deeper.

jrey1981

Ways of Seeing by John Berger...still have another book, Willing Slaves, to try and finish, and then two more to read...

Seem to be going through a non-fiction phase at the moment.

matrim

I've just finished A Feast of Crows, GRR Martin.
It's good but not quite as good as the others.


I've started to read the latest Robert Jordan book now. It picks up the pace alot and he seems to be back to writing good books.

finlma

I just started Papillon - a book I've always meant to read.

John

I'm reading Owen Gingerich's The Book Nobody Read. It's about Copernicus's De Revolutionibus and tracking down all the copies they could find to see who actually read them by studying the annotations. It's very very interesting.

ionapaul

Just finished Richard Dawkin's wonderful 'The Ancestor's Tale' - read a lot of his 'evolution for the layman' books, everyone should be forced to learn something about evolution and natural selection at some point in their life! Currently halfway though George R.R. Martin's 'A Storm of Swords', fun series of books so far. Next on the shelf is Dostoyevksy's 'The Idiot', which I bought for a mere €2 in Easons!

I tend to buy three books at a time and read them in sequence - a popular science book / historical narrative, a lighter piece of fiction, then a classic. The lighter piece of fiction is to break up the heavy going in case both the science / history and classic are a bit of a slog.

theCzar

The first of Eduardo Galeano's trilogy called Genesis, it's the history of South America as told through thousands of short semi-fictional accounts.

Fascinating.

dudara

Just finished "The Phoenix" by Henning Boetius. It was described as being a great thriller, but to be honest, i found it quite monotonous. It's based on the Hindenburg diasaster and one survivor's search for the truth.

I dunno what I'll pick up next. I bought "A Very Short Guide To Ethics" at the weekend, in an effort to educate myself, so that might be next

Jay Tomio

Along with reading Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana I just cracked open (100 pages in or so) Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon,the first book in the Temeraire sequence, that all 3 installments will be released in 2006. I have the U.S edition (Del-Rey) in front of me which comes out in March I believe, but the UK edition is supposedly in the mail (which comes it January) and is apparently named Temeraire . Voyager is really pushing this series and Novik with more zeal than usual new releases. 100 pages in I can say I am rather intrigued. It's setting is in a time where Napoleon is still warring with England, but adds a very interesting dragon/aviator application, and different breeds of dragons from different world powers. I can't say much through only 100 pages, but I am enjoying it thus far.

I mentioned I was reading Tim Lebbon's Dusk,. Lebbon is an award winning author, generally associated with Horror, whose past work I really have enjoyed, and although I liked Dusk, which is a high/epic fantasy effort, I was left mildy disappointed by the work, it just came off to me as a darker Shannara, (although written by a much more comeptent writer IMHO.).

After even making even more progress with the recently released 900 pages The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, I'm now solid it's essential for for any self respecting aspiring Tolkien Scholar, to go right new to the History of Middle Earth Editions, and Humphrey Carpenter's various works.


Also doing a reread of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta

John

I'm going to start Book 5 of the History of Middle Earth today

Closing Doors

John2 wrote:

I'm going to start Book 5 of the History of Middle Earth today

Are those books worth it? I mean I'm a huge LOTR fan but would they detract from it or do they actually add some insight? Thanks...

John

They're heavy going I feel. I like them but it takes me ages to read one of them and there's no way I could read two in a row. They're not a history in the sense of "First the elves arrived..." and so on. It's more a history of how Tolkien made the world and the books. You'll read the same story about five times but slightly different each time.

pbsuxok1znja4r

I'm trying to pick up "Middlemarch" by George Eliot again, which I got diverted from when I first tried to read it a couple of months back. Christ, it's been a year now and I still haven't gotten around to finishing Hemingway's "A Farewell To Arms".

arbeitsscheuer

"How To Be Idle" by Thomas Hodgkinson

Brilliant.

grimsbymatt

'The Spy That Came in From the Cold' by John Le Carre

Nimrod's Son

Ring by that Japanese bloke. I forget his name and don't have the book to hand. I'm curious to see if it works as a book. Loved the film.

PJG

'the five people you meet in heaven' by Mitch Albom

good short read. starting his other one Tuesdays
with Morrie.

supersheep

"Fiefs and Vassals" by Susan Reynolds. A deep dense historical tome, basically saying that the idea we have of mediaeval feudalism is totally wrong. I've managed to get about ten pages in, in maybe fifteen minutes... Heavy going by my standards.

Aisling(",)

Dan Browns "The Da Vinci code" around my fifth time reading it still think it is very good

The Free Man

The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra. i love buddhism!

dudara

Finished "The Man Watched The Trains Pass By" by Simeon. Very good read.

Tusky

Started 'The Stand'. Is it worth continueing ?

Redleslie2

Get Your Cock Out by Mark Manning the anti-danbrown.

Dades

Tusky wrote:

Started 'The Stand'. Is it worth continueing ?

I really enjoyed it a long time ago.
That and King's other book "IT" really drag you into another world when you're reading them.
They do take some investment though.

eljono

Tusky wrote:

Started 'The Stand'. Is it worth continueing ?

Definately. I'm currently reading it for the second time. I first read it about 6/7 years ago and I was blown away by it. It's just as good second time around too! It is quite long but well worth it.

John

Tusky wrote:

Started 'The Stand'. Is it worth continueing ?

I've read it 4 or 5 times so I'd say yes. Continue away.

theCzar

theCzar wrote:

The first of Eduardo Galeano's trilogy called Genesis, it's the history of South America as told through thousands of short semi-fictional accounts.

Fascinating.

Now i'm reading the second... unfortunately I don't have the 3rd so i don't know what'll happen...

Closing Doors

John2 wrote:

They're heavy going I feel. I like them but it takes me ages to read one of them and there's no way I could read two in a row. They're not a history in the sense of "First the elves arrived..." and so on. It's more a history of how Tolkien made the world and the books. You'll read the same story about five times but slightly different each time.

Oh so it's kind of different drafts of how he constructed the world rather than background info? Thanks for the insight btw.

Currently on the 2nd book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. And my mate randomly sent a copy of "The Origin Of Life" by Paul Davies down to me, so I assume that means it's pretty good! That's next on the agenda...