What Are You Reading?

Yawlboy

Thargor wrote: »

Interesting, is it a good translation? As in is it a good read or can you tell it was written in another language first?

Its a very good translation, personally I couldn't tell that it was translated at all. However it is written by someone with a Chinese view of the world, as opposed to our Western viewpoint. If that makes sense.

Dades

pinkstars wrote: »

How do you all get so into reading? Do you not watch tv? I sit and smoke and do neither but I need to be doing something more productive with my time!!!!!!!

Find a good book and start reading?

In bed, on a bus/train, in the garden... Or just find an hour and shut everything else off and sit down at home.

And put the smartphone down!

Trojan

pinkstars wrote: »

How do you all get so into reading?

For me it was all down to bad parenting, my folks got me addicted to reading scifi at a young age.

pinkstars wrote: »

Do you not watch tv?

A bit, yep. Books are for bed, or bank queues, or anywhere else I've to wait.

pinkstars wrote: »

I sit and smoke and do neither but I need to be doing something more productive with my time!!!!!!!

If you're not talking about cigarettes, then definitely. (Actually, even if you are )

Trojan

Dades wrote: »

And put the smartphone down!

Now that my Kindle screen is b0rked - again - I'm reading in the Kindle app on my phone. It's not bad actually, and dead handy.

/digression

Kovu

I read from a young age as we had crap tv, only three channels. From then on it just grew into a hobby and has continued to be ever since. I find that my imagination allows me to run the book as images in my head and no film has come close to how my brain can picture things. I've never tried to actually explain it before :pac:

wyrn

pinkstars wrote: »

How do you all get so into reading? Do you not watch tv? I sit and smoke and do neither but I need to be doing something more productive with my time!!!!!!!

I love reading. Can't go to sleep without reading a few chapters. Carry my Kindle around in my handbag and any spare time I have, waiting for the bus, lunchtime etc... I read. My parents too got me into sci-fi and fantasy books from a very young age. Used to pretend that I was afraid of the dark so they'd leave my door open so I could read some more.

I've gone off tv, I rarely watch live tv. I usually just series link or use Netflix on my my Kindle.

Trojan

wyrn wrote: »

Used to pretend that I was afraid of the dark so they'd leave my door open so I could read some more.

Hehe, I totally understand that. In a similar vein I used to tune my walkman (without headphones) in to a stereo frequency and use the little red LED to read line by line. Crazy.

Thargor

Exact same, dont bother with tv anymore either, queue up everything in Utorrent and watch it all in a big splurge with a few cans at the weekend, I prefer reading in the evenings now with a bit of Youtube. Even if I only get to bed at 3am and have to be up at 7 I know theres no point in lying there awake, I have to read a few chapters to get into sleep mode. Love reading my nook in bed compared to the phone aswell, E-readers are completely superior to screens, tbh I prefer them to paper aswell these days.

TitianGerm

When I was younger my dad used to read the Famous Five books to myself and brother at bed time.
I used to be a big reader and remember getting into the Wheel of Time series around 07/08 I think. I used to re read all the books before the next one came out. I think I read most of the series 8 or 9 times.
I knda fell away from it in college but since last June I'm back and invested in a Kindle after Christmas and I have to say its great.

pinkstars

Hey what Kindle supports Netflix?

Thargor

Dont feed the troll time I think.

Trojan

As for the topic, I'm still reading Gridlinked by Neal Asher.

It's just about holding my attention - maybe I should have started with the ones mentioned the post a couple days back.

mcgovern

I finished The Rithmatist, it had an interesting world, with lots of hints at more, but the story itself was pretty poor.
Now onto The City & The City by China Mievelle

OwaynOTT

Finished Tower Lord and I hate cliffhangers, although the ending isn't that much of a cliffhanger.
Thankfully I won't have to wait too long now for the next one and I might remember who's who. Nothing worse than a long gap between reading entries into a fantasy series.
That's been keeping me away for Words of Radiance but I got it out of the library today.
First, I need to finish Old Man's War, which I got on kindle thanks to a heads-up on here.
It's quite funny at times, I especially loved the drill sergeant section.

TwoShedsJackson

mcgovern wrote: »

Now onto The City & The City by China Mievelle

Very good read, especially if you haven't been spoiled to the main plot point.

Buford T. Justice XIX

pinkstars wrote: »

How do you all get so into reading? Do you not watch tv? I sit and smoke and do neither but I need to be doing something more productive with my time!!!!!!!

I watch a bit of TV but not a whole lot.

I was always into reading, maybe even too much:). Our mother used read a story to us at bedtime and i couldn't wait till i could read a story myself.

I read a lot of types of fiction but keep coming back to Fantasy, just for the skewed perspective that sometimes comes with a good story and author.

Currently reading 'Old Mans War' from a recommendation on here, it's the first sci-fi i've read for years and enjoying it.

If you have a smartphone, get the kindle app or the google play app. Different prices in both for the same book and a good selection of free classics if you aren't sure if you will stay reading. When I'm waiting to collect the kids from school or waiting for a call or just filling in time, I pull out the phone and have a choice of books to pass a few minutes.

Manach

Count to a Trillion by John Wright. His short stories are good, so this is my first reading of a novel from him.

OwaynOTT

Well well, finished Old Man's War in two days.

Must have been a short book, its kinda hard to tell on kindle how much you've read and what's left to go.

It was a good read, quite funny in places but I felt it was rather slight in places and kinda glossed over some interesting topics -

like the whole ghost squad and using someone's genetic goods to create a person.

One of the tags in the kindle mention how it wasn't as lecturing as Forever War but I liked Forever War more.

Raging_Ninja

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Well well, finished Old Man's War in two days.

Must have been a short book, its kinda hard to tell on kindle how much you've read and what's left to go.

It was a good read, quite funny in places but I felt it was rather slight in places and kinda glossed over some interesting topics -

like the whole ghost squad and using someone's genetic goods to create a person.

One of the tags in the kindle mention how it wasn't as lecturing as Forever War but I liked Forever War more.

Read the sequel, The Ghost Brigade. Scalzi likes to subtly hint at stuff and let the reader figure it out rather than explain things outright

mcgovern

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Very good read, especially if you haven't been spoiled to the main plot point.

I'm about half way through and still struggling to figure out what exactly is going on, I guess I'll try not to google anything until I've finished!

Dades

OwaynOTT wrote: »

One of the tags in the kindle mention how it wasn't as lecturing as Forever War but I liked Forever War more.

I can see the similarities. Really liked OMW (part way through book 5), and the first book is the best.

But Forever War is a rightly lauded classic.

TwoShedsJackson

Reading Book 1 in the Shadows of the Apt series after getting it for like 50p or something on Kindle, quite liking it - does the series maintain the quality level?

Thargor

Yep, I devoured those books anyway. Some excellent characters.

Thargor

Jonathon strange & Mr Norell is a huge fantasy-ish/alternative history about 2 rival magicians, well worth a read. Just heard the BBC have made it into a series:

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/04/29/broadsheet-tv-trailer-park-jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/

Nody

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Reading Book 1 in the Shadows of the Apt series after getting it for like 50p or something on Kindle, quite liking it - does the series maintain the quality level?

Only three books in but imo it improved in book 2 and 3 compared to the first and the people who've been further in has not complained as far as I've seen

pH

Thargor wrote: »

Jonathon strange & Mr Norell is a huge fantasy-ish/alternative history about 2 rival magicians, well worth a read. Just heard the BBC have made it into a series:

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/04/29/broadsheet-tv-trailer-park-jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/

Really good book - unlike ....



"Half the World" by Joe Abercrombie. I wept, how an author I liked so much produced this rubbish I've no idea - why did he decide to write "YA" (or YA-crossover as he calls it) I have no bloody idea - maybe commercial pressure - "hey joe - you'd sell a lot more books if they were more like Twilight" -who knows. Awful tweeny romance set in an Abercrombie world.

Picked up the first of Asher's Polity universe books- enjoying it so far.

Thargor

Ah balls I just added that to my Nook last night, would have started buying the series if it was any good. He's been a serious disappointment since the First Law trilogy, all his other stuff has just been a bit pointless.

OwaynOTT

Do fantasy writers improve the longer they work at their art?
Abercrombie has indeed been disappointing, but wholly uninteresting, since his first law trilogy.
Robin Hobb in my opinion hasn't lived up to the quality of the first Fitz trilogy and Madship Traders.
Feist definitely just went through the motions as he wrote more and more of those Riftwar/Serpent War books.
A lot of modern fantasy writers tend to burst onto to the sence surrounding by hype and usually fail to live up to it.
The ones that do are having disappointing follow ups - Rothfuss and Wise Man's Fear - Brett and all the sequels to Painted Man.
Heck even Tower Lord disappointed a lot.

Dan_Solo

Dan_Solo wrote: »

New fantasy is next on the rotation, so it's Richard K. Morgan's 2008 book, The Steel Remains. A few chapters in and it's fairly straightforward hack n slash skirmishing before presumably the epic questing etc kicks off. Nothing amazing. Reminds me of the old D+D novels which I have a bizarre soft spot for (in moderation). It's a trilogy so it'll have to pick up its game for me to read the lot...

This novel went downhill pretty fast. "gritty" just means "bloody" and "there's sex in it". The Dwenda bad guys were basically black elves of some sort. Usual fiction ninja/alien fare... the first one takes out a battalion but by the end of it any aul eejit can hammer them back where the came. They have all these weird magic powers which appear to be of zero use whatsoever when it comes to fight time.
And the "hero" guy having sex with the "bad" guy? What the hell was that all about? I couldn't get an ounce of sense out of the motivations behind it.
Nope, you'll need more than that Mr. Morgan to get me past the first book of a trilogy! 2/10.
So, onto old SF. Asimov's classic The Gods Themselves (1972). Not too dated a chapter or so in, waiting for any real story to start though really.

InReality

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Do fantasy writers improve the longer they work at their art?
Abercrombie has indeed been disappointing, but wholly uninteresting, since his first law trilogy.
Robin Hobb in my opinion hasn't lived up to the quality of the first Fitz trilogy and Madship Traders.
Feist definitely just went through the motions as he wrote more and more of those Riftwar/Serpent War books.
A lot of modern fantasy writers tend to burst onto to the sence surrounding by hype and usually fail to live up to it.
The ones that do are having disappointing follow ups - Rothfuss and Wise Man's Fear - Brett and all the sequels to Painted Man.
Heck even Tower Lord disappointed a lot.

I've been disappointed with a lot of follow-ups, especially in recent years.
I think writers get better the more they write though.

Am reading "to challenge a maestro " nice simple fantasy stuff