Book Thread

Well we haven't had one in a few months so I thought I'd start a new one. I always enjoy these threads for finding books I might have missed.

I thought I'd break it up into a few different questions,

- What are you reading?
- Have you read anything recently that you'd recommend?
- What's in your "to read" pile?

I've been in a rut with gaming lately so I've been on a real tear reading and have come across a few winners.

Currently reading Satan Burger by Carlton Mellick III and Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond and enjoying both quite a bit even if Satan burger is one of the strangest reads I've come across in quite awhile.

A couple of book I've come across lately that I'd recommend are,

The Shivered Sky by Matt Dinniman. A pretty enjoyable read about a group of humans that arrive in heaven in the middle of war between the angels and demons. For some reason the book felt like classic Star Wars to me. That probably sounds strange but that was the vibe I got from the book. I had a lot of fun with it even if it was a tad rough around the edges being the authors first book.

Gideon's Wall by Greg Kurzawa. A very non traditional fantasy that just sucked me in.

Letters From Hades by Jefferey Thomas. Fun Interesting book about a man who wakes up in hell and is set loose to wander on his own.

In my to read pile is,

The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft and others.
The New Killer Diseases by Elinor Levy and Mark Fischetti.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Just finished Neil Gaiman''s American Gods. Great book, although i thought the ending was a little weak, not so much a bang, as a wimper.

Still, it piqued my interest on other Gaiman titles, so I think Neverwhere is next.

Picking my way through the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. Enjoying it so far.

If anyone wants to be amazed by a 15 year old author, read Eragon by Christopher Paolini. It''s the first in a trilogy, of which the second book is not out yet.

Red Storm Rising

I had started and stopped reading it twice now so this time I am going to finish it. It is getting me in the mood for some online FPS combat. It is also helping me develop thick skin to avoid the American *cough* Rat Boy *cough* propaganda.
I should finish it next week by the time two certain games ship.

Current Reading:

American Sucker - David Denby
The New Yorker''s movie critic writes a memoir about how his marriage dissolved and how he lost everything in the internet bubble in 2000. The guy is honest. Too honest, sometimes.

Why I Am Not A Christian - Betrand Russell
Essays from one of my favorite 20th century philosophers.

To Read Pile:

Six Easy Pieces - Richard Feynman
The Price Of Loyalty - Ron Suskind
the first Harry Potter book, which my girlfriend is always trying to pimp on me... I can''t hold out forever..

Recommended Recent Reads (super lucky alliteration!):

Empires On The Pacific - Robert Smith Thompson
A fascinating different take on the Pacific in WWII.

Recently Read, Not Recommended:

The Rope Eater - Ben Jones
I don''t read a ton of novels, but I can appreciate a good one. This ain''t it. Jones goes through great effort to create an interesting world only to disillusion you at the end with a big anticlimax. Didn''t hate it, but can''t really endorse it.

Reading Korea''s Place In the Sun by Bruce Cumings.

Studying Advanced Explosive Kicks by Chong lee.

Chasing Che : A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend by Patrick Symmes

Just started it but quite amusing so far.

I really liked the first book in His Dark Materials but was very disappointed in the direction Pullman decided to take it from there.

You can never go wrong with P.J. O''Rourke or Terry Pratchett.

Right now I am mostly waiting for books- I''m waiting for Lord of Castle Black by Steven Brust to come out in paperback and A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin to come out at all.

Uh, reading Perl for Website Management. Recently read Managing and Using MySQL...

Also reading Gallup''s ""First, Break All The Rules"" for management at work. Recreationally reading People''s History of the United States and have been about three chapters in on George R.R. Martin''s Clash of Kings for a couple of months now, just haven''t picked it up again.

I''ve been on a reading frenzy the past couple of weeks. Let''s see...

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - pulpy, not deep, but a good ""ohmygawd!"" thriller. You can almost hear the ""bum-bum-BA!"" at the end of each chapter stop.

A Second Chance at Eden by Peter F. Hamilton - a series of short stories based on the Night''s Dawn trilogy universe. Some are better than others, but it''s still nice to revist that well-crafted universe again.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer''s Stone by J.K. Rowling - unless you''ve lived under a rock, you know what this is. Figured I had to give it a shot. Light and uncomplicated. Not as good as I would have hoped, even for a purported children''s book.

Prey by Michael Crichton. Similar reaction as I had to The Da Vinci Code, but not as good. Don''t know why I bothered with reading another Crichton book following Timeline.

The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence by Peter F. Hamilton. Funny how reading about the universe makes me want to hop back in. Love this trilogy.

On the docket: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton and the next book in George R. R. Martin''s Song of Ice and Fire series.

Just started reading ''The Reality Disfunction'' by Peter F. Hamilton. Not quite sure what to make of it so far.

Also reading ''Once a Hero'' by Elizabeth Moon and finishing up ''Opening the X-Box.''

''The Shivered Sky'' sounds pretty interesting, Drunkagain. Have you ever read any of Sharon Shinn''s ''Archangel'' series?

''The Shivered Sky'' sounds pretty interesting, Drunkagain. Have you ever read any of Sharon Shinn''s ''Archangel'' series?

No I haven''t. I just did a quick search on Amazon though and they sound interesting. Would you recommend them?

Highly! Very good reads. At least try the first one and see what you think. I''m pretty sure you''ll read the other two after that.

Just read ""Mystic River"". Very affecting book, kind of a noir mystery without the detective. Extremely well-written characters. I''m reading Lehane''s other books in sequence now, along with the new Peter F. Hamilton book, ""Pandora''s Star"" and the Northwood trilogy by David Drake.

Before that it was Alan Furst''s ""Red Gold"", ""The Scar"" by China Mieville, ""Clade"" by Mark Budz, ""Contact Imminent"" by Kristine Smith, ""Jarhead"" by Anthoney Swofford and the Carlucci series, by Richard Paul Russo. Oh yeah, George Pellecanos'' ""Soul Circus"" too. And a few Robin Cook medical thrillers for riding the subway and such.

Robear

Recently finished:

Hyperion: 300 pages of ""set-up""!

Hunt for Bin Laden: kind of choppy. Some great chapters, but as a whole, kind of choppy.

Mystic River. No need to recreate the wheel so pretty much what Robear said.

Da Vinci Code. Liked it quite a bit. While clearly a ficticious book with some factual events, I love how many people take Dan Brown''s words for..well .. gospel.

Catcher in the Rye: I never read it in highschool and am about 20 pages shy of finishing it. I''m currently looking for another book, so I''m happy the reading thread is back.

"One_of_47" wrote:

Just started reading ''The Reality Disfunction'' by Peter F. Hamilton. Not quite sure what to make of it so far.

Careful, blasphemer. I''d hate to have to destroy [b]you [size=14]where [/size][size=18]you[/size] [size=24]stand!!!![/size][/b]

While clearly a ficticious book with some factual events, I love how many people take Dan Brown''s words for..well .. gospel.

That just kills me as well. I work with a woman that''s very religious. She''s also a big reader. So anyway she''s reading this about a month ago at work and is about a 100 pages in and is loving it. She comes to work the next night and I notice she''s reading a new book. I ask what happened to The Da Vinci Code and apparentley she got to the point where she figured out what was going on and felt it was to blasphemous to continue reading even though the night before she was singing it''s praises. WTF? It''s a novel, not some new age bible. THese kind of people need there heads checked!

I was thinking the same thing when I read this. There''s a whole lot of people that the ideas brought forth -- even though clearly fictitious -- would offend. That whole thing about Jesus really being an exotic dancer probably finished off your coworker.

Drunkagain Wrote,

That just kills me as well. I work with a woman that''s very religious. She''s also a big reader. So anyway she''s reading this about a month ago at work and is about a 100 pages in and is loving it. She comes to work the next night and I notice she''s reading a new book. I ask what happened to The Da Vinci Code and apparentley she got to the point where she figured out what was going on and felt it was to blasphemous to continue reading even though the night before she was singing it''s praises. WTF? It''s a novel, not some new age bible. THese kind of people need there heads checked!

You know, I''ve run into 3 different people who have had the same reaction.

Anything by Neal Stephenson gets my vote.

"Minase" wrote:

Anything by Neal Stephenson gets my vote.

I dunno, I tried to like Cryptonomicon, I really did. I mean, I''m supposed to like it, I''m its target demographic, but I just couldn''t get into it.

Reading:

Sailor Song - Ken Kesey. I''m a huge Kesey fan, but this is clearly not his best work. When he writes about people he''s fantastic, but when he tries to be a futurist he falls a little flat. I enjoy it, but I wouldn''t recomend it to people.

Baseball prospectus 2004 - I''m an obsessive baseball fan and this is the motherload.

On the Pile:

The great shark hunt - Hunter Thompson - I like thompson. I want to read fear and loathing in 72 again, because it''s an election year, but I don''t think I''ll get around to it.

Diary - Chuck palahuniuk. My wife read this and didn''t like it. She usually loves chucks stuff, so I''m leary.

Just Read:

Motherless Brooklyn - Chris Letham? - A great book. Read it almost straight through. I''ve enjoyed both his books that I''ve read.

Zodiac - Neal Stephenson - I''ve read this before and reread as a lark in spare time. Good book. I''m patiently waiting for the next volume in the boroque cycle.

Tell me about Satan Burger. I almost picked it up but I was afraid it would end up being teenage angst/goth garbage. It looked really interesting though.

I dunno, I tried to like Cryptonomicon , I really did. I mean, I''m supposed to like it, I''m its target demographic, but I just couldn''t get into it.

Try Snow Crash. I liked it better than Cryptonomicon.

I echo Minase, Snow Crash is just awesome. The Diamond Age is very good too. Cryptonomicon... is ok.

Reading: The Bourne Supremacy - Robert Ludlum

Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain - I always like to go through one of Twain''s books every few months or so.

Just Read: Neuromancer - William Gibson - Not as enthralling as i''d hoped, but a mindbender no less.

"ColdForged" wrote:

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - pulpy, not deep, but a good ""ohmygawd!"" thriller. You can almost hear the ""bum-bum-BA!"" at the end of each chapter stop.

I saw this on the bestseller list every Sunday and thought, ""If it''s this popular, how good could it be?"" I''m waiting for it to show up on book shelves with an Oprah''s Book Club sticker.

"ColdForged" wrote:

Prey by Michael Crichton. Similar reaction as I had to The Da Vinci Code, but not as good. Don''t know why I bothered with reading another Crichton book following Timeline.

I totally feel you. Crichton lost me after Timeline. Airframe was truly good, but it was the last of his good run. It seems to me that his early books were all focused on the science, which he researches thoroughly, and his most recent stuff is almost character-driven, and sadly, Crichton''s characters are all so one-dimensional it''s impossible to get into the books.

Now Reading: I am finishing up ""The Mauritius Command"" by Patrick O''Brian. I made the mistake of picking up the first book of the Aubrey/Maturin series (Master and Commander) after seeing the Russell Crowe movie and have not been able to put them down since. I am also reading the Sandman Series #5 ""A Game of You"" by Niel Giaman. I missed these when they first came out, but they are great.

To Read list: Sandman #6 ""Fables and Reflections"" and the next O''Brian Aubrey and Maturin novel ""Desolation Island.""

Tell me about Satan Burger. I almost picked it up but I was afraid it would end up being teenage angst/goth garbage. It looked really interesting though.

Hmmm, hard to think what to say about this one. If you like fiction thats off the beaten path I''d say give it a go. I''ve been enjoying it and finding myself laughing out loud at the absurdity of it at times. I bought it used and would not have felt cheated if I''d paid full price. I''ll definitely be trying some of the authors other work.

I''m reading Fool''s Fate, Robin Hobb''s last book in The Tawny Man trilogy. Anything by Hobb is well worth reading if you''re even remotely into fantasy.

I was reading David Farland''s Lair of Bones but it''s so aimless compared to the first three books in the Runelords series that I gave up on it half way. Still on the list is the third Book of the Fallen (Memories of Ice) by Steven Erikson. Really good series so far, a close second to George R. R Martin for me.

I just started reading Wolves of the Calla two nights ago and through 75 pages it seems pretty good.

Speaking of Erikson, I have his new book Midnight Tides and the new Bakker book, The Warrior Prophet on order form Amazon Canada. Looks like the Erikson is out in late May and the Bakker is out in mid June. Looking forward very much to both of these.