Books, Books, BOOKS! What are you reading?

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So.. you can't game all the time, can you? (or can you?) So, when you're not zapping your eyes with dangerous and potentially insanity inducing, or at least absenteeism-provoking and lowered spermatogenesis monitor rays, what do you like to read?

I just finished Dan Simmon's unimaginatively named "A winter haunting", which was actually quite good.

What have you read recently? Or, if you haven't read anything recently but the back of shampoo bottles, what's that one book that you urge someone to read when they ask you what to read next?

I JUST started Catch-22. Besides, that, the last book I really read was A Feast for Crows. Mostly I'm reading school stuff.

or at least absenteeism-provoking and lowered spermatogenesis monitor rays

Wait, what? Monitor rays decrease your sperm count?

btw, I'm reading "Important things that don't matter", and looking at pretty pictures in "The Photo Book".

I finished A Feast for Crows which was cool, though not quite 5 years of feverish anticipation cool. Now I'm kinda in book limbo trying to decide what to read. I keep seeing recommendations for Glen Cooks Black Company series which has a premise that is right up my alley, so I think I'll track those down next.

Pretty sad, but I've been reading "Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments". I don't really play much at all. What little I've played online and in a casino has been pretty much fruitless. I have dominated home games with friends, though. But I really do love watching it on television, and learning more about it has increased my enjoyment of it.

I don't read much non-fiction anymore. Mostly magazines.

Men's Health
Mojo
Time and Newsweek
Discover
Play

Plus anything else I run across that looks interesting in things like Details or Wired.

I'm re-reading Secret of the Sixth Magic by Lyndon Hardy, the second in an old, mostly unknown series of smart fantasy novels in which the protagonists have to work within the specific rules of magic in their world to prevent various catastrophes. Anyone who enjoys reading the rules of games as much as they enjoy the games themselves would almost certainly like Hardy's books.

Currently reading John Varley's Gaea trilogy thanks to this thread, a copious source for scifi/fantasy recommendations.

Before that was Michael Shaara's Killer Angels about the battle of Gettysburg and supposedly the inspiration behind Firefly. Is that a silly reason to buy a book? Oh well, it was good even if it does make me think that us southerners should have won for tactical reasons. I'm still glad we didn't.

I just started Candide by Voltaire. This new Penguin edition has a lot of supplemental material, including translations of some of Voltaire's poetry and relevant passages from his philosophical dictionary. Anyway, the book is fantastic so far. It's one of those books that's so good, I can't believe I haven't read it before now.

Almost finished with Helter Skelter then it's back to Narnia. After that it's a toss up between Feast for Crows or Cell, I think I'll be going with the former.

I read Candide in college and thought it was pretty damn funny. Mighty fine book.

My mother, from whom I get my voracious appetite for reading, recently turned me on to Vince Flynn. He's a very Tom Clancy-esque author who writes about crazy shi%% happening in Washington DC. For instance, in the first book, _Term Limits_, assassins kill 3 of the most corrupt congressmen in DC and demand that power be returned to the people immediately, partisan politics come to an end, and a balanced budget be passed, or they will kill anyone standing in their way, including the president. It was a fantastic and gripping read, and the second book, _Transfer of Power_, was even better. Highly recommended.

Vince Flynn is basically Tom Clancy with better characters and about a fraction of the technical manual.

Didn't we just have a book recommendation thread?
I'm just saying.

Vince +1
Clancy -1

I love these threads. Ducki: There is no such thing as enough book recommendation/discussion threads.

First off, hi killertomato, I'm the other person in the world who has read and remembers Lyndon Hardy's trilogy. Great unknown books. I salute your taste.

In lighter fare, I've been reading a lot of Mercedes Lackey lately, since my wife picked one of her books up at random (from my collection) and immediately began reading everything Lackey has written. I've been rereading it myself just to share the experience with her, because I'm a goof, and they're very good for what they are.

My 'serious' reading has been brought to a halt by my workload this semester, but I managed to finish Hofstader's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, which was most definitely worth the time.

duckilama wrote:

Didn't we just have a book recommendation thread?
I'm just saying.

That was scifi/fantasy with a military-scifi slant. The moose is justified.

Svlad wrote:

My 'serious' reading has been brought to a halt by my workload this semester, but I managed to finish Hofstader's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, which was most definitely worth the time.

Quickly, tell me the origins and meanings of "recherche"!

Logan wrote:

Vince Flynn is basically Tom Clancy with better characters and about a fraction of the technical manual.

That has been my observation as well, and I don't feel like Flynn loses anything by not having three pages on how a carrier group operates when one paragraph will do. That being said, Tom and I have had some good times.

I'm just finishing up reading Al Franken's books, in reverse order. The later books are definitely better than his first. After I finish the one I'm on, I've got the following on the nightstand ready to read:

Richard Clarke's books (Scorpion's Gate and Against All Enemies)
Manhunt (About the hours after the Lincoln assasination)
Cell

After that, I have a pile of unfinished paperbacks. My new year's resolution was to read more. I've read 5 books this year so far. This is a drastic improvement for me:)

-Fan

Logan wrote:

Vince Flynn is basically Tom Clancy with better characters and about a fraction of the technical manual.

Even though I just finished Red Storm Rising and pretty much loved it, I have to say that sounds awesome.

I'll be picking up a book or two of his on Friday.

At the moment, Sharpe's Havok. Fun with the riflemen of the 95th, in war torn Portugal.

Just finished Hitchhiker's Guide.

I'm actually reading Simmons as well. Working through his excellent Hyperion books.

I just finished Fight Club, A Feast for Crows, The Count of Monte Cristo, From Gracchi to Nero, and the Southern Harmony hymnbook. The last two are for classes the first three are for pleasure. I read a lot.

Fight Club was pretty much the same as the movie until the end, which was much better.

Feast for Crows was awesome. It seems that Martin has made an outline of what everyone would expect to happen in his story and then ignored it completely to create something really thrilling and interesting.

I read and reread Count of Monte Cristo almost continually. I love it, I don't know why. I just got a new unabridge edition for christmas, which is nice as my older unabridged edition wasn't in hardback and had about 30 pages removed. I am on a quest for the original English translation in some affordable format. But since it was a serial I'm certain it's impossible to find any complete edition.

Gracchi to Nero is a fantastic monograph about the fall of the Roman Republic. Once you get past the early agricultural reforms of Gracchus, that's pretty boring.

Southern Harmony is a hymnal originally published in 1835. If you like hymnals you can have my copy at the end of the semester.

I'm about to finish Master and Commander and begin on the next of O'brien's novels. I like em, a lot of fun and O'brien has a really subtle sense of humor that is just hilarious.

Lester_King wrote:

Fight Club was pretty much the same as the movie until the end, which was much better.

After the movie came out the author believed the film's ending put his to shame.

I would argue that Survivor or Lullaby are his two best novels. I enjoyed the latter much better. Though he does stick to somewhat of a formula.

I'm currently reading Thomas Pynchon's V., which I may just kick out over this extended weekend. I also read through the first act of Stephen King's Cell. Depending on my mood (whenever I don't feel like a mindscrew, I'll just read King), I'll jump from one to the other.

A Feast for Crows... apparently like everyone else...

As of now, i'm splitting time between The Last King and The Naked and the Dead. Next up should be I Am Charlotte Simmons.

Of course, this list doesn't include the crap i'm reading for school. Yekl freaking blows.

I'm about half-way through Kolakowski's Metaphysical Horror.

It's very good. So far he's been following the modernists, who have been advancing the "death of philosophy", and gathering up what remains after their hatchet jobs through human knowledge. Turns out there's quite a lot left. I wonder what he'll build out of it?

Aerie Backcountry Medicine: Wilderness First Responder.

I'll probably be picking up the next Robert Jordan book soon(can't remember the name, shows how excited I am :D).

I recently put an end to about a decade-long drought of fiction reading (which is a especially long when you're 24). Of course, I read a lot of fiction in that span in high school and college. But all of the programming and computer science books on my shelf finally have some fiction company.

The book that got me reading again was William Gibson's "Neuromancer". I followed that up with Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". Now I'm deciding what to get & read next. I may even read something other than scifi/cyberpunk/etc. (I do have a great deal of the books/authors in the recent scifi books thread on my list)

Fripper wrote:

At the moment, Sharpe's Havok. Fun with the riflemen of the 95th, in war torn Portugal.

Can't go wrong with Sharpe! I love those books.

I'm currently reading "Six Days of War" by Michael Oren. So far it is a great book about the Six Day War in 1967, it goes into detail about the causes of the war and the people involved.

I'm systematically churning through the Terry Pratchett Discworld series. In order. I buy them three at a time because it seems like every second one captivates me and I stay up way too late and end up finishing it in a day or so. I'm currently on Hogfather and having a blast!

On my reading sidebar I have Neil Gaiman: American Gods, and Suze Orman: The 9 steps to Financial Freedom (recommended by my mother).

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