The Book Thread

[Brockway]

I'm running low on books to read. Last 2 new series I've read actually came recommended from Penny Arcade, Temeraire (last book sucked but the rest are great) and The Kingkiller Chronicles (reading The Name of the Wind now.) Since the old book thread is nowhere to be found thought I'd start one to see if I could build back up my reading buffer. So last couple books I've read and enjoyed:

Singularity Sky, & Iron Sunrise (2 in a series) - Charles Stross. Reminds me alot of Asimov's later Foundation novels. Almost Nancy Drew meets sci-fi with robot god watching over everything. Stross seems to have Asimov's knack for making sex sound mechanical and icky, like I'd imagine a stodgy old professor explaining the process. Kind of annoyed there aren't another 10 books to expand on the universe he made here, its a really good one.

Accelerando - Stross. The technological singularity. Slightly cyberpunky, then almost oppressively bleak about the future of corporeal sentient life. Good, not great.

The Rogue Agent trilogy (The Accidental Sorceror, Witches Inc., and Wizard Squared) - K.E. Mills. Rincewind meets Doctor Who. I really wish the next book would come out, I really like this series.

The Black Prism - Brent Weeks. Guy wrote the Night Angel Trilogy, which featured MAGIC NINJA ASSASSINs. I love those books. This time, its about the Light Pope (Prism) who is the figurehead for people (drafters) who can turn light into physical objects (luxin), most of which are pointy and sharp. I can't get enough of this guys stuff, he's an awesome writer and this book is wonderful and I want the next one to come out as soon as possible.

I've got 210 books on my Sony Reader. I've read all but 2 of them (The Name of the Wind and A Wise Man's Fear.) Little help?

[Yeahduff]

James Joyce is kicking my ass right now.

[Brockway]

Even sweeter, looks like his books are free on Kindle and I can convert them to read on my Sony. So added!

[Bustertheclown]

How much Vonnegut have you read?

[Terotrous]

I'm very slowly reading through the "A Song of Fire and Ice" series by George R. R. Martin. It started off a bit formulaic, but once I got to the second book it started to be pretty interesting. However, I read ridiculously slow, so even a 4 book series is probably a 2 year investment for me.

[Brockway]

How much Vonnegut have you read?

None at all. Just got Sirens of Titan, the blurb sounds awesome. I read pretty dang fast, will probably finish the Name of the wind (~700 pages) before the end of next week. Depending on how hooked I am I'll either read Wise man's fear or Sirens.

[Yeahduff]

Slaughterhouse Five is my jam. Relevant in our times, too.

[McDuffies]

James Joyce is kicking my ass right now.

Which one? I completely adore Ullyses and Dubliners, but I would Portrait of an Artist hm... a bit too stereotypically modernist, although it has some great places. Naturally I didn't go anywhere near Finnegan's Wake, I'd probably find it too challenging since I don't read fiction in English too often.

I've read Wonnegut's Galapagos some time ago. I wasn't too impressed, it seems like repeating Breakfast of Champions formally, and Cat's Craddle thematically, both of which are better. Also strange thing to complain about Wonnegut's novel, but it's just too heavy-handed. It probably has much more chance to be liked by someone who hasn't read so much of Wonnegut's work. (Yes Slaughterhouse 5 is great, but I like two above-mentioned a bit better, and Hocus Pocus it total magnum opus)

I've also read Seek my Face by John Updike which I liked greatly. I'm very fond of Updike's style, it's just the right amount of meandering storytelling, rich in texture but not boring. This is a book about fictionalized version of 20th century painting, and it was a bit distracting that he obviously took the most famous american painters, slapped different faces and biographies on them and rolled on - but in a book as a whole, where all of it gets an allegorical dimension, that doesn't matter much.

Goodbye Columbo by Phillip Roth who is again a writer I like a lot. It's a small unpretentious novel, but still a psychology sketch and fun to read.

I also took upon myself to read Sartre's Nausea and to be frank, after torturous reading of the novel, I had to read secondary literature to see what I've just read. I think that the reason why it was so hard to read is, it's basically a philosophicall study masquarading as a work of fiction. Mainly - forget subtext. When he wants to represent ideas, he just says them outloud through his character. Also neither characters nor story make much sence outside of representing philosophical ideas. I dunno, I guess as a philosophical work it stands much better, but don't think it can be called a novel. Definitely not compared to Camus' work, who managed to write books that were both philosophical works and great novels.

Also tried Sinclair Lewis' Bebit and it was positively awful. It's kind of like if first-grader wants to write satire: everything is too awful, too preachy, long paragraphs of writer thinking himself too clever for this world go on and on through entire book... He's a kind of writer whom you hate even as he's advocating ideas with which you largely disagree. I am actually annoyed that I bought two of his books (they were on sale) before I read one.

[Yeahduff]

Ulysses is what I'm reading right now. The style is of course fucked but what's really keeping me at bay is the vocabulary. Too often I just have no idea what the words themselves mean. Should probably read it with a dictionary but I mostly read on the train and I'm not looking to break my back.

Your description of Nausea is dead on. If you wanna look cool at a cafe, that's where it's at. Otherwise, just get the good parts excerpted.

[Bustertheclown]

How much Vonnegut have you read?

None at all. Just got Sirens of Titan, the blurb sounds awesome. I read pretty dang fast, will probably finish the Name of the wind (~700 pages) before the end of next week. Depending on how hooked I am I'll either read Wise man's fear or Sirens.

Sirens is Vonnegut's most traditionally "sci-fi" book, to be sure. It's still pretty wonderfully weird.

Slaughterhouse Five is my jam. Relevant in our times, too.

I love Slaughterhouse Five, but my favorite is Cat's Cradle. It made me gasp in wonder at his use of language more than a few times.

[McDuffies]

Ulysses is what I'm reading right now. The style is of course fucked but what's really keeping me at bay is the vocabulary. Too often I just have no idea what the words themselves mean. Should probably read it with a dictionary but I mostly read on the train and I'm not looking to break my back.

I'm guessing you're reading Steven Daedalus parts, he is something of an academic brat so that kind of dictionary is boult into his thoughts, and of course endless talk about Thomas Aquinsky (of whom I know only as much as high school taught me) and all that. First three chapters where he dominates are very difficult. Later when Bloom takes over, things get much breezier I think.
I read the book very fast, at the time I was jobless and depressed and I was reading ten hours a day. I certainly didn't dedicate rightful amount of time to every complexity of the novel, but found that it's probably impossible anyway. The book is rewarding either way

Your description of Nausea is dead on. If you wanna look cool at a cafe, that's where it's at. Otherwise, just get the good parts excerpted.

Yeah... Keep comparing it to Stranger which is apparently philosophically very similar, and thinking how much more blunt and unliterary it is.
I'm trying to drum up my classical literature knowledge. I should expect seeing things like Faulkner or Thomas Mann soon. It's rather funny, putting books next to the reputation they have.

[Ekolter]

Read most of A. Lee Martinez books. He's along the lines of Prachett in style.

Started reading 'Orcs' prior to having Morgan. It sucks you in. Need to get back into reading it when I'm not so sleep deprived.

[NeoDaedalus]

I've enjoyed Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' and 'Codex Alera' series. Also just started reading Terry Pratchett's 'I Shall Wear Midnight'.

...yeah, that's all I got for now. >.>;

[Yeahduff]

Ulysses is what I'm reading right now. The style is of course fucked but what's really keeping me at bay is the vocabulary. Too often I just have no idea what the words themselves mean. Should probably read it with a dictionary but I mostly read on the train and I'm not looking to break my back.

I'm guessing you're reading Steven Daedalus parts, he is something of an academic brat so that kind of dictionary is boult into his thoughts, and of course endless talk about Thomas Aquinsky (of whom I know only as much as high school taught me) and all that. First three chapters where he dominates are very difficult. Later when Bloom takes over, things get much breezier I think.

Steven throws in an annoying amount of French and Latin, but its mostly slang words that I feel like I'm getting caught up on. And context is such a fleeting thing in this book. Anyway, they're talking about Shakespeare now so I'm liking it again.

[Spaceprincess]

James Joyce is kicking my ass right now.

I tried "the Portrait of the artist..." but was so utterly lost I gave up.

"the Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest" was an interesting book with some good characters but the more I scrutinize it, it feels like a disappointment. the plot was thin and straight forward. it was also laid out early with little mystery to follow. the villains seemed stupid and incompetent and posed little threat or adversity to the hero. the Main characters computer hacking skills made it way to easy to foil all them. she'd read their emails and oh thats their plans now we can stop them. there was an interesting side plot that as it got good wrapped itself up way to easily and neatly which defeated the whole purpose of having it included.
I wanted to like it, I had enjoyed "the girl with the dragon tattoo" (the film) but the climax of the book is a court scene in which the reader knows all the evidence and how it will play out. It really needed more tension and conflict, it was far to simple.

[Laemkral]

For professional reading I'm currently working my way through Robert L. Friedman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree". Societal globalization and the economics surrounding it is not as enjoyable as you might think. Still better than reading Field Manuals and Army Regulations (which I am also doing). Also just finished reading Bing West's The March Up, recalling the invasion of Iraq with the First Marine Division.

In the realm of not-professional reading I just finished reading a bunch of D&D books, am working my way (slowly) through Dante's The Divine Comedy, and a few Raymond Feist works, the Legends of the Riftwars Saga series. Feist is now on my list of authors I need to read more of. The Night Angel trilogy was very enthralling, though I don't always likethe writing style. I also am working through Pratchett.

I've also got a bunch of other books just sitting around the house that I keep meaning to read, including a WW2 book that's been sitting on my nightstand since the day I assembled the nightstand.

[McDuffies]

Steven throws in an annoying amount of French and Latin, but its mostly slang words that I feel like I'm getting caught up on. And context is such a fleeting thing in this book. Anyway, they're talking about Shakespeare now so I'm liking it again.

The chapter about Hamlet is hillarious.

In other news I'm happy because Pynchon's "V" has been translated to my language. It's only the second of his works translated here, after the short novel "Crying of the lot 49", as he is notoriously difficult to translate, so I'm totally psyched.

[Brockway]

I finished up Titans of Siren. Was pretty good. Gave me a gigantic Watchmen vibe. Started reading the HP Lovecraft collection. Been kinda depressed lately, figure an author named Lovecraft will be nice and cheery.

[McDuffies]

I'm reading "Empires of the Word" which is a book about how languages formed, spreaded or died.

[MixedMyth]

I've been having downright rotten luck with books for a good year or two now. But part of that is my own damn fault. Ever since I tried working on my own book I've become super sensitive to bad and mediocre writing. It's a wall I have to get past to get in to a book.

Currently I'm working on Too Many Curses. It's about a kobold who takes care of a wizard's evil castle and all the horrors contained within. And then the wizard dies. As you can tell, it's super serious fare.