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What are you reading thread

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12.24.2011 5:31pm

Testament
Shamshot

^Good stuff.

About 1/4 of the way through Wizard and Glass on my DT reread.

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12.24.2011 6:45pm

Revrick
Mind your P's and Q's

Picked up Albert Camus' The Stranger the other day. Also finished it the same day. I'm still haunted by one line from it "A man having only lived a day could easily live 100 years in prioson" or something to that effect. Fuck that book was good.

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12.29.2011 6:56pm

JSG
Registered Member

I got Choke Hold by Christa Faust for Christmas so I started reading that today. So far, insanely fun. Probably better than its predecessor, which is not usually something I can say about sequels. I guess time will tell if that sticks, I'm only about a third of the way through it.

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01.01.2012 2:46pm

OrionHardy
Otherworld

I'm reading Mogworld by Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame and it's absolutely hilarious, some of the humour is just absurdly funny.

Great men aren't everywhere, just where it counts.

If you ever see me online playing Halo, join me please.

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01.02.2012 6:43am

Murasame
HALE YEAH

I had started reading the Tomorrow series by John Marsden forever ago, and I stopped because it started getting too depressing and draining - they are very action packed books with ridiculous levels of silliness, and characters die all over the place, including my favourites, so I just had to take a gigantic break.

Getting back into it, though, and they're as ridiculous and action packed as ever.

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01.02.2012 2:56pm

Amer
pew pew pew

So I started reading The Hobbit after finishing The Fellowship because it felt like I was missing a lot of references, and I was.

But man, compared to FOTR, The Hobbit feels like some sort of bad prequel fanfic. It reads like "So Bilbo was over in the Shire and then the dwarves came and now they are over here in Rivendell and then the left and found a cave and now there are orcs and then this Gollumn guy". I mean seriously, they were in Rivendell for all of like, 3 pages. The Gollum chapter is the only compelling one of the entire book so far. I'm hoping it picks up in Mirkwood.

After this I'm either starting up Two Towers or going back to Dresden, cause I picked up Proven Guilty and White Knight with a xmas gifttcard.

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01.02.2012 6:14pm

Kal
yes

The Hobbit is YA fantasy, though, it's not supposed to be as encyclopaedic and descriptive as the Trilogy. It's got all the tropes of classic fairy tales (lack of heavy descriptions being one) because that's what it's supposed to be.
Sure LOTR is much, much, more rich and better written, but I, for one, think The Hobbit's fast pacing and adventury feel makes for much better reading.

/blasphemous opinion

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01.02.2012 8:40pm

JSG
Registered Member

Currently reading Carmilla.

It feels weird to read stuff from a hundred years ago or more. The language and writing style was a lot different back then. It's almost hard to get through. In some cases, I actually do find a lot of older writing hard to get through, if only because the overly verbose style of the time kills the pacing (Lord of the Rings is a good example), but usually it's a matter of enjoying the story despite that.

From a more scholarly standpoint it's extremely interesting to see how much language and writing has evolved over the years, but generally when I'm reading something it's with the mentality of someone who wants a good story and not someone studying the language. Still a fun thing to think about after putting a book down, though.

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01.03.2012 3:20pm

Murasame
HALE YEAH

Pick up? In Mirkwood?

LOLOLOL

I'm not a huge fan of Tolkien's writing, because, well, he's not a writer. He's a linguist through and through. Which is why I prefer The Hobbit to LotR - he's not attempting to create a gigantic mythos. He's writing a short and snappy saga, like an actual saga, and it's genuine fun, as if the physical action of writing the novel was less of an effort. Until the Mirkwood elves. Fuck that chapter, right in the ass. However, the berserker is pretty awesome. And the Smaug chapter is pretty awesome. Ultimately, I think the main reason I prefer The Hobbit is because it's more of a saga than anything that came afterward (with, perhaps, the small exception of his posthumous book in which EVERY CHARACTER DIED).

Finished the sixth book in the Tomorrow series, and I've started reading the final book, The Other Side of Dawn. These books are super ridiculous because teens at war is something ridiculously silly - but the constant stream of consciousness, the narration are just so enticing, that even the repetitive and rhytmic nature of the story are totally worth it. Also, having a nine year old character die in the arms of the main character is pretty goddamn awful.

This series, man. SO ABUSIVE TO THE READER

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01.03.2012 4:58pm

Crono
Crono can cross dimensions too!

I finally got around to reading a book I bought about 10 years ago: Johhny Got His Gun. It was an ok book but the ending was absolutely terrible and not what I expected out of it. I don't think I've ever said this before but the movie was mostly better. For the best effect though just watch the full length version of Metallica's One.

OK, now I'm really going to read Jurassic Park... I swear.

Currently Playing: Dark Cloud 2: 3 hours.
Also Playing: CT, FF VI, Solatorobo, Secret of Mana, Halo 4.
Just Finished: Fable II: 7 hours.

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01.04.2012 11:49pm

Mavilu
Yep, still gaming

I finished a book about the Middle Ages in general, very interesting, but now I'm off to chase a couple of poems that are not widely available...of course!. Might be interested in Chaucer as well, easier to find, though.

And I started The Age of Innocence, I saw the movie many years ago and liked it, we'll see.

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01.05.2012 4:46am

Magicjewel
Dr. Fantabulous
Administrator

Just downloaded Painted Black by Debra Borys. I know the author, so I figured I should read her book.

"Well, your brain seems to work a little bit." -- Rune Walsh, Phantasy Star IV.

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01.05.2012 8:59am

Free Spirit
Zetta Member

Just finished Arabian Nights. It was very, very archaic, but I still enjoyed it. Some stories were better than others(by far), and the whole Scheherazade story that book-ended the other stories was much less important and unexplained than I would have liked. It almost seems like there should be a middle chapter between the beginning and conclusion to explain Scheherazade's plans, since the overall story goes like this:

King who doesn't trust women marries her with the intent to kill her in the morning.

Scheherazade starts telling a story.

A bunch of stories.

King decides after 1001 nights not to kill her, and marries her instead.

There's no explanation as to what Scheherazade actually did during the 1001 nights that kept her alive, and it's only because I already know the story of Scheherazade that I understand that she kept the king enthralled with a different story each night, each one leading into the other, so that he would be so interested in what happened next that he stayed her execution each day so that he could hear the rest of the story. After three years, he gradually falls in love with her, and she convinces him that all women are not evil.

Anyways, Mavilu, how far did you actually get? The first story with King Shahryar and Scheherazade paints quite a mysogynistic picture, but that's only because the two kings were supposed to irrationally hate women after their wives cheated on them, which set the stage for Scheherazade's stories. I noticed that a few of the early stories were pretty inexplicably harsh on their women, but for the most part, the stories are mostly fantastic adventure with beautiful, chaste women falling in love with the handsome, brave youths and living happily ever after. Yes, the women are usually in a subservient role, but that was the way things were back then, especially in the Middle East. But the women were still usually treated with respect, and heck, the main character, Scheherazade, is a model of feminine power and wisdom.

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01.05.2012 11:29pm

Mavilu
Yep, still gaming

Uuuh, not far really, I remember reading a tale about a donkey?, I'm pretty sure it was the first tale.
It does sound enticing, the way you are describing the rest of the book; my problem was how women were being described as lying cheating creatures that are out there just to deceive you and break your heart and laugh at the pieces (or something like that), but I also remember reading about the two brothers being cheated on; I guess I could have been a bit more understanding on the chaps?. I'll give the book a second try.

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01.05.2012 11:50pm

Kellios
Yikes and away!

Have since read Bill Maher's new New Rules book as well as Mindy Kahlig's Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? which were both entertaining and light reads. Now planning on picking up The Girl Who Played With Fire and I also have The Hunger Games and Skeleton Crew to finish.

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