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The "What Are You Reading" Thread
Jacobkosh
Gamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGhfI_NwcATAKE A LOOK, IT'S IN A BOOK!
This is the thread where we talk about what we're reading and why, recommend things to each other, and maybe find out about some things we never would have known otherwise. Because if you're anything like me, you're always on the lookout for something new and interesting, even if you have a stack of unread books climbing halfway up to your ceiling.
To get us started, here are some books that a lot of people in these parts have enjoyed.
The (Semi)Official D&D Recommended Reading List
GENERAL FICTION
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
The Yiddish Policemens’ Union by Michael Chabon
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Dubliners by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Harauki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Harauki Murakami
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Life with Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
The Yiddish Policemens’ Union by Michael Chabon
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Dubliners by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Harauki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Harauki Murakami
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Life with Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
SCIENCE FICTION
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Dune by Frank Herbert
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
1984 by George Orwell
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Dread Empire’s Fall by Walter Jon Williams
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Dune by Frank Herbert
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
1984 by George Orwell
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Dread Empire’s Fall by Walter Jon Williams
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
FANTASY
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Little, Big by John Crowley
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The Scar by China Mieville
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Once and Future King by TH White
Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Little, Big by John Crowley
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The Scar by China Mieville
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Once and Future King by TH White
Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
MYSTERY/CRIME
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett
The Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith
Fletch by Gregory Macdonald
The Wallander novels by Henning Mankell
The Inspector Rebus novels by Ian Rankin
Keeper by Greg Rucka
The Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers
Hardcase by Dan Simmons
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
The Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett
The Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith
Fletch by Gregory Macdonald
The Wallander novels by Henning Mankell
The Inspector Rebus novels by Ian Rankin
Keeper by Greg Rucka
The Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers
Hardcase by Dan Simmons
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
ESPIONAGE/THRILLERS
Complicity by Iain Banks
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carré
The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
The James Bond novels by Ian Fleming
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer
A Gentleman's Game by Greg Rucka
The Crook Factory by Dan Simmons
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carré
The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
The James Bond novels by Ian Fleming
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer
A Gentleman's Game by Greg Rucka
The Crook Factory by Dan Simmons
HORROR
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
World War Z by Max Brooks
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
It by Stephen King
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Demons by John Shirley
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
World War Z by Max Brooks
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
It by Stephen King
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Demons by John Shirley
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
NONFICTION
Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein
D-Day by Anthony Beevor
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
The Centennial History of the Civil War - Bruce Catton
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
The Iranian Labyrinth by Dilip Hiro
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk
In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan by Seth Jones
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Pauline Kael
I Lost It at the Movies by Pauline Kael
On Writing by Stephen King
Battle Cry of Freedom by James MacPherson
Fear of Music: The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco by Gary Mulholland
This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco by Gary Mulholland
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes by John Pierson
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
Reading Comics by Douglas Wolk
D-Day by Anthony Beevor
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
The Centennial History of the Civil War - Bruce Catton
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
The Iranian Labyrinth by Dilip Hiro
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk
In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan by Seth Jones
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Pauline Kael
I Lost It at the Movies by Pauline Kael
On Writing by Stephen King
Battle Cry of Freedom by James MacPherson
Fear of Music: The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco by Gary Mulholland
This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco by Gary Mulholland
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes by John Pierson
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
Reading Comics by Douglas Wolk
Those of you with a few hundred spare dollars should check out Centipede Press, a small-press dealer specializing in lavishly deluxe reprints of rare and hard-to-find books of all genres, from horror to sci-fi to early-20th-century European surrealism. And they're gorgeous. Anyone who wants to buy me one, feel free. :P
Looking for an awesome sci-fi series? Check this out:
If anyone wants to check out the multiple-Hugo-winning Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series, you can get a free electronic compilation of the entire series in several formats here.
So what's on your bedside table these days?
Jacobkosh on
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Posts
And I just finished the Magician King. What a fantastic follow-up to The Magicians.
As for what I'm reading now, I'm trying to decide between a non-fiction and the second Mistborn book.
Then I clicked on the link and saw it cost $225 and I went nooooooooo!
At this point its pure force of will.
I could teach Olympic marathon runners lessons about sucking it up and powering through.
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley Martin.
After that I will start rereading ASOIAF so I can finally read A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.
Pretty good, although they are structured like a murder-mystery and suffer from the same 'expositiondump just before the denouement' problem that most of them have.
I'd love it if more mystery/crime/suspense fiction had multiple aspects to each mystery and they gave you more tools to work then out yourself. Whenever I read them I just bumble along until the villain is revealed and then they tell us everything that's happened. Perhaps if I was more familiar with the genre I might get the conventions enough to work things out - but then most of the mysteries I read are F/SF that turns out to be a murder mystery, so I'm not assuming that the villain must have been one of the characters introduced in the first few chapters, for example.
Also reading some Soseki Natsume short stories (in the original because I'm pretentious) - they're quite unsettling and not what I expected at all from him.
Temporal Void is next on my list to start, maybe this weekend.
Normandy Crucible by John Prados. Its about the aftermath of the Normandy invasion, for the breakout to the Falsie Pocket.
I Also own Collapse by Jared Diamond, and plan to read this after I finish up with Normandy Crucible.
Stumbled across her trilogy in omnibus format (The Passing of the Techno-Mages) at HPB a week or so ago, and picked it up.
Finished it yesterday. Low points? Lots of repetition (agitating tech, energy surging). The way Cavelos expands on the episodes her trilogy intersects (The Geometry of Shadows; And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place; Z'ha'dum) annoys me slightly. In the first place, too much time is spent reliving Geometry; in the second, I dislike the explanations she gives for the 'behind-the-scenes' moments. Not completely, but at a significant level.
Still, it's an interesting read and look at the B5 universe.
---
Re-reading Night of Knives, by Ian Cameron Esslemont; part of the Malazan Book of the Fallen universe.
I already owned this book, which joins it to a very short list; and it's the first I've intentionally re-purchased. See, it's a numbered, signed hardcover edition (257/300), and it was $6. I do so love HPB
After it I'm going to re-read Lud-In-the-Mist and after that I'll give another shot reading those Jasper Kent novels. I've started Twelve before and I abandoned it pretty fast, but he keeps writing so they must be good! Right?
Keep reading man!;o)
Edit: Christopher Priest's The Islanders is supposed to come out next week and quiet probably as soon as it's out I'll drop whatever I'm reading to plunge into it.
Also, the OP depresses me because Reading Rainbow was murdered.
A couple of suggestions for the list, though:
For Borges, I would recommend "Collected Fictions" (translated by Andrew Hurley) over Ficciones for English readers; I'm pretty certain that Collected Fictions includes the entirety of Ficciones and dozens of other stories beside. It's certainly more convenient than getting copies of all of the smaller collections individually.
Under Horror, a smattering of Lovecraft should really be included. Yes he was kind of a dick, but it's practically required reading for the genre.
I would agree with the second, but your mentioning the first is so shameful, I can't support the other idea when it comes from you. Even if I agree with it.
Mason & Dixon, Pynchon.
We shall see in the end though. The middle was very powerful I thought but it's headed in a potentially weird direction.
And I'm reading the Windup Girl. Great so far, halfway through. Very different, very believable near future world.
Apart from that I'm reading the Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs. Really interesting, I recommend it to anyone with an interest in urban planning and/or economy. In general I really enjoy this sort of non-fiction. Grand theories and synthesies of history, economy, anthroplogy, science etc. Eg. Jared Diamond etc.
Other than that, it's textbooks all the way down - one on search engines, the rest on Sanskrit.
I also just finished Devil in the White City about the Chicago world's Fair and the serial killer H.H. Holmes. Very good. page turning delightfulness.
I powered through all the A Song of Ice and Fire and am reminded why i wanted to kill GRRM a few years ago.
up next (after the papacy) I'll be headed back into fantasy/Fiction with Steven Lawhead's King Raven Series (Hood, Scarlet, Tuck). And if I can make it through those, I might look at his Avalon books...
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Vulgar???
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
The setting was complex without being interesting, and I kept getting the feeling that I'd read it before but had forgotten it - so either I forgot reading it due to the voracity of my book-consumption and the dullness of the book, or it's merely incredibly derivative. The 'surprises' at the end of the book were predictable from the start, but so foreshadowed that I was really expecting something surprising, instead of being exposition-dumped with things that had seemed obvious since the start.
I just don't get how he's so popular.
Let us know what you think of it, I finished it recently.
Reading three books from authors I enjoy to wash the awful taste of Ready Player One away.
The Gentlemen's Hour - Don Winslow
Deep Six - Jack McDevitt
The Midnight Mayor - Kate Griffin
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
I ended up liking it a bit more than OK, but it took me awhile. The main problem I had was that it took me about a third of the book before the characters and story started to gel.
It didn't hurt that, for most of that time, I hadn't clued into the fact that the dialogue was supposed to be Whedon-esque snark. Without the delivery of an actor, that style really doesn't work well on the page.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
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Non-fiction. A commentary on the unforseen consequences of reckless technological advancement.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Taking Morality Seriously: A Defense of Robust Realism by David Enoch
On What Matters by Derek Parfit
The Nature of Normativity by Ralph Wedgwood
Conscious Experience by Anil Gupta (unpublished manuscript draft)
and a shitload of selections from Kant.
On the side, I'm also gonna try to take another go at:
The View from Nowhere by Thomas Nagel
and the relevant sections from
Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit
I think that's it for books, although sundry articles will also be involved.
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I just realized I have an option after I'm done with Martin beyond Erickson. (sticking with fantasy) I've got The Lies of Locke Lamora on the Kindle. I think I tried to read it in the past but I can't remember. Is it as good as they say. I think it must be flawed to have been on my Kindle for half a year unread.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Probably going to read the Wardstone Chronicles by Joseph Delaney next, because I have an addiction to YA fantasy.