413 replies to this topic

[def]

<I looked a few pages in and saw nothing similar, but we can merge this if there's a similar thread.  Post a link and I'll humbly apologize>

I finished Ender in Exile today, the ninth Orson Scott Card novel in the 'Ender-verse' that I've read in two years.  Though they definitely suffer diminishing returns, I've been engrossed in them for a while.  They are really strangely paced and conceived, the farther they get from the original, Ender's Game, and Card's religion (Mormonism) starts infiltrating the books little by little, which is fair enough as religion will exist in the distant future.

And just two weeks ago, I finished the super-excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond's engrossing argument that history can be studied scientifically, that individual human societies aren't really superior over one another so much as they developed in more rewarding areas of Earth, where they can develop immunities, share crops, develop trade, and much much more.  A science theory book that is written very much in layman's terms, and a great read for anyone who likes the complexity and trajectory of human culture.

One other book, I've got about 40 pages left of, is Emissaries of the Dead, a sci-fi novel that won the Philip K. Dick award last year.  I've been a little bit more into genre work in the last year or two, since I bought Ender's Game, but I don't know that I love this.  It seems like a pulp detective novel meshed with extreme sci-fi.  The story is a murder mystery set in a moon-sized, hollow, cylindrical space station run by an independent AI intelligence that has created an eco-system for some vague scientific study, and the humans there are a sort of diplomatic study team.  Interesting ideas, but I don't know if the plot pulls its own weight.


Next, I'm starting on a Christmas gift I got, Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought, which is about how the brain structures and uses language to communicate ideas.  Since I teach language for a living, and still am working on my second language, hopefully this is interesting.


I know the community here leans toward genre stuff which is not my specialty, but I like hearing that people read those things, you know, books  

[PerryDaPirate]

I'm currently re-reading the Hobbit for the third time.

[Ricecracker]

I just finished reading Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis' biography. It was a pretty interesting read - I learned a lot about him and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

[LegoGalactus]

I am currently reading the second book of Lord of the Rings.

[prateek]

I just read The Color of Water for school,, and it's a pretty cool book.

BTW, there's already a book topic here

[def]

prateek, on Apr 23 2010, 05:23 AM, said:

BTW, there's already a book topic here

Not the same at all, since that is looking for short online fiction.  You'll get no apologies from me for that page  

[Peppermint_M]

I am reading Aliens in Space, from the Galactic Encounters series. I am also reading Riddle of the Beast, a DC comics elseworld book. I have Lireal on the go too. And a Thursday Next book.

I read a lot, along with a lot of books.

[General Redwater]

I really like historical fiction books.  I just finished reading Johnny Tremain, and am currently reading Mutiny on the HMS Bounty.

[Brick & Mortimer]

Currently reading The Name of the Rose

I only saw the movie and it was on my "to-read-list" for a long time.

I'm halfway through, and I must say I really like it, and   to the guys who adapted it to a moviescript without losing essential storylines and yet not cutting out too much

[Davey]

Ricecracker, on Apr 22 2010, 03:45 PM, said:

I just finished reading Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis' biography. It was a pretty interesting read - I learned a lot about him and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Have you read "The Dirt" or "The Heroin Diaries"?  Both good bios on The Crue.     Rock'n'roll is all just hookers and blow.     

-Davey

[def]

Brick & Mortimer, on Apr 23 2010, 07:41 PM, said:

Currently reading The Name of the Rose

I only saw the movie and it was on my "to-read-list" for a long time.

I'm halfway through, and I must say I really like it, and   to the guys who adapted it to a moviescript without losing essential storylines and yet not cutting out too much

I'd really like to read that.  I bought that and Foucault's Pendulum at a book sale, but read Pendulum first, last fall.  Really layered, I'm looking forward to getting into Rose in the future some time.  I've seen the movie for it, so I know the gist.

[Professor Flitwick]

I'm currently in the middle of reading Stephen Kings Firestarter. Really good so far, recommended to anyone who isn't afraid of overly-described deaths.

[Dunjohn]

I'm wondering if I should read the Arther C. Clarke book Garden of Rama. Apparently it's the third in the Rama series but I don't own the first two. This one was recently rediscovered in the bottom of a drawer. I'll probably play it safe and reread Karen Miller's Hekat trilogy instead, I just got part 3 and it's a year since I finished part 2, I forget everything. Just finished Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint.

[Tereglith]

I've been re-reading all sorts of classic fantasy for the past few months (interspersed with quite a few new books as well) - I re-finished all five Prydain books recently and I'm right in the middle of The Two Towers now. I'm also reading Daniel Pink's Drive, a very interesting non-fiction book about what really motivates people, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which is exactly what it sounds like, but twice as amazing as you think it's going to be.

[Ricecracker]

Davey, on Apr 23 2010, 07:49 AM, said:

Have you read "The Dirt" or "The Heroin Diaries"?  Both good bios on The Crue.     Rock'n'roll is all just hookers and blow.     

-Davey

I can't say I have. I'll look into them.

[The Legonater]

I am currently reading Legacy of the Force: Revalation. (I told you it would only take a few months )

[dragonboy79]

I'm currently reading The Sorceress, from the series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

[ComputerBug]

I finished SPHERE not that long ago and now I have started reading Jarassic park! A very good book very fast-paced and discriptive.

[Dreamweb]

Stephen King's "Under The Dome".

It's pretty funny cause I used to read lots of his books once, but after a few years I felt sort of tired of them so I decided to take a break. I'm enjoying this novel a lot and already plan on reading a few others so I guess the break is over.

[Ronan Dragonov]

I just finished Jack D. Hunter's The Blue Max (and devoured half of its sequel The Blood Order today.) The 1966 film based on it really took the story in another direction. As written Bruno Stachel, for all his faults, isn't the purely malevolent villain seen in the film.

[def]

I finished Steven Pinker's the Stuff of Thought this week.  



It was really interesting, about the way humans construct language.  It explains how humans organize nouns and verbs, how people use metaphor to explain complicated concepts, why humans swear with the words they do, and proposes to explain why humans use indirect questions to people rather than make solid demands (pass the salt vs. I'd appreciate it if you could pass the salt).  To top it off, the book is written in real language as opposed to academic language, making it a smooth read.  A recommended book to anyone puzzled by human society.

Next on my book pile is Wolf Hall, a historical fiction book that's had a good reputation for the last year or so.

[M'Kyuun]

That sounds interesting...language in all of its incarnations and subtlties is fascinating to me.

I'm currently reading Piers Anthony's "Bearing an Hourglass", book 2 in his Incarnations of Immortality series. The main character assumes the office of Chronos, or Time. I'm not a big fan of fantasy, but I was given "On a Pale Horse", the first book of the series, and I was so impressed with his style and wit, I figured i'd give another book in the series a read. So far, glad I did.

[-zenn]

Neuromancer by William Gibson

[Sisco]

The Twilight Saga.  Yes, the sparkly vampires.  My friend-that-happens-to-be-a-girl pressured me into it, even though I HATE vampires.  I'm on Eclipse.  They're not as bad as people make them out to be, but it's still a little hard to swallow.

Edited by cralegoboy, 10 May 2010 - 01:36 PM.

[Quarryman]

Some 300 pages into The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton, part 2 of the Night's Dawn trilogy (which in total is something like 3700 pages long). Good, solid, well imagined sci-fi, I'm enjoying it a lot.

Before that I read Iorich by Steven Brust, Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett, and The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.