Thread: What are you reading?

a lot of differently philosophical books atm

I'm reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck for school. It sucks, so far.

Read all three hunger games books. Didn't care for any main character. I think Johanna was my favorite in the series.

I read about the first chapter from Hunger Games a while ago and got annoyed with the writing style. I don't remember why exactly, but I might give it another shot.

Also, anyone have suggestions for something kind of like Lord of the Rings? I'm a sucker for playing RPGs and such.



I think I liked The Sicilian better than The Godfather, actually. Towards the end I had to pause more than once, thinking: "What?! No. Dammit. No." I was almost done reading it, and for some reasons Rambo popped into my head. I bought a movie years ago but never watched it. But I'm reading First Blood now.

Finished Rambo. I'll probably read another of the author's book (I can't remember his name off the top of my head) in the future.

I read the first chapter of The Last Don, another Mario Puzo book (I bought it the same time I got The Sicilian), but I might hold off before getting into that. I also have been reading Electronics for Dummies. But I'm actually enjoying it a lot.

Originally Posted by AURON

Read all three hunger games books. Didn't care for any main character. I think Johanna was my favorite in the series.

For me, the ending was pretty good and a pleasant surprise considering my opinion on the story, that I must confess, was a bit negative as I saw the first movie before reading the books.

Finished reading Let the Right One In...Some passages carried with such emotional intensity that I feel like throwing up (in the good way). It's visceral and powerful, and even the movie (original version) translates all that emotional intensity with simple facial expressions, looks, and words in a way that got totally me hooked.

Almost finished reading Kill The Dead by Richard Kadrey and reading A Field Guide To Lucid Dreaming (by 3 authors).

I'm reading The Sisters Brothers when I find time to actually read with my eyeballs. It's a dark comedy set in the old West, and has me laughing out loud quite often. I'm also listening to Scott Lynch's second Gentlemen Bastards book, Red Seas Under Red Skies, which as most reviewers have said doesn't stand up to the first. The prose tries too hard to be clever and the anti-capitalist themes are overstated, but there's still some fun to be had with the Renaissance-ish world of city-states built on alchemy and clockwork, as viewed by a priest-of-thieves protagonist. I'm a bit eager to be done with it and return to the audiobooks of Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon series, which was more engaging if also more boilerplate sword-and-sorcery.

I put aside The Last Don for now. I'm still working on my Electronics... book, but started Rambo (First Blood part II). I was curious how it was going to start since

Spoiler for spoiler for first book:

Rambo dies in the first book. But rather than trying to come up with some ridiculous plot twist, the author simple states that Rambo did die in his book, but not the movie (I haven't watched it). This book is actually based off the movie, whereas the first movie was based off the book. Kinda weird, but I don't mind reading more Rambo stuff. Though the Buddha references are a bit redundant so far, otherwise good stuff.

I finished The Minority Report and I'm now on my 3rd attempt at The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

I just can't finish this book for some reason.

Rambo II was fairly epic. Not sure if I'll keep reading them though... I think there's a 3rd book, maybe more. But the author originally only intended one book, and although this book was good, it was also very over-the-top. A page-turner, nonetheless. I want to see the movies though, because I think there are actually pretty many differences. I might check out some of the author's other books.

Back to The Last Don now. A slow start, and it's still kind of crawling along. Lots of character development and a timeline that jumps around a bit, so it's a bit hard for me to keep track at times (I'm not good at remembering names to start). But it's slowly getting piecing together, though I still can't see the full picture yet. I'm still really enjoying it, despite how that all sounds.

Shadow Prowler, by Alexey Pehov.

Jung To Live By: A Guide to the Practical Application of Jungian Principles for Everyday Life.... by Eugene Pascal

Donkykhot

Originally Posted by sefalik

Back to The Last Don now.

Finished that a bit ago, actually. Good read, but I preferred the other two Puzo books I read more. Still, I'll get more of his stuff in the future; I dig it.

My sister got me two books for Christmas. I finished the first one: American Sniper, Chris Kyle's autobiography. Probably not something I would've picked out to read myself, but I actually did enjoy it. It me a different perspective that I hadn't realized before, which is always a good thing. Admittedly, I didn't really know anything about the guy prior to the book. I never follow the news much, so I only vaguely knew who he was when my sister first described him. I actually just found out he was shot when google-ing him now.

She also gave me Inside Seal Team Six, which I'm about 2/3 of the way through. It's good, though I preferred the first book mentioned.

Red Seas Under Red Skies got quite a bit better about two thirds through:

Spoiler for mild spoiler:

once it turned into a pirate story

After that one I went for Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, which I would rate low among Sanderson's work, but was still a good ride. Now I'm back into the Codex Alera (I called it Furies of Calderon before, but that's the first book in the series. Alera is the magical kingdom where the books are set).

All of the above are audio. I'm still picking my way through The Sisters Brothers when I find time for eyeball reading.

I just started reading Lord of Light. I'm on a roll right now. I just finished The Color of Magic in 3 days and The Forever War in 2 days.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

I'm reading The Sisters Brothers when I find time to actually read with my eyeballs. It's a dark comedy set in the old West, and has me laughing out loud quite often. I'm also listening to Scott Lynch's second Gentlemen Bastards book, Red Seas Under Red Skies, which as most reviewers have said doesn't stand up to the first. The prose tries too hard to be clever and the anti-capitalist themes are overstated, but there's still some fun to be had with the Renaissance-ish world of city-states built on alchemy and clockwork, as viewed by a priest-of-thieves protagonist. I'm a bit eager to be done with it and return to the audiobooks of Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon series, which was more engaging if also more boilerplate sword-and-sorcery.

Personally I thought Red Seas Under Red Skies was a worthy sequel to the first book. But I read the two books rather far apart, since I had to wait for him to write the second. I can't wait to get my hands on Republic of Thieves but I have a pile of books I got for Christmas I have to demolish first.

Originally Posted by Whatsnext

I just started reading Lord of Light. I'm on a roll right now. I just finished The Color of Magic in 3 days and The Forever War in 2 days.

Personally I thought Red Seas Under Red Skies was a worthy sequel to the first book. But I read the two books rather far apart, since I had to wait for him to write the second. I can't wait to get my hands on Republic of Thieves but I have a pile of books I got for Christmas I have to demolish first.

Heh, doesn't look like you scrolled down; my opinion improved once things got going, too. I have the Republic of Thieves audiobook on hand and might pick it up after a couple more Codex Alera books. I gave Lord of Light a go on audio and loved it, but had trouble following it in that format. I'll have to pick it up in actual text sometime.

The Crowded Earth
I have just finished 'The Crowded Earth', by Robert Bloch. It was quite a good read, considering I had no expectations prior to reading it. Robert Bloch also wrote 'Psycho', which is not in my genres of preference, however, TCE was, and it was quite a well written piece, despite its brevity.
croeded earth.jpg
I would recommend this dystopian novella it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi/spec-fic, it has a flavour reminiscent of Attwood and Bacigalupi.
[this book is free, and if anyone wants it, just let me know how to add it as a an attachment ]

Wool Omnibus
I am currently reading the Wool Omnibus, a series of books by Hugh Howey. Another recommendation for any sci-fi/spec-fic fans. I am really loving this post-apocalyptic series! Set in an underground self-contained silo, generations of people have lived out there lives without ever emerging. This clever series introduced a few surprises, and was the first book I have read in a while that I found unpredictable, and actually triggered me to contemplate my own existence from a different vantage point. I highly recommend this series!
wool.jpgfirst shift.jpgsecond shift.jpg

There are even more books to this series, and I will be reading those next.

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch and Life, the Universe and Everything

I've decided to read as many books as possible during this summer, so I started last week.

Twinmaker
- Twinmaker 3/5

Razorland
- Enclave 3/5
- Outpost 3/5
- Horde 4/5

Currently reading The Circle... I'm almost done with it, but I'm not really enjoying it.

I mentioned it in another thread, but this seems more apt.

This year I am doing a personal reading challenge. I am reading 6 books from the year I was born (1986), 6 books from 2013/2014, and 6 books from a list of top 50 horror novels. In addition, I am reading a ton of stuff on psychology, forensics, and serial killers for my Master's degree.

I started It by Steven King, and it is a struggle. It's very boring in description, but the action and characters are good. I am writing/editing my own novel, so I am paying attention to the best parts, but the description makes it SO hard to read. He spends 10 to 20 pages explaining 10 minutes of action.

Reading articles about brain activities and memory

Finished "The Circle" and, while the concept was AMAZING, the book itself was pretty disappointing. I gave it 2/5.

Started "Article 5" last night. Only read one chapter so far, but I'm loooviiinnng it!!!