Which book are you reading currently? #5

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The Devils (or Demons or The Possessed depending on what translation you have).

 

Last night I finished Into the Looking Glass - the characters were terribly underdeveloped and the action was pretty bland.

I have started on Ace in the Hole - edited by George R.R. Martin.

 

gah, misplaced city of splendors while reading it and found Feet of Clay so I just finished that. Now I'm on Final Gate by Richard Baker in the FR setting. Man, I hate it when protagonists go out and try and save the world and end up having their girls stolen by their friends

 

I am currently reading "Sojourn", the third book in the Dark Elf trilogy. I have to say that R. A. Salvatore is, IMHO, one of the best damn writers ever. I love his books. The second part of the trilogy, "Exile", got me so excited that I finished the book within a couple of days, without even reading for that long at a time. I wholeheartedly recommend any book by Salvatore.

 

Bahir, have you read Salvatore's other books? The DE is good, the other books are, to put it mildly, bad.

I'm still on "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid", and enjoying it so far. The purpose of the book is an ambitious one, to show how matter forms minds, combining this with stories on Bach, Principia Mathematica, formal systems, figures, fugues and dialogues between the Tortoise and Achilles.

 

Currently reading:

Michel Foucault - The History of Sexuality, vol II The Use of Pleasure

Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

I like to read several books at the same time, if they're non-fictional.

edit: I find Dawkin's approach with enforcing his view actually harmful, since the way he presents his point won't score much points with people who have a tendency to disagree with him, for instance for religious reasons. Haven't read Stephen Jay Gould yet, but I'm guessing that he's more reconciling.

editII: but since I agree with Dawkins with much of what he says, I personally find him quite entertaining as well. Good points, good writer.

 

During my trip, I read 2 books. One was 1984 of Orwell's.... and, well, quite intriguing. Although not what I had expected.

THe other was... the Heiressess by Elizabeth Adler. Which was quite the nice buit of fluff that I did not particularly care for..e xcept that it DID make me cry. Namely, when talking about the parents of one of the main characters. now THAT was something - 2 pages full more emotion than the rest of the book.

amysinly enough, in The Heiressess there is a throwaway line mentioning a man by the name of Frank Longbottom. My inner HP geek wibbled

 

Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke.

 

1984 was depressing as hell. After a read like that you have to see/read V for Vendetta to cheer you up

 

I finished Ace in the Hole on Saturday and I started Kildar by John Ringo today. It is a sequal to Ghost and I bought both at the same time so I didn't know how poor Ghost would turn out to be. Kildar seems to be better than Ghost but it is still too early to be sure - Ghost started out fun before turning lousy.

 

@Midwinter:
The Rama series rock. I read the last one first oddly enough and went back to read the rest at a later date. I wouldn't recommend the point and click game based on it though unless you enjoy the feel of your brain turning to mush.

I'm currently reading 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' by Haruki Murakami. I've read a fair few of his books already and am prepared for another ending I don't understand and a general feeling of open-endedness. It's pretty awesome so far. Seemingly 2 parallel stories, but seperate enough to not confuse you. I also read a while back that one of my favourite anime, Haibane Renmei (Charcoal Feather Federation), is largely inspired by it, and I have to say there is a lot of similar imagery.

 

The Alastor trilogy. Jack Vance, need to say more.

 

I wasn't very impressed by Murakami's The Windup Bird Chronicle. If there was any point to it (there probably was, though maybe it was just made to seem as though it should have one) I missed it entirely.

Currently reading Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut - even the first chapter is depressing and it hasn't even gone all dystopian yet...

 

I finished Kildar last night, it was better than the last two stories in Ghost but that isn't saying much.

I had gotten somewhat used to the main character pretty much being able to do just about anything under the sun but when he started pulling off Minoan bull dance acrobatics I so hard that my eyes almost locked in the top of my head.

What really gets me is that it reads pretty much like the introduction chapters of a much larger book. There is no real conflict or serious problem that the characters have to resolve. There is one skirmish at the end but the enemies are pretty much faceless incompetent nobodies who are more of a joke than an enemy.

I have started on East of the Sun, West of the Moon - also by Ringo but part of one of his other (much better) series. So far it has been decent.

 

FINALLY finished "Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson. Great stuff. Enjoyed it immensely.

Now reading "Raising Boys" by Steve Biddulph.

 

I finished East of the Sun, West of the Moon this morning. It was quite enjoyably pulpy actually. You basically have a group of orcs battling a group of roman legionaires in outerspace with both groups trying to slice open each others spacesuits with swords.

I am starting on Whispering Nickel Idols by Glen Cook. Hopefully the series will continue to regain the form of the earlier books but I am not holding my breath.

 

I don't know about that, I would definitely say that Petty Pewter Gods was the low point in the series but the rebound seems pretty small so far. Oh well, this is the last one that I have and quite frankly I am not really looking forward to anything else that I currently have on my unread book pile.

Actually, I have had book 2 of the Malazan series in the next up position in my unread book pile for almost a week now but I keep putting it off. I really didn't like book 1 so I have been grabbing just about anything to delay starting on book 2.

 

Haven't posted here in a while. Actually, make that a WHILE.

Right now, I'm trucking back through the Star Wars: NJO series, just for giggles.

I've also started reading "Legend" by D. Gemmel - anyone have input on this series? I'd hate to get into it and then it turn out to be a flop.

As a third flavor (seems I'm always reading at least three at one time - one for in the morning, as an easy, wake-me-up book; one for the afternoon - I tend to do my more "difficult" reading here; and one for evening/bedtime - a real page-turner to keep me up at night)...

Anyway, as a third flavor, (actually the afternoon reading, according to my "scale") I've just picked up Chuck Palanihuk's Choke. Haven't gotten too far into it yet, but it's looking to be just as good as FIght Club and Survivor.

 

Yup, Choke's pretty good.